On Monday, the 20th, it was finally time to leave the coast. We had a great time seeing Boomer friends, but, we had a job to get to and still had a couple of visits to make along the way.

Our next stop was at Jerry & Carol Miller's house in Grants Pass. We had enjoyed the cooler weather at the ocean, but, when we went inland it got hot again.

Our hosts, Carol & Jerry

We were able to park right alongside their house in back of their motorhome while we were there. They took us around their town to show us stuff, we even walked through a really neat antique store. There was so much stuff that I definitely would have bought, if we'd been going straight back to Yuma.

One of our days, we drove to Crater

Crater Lake Lodge

Lake, which was about an hour and a half from their house. We stopped along the way to see the Rogue

Inside the lobby looking towards the dining room

River several times, as well as some falls. Very scenic! When we got to Crater Lake, it was a beautiful day, if a bit cold and windy. We'd been up there before

Going out to overlook the lake

in 2003, after we'd worked a summer job in Madras, OR., and it was just as we'd remembered it. This time, we decided we'd have lunch in the lodge. I don't think I noticed

View from the hotel

the lodge last time we were up there, though.

Ron, me, Carol & Jerry 

Like our friends, Gretchen & Frank, Jerry & Carol LOVE to play

Falls on the Rogue River

cards, so that is what we did when we were not out sightseeing. We passed a pleasant week with them.

Looking down the Rogue River

They were busy getting ready to head south for the winter and we will see them later in the season, probably either Yuma or Quartzsite.

Our final visit was with my side of the family. My niece, Gina, and her kids live in Redding, CA. We would only be there for four days. Before we got the pumpkin job, we were planning on being there for a lot longer than that, but, I was still thankful we had some time with them anyway. We hadn't seen them since the last time we drove through there on our way to a summer job in Estacada, OR. That time, we only got to see them for part of a day and night. At least, this time, we got to stay longer and parked right in front of their house. A lot of the neighbors came by for tours through the bus.

We had lots of good times and we had a Twilight movie marathon of all four movies, as the new one comes out in mid November. Gina's boyfriend made several attempts going out hunting for deer in the nearby mountains, but, each time, he got skunked. Hopefully, by now, he has been successful.

Finally, it was time to head for our

Looking at our pumpkin lot from the parking lot

pumpkin lot in Walnut Creek, which is about 20 miles, maybe less, east of Oakland

A closer look

on the east side of the bay. We first worked for our boss, Kevin, in 2008 at a lot just a few blocks

As you walk into the lot

away from where we are right now. We did both pumpkins and trees. It was a

Our sales booth

very large lot and he'd had it 10 years or more,

Munchkins, our littlest pumpkins

so had a very loyal clientele. Unfortunately,

The decorative stuff

someone had bought the land and wanted to build condos on it. They finally accomplished that goal and he was out of a lot for about two

Some plain, some a little warty

years, before finally getting this one about three years ago. Fortunately, I think his

Cinderella pumpkins in the foreground

loyal customers are starting to come back again. He also has a tree lot at this location and asked us if we'd think

Blue hubbard squash

about staying for that. But, we politely declined, it's just too much. We're already here for a whole month, working 12 hour days/7 days a

White pumpkins

week. We'd rather be back in Yuma where it's a lot warmer than here in December!

We are on the grounds of the

Red Warty pumpkins

Shadelands Ranch Museum, on Ygnacio Valley Rd. Shadelands Ranch was established by Hiram Penniman, an early American settler of

Grey pumpkins

California in 1856 as one of the first and largest farms in California's Yganico Valley. Today it is managed by the Walnut Creek Historical Society and has been open

don't know the names of these, but, they look like they have barnacles on them

to the public since 1972 as an historical museum, the ranch house still furnished with much of the Pennimans' original

A closer look, very unusual

furniture. In the fall and spring, local third graders are invited to participate in the Living History Program 1906.

One Too Many, they look like bloodshot eyes

Classes spend the day at the museum and relive Walnut Creek History. Docents play characters who lived at the Shadeland's Fruit Ranch in 1906 and help students do chores, play games, tour the chocolate colored redwood house, visit the Japanese workers bunkhouse, see the water tower, examine the basement, collect herbs, and plant seeds in the slow food garden.

  Our pumpkin patch is to the side of the house and right along the busy street. The bus and car are parked by the parking lot, but, off the pavement, under a giant oak tree.It must be acorn shedding time, because all hours of the day or night, we are getting zinged by dropping acorns. There are also big black blobs on this particular tree, at first we thought they were walnuts, but,

Our scarecrows ready to be put up in the lot

Kevin said it was an oak tree, so we don't know what they are but, they make a horrendous noise when they drop on the rig and car. We haven't gotten dinged on the head yet, but, I figure it's just a matter of time....

Ron is marking off the days until we head south once more. The weather isn't too bad yet, mild days and cool nights. No rain in the foreseeable future, even though it's been very dry

Pumpkins ready to be heads for the scarecrows

here this summer. We have a petting zoo which consists of 2 baby pigs, 3 baby Nigerian Dwarf goats, 6 baby bunnies and 5 chicks. We also have pumpkin painting for the kids and free popcorn

Our goats, Levi & Iris

for everyone.

We're waiting for our gate to be fixed, because there's a big gap at the bottom so we have to have a cage & the trash can in front of it so the pigs don't get out. Well, a few days after we got here, someone didn't put the cage back and next thing we know, one of the pigs is walking right out of the gate. I am sooo glad she didn't head for the front gate, as it opens out right onto the busy street. Instead she headed right around

They look so innocent when they are sleeping...notice the rabbits in the background

the enclosure, thinking, I guess, she could get right back in with the other one. Ha, ha, wish she could have, but, instead started making a beeline to the cornstalks which were laying in a pile

Beautiful peach/dusty rose color

next to the animal yard. Ron grabbed her back legs and she immediately started squealing and pooping all over his hands. I walked around and grabbed her by the middle and carried her back to the yard, her squealing at high pitch the whole way back. Whew!!!! I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon again, how about never!!!

We will have a young woman manning

Some more unusual decorative gourds

the petting zoo on busy weekends, though, just so that sort of thing doesn't happen again. I just hope the goats don't get out, although, we have their owner's phone number handy!

It is now the 16th of Oct, we've been here for two weeks, goodness, where does the time go? It has rained exactly once and at that, not very much, just enough to spot the pumpkins with dirt. It has gotten warmer again and after this summer, I am more than ready for cool fall weather. Hopefully, that will happen next week according to the weather forecast.

The last two weekends we sold lots of pumpkins and the animals were just as tired as we were at the end of the day. Now we are gearing up for the final two weekends of the month. We will be getting another load of pumpkins in on Thursday to meet everyone's needs for different sizes.

On weekdays, pre-school groups come visit us, picking pumpkins to paint and visiting the petting zoo. The baby bunnies are a big hit, as well as the goats and baby chicks. The pigs, not so much, normally they have so much dirt on them, no one wants to touch them, ha, ha! I usually tell the kids about how pumpkins grow, but, when you are talking to 2-3 year olds, that mainly goes over their heads, I have a little more participation from the 4-5 year olds, plus letting them look at a real pumpkin vine which is growing amidst our patch all by itself. I'm wondering where it's getting its water, as we don't water it, but, it's looking nice and healthy.

In my witchy woman garb

Each day, the animals make us laugh with the different things they do. When we feed them, we try and make it so the pigs won't eat the goat food, keeping them away from the dish is hard, even when we are holding it. Of course, they have their own food to eat, but, they like the goat food better. The pigs rule the yard, whenever they come near the goats, the goats scatter, usually standing on the bales of straw to get away. I'm sure that has something to do with the stink of them!! Baby pigs are okay, but, if we didn't have them in the yard, it wouldn't ever stink and there would be a minimum of flies!

Our pigs and goats LOVE popcorn!!! The other night, two kids were outside the pen eating popcorn. The pigs promptly ran over and jumped up on the fence because they could smell it. They started running around and squealing because they thought they should get fed this popcorn! We finally told the boys that they could feed a few kernels to the pigs.

One of the things the pigs love is if you scratch them on the side of their bellies. They will lie right down and go to sleep, they just love to have their bellies rubbed. This is true for all ages of pigs, I know, because I used to raise a pig and I would go into his pen and start scratching his side. Down he would go, he loved it.

When the kids are in the pen, we try and encourage the parents to go in with them, that way they can keep an eye on their own kids behavior, at least, that's the idea. Some parents, sorry to say, don't keep an eye on their kids whether

One of our gooseneck gourds painted by a customer

they are in or out of the pen and the kids just run rampant and it's up to us to discipline them, which I really don't feel is our responsibility, but, you can't have the kids running indiscriminately over the tops of the pumpkins and risk them kicking off the stems, or throwing the smaller pumpkins around or grabbing the wagons and running around the pumpkin lot.

I guess there must have been a few

The other side

incidents at our other lot in Saratoga this past weekend where the manager actually had to throw out a few people and that just shouldn't happen. But, sometimes, when it's for the good of the rest of the people that are in the patch minding their own business, you have to do it. The welfare of the animals is paramount and I will have no child tormenting any of our animals.

The weekdays are the longest for us, because just a handful of people come onto the lot. Ron usually tells me to go back to the rig, and do whatever, so these last couple of days, I've updated the blog to our present time. I'm sure he would also like me to cook some pumpkin pie while I'm at it. I did pick out a pumpkin to cut up and cook the pulp. The problem is that we have limited electric where we are, so that means I can't use the microwave, we just don't have the power for it. It would be so easy to cut up the pumpkin and pop it in the microwave for about 15 minutes or so to soften the pulp, then put it in the food processor. As it is, I will either bake it or cook it on the stove top.

I was looking back at our experience in 2008 and noticed that I really didn't post any pics of the specialty pumpkins, so this time, you get to see what kind we are selling. Almost everything on the lot is edible, it is some kind of pumpkin or squash. The only things that are not are the gooseneck gourds and some smaller decorative pumpkins and squash. The last time around, I baked several kinds of pumpkins into pies and they tasted pretty much all the same except the textures were different. This time I might make one of the white and one of the funny looking barnacle ones. But, it better cool down or I'm not baking anything!

I will be adding more pictures as the pigs have grown since we got here 2 1/2 weeks ago and so have the chicks and we now have a third goat, Hazel, who is a year old. I also have to get a picture of Ron in his Halloween outfit, as well as a couple of our scarecrows and horses....stay tuned...