Pumpkin Patch -- Sat/Sun, 10-24/25, 2020

Oh goodie.  An Evie visit this weekend (Sat-Mon)!  It had been a few weeks since she'd come to visit and we were all happy to be together.  I'd hoped she could come before Halloween so we could take her to a local pumpkin patch to pick out The Perfect Punkin (rather than buy one at a store).  Saturday's sky was as blue as all the rest have been for the past six months, so off we went to Bierwagen's Pumpkin Patch Saturday afternoon.  Mind you, we'd never been there before.  After parking and getting a wagon, we trotted up a long slow hill.

Meanwhile, we rec'd notice from our electric provider Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) that, due to an expected high-wind event combined with severely dry conditions and basically no humidity, our power would be shut off Sunday around 3pm.  Again.  They do this to make sure no falling trees or branches hitting their lines can spark a wildfire, or so they say.  If they'd maintained their grid for the past twenty years like they should have, instead of lining pockets and keeping the stockholders happy, I wouldn't be typing these words.  We prepared Evie as best we could, but how can you explain electricity to a three-and-a-half-year-old, much less that your power company is going to shut off your power?  When I was finished explaining, she looked at me and said, "why?"

Though it felt cool at our house, it felt nice and warm at Bierwagen's (lower elevation).  Quite a number of others had the same punkin patch thought.  Many wore masks, and we made sure to keep our distance.

Out of the wagon and into the field.

This is the one she picked.  (They all looked the same to me!)  Then she added several small ones to keep the big one company.  Never mind the sign in the wagon.  Whenever I have the camera aimed and tell her, "say cheese," she will say it ... while looking down, like you see above.  Ah well, no worries.

Posing with the pumpkins and scarecrow, but I guess he didn't make the cut.  We were waiting for our order of apple cider donuts at this point, having already bought a bag of apples.  Bierwagen's has extensive peach and apple orchards.  We'd also visited with the piggies and goats and turkeys and chickens, but not the moo cows as they were too far away.  I think she had a fun afternoon there.

When it was warm enough outside on Sunday to carve the pumpkin, we spread newspapers on the back deck table and commenced the process.  Actually Jimmy did the work, I manned the camera and Evie waited to add drawings and stickers to the finished product.

Look at all the stuff inside!

She wanted a "mad" face, and here it is!

After adding stickers and marking up the big guy, it was time to make faces on a couple of the little ones.  She did pretty good for her age!  Pop-pop monitored the marking pen so she didn't get any on her clothes.  You might notice it had cooled down enough for her to put on the beloved purple jacket.

BOO!

Jimmy!  Okay, we have a candle in mad-face and the friends are nearby.

She liked it when she saw it!

Per PG&Eeeek, power was shut off at 3pm Sunday.  We carried stuff and more stuff from the house to Tergel, which had been moved close to the garage.  We ate dinner in Tergel, and Evie played before bedtime.  She and I crawled in bed and we read her books, and then we spent the night in Tergel; it was our adventure.  Jimmy said three in that bed would be one too many, so he slept in the house.  If you've ever slept with a little kid, you know they sleep like wiggle worms!  But we did fine; she seemed to sleep well.

Heck, we didn't realize the night would be so cold!  Jimmy left our little propane catalytic heater on low, but it felt icy in Tergel when we got up around 7.  We bundled up and turned the heater on high.  Before Jimmy came in, he turned on the stand alone generator that keeps our fridge/freezers cold. Then we drank our coffee and ate breakfast.  About that time, that stand alone generator died.  Just died.  Trying to hook up Tergel's generator to take over the fridge/freezers didn't work (tho it had in the past).  It would power the garage freezer, but not the house fridge/freezer.  The only thing we could do was empty the house freezer into the garage freezer, and put as much fridge food/condiments in Tergel's fridge as we could.  What a mess.  Evie wanted to swing on the playground set we bought a while back.  It was a frustrating morning.  

As planned, I drove to Auburn at Noon to deliver Evie to her mommy and daddy, and then returned home to Tergel in the driveway.  Jimmy worked on the generator to see if he could get it working.  I'm grateful we have Tergel and can camp anywhere, but driveway camping is not my idea of a first-rate vacation.  We're doubly grateful that no wildfires broke out in our area.  We don't know if our fridge is broken or working, and we won't know till power is restored at 10pm on Tuesday.  So danged frustrating.  Our highest wind gust was 8mph.  I don't get it.  I don't like it.  Guess it's "to be continued" on the fridge.  I'll let you know.  At least we had fun with Evie and I know she had fun with us!

Addendum:  Power back by 7:30pm Tuesday and the FRIDGE WORKS!  Hallelujah!  And Jimmy ordered us a new Honda generator.