Delaney Farms Pumpkin Festival

It finally feels like fall! Nostalgic for the awesome pumpkin patches of Seattle, Josh and I decided to try out the Pumpkin Festival at Delaney Farms. It was cold but a lot of fun. Delaney Farms is off of Chambers and Alameda and the highlight of the festival is the pumpkin launch. Different age-groups compete to make a catapault/gun that flings pumpkins the farthest. It is quite the spectacle, each team apparently takes it very seriously with team names, costumes and pre-launch skits. The boys loved it. The festival also had story-telling, pumkin carving demonstrations, pumpkin patch and scarecrow stuffing.





Now onto something embarassing. Josh spent Tues-Fri in Seattle for work. Josh has always traveled a lot for his job so I have gotten used to the things that go bump in the night (the heater turning on, sump pump pumping). However, Friday night was different. It was the first night that actually felt like Halloween to me. It was cold, grey, foggy and I loved it. Cole was spending the night at Aunt McCall's apt so it was just Finn and I sitting on the couch in the blue room watching "The Starter Wife." We were cuddled under the quilt my grandma had just made for Cash (it is too soft to pass up)and we had the fireplace on and all the Halloween lights aglowing. All of a sudden I hear "whooo...whoooo" right behind us in the backyard. I muted the tv to see if I was losing my mind and as clear as a bell "whooo...whoooo" sounded right behind us. We have huge windows that look out to the backyard. I could feel someone looking at me, you've all felt it. When you can tell someone is looking at you. I thought "that can't be an owl, why would there be an owl in suburbia?" And again the "whoooo...whoooo" came even louder. I got up from the couch to go look out the backdoor. I flipped the lock just to be sure and turned on the back light, as I did I saw someone hop over the fence into the neighbor's yard. I instantly went into panic mode. I was like "who would be making owl noises in my backyard and why would they run away?" I grabbed Finn and ran to the front door to make sure it was locked and I dialed my bro-in-law, Morgan, who lives in Tuscany just two minutes away. I was trying to be calm but I didn't want to be alone. He could sense my urgency and said "I am coming right now." I called my mom and she latched on to my anxiety and said "I don't want you to hang up till Morgan is there." Her concern sent me into hysteria, she was trying to calm me saying "it was probably your imagination." Just as I was saying "no I swear..." the "whoooo...whooooo" started again and my mom goes "Was that it? I just heard it!" So I am standing with Finn against the front door, too petrified to even go back into the blue room, crying and hoping the owl-sounding psychopath doesn't know that the back window won't lock and I need Josh to fix it (which he did after this scare). I see Morgan speeding up the road and he pulls in front of the house and runs to the door. Just as he steps on the front porch I whip open the door and he goes "holy crap there's a huge owl out here!" Sure enough there is a ginormous great-horned owl. Morgan heard it go "whooo...whooo" as soon as he opened his door and as he got out the owl flew over his head from our yard. I was relieved that it was an owl and not a psychopath. We think now that he must have been sitting on the fence when I turned on the light and the person I saw was actually the owl swooping off the fence. Morgan stayed with me till 11:00 pm and then went to pick Josh up at the airport. While he was here the owl came back and we heard him in the yard again. This time I went outside and we could see his amazing silouette backlit by the moon. When he swiveled his head toward us you could see the glow of his eyes. He flew off the neighbor's roof right over our heads. It was pretty awesome. Morgan Googled the great-horned owl and we found out that they hunt prey 2-3 times heavier than they are, ie. our cats. Morgan realized the owl must have been watching Eddie and Terrell. So my perfect Halloween night ended appropriately with an encounter with fear and a spooky owl. It's a little embarassing to be so irrational but I love Halloween and have an active imagination. Sue me! On Sat the Plains Conservation Center had a booth at the festival displaying some of Colorado's predators including, the great-horned owl! We got to see its sharp talons and feel its feathers.