Pumpkins patch OPEN | PRIME Apple Picking | Maize Quest Flashlight Nights | “Young as you can.” blog
The BIG pumpkins go FIRST! Get here early to pick.
Early pickers get the BIG ones! Checkout this family’s haul. Pumpkin Express Wagon Rides are FREE starting Fri-Sat at 11AM, just pay for the pumpkins you pick: $.75 per pound, BUT NO PUMPKIN costs more than $12, no matter how BIG!
3 Things to Know this Week:
- Mac, Smoothee, Red Chief, Empire, Fuji, JonaGold for apple picking in the orchard. Just $15 per half-bushel. Mr. Allen is in the gazebo with baskets!
- Maize Quest OPEN Friday 10AM-10PM, Saturday 10am-10PM with Flashlight Nights, Sun 1PM-7PM. Fruit picking everyday Mon-Sat 8AM-6PM, Sun 1PM-5PM – Last Orchard entry hour before closing.
- SAVE on Maize Quest Tickets and experience our newest attraction the Hidden Gem Railroad Trackless Train Ride. [CLICK HERE]
Life on the Farm: “As young as you can, as long as you can.”
On top of every thing you have to do in a week, you still need to parent your children. Wait, strike that, reverse it. During this hectic week we stumbled into some very typical “kids growing up and dealing with issues” moments. It led me to revisit a premise upon which my wife and I whole-heartedly agree: “Keep them as young as you can, as long as you can.”
Dress code. I have a fashionista daughter, who by some miracle of wife, church and modesty, has not yet fallen prey to Justice, booty shorts, and “Princess Butt” sweatpants.
For some reason, as boys shorts keep getting longer and they pull their socks up to meet the bottom of their shorts, girls are pushed into “adult revealing clothes”, though most adult women I know, wouldn’t where stuff like that.
Keep the dress code, young as possible, as long as possible.
Media. Please, we don’t even have an Xbox and we have one TV in the house. We’re not Amish, but we’re too busy to watch hours of media each day. Video games are monitored, devices aren’t allowed in rooms, the computer stays in the kitchen we’re we can see it. Don’t fall for “Everyone else is playing/watching/listening to…” Our rocking family nights are more “So You Think You Can Dance” than “Call of Duty VI”.
Keep the media inputs as young as possible, as long as possible.
Family time. I love this time of year, because we see so many familiar faces. After 19 seasons in the maze and longer on the farm, we have watched families grow up in the orchards. I saw a great, long-time visiting family this weekend; just happened to run into them before they left.
Both 20-something sons have full-time jobs, parents are busy with their lives, but they prioritize time together as a family. They were smiling, laughing and joking because one soon had been in a severe auto accident a few months ago and had a concussion, so they brought him to test him in the maze!
They were having good, old fashioned fun together as they had for over a decade at the farm.
They are staying young together, enjoying time together, as long as they can.
I know this email might sound a bit preachy, but this is what’s happening now, in my 40-year-old life. Am I way off base here?
This is a beautiful weekend, apples are ready, pumpkins are ripe, the Fun Park & Amazon Corn Maze are ready for your family. Call a time out on your hectic life and escape to the farm.
If you’d like to keep your kids, kids a little longer, no matter how they are, nothing beats some Fall fun on the farm.
See you soon on the farm,
Hugh