Last weekend was our annual trek out to the Blue Lake pumpkin patch. Turned out everyone I know in Humboldt County had a similar plan, and I could hardly take two steps without running into someone else I knew. I guess once you have lived here for 17 years these things begin to happen.

This year the Bakers joined our group, and I honestly and truly tried taking photos. Really, I did. However, it became increasingly difficult considering that our Team Pumpkin ran non-stop in opposite directions the entire time and it was all I could do to actually get Stella and Alex to sit still in the same spot for a couple of photos with actual pumpkins. Porter hooked up with one of his pre-school friends and the two of them ran and ran to nowhere in particular. At one point we all looked up to realize that Porter had taken it upon himself to load up on the tractor that was headed back for the barn – while the rest of us roamed the far corners of the pumpkin patch. Let’s just say that I could – hypothetically – hold a gold medal should there ever be an Olympic sport requiring one to sprint across a dirt field carrying a large camera and two jackets without tripping over a single pumpkin or vine. Just sayin’.

Due to the fact that all of California was due to be clobbered with a massive storm, we decided to go ahead use the rest of the afternoon to get the apples off the trees before they all ended up on the ground as deer food. Thankfully when you put two doorknob-touching men on the task of picking apples you are guaranteed to end up with not a single apple left on a single tree within the entire property line. Anthony and Steve took their charge very seriously, and we now have 6 plentiful baskets of apples that we are going to cook, eat, pawn off on friends & family and use for obnoxious craft projects. Unfortunately, Steve says I can’t throw them at our snotty neighbors. Boo.

(click photo to see the entire set)