A fun day at The Elegant Farmer

Yesterday, Mom and I took our annual trip to The Elegant Farmer. It was sunny off and on and that worked great for photos. But get this - We wore winter coats! Yeah, the cold weather has officially hit Wisconsin.

So starting with something yummy...

This one is mine. The girl who was dipping these was mid-slice while asking me if I wanted my apple sliced. When I said I didn't, she said in a surprised way "Oh! A bold move!" So that tells you how many people eat these on a stick.

Mmm... reflective caramel!

Mom had hers sliced:

This is the doorway we walked under to get to these treats. I think it could also work as a good doorway to a haunted house, because I felt like we were walking through a big mouth.

While waiting to get through this giant mouth door, I took some pics of the pumpkins next to me.

Check out this stem!

Of course I have to share a pic of the smilin' barn! This is where you can do some shopping for all kinds of food. There was a super long line just to get in and shop, so we didn't do that.

More shopping could be done in a little building next to the barn. This is the area where I took pics of the chainsaw sculptor doing his thing before. He wasn't there yesterday, but I did find these wagons outside the building.

It's cool to look at three different versions of a red wagon. For those of you who like the rusty and crusty:

There was also an old sled out front:

There are some train tracks behind the barn that you guys will probably remember from past years.

This is possibly my favorite picture of the day. It looked like a ghost train coming toward me in the mist. This is about as close as I'm willing to get to an oncoming train.

A little closer...

I can almost hear the rattling.

I took a few photos of... let's call them train accessories because I don't know what the purpose of the next few are. Maybe you guys can fill me in?

When I got closer, I thought this looked like a creature with a big, open mouth. I'm even seeing an eye now!

Some kind of signal?

Coming around the bend...

To the "Elegant Farmer Station"

A few details on the side of the train:

This shape reminds me of a piece of candy.

I took a few pics on the drive there and back. I'm pretty pleased and surprised with how this one turned out, given that I couldn't see what I was taking a photo of. I was just leaning my arm out the window and taking photos of whatever was behind me. See the little horse?

A few trees were changing.

I'm not entirely sure what this is, but we see it every year on the drive. It's some kind of equipment that's been painted to look like a jack-o-lantern. I'm pleased when I can manage to get a pic of it from the car window.

After the Elegant Farmer, we went to Target and Michaels. I've taken a lot of pics at both those stores this season, but there are a couple more things to share.

I hadn't seen this cool arch at the two previous Targets I'd been to this season.

Mom spotted this whole situation. A terrifying new creature! The Gorilla Spider!

Michaels had a pretty clever mini Halloween town on display. This little building reminded me of something out of the show Grimm. This is the "Monster Hunting Supplies" shop. There are a lot of little details to read on this one.

Hehe. This is one of those things that's funny to me and I'm not really sure why. There's just something silly about bloodsucking gnomes that are only about an inch tall. Note the tombstone: "Gnome Sweet Gnome"

The "Symphony of Screams" was in a little bandstand. Cool bat/skull at the top!

Having a glass of "Full Moon Moonshine"

Skeletons in the well!

Sassy cat napkins giving the side-eye to some cat plates:

Those cat napkins might have to be a part of the After Halloween Haul this year...

So there's yesterday! It was a pretty fun day, wandering from place to place. 🍏

Caramel Apples and Chainsaw Art

I have another wholesome, sunny fall day for you guys! So in a way it's a continuation of my last blog post. Every year I look forward to our trip out through the country to the Elegant Farmer. This year, I spotted something fun before we had our caramel apples. There was an artist in front of a shop there, carving figures with his chainsaw.

How fun is his pumpkin man creation? Look at those toenails. There was also this spooky witch. She'll stare right through you!

So here is the carver at work:

I had to get a pic of his t-shirt. I love this.

Some of his previous creations were out on the lawn. It looked like he was making a gnome or Santa figure while I was photographing him.

I just checked out his web site after looking at the company name on this trailer. I got a kick out of the beaver with the chainsaw here:

Younger's Woodery

Across from the chainsaw artist, was the smiley face barn. I'm sure you remember this friendly face!

Time for the caramel apples! This year, we had some massive Granny Smiths.

I lucked into a lot of caramel, because my apple slipped while the girl was coating it. So it got a second go round. Mmm... Look at that reflection in the caramel. As usual, I ended up with a pile of random sprinkles/nuts in the dish.

Mom had the more sensible/easier to eat, pre-cut caramel apple.

You can see the wind was really blowing that day!

We had good timing and saw the electric trains coming in as we left.

You can see the wires there, above the train.

See the face in the light?

Has anyone heard of that "Storck" beer? Looking at the $2.79 a case part, we can assume that's an older brand.

For Pep, Drink Zep! 5¢ for a bottle Zep. That must be older than the Storck beer.

How cool is this window? It's like the window on a boat.

I love these old painted signs, like something you'd see on a building.

And should you forget this is an electric train...

Again, some cool graphics. I could see this on a t-shirt.

This sign was up near the tracks. How appropriate is this for Halloween?

Here are a few pics from our time driving there. I was actually trying to take  pics of the little pumpkins that were decorating that fence, and didn't even notice the big one! How funny is that? Looks like that jack-o-lantern is hanging off a crane?

I think they had a pumpkin patch or orchard. It's hard to tell from here. Cool spooky tree, anyway!

A gravel quarry:

We passed a Target on the way back where we saw this guy. This pumpkin creature is massive! I love his reaching hands.

We bought these cute little velvet pumpkins while there:

Hope you enjoyed the virtual trip to The Elegant Farmer! It's always a fun day for us and we had some awesome weather for it. I'll have some Halloween antiques coming up in the next blog post!