Johnny with the Pumpkins at Porter Farms

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Can't post a picture of Joey and the pumpkins without also posting a picture of Johnny and the pumpkins:-)  If you thought Joey's shirt was cool, you'll probably think Johnny's shirt is pretty cool too.

Here's a picture looking out over some of their fields and the big pumpkin display.  Johnny ws so excited to get his picture taken that he had run ahead and was waiting on me.  BTW, the big pumpkins go for $20 - $30 each.  And, notice all the mums in the background.  They are really pretty and going for $5 each or 4 for $18.  I bought one nice yellow one a few weeks back.

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Joey with the Pumpkins at Porter Farms and Nursery

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Porter Farms and Nursery harvested their pumpkins this week and decorated their farm stands.  The boys have been waiting for the arrival of fall, color temps, and of course the pumpkins.  Thanks to an early release from school (also track out day for 3 weeks), we had time to visit Porter Farms and take portrait shots with the pumpkins.  This is always a fun trip!

I was appreciative that the sun went in behind the clouds a few times so the boys weren't squinting too bad although quite a few of the shots still show squinty eyes...sigh.

Old House Ready for Sale

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This collage represents 2 months worth of work getting my old house ready for sale.  Everything has been painted inside (by me and Donnie) and out.  There's new carpet in the master bedroom and new linoleum in the kitchen.  The carpet upstairs was cleaned.  The bathrooms were scrubbed 3 times.  Tons of junk left by my ex were taken to the landfill.  Many little things that were broken were fixed.  I sure hope a nice family shows interest and quickly.

Pink Beauty

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Pretty soon the frost will be here and the pretty flowers will fade.  Just enjoying this late bloomer in the season.

Ruby Meadowhawk?

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I spotted this dragonfly on my neighbor Greg's grass yesterday. I think it's a Ruby Meadowhawk. Papa? I don't remember seeing this variety before let alone in the grass!

Kid Meet Kid

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We had a unique opportunity yesterday to tour several farms in our area.  The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association hosted the Eastern Carolina Farm Tour.  27 local farms were open for tours Saturday and Sunday from 1-4.  $25 for a car button that would get you into as many farms as you could get to.  We didn't go on Saturday because of Bubble Blitz, but we made it to 4 farms on Sunday.

At Bull City Farm, the kids were treated to a lot of hands-on animal contact, and they were thrilled. We saw cows, horses, sheep, hens,  and donkeys.  I didn't know, but female donkeys are very good at helping to project sheep from wild dogs nd other predators.  How you ask?  Well, they will kick:-) The boys went intot he hen house and helped to gather eggs and enjoyed meeting 3 day old calves.  We left with a dozen fresh eggs.

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Just a few miles down the road, we stopped at Prodigal Farm.  Lots of goats here since their speciaity is goat cheese.  We toured the dairy and learned about how they milk the goats, handle the milk, and mke the cheese.  Very informative and they  had free samples.  We bought some marinated feta in olive oil.  Yum!

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Joey loved the baby goats, kids, and the one goat was equally delighted with him.  In my daily, the goat is giving Joey a kiss:-)

We also went to Hundred Acre Wood Farm.  A retired doctor, Farmer Jim, talked to us about his saw mill and the animals on the farm.  We took a lovely walk through the woods to get to the pastures and really enjoyed the fall day.

I got a cool writing spider and coleus shots at this farm.

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I really liked this puddle shot too.  The sky was so pretty yesterdy.

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All in all it was a very nice afternoon.  I hope we can do the farm tour again next year and mke it to some of the other farms on the tour.

K is for Kiss

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When I thought of K, I immediately thought of kiss. Johnny took this shot of me and Donnie today while we were on a farm tour. Originally I wanted a kiss shot taken on our new love seat, but I just never made that happen. Maybe next time.

More on the farm tour in tomorrow's post.