It seems like you can't drive outside of the city during the month of October without coming across a harvest festival, a corn maze or a pumpkin patch every 100 feet. Last week, a few colleagues and I hit up a festival outside of Wilsonville. In addition to the usual stuff, the organizers built a Noah Ark-themed petting zoo, a huge hay slide and my two favorites: a corn cannon shooting gallery and an Ewok Village-esque compound for a family of goats. Sadly, we were about a week late for the annual "pumpkin drop," which crushed the car in the photo above.

In the goat village a series of ramps led from the ground over a small house and up to a crows nest attached to a tree. For a buck, attendees could use a rope and pulley to raise a cup of Goat Chow up to one resident who absolutely refused to let any of his fellow goats up there.

I gave the corn cannon a shot but was completely upstaged by a six-year old who managed to lob an ear within a foot of a pumpkin-shaped target. I aimed for a cow cut-out but my two corn shells missed by a country mile.

Here's a tip: if you ever find yourself in a situation where you have to fire a corn cannon in order to take down, say, a malevolent zombie scarecrow or "Jigsaw" from the Saw movies, I strongly suggest that you aim high.

Labels: festivals