BRUSH PRAIRIE — Four-year-old Courtney Carlson’s witch hat shielded her from the rain as she trotted alongside her father through the Bi-Zi Farms pumpkin patch on Sunday.
Dad Mike Carlson pushed a wheelbarrow through the mud as his wife, Shantel Carlson, and 11-year-old Mackenzie followed farther behind. The Washougal family’s goal was to choose the four best pumpkins and carve them in time for Halloween.
“We came out here a little late for the pumpkins, but we’re finding them,” Shantel said. Being the last weekend day before Halloween, the patch was somewhat picked over.
“Found one!” Courtney hollered. Mike hoisted another pumpkin into the wheelbarrow.
Regular rain
The family has come to the pumpkin patch for about the past four years, and Shantel, unfazed by the weather, said she remembers it raining during most of those visits.
A few hundred people stopped at the farm on Sunday, many putting up with steady rainfall. Saturday was a more pleasant day to visit, said Bill Zimmerman, one of the owners of Bi-Zi Farms.
“Yesterday was a beautiful day,” he said. “Today’s (crowd is) going to be a quarter of what we had yesterday.”
After pumpkins were plucked from the patch, guests could catch a hay ride back through the farm, passing by an aromatic kettle corn stand and stopping at the pumpkin-washing stations.
Bi-Zi Farms offered more than the pumpkin patch. Live music, a 6-acre corn maze, farm animals and even a pumpkin launcher entertained visitors.
To some, the corn maze can seem a lot larger than 6 acres. Zimmerman said that one man recently told him, “I’ve been in there so long, it had to be 40 acres.”
Variety of fun
The variety of family activities is what drew the Keithley family back to the farm from Kelso for a second year.
“We go pumpkin hunting every year — that’s what we call it,” said Rebecca Keithley, who stood at the pumpkin launcher with her nephew; her mother-in-law; her husband, Nickolas Keithley; and their three children.
Nickolas said the family used to drive all the way to a pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island in Oregon, but Bi-Zi “is closer, and they have punkin-chunkin.’”
After many of the family members tried out the pumpkin launcher, they planned to choose their own pumpkins from the patch and then try to navigate the corn maze.
Remarking on Sunday’s weather, Nickolas added: “We’re from Washington. This ain’t rain.”
Zimmerman said the fun at the farm, 9504 N.E. 119th St., will continue Friday evening, when students from Skyview High School will host a haunted corn maze fundraiser from 6 to 10 p.m.
