Non apple picking

Today we went apple picking. However, we didn't pick any apples because the line was huge to get on the hayride to get up to the trees:

So instead, we played in the pumpkin patch:

And they had a petting zoo, where Maya enjoyed giggling at many animals:

While we were there, a chicken was cooking at home in the crockpot. For those interested in the prolific chicken recipes, I'm going to talk chicken . . . if you don't care about chicken, skip ahead. Anyway, I left it cooking all day and then separated the meat tonight. I have the bones, skin, etc still cooking now to make chicken broth overnight.

Broth: Chicken carcass, including a lot of skin, all of the juices that cooked out of the chicken during the day, 2 small onions, a few cloves of garlic, 2 or 3 carrots, 2 or 3 stalks of celery, 2 or 3 bay leaves, 8ish cups of water and 4 boullion cubes (maybe it's cheating but I like the saltiness). I let it cook for a long time, if it's too watery I add more spices, or if it's too salty I add more water.). Tomorrow I'll strain out the solids, throw away skin & bones, and I blend the veggies in a food processor and pour it back into the broth to add depth.

In other news, Maya hasn't been sleeping well lately so we've asked her to move out: