The Giant Pumpkin Festival - Part 2

I was attending the Giant Pumpkin Festival at the St. Lawrence County fairgrounds in Gouverneur, New York (see Part 1, posted yesterday) and walking along a row of vendors:

There were handcrafted birdhouses and other wood crafts:

Signs and wooden pumpkin boxes:

And of course - more pumpkins. No giants yet, though:

I walked over to see the crane which would drop the giant pumpkin (filled with numbered golf balls) at 3:00. I wouldn't be there long enough to see it drop, though:

I walked by the chicken barbecue. It sure smelled good!

And then I entered the barn with the giant pumpkins. There were a few, but that's when I realized I shouldn't have arrived on the morning of opening day because many of the giant pumpkins hadn't yet arrived. But there were some, so I walked around to see them:

Outside the barn, a big (but certainly not giant) pumpkin had just arrived and was being unloaded and tagged with the grower's name:

A forklift hauled the pumpkins into the barn:

These were some seriously big pumpkins and I'd sure be proud to have grown one of them. But I missed seeing the super-giants, which hadn't yet arrived:

Well, these two were pretty darn big, but there were surely much bigger ones coming:

I didn't stay long, but I enjoyed the rural geniality. Next year I'll go later in the day:

The Giant Pumpkin Festival - Part 1

You may remember that I attended the Giant Pumpkin Festival last year but couldn't find the miniature horses. This year, I parked right next to the ring where the children were handling the tiny steeds:

Most were young children, but there were some older kids also. The mini-horses were perfectly behaved and did everything they were asked:

I gathered, from listening to the announcer, that many of these little horses belonged to a local stable and may not have met their youthful handlers before. Nevertheless, they were certainly perfectly behaved and brought a lot of smiles to the children and their parents:

There was a series of activities, but my favorite was the costuming of both horses and handlers:

And then I moved on to the bouncy castle:

This was the third annual Giant Pumpkin Festival, held at the St. Lawrence fairgrounds in Gouverneur, New York. I arrived early on the first day but vendors had already set up shop, beginning with this "Win Your Own Mini-Tractor" lottery:

There were pumpkins, but no giant ones yet:

An entire row of vendor booths:

High Peaks Winery:

Colorful crafts:

And food. There was still more to see, and I'll post Part 2 tomorrow: