sbc and penner pumpkins

I'm back at work  - started back on August 20th.  Sigh, the summer is over.

On the 28th we had an all college (all staff and faculty) BBQ at this local place called Penner Pumpkins.  It is one of these farms that does the whole fall pumpkin, corn maze, hay bale structure type stuff.  I love places like that and all those fun tallish activities, but this place charges quite a bit, so I haven't been that keen on going.  But now we got to go for freeeeee (say that like they do in Bedtime Stories).

It was kind of a tough one because my darling cousins Dale and Kristi were here visiting from Ottawa and San Antonio, respectively, and that was the day for all the cousins/uncles and aunts to get together with them.  I felt it was important to make some connections with work people, so I kind of made everyone go to this instead.

Four certain children were not happy about it.  Not one little bit.  And so the whole thing started off a little shaky for the Ackermanns.  But eventually everyone warmed up, got talking to my coworkers and their families, and we had a great time.  Even Maddy, after her little date with her iPhone, had some fun.

They have this tennis ball compressor gun that the kids started shooting.  We ended up drawing a crowd (it was pretty loud, so people came to investigate) and a bunch of people lined up to give it a whirl. 

Everyone, for some reason, was trying to hit the frying pan on the bottom left.  Eric was the first to succeed and he got a grand roar for his efforts.  I attributed it to his CHP sharp-shooter training.  A block and a tennis ball compressor gun are closely related, as everyone knows.

We were about to leave when people were loading up for a "train" ride….. a few little carts pulled behind a tractor.  It was super fun in a adults-being-ridiculous-and-corny-way.

Lucy now refers to my coworker (I was going to put her picture on here but I didn't know if she would appreciate it!) as the "crazy lady" because she was screaming and raising her hands as if she was on a roller coaster.

At the end of the ride they announced that they were going to have pig races, so of course we had to watch the pigs race!

They had a fenced-in track where they basically had the pigs corralled at the start.  Then they put some slop at the end of the "track" and pulled the gate.  The pigs raced around the track to get to the food.  Pretty simple and dumbish, but not if you are already in a weird and giddy mood.  Then it is great!  

And great it was!

i made pickles!

Another post way overdue.  Sheesh - I uploaded these photos a month ago at least.  Oh well, just a quick bit, then.

Yes.  So I made pickles.  I saw on add that a lady was selling some pickling cucumbers, so Eric headed out for me and bought some.  Apparently it was from a very talkative older German lady with whom he had a delightful conversation.

I was expecting nice little cucumbers, but they turned out to be rather fat old suckers.  Oh well.  Pickles can still be made.

Eric helped me slice them up and I brewed up two batches.  One Bread 'n' Butter:

And one Dill.

I was a little concerned because a) I had never made pickles before and b) they didn't seem like they would be so great being that they were from such fat cucumbers, therefore having a rather large fleshy seedy area.

Apparently they turned out great (I can't stand pickles, so I wasn't about to try them…. I wouldn't have a clue if they were any good anyway, since to me, any pickle is a nasty pickle!).  Both batches.  Hurrah!!  It was actually rather fun to make them.  I seem to like making anything that I can stick into a jar - always have.  But these stinky things are a new one for me.