We finally made it to our first hayride excursion out to Simmons farm, about 40 minutes drive from Pittsburgh in the South Hills. Luckily, a ride pulled in for us at the last minute and a friendly young woman by the name of Stephanie from the UJF (United Jewish Federation) was so courteous and helpful. (it really does suck sometimes not having access to a car.)
Ivry had a great time sipping apple cider, going on his first hay ride, loading play trucks with dry corn, riding a 17 year old horse and playing in a fire engine. It was a beautiful sunny day with amazing blue skies. The weather was perfect. I think we came a bit too early to really enjoy foliage, but the signs of it were sprouting everywhere.
We bought two little pumpkins (85 cents each) and a candied apple for fun. We also amazingly delicious apple and pumpkin butter. Yum! We bought a few veggies including: zucchini, a buttnut Squash, some red peppers (which I fried to make a salad) and four tomoatoes at a whopping $4.00. We also bought some garlic gloves and a small jug of apple cider, but the price of veggies are still so expensive. The veggies in Israel are so cheap and fresh. I guess farm produce is the closest to freshness that we could find. Simmons farm is very kid friendly, but what a money making machine. I paid three bucks for a horse ride for him that took 50 seconds. They wanted five bucks for two rounds. Can you imagine? But of course, these are the memories which Ivry will have for his whole life, and these are the special moments for him that I can't get anywhere else..... so go figure...
Many people especially children, came clad in their Halloween trick-or-treat clothes (not costumes) and it was great meeting some of Ivry's friends at the JCC too. It's amazing what a few hours out of the city can do for my tired brain and for a happy preschooler who fell asleep on the car ride home. What a wonderful day!
Now that we are almost ready for bed, he is watching the fiftieth anniversary edition of Laslie and I am reminded of how he and his father went down to the basement to look for tigers (cute) because of the tiger episode with Laslie. Now, Ivry is in his tiger slippers and pj's ready for bed. What a cutie! For some reason, everywhere I go, everyone calls him "she" - "she wants to play," and "she wants to get out, so move please..." and so forth. Weird.
Anyhow, hope y'all are having a good week. Enjoy the pictures and the two videos of Ivry's first hayride.
1 comment:
I can understand your point of view about the costs of things on the farm. While it might appear that the farmer is making money hand over fist the reality is that after his costs including a whopping liability insurance policy and the vending taxes he had to pay he really won't clear that much. He will do better though than he would have from wholesaling to a retail jobber.
I grew up in farming, much of my time spent just south of Pgh in Greene County. Farming can be immensely satisfying but it is incredibly hard to make a living to raise a family. I thought it might help if you knew the other side.
Deb
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