Fiber Fool

It totally sounds like the title to some fantastic fable, doesn’t it?

We have a seemingly happy, yet tender under her right leg and non-drinking dog in the household that is kind of sucking up all my mental energy right now. Spent a couple hours at the vet yesterday for no answers, some special dog food and GI antibiotics with discussion of xrays tomorrow if no improvement has been seen. She is also having to be taken on walks rather than let out into the yard so that we may monitor her bodily functions and that is eating up some time (though no doubt is good for the both of us, but doing so 5-6 times a day is a little tiresome). Brandon is not liking all this attention being paid to Emma and thus is also taking up more time and energy.

That is the number of unread blog posts I have in my RSS reader right now. I fell woefully behind in my blog reading last week and this weekend was stuffed full of activities so I did not get caught up. As I’m drafting this post at nearly 2 am I don’t think I’ll be getting caught up just now. Instead of linkity, I’ll offer you pics of Saturday morning’s activities…

Amanda, her two boys and her mom and I headed to The Gardens at Spring Creek here in town for their harvest festival. We got there pretty much right as they opened so it wasn’t too busy. It was quite pleasant. A nice small event with lots of activities for kids.

There was pumpkin bowling, which you can see from above was a favorite. Pumpkins kind of have minds of their own, not being symmetrical and all, but Isaac knocked over some “pins.” There was also bean bag tossing into the eyes and mouth of a large plywood jack-o-lantern and earth crowns to be made and worn.

Year around there is a large children’s garden where they can dig in a planter, plant some seeds, learn about different types of plants and how they benefit various animals and insects and there are of course many places to run through and even a koi pond and stream to cross. Throughout this area of the garden are some fantastically whimsical and artistic scarecrows.

While a lot of the organized activities were for children a bit older than Jacob, I think he found ways to have some fun too.

One of our neighbor’s has an extremely prolific green thumb. In a bed along the sidewalk she is growing 4 varieties of dahlias I believe. Here is a peak of just one of those varieties from several different angles and different lighting.

I am loving the large number of blooms and the variety of life stages that are represented.

Here is one very near the peak of its glory.

I can’t resist a little back-lighting with a touch of lens flare.

It’s going to be a big weekend around these parts once again. There is another harvest festival to attend and a big photoshoot for what we’re hoping is about 4-5 projects! 3 projects might be a bit more realistic. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

It can be hard to believe that autumn has arrived when you walk across campus at 2 in the afternoon and perspiration begins to bead on your forehead. Nevertheless if you take in your surroundings with open eyes signs are all around.

You may need to search into the central depths of a tree.

The extremities of others may have been lightly stroked by autumn’s paintbrush.

Likewise, some may have a slight golden glow about them.

Others show no hints of color change yet, but their branches are laden with seed…

and a carpet of hopes for new life in the spring lie at their feet.

The most exciting part to me is the quality of the light. The lower angles of the sun combine with particles in the air from harvesting and late summer forest fires casting everything in warmer, softer light.

I hope you have some plans to live in the moment this weekend and find some signs of season’s change around you. Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

Thanks to Deb and her daughter’s CSA share and our own I was able to get 2 free tickets to attend Grant Family Farm’s Harvestival on Sunday afternoon. The lovely Kathryn stopped by and picked me up along the way (and gave us a jar of homemade apple butter!) and we spent several sunny hours on the farm.

We were greeted by these two rather tall individuals just outside the gate to the paid section of the festival which included two stages where musicians and sustainability-minded speakers could be seen.

Sunday afternoon was chosen to attend because Joel Salatin, featured heavily in The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Food, Inc. was speaking. He was an interesting speaker, if a tad rambly. With the audience I suspect mostly comprised of CSA members who got tickets as part of their shares he was obviously preaching to the choir :-)

I did manage to spot a bit of fiber arts in the wild…

After the talk we quickly sought out food. We opted for the Grant Family Farm Grill where they were selling bison burgers and brats and well as a smattering of other locally raised foods. Then we wandered one booth south for some homemade root beer (which was less photogenic than the burger).

While it did cost $20 on Saturday or $30 on Sunday to get into the area with the speakers and most of the musical acts and food and vendor booths, there was across the road a free area with a mini farmer’s market and lots of kid friendly activities.

Seeing a watermelon flinged across an empty field via trebuchet was probably the most popular amongst all the ages.

Since the egg recalls, Grant Family Farms has gotten a fair bit of press about their approach to raising chickens. They had two of their chicken buses on display and some boxes of lower grade produce that visitors could feed to the chickens. The converted school buses are driven around to various areas of the farm so the chickens fertilize the soil and graze, then the buses are moved to the next area before overgrazing occurs. They are also locked up inside at night to keep them safe from the coyotes and other predators.

There was a meandering self-guided walking farm tour where you could take in the sights of the orchards and fields and learn some interesting tidbits along the way…

I couldn’t believe this factoid so had to capture it! If I stop and think about it, it makes sense. Grant Farms delivers CSA shares as far south as Colorado Springs each week and they are a major supplier of fresh produce for many of Fort Collin’s restaurants and I suspect many all along the front range.

At the end of the farm tour loop we checked out more of the free section. There were many animals for kids to see. The following is only small sampling.

Okay, you knew I’d take a picture of sheep! The llama and alpaca were in more enclosed pens that made getting fence-free images impossible so you’ll just have to envision those yourself.

Can you name this one?

There were also pigs and a pony and a cow.

And I can’t forget the ducklings (though they were in a different area of the free side). Too cute! I had forgotten how cute they were as it has been decades since I lived on the farm and we hatched any mallards from nests exposed to predators when the alfalfa was cut.

There was also a section with all kinds of fun games, such as the straw pile above. There was a straw maze and what looked like pumpkin bowling (though it was late in the afternoon and no longer being manned). I think there was also a booth where kids could paint and plant a small pot as well as one where they could combine various vegetables into imaginative creatures. There was also a small stage that was frequented by a magician and some smaller musical acts.

I have to say the free side of Harvestival did a really good job of catering to the kids. I think it would totally be worth the 14 mile drive north of town to take preschool and early elementary aged children to the festival in future years.

You can see a few more photos and non-mosaic versions of those appearing in mosaics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/designedlykristi/sets/72157624842183179/detail/