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Dear Friends of Riley's Farm:
U-Pick: Although the season is winding down, we still have a lot of Granny Smith and Newton Pippins, along with light flowers, and the following pre-picked apples in the store: Arkansas Blacks, Northern Spy, and Rome Beauty. We also have hundreds of cinderella pumpkins in the fields. Live music will be featured in the colonial tavern, along with archery, tomahawks, and candle-dipping.
Civil War Re-enactment: Don't miss the encampment and battlefield skirmish this Saturday, November 9 from 10 AM to 4 PM. Tickets are $10 online (until November 9 at 10 AM), and $15 on site. The packing shed barbecue will also be open in the re-enactment area, with ribs, pulled-pork sandwiches, burgers, hard cider, beer and wine.
Living History Field Trips: We are now seeing students from Arizona, Nevada, and Central California. (Some of those kids take 2-3 day education vacations, and we're one of the stops.) If your students or family wish to participate in the the Revolutionary War, Civil War or Gold Rush Adventures, or any of our other programs, get your date soon!
The Harvest Feast: This Saturday night's performance (11/9/24), is almost sold out, but we still have quite a few seats for the Friday night shows, including tomorrow night (11/8/24). Mary and I invited some college friends to the show last weekend, and we saw one huge family looking positively festive, swaying to the music and wholly committed to swapping stories. Did you ever have that feeling, as a kid: "it would be cool to be a member of THAT family?" That's the feeling I got. Be THAT family.
Emerald City: The farm looks most pristine (orchard grass trimmed, trees tended, row crops flourishing, lawns well tended) with FOUR full time agricultural workers. During the post Covid years we have been making do with two. I want the place to look gorgeous when you get here, so we will probably moving, in 2025 to a year round admission system, not just because of labor, but because of California politicians and civil servants who go right on being paid as they cripple business with regulation and obscene energy bills. Most people already pay to visit the farm (dinner theater, field trips), but for the purely walk-on customers there will be a small entrance fee, (likely $5 to $10). You will be able to buy an annual pass as well. We're looking for an app-based gate lock system, if any of you have expertise in that area.
Glory, Glory: (Or "Do We Really Want to Arrest Anyone Who Disagrees?")
A lot of the Rileys gathered in the tavern Tuesday night to watch the election results. We know something about being a feuding family, and America has always been something like a feuding family. Typically, when we lose our charity for one another, when we stop talking, we tend to believe in the worst version of each other's character. This election was very personal for me, in that a lot of Americans were encouraged to believe we were "garbage" and "fascists," and "insurrectionists" merely for being there on January 6th. All we did was stand on the grass outside the capitol and raise our voices, but people I know were arrested and jailed just for attending. A few of our political opponents actually RELISHED the idea of our being arrested, and many of these same types who cheered the police state persecution of their opponents were worried about a police state under Donald Trump.
I fully believe our new president will pardon the J6 political prisoners and bring an end to these insane investigations. Praise the Lord! Let's end the national family feud, and make America good again.
Love, after all, beats "woke" every time.
See you soon,
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