A fun day at The Elegant Farmer

Yesterday, Mom and I took our annual trip to The Elegant Farmer. It was sunny off and on and that worked great for photos. But get this - We wore winter coats! Yeah, the cold weather has officially hit Wisconsin.

So starting with something yummy...

This one is mine. The girl who was dipping these was mid-slice while asking me if I wanted my apple sliced. When I said I didn't, she said in a surprised way "Oh! A bold move!" So that tells you how many people eat these on a stick.

Mmm... reflective caramel!

Mom had hers sliced:

This is the doorway we walked under to get to these treats. I think it could also work as a good doorway to a haunted house, because I felt like we were walking through a big mouth.

While waiting to get through this giant mouth door, I took some pics of the pumpkins next to me.

Check out this stem!

Of course I have to share a pic of the smilin' barn! This is where you can do some shopping for all kinds of food. There was a super long line just to get in and shop, so we didn't do that.

More shopping could be done in a little building next to the barn. This is the area where I took pics of the chainsaw sculptor doing his thing before. He wasn't there yesterday, but I did find these wagons outside the building.

It's cool to look at three different versions of a red wagon. For those of you who like the rusty and crusty:

There was also an old sled out front:

There are some train tracks behind the barn that you guys will probably remember from past years.

This is possibly my favorite picture of the day. It looked like a ghost train coming toward me in the mist. This is about as close as I'm willing to get to an oncoming train.

A little closer...

I can almost hear the rattling.

I took a few photos of... let's call them train accessories because I don't know what the purpose of the next few are. Maybe you guys can fill me in?

When I got closer, I thought this looked like a creature with a big, open mouth. I'm even seeing an eye now!

Some kind of signal?

Coming around the bend...

To the "Elegant Farmer Station"

A few details on the side of the train:

This shape reminds me of a piece of candy.

I took a few pics on the drive there and back. I'm pretty pleased and surprised with how this one turned out, given that I couldn't see what I was taking a photo of. I was just leaning my arm out the window and taking photos of whatever was behind me. See the little horse?

A few trees were changing.

I'm not entirely sure what this is, but we see it every year on the drive. It's some kind of equipment that's been painted to look like a jack-o-lantern. I'm pleased when I can manage to get a pic of it from the car window.

After the Elegant Farmer, we went to Target and Michaels. I've taken a lot of pics at both those stores this season, but there are a couple more things to share.

I hadn't seen this cool arch at the two previous Targets I'd been to this season.

Mom spotted this whole situation. A terrifying new creature! The Gorilla Spider!

Michaels had a pretty clever mini Halloween town on display. This little building reminded me of something out of the show Grimm. This is the "Monster Hunting Supplies" shop. There are a lot of little details to read on this one.

Hehe. This is one of those things that's funny to me and I'm not really sure why. There's just something silly about bloodsucking gnomes that are only about an inch tall. Note the tombstone: "Gnome Sweet Gnome"

The "Symphony of Screams" was in a little bandstand. Cool bat/skull at the top!

Having a glass of "Full Moon Moonshine"

Skeletons in the well!

Sassy cat napkins giving the side-eye to some cat plates:

Those cat napkins might have to be a part of the After Halloween Haul this year...

So there's yesterday! It was a pretty fun day, wandering from place to place. 🍏

Halloween at Michaels ~ Another great skeleton selection!

This is going to be another long one, since these photos are from two different Michaels stores. The first Michaels had a lot of skeletons, and some of them were bringing the attitude.

Haha! What?

I guess this one looks grumpy enough, or maybe sultry?

I love this! The Evil Queen's spellbook:

Now, here's something very cool that I hadn't seen before: A Venus Flytrap garland! I think these are pretty realistic looking.

How about this "rabid squirrel"? That's what Michaels is calling it. I think it's gone a little beyond rabid, myself!

Witchy pumpkin creatures? I just noticed that cute little toad one is holding.

Onto the next Michaels! This store also had skeletons, but they were more cartoony. I think these were candy holders.

You're freaking meowt! I actually once used that cat clipart on the cover of a Halloween mix CD.

Another cute vintage looking cat. I'm imagining orange and black jellybeans in these jars.

A little bit of "Spooky Town", the bit I could get to over the barrier they had set up. So it looks like we have a carnival ride, a water tower, and a cool old haunted house in this town. And zooming waaaay in, I see a "Haunted House of Props". Things sure look different without all that Menards cobweb snow. 😁

That sprinkle of black glitter makes this eyeball look a little dirty.

This second Michaels had some awesome Day of the Dead decorations! I love this wreath, maybe even more than I love the Day of the Dead wreath at Target. I just looked at my last blog post, and yeah, this one is more full of flowers and the sugar skulls are more sugary.

A close-up:

Another candy holder?

Aww...

So is this about what you guys are seeing at your Michaels stores? Like I said in the Target post, I'm loving seeing all this Day of the Dead stuff!