So Much to Update!

I still owe y'all a long update about the Wool Festival, but we went to Vermont today, so I'll tell you about that real quick and then go to bed.

Six of us went today, just because we wanted to see what it looked like in Vermont. We went to the town of Brattleboro and walked around.

I found a yarn shop called Knit or Dye which clearly almost killed me with excitement.

And we saw Vermont's longest covered bridge!

It was really exciting.

And absolutely gorgeous.

We took a lot of very serious pictures.

Then we went to another little town to find somewhere for lunch. But first Sam climbed a tree......

......I laid down in some leaves.......

......Susan climbed a tree (with Jen's help).......

......and we found a stool made of silver dollars.

Then we climbed Cemetery Hill Road, assuming there was a cool old cemetery at the top. We were right!

We found some really neat things.

But since it was still an old cemetery surrounded by a lot of dead trees, I got scared.

And then my camera died, probably because I was taking disrespectfully goofy pictures in a cemetery. So I will steal the pictures of others a post them later! They involve a cheese factory, a mountain trail, and another trip to Knit or Dye, this time with delightful picture poses in mind. I hope you can stand the anticipation!

Pie Off!

I WON THE PIE OFF!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, I won a category of the Pie Off! And it wasn't Most Ridiculous Pie. It wasn't even Most Creative; I got edged out by a last minute entry made of snow. But I did win Most Visually Appealing. Let me take you through the steps of my NACHO PIE!

It had a crust made of crushed up tortilla chips held together with melted butter.

Then I put a layer of sliced avocado on the bottom.

The main filling consisted of mashed up pinto beans mixed with sauteed onions and garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin, mixed with salsa and shredded cheese.

Then I "frosted" it with sour cream.

On top I put shredded lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, and cheese. I was trying to win the category I made up of Swirliest Pie.

Lastly, I piped more sour cream around the edges and put a dollop in the middle, with a tortilla chip sticking out of the top.

Other people worked on their pies today, too. Sarah made and crushed ginger cookies for the crust of her Butterscotch/Butternut Squash Pie, Jason piped whipped cream onto his Banana Cream Pie, and Maggie took Pear and Almond Cream Pie out of the oven.

Instead of baking her Ginger Peach Cream Pie, Ivy chilled it. Except that we didn't have much room in the refrigerator, so she put it on the porch, in the snow, under a pan to protect it from said snow.

So there were ten pies.

All of them were amazingly delicious and it was so hard to choose favorites in any category. But we all tasted and contemplated and voted.

Liz Jo tabulated the votes and announced the winners.

And the winners are.......

BEST CRUST---Sarah C.'s Shoefly Pie

MOST CREATIVE---Liz Jo, Susan, and Ashley's Snow Pie. Note that this pie is local, gluten free, soy free, vegan, healthy, and organic.

BEST FLAVOR---Ben's Raspberry, Rhubarb, and White Chocolate Pie

BEST OVERALL---Also Ben's pie. But Maggie's Pear and Almond Cream Pie was only one vote behind in both flavor and overall, so Ben shared and she won this one!

And I won Most Visually Appealing!

In other news, it snowed giant snowflakes today that we stood around and caught on our tongues instead of doing chores.

The End! Yay Pie!

Tonight!

IT'S SNOWING AGAIN!!! DUDE! WHAT IS GOING ON???????

The Sheep and Wool Festival was absolutely amazing. I am going to tell you all about it, but I can't tonight. Here are a couple of pictures, though. There were a lot of sheep.

And there was a lot of wool.

I can't tell you more now because I have to make a pie. Tonight is the annual Overlook Farm Pie Off. I am hoping to win in the category of Most Ridiculous Pie. Here are my ingredients. Try to guess what I'm making!

The Aftermath of SNOW

This is what the farm looked like when I woke up this morning.

By 10:00 or so, though, it had all melted. But it inspired me to take more Fall Pictures.

Also, tomorrow Ivy and I are going to the NEW YORK SHEEP AND WOOL FESTIVAL IN RHINEBECK, NEW YORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am a little bit excited. A massive post will shortly follow, I assure you. Yay!!!

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!

Seriously, it's snowing! It started about 7:00 tonight and is still coming down. And it's sticking to things like steps and cars, and there's a teensy powdering on the ground. I'm not sure if I'm ready for this. It's only October 15th! I haven't gotten enough pictures of Fall yet! I'm not even vaguely ready for Winter! I was really enjoying the fact that my world was turning yellow, and was looking forward to more fiery colors. Hopefully they will keep happening. I would hate for it to get cold so fast that the leaves fall off the trees while they're still green! (Folks have tried to assure me this won't happen too much, but I can't help but worry.) Anyway, here are some pictures of trees and some not-so-great pictures of the snow falling tonight.

Visit Home

Well, I am back on the farm after a quick trip home this weekend. My brother, Evan, is in the college circus at Florida State and their fall show was this weekend. It was really good to go home, but I hate really quick trips. I only just start really catching up with my family when I have to leave again. But even though I felt like I was hardly home, when I got back here, I felt like I'd been gone a really long time. Odd.

Anyway, the circus Friday night was SPECTACULAR! I was in an oddly uncharacteristic mood, however, and hardly took any pictures. I opted for video taping instead, and maybe one of these days when I figure out how to extract still photos from videos I will have pictures. But never fear blog readers! I have stores upon stores of pictures from last spring's show (which used the same costumes) to satisfy your photo need. For those of you who have never seen Evan in a show, here are the things he does.

He walks on a slackwire, which is like a tightrope, but slack instead of tight (as the name implies) so it sways and moves.

He is one of two "clowns," which pretty much means that he and his friend Dustin get up in front of the crowd and are goofy. Well, they have a routine. Dustin is The Strongest Man in the World, Evan is his fan/imitator, and as you might imagine, hilarious hijinks ensue.

Then, those characters return and do a comedy trapeze routine (on the ground) called Lowcasting.

And last but not least, he flies on the trapeze!

The next day, FSU played Georgia Tech, and of course we were at the game, along with a few thousand of our closest friends.

My family was excited to be there!

Until lightning forced the game to stop and sent us inside. Boo.

But then the game restarted! Yay!

And we found Evan's friends to sit with, so the rest of the game was super fun, even though we lost. Also, can you see anyone in this picture who doesn't look like they belong to a garnet and gold school?