October 18, 2009

Minges Pumpkin Festival

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Happy Fall Ya'll
(even though I can't wait for warmer temps and I wish it was Spring instead of Fall :-)

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I braved the unseasonable cold today, not to go tracking as I thought I might, but to go to a large local pumpkin festival.  I suspected that the winds at the location chosen for tracking practice would be worse than in the protected area of the festival.  I'm not sure how it was at the park, but the festival was quite bareable with no wind and plenty of sun.
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A few of the folks there even remembered Dazzle having been at the festival last year as a puppy and were surprized by how big he was now.  He got several compliments and met several new fans.  There were several other dogs there too, since dogs are allowed, and several vendors that have stuff for dogs.
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This is one of the rows of outside vendors.  There were several rows like this.

This was one of the inside rows.  There were also several of these large tents with multiple vendors inside. 


Little bit of everything; handmade crafts, jewelry, art, decorative signs and lazer carved rocks.  And of course, several food booths serving the usual Fair food. Very little pumpkin food though, which seems odd for a pumpkin festival.  I saw pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies, but that was about it. Other food booths had jams and jellies, peanut brittle and dips/sauces. At least one booth was devoted to just handmade dog treats, but Dazzle didn't like any of them (no surprise for Mr. Finicky).
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We walked to the farm part and Dazzle was really facinated by the pig

The pig, while not afraid, didn't return the love.  While Dazzle was trying to give him kisses, he (or maybe she, I didn't check) kept trying to nip Dazzle's nose and I think Dazzle thought he was playing.


Then Dazzle tried to get the Donkey to play... 


But the Donkey ignored him, so he moved on.

We didn't get close to the chickens and turkey though because Dazzle was WAY too interested in their movements and sounds. It was really funny though how the turkey would respond to the kid's laughter.  There were two girls who giggled every time the turkey gobbled, and the turkey gobbled every time they laughed.  I wish I had it on video because the laughter was infectious and it wasn't long before everyone was laughing!
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After the festival, I went in search of "ski pants" and none of the places I checked carried them!  Well, I take that back, Burlington Coat Factory had a grand total of 6 pairs of mens pants in huge sizes.  I guess we're too far from any mountain?  I did find plenty of insulated Camo and Carharts though. I don't recall seeing ski pants in stores around here though.
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Is it Spring yet?