Last Days of Summer

The weather over the last week has definitely had more of a fall feeling to it. Sure, the temperatures during the day have been pretty warm, but in the evenings the air definitely has a bit of a chill coming into it. Summer doesn't officially end for a couple more days and I got to enjoy a cookout and bonfire last night.

One of my friends grew up on a farm north of Denver and his family has an annual pig roast. They invited a couple hundred people and asked folks to bring either a side dish or a dessert. There was no shortage of food with dozens of different pasta salads (including the one I took) and about 20 different kinds of desserts.

The evening started out with a tour of the farm (which used to be a dairy farm, they only have a handful of cows that they no longer milk). They keep a couple of donkeys, which are actually friendly enough to let you pet them and a dozen chickens. There were also several friendly dogs around and a trio of barn kittens who they took in after the mother was hit by a car.

There were several horseshoe games set up...what do you call a horseshoe playing field? Arena? Pitch? Not that it really matters I suppose. I avoided the games anyway, klutz plus throwing a heavy metallic object around dozens of people doesn't strike me as a good idea. In the barn, they had lots of long tables set up for meal time.

When the pigs were finished roasting, a long line formed (seriously we stood in line for about half an hour to get food, but someone brought a plate of pork down the line for sampling). The pork was delicious and barbecue sauce and buns were provided. I loaded up my plate with a couple of types of pasta salad and some delicious baked beans and veggies. Then afterwards I had a pumpkin spice cupcake, a small piece of brownie and a thin slice of root beer float cake. I had never heard of such a thing, but it was pretty good (I assume the cake itself had root beer in it).

After the meal a large bonfire was started and everyone got to hang out and enjoy music (and alcohol if you wanted). There was a wide open view and to the south a thunderstorm was producing lots of gorgeous lightning. For some reason, there was also a nearby fireworks display for a while too. All in all, it was a pretty fun way to spend one of the last few nights of summer. Now if I can just figure out a way to delay winter.