Pumpkin Patch

Last Sunday we traveled to McGarrah Farms in Bella Vista, which is about a 15 minute drive north from Bentonville, to visit the pumpkin patch. If anyone needs to find information on pumpkin patches in Arkansas, this site is pretty good: http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/ARpumpkins.php.

We ended up with a pretty good haul. Ines was a little pensive when we first plopped her down in the middle of the pumpkin field. A co-worker of my wife's, upon seeing the photo of our daugther's face, said that Ines was displaying the "I'm not participating" face. I think she was more concerned about whether or not this particular farm employs sustainable farming techniques.

This morning in Bentonville

Benton County Solid Waste District

Not the most exciting post, but I finally found a place to dump our glass bottles for recycling. In case anyone else in Benton County wishes to recycle their wine and beer bottles that were purchased across the state line, directions to the recycling center can be found here: http://www.bcswd.com/.

This can't be good

So everything has been great with the pool at the house we're renting here. It's been wonderful to be able to take a quick swim when the temperature hits the mid- to upper-90's.

However, last week there was a tremendous amount of rain in Northwest Arkansas which resulted a bit of algae build-up in the pool. I didn't think much of it at first; in fact, I tried to clean it a bit one Sunday morning. A few days later, I awoke to find the pool looking like this. My neighbor advised me not to swim in it.

Creative Visualization

The other morning we woke up to find Bentonville draped in fog. It reminded me, in a way, of those many foggy days in San Francisco.

Cows

Never had the pleasure of seeing this on my way home back in SF. The cow in the first few images was particularly curious and outgoing towards myself and my daughter. I think we'll bring her back a few apples next time.

Bentonville Tigers

So I was driving in Bentonville the other day with my daughter when I noticed a football arena to my left. What surprised me was that this is the field for Bentonville High School. High school. (http://www.bentonville.k12.ar.us/bhs/) I know this would not surprise a lot of folks, but growing up in California, we had nothing close to this at the public high school I went to. Our football field was used for all sports, including P.E. classes. The bleachers were basically wooden planks on metal supports. Again, I know a lot of people may not care or be impressed by the fact the high school has a dedicated football arena, but I have to say I'm pretty fucking impressed.

Notice the dark seats in the center? Those are individual cushioned seats. I'm not sure how much they cost, but I'd like to find out. There is a varsity game on Friday, September 11 against Ft. Zumwalt West; I'll see if I can find out how much tickets are if anyone wants to go with me. I know the Yankees have seats like that in their new stadium that they sell for $1,250 per game. Another thing that struck me was the structure above the seats. What is up there? Press boxes? Luxury suites? Condos? I never thought I would say this, but this place makes me want to be in high school again, at least this high school


Below are a couple of shots of the training complex which I won't even comment on.