One of David’s clients is a family who runs a farm an hour west of Philadelphia. Seasonally, they provide a very popular haunted house and hayride, as well as Christmas activities at Christmas time.
We were invited to their property for the afternoon and BBQ dinner with the family.
I am FOREWARNING YOU NOW! Some of the pictures below are kind of scary for certain ages. Please use discretion if you have little ones with you…
The Bates family have a bunch of sheep and chickens housed in this barn. This is a multi generation property. The current owner, Randy, was born and raised on the property. He now lives there with his wife, Ann, and there are four other homes on the 90 acres that houses five of their six children, and their families.
Inside the garage/shop. This is where they work on gorgeous vintage cars and trucks, as well as store the haunt/seasonal attraction items. They also make their own facial molds, etc. for the haunt.
We decided to walk through the haunted hayride. It was day time and nothing was operational. This is the only way I would consider seeing it. You can’t get me to attend it when it was all set up and running. No sir…no how…no way!
They have a bus that’s all spookified. ‘R’ loves all things spooky and thought it was cool. ‘A’ wanted nothing to to with it and would not go inside….
Next stop is an old saloon. Here’s ‘R’ with one of his buddies…
The entrance to the haunted hayride….
This is pretty much our boys in a nutshell…’R’ embracing the scary props, and this is as close to props as ‘A’ would get…
Walking the rest of the grounds, not related to the haunt…we cam across a reindeer! They also have a few cows, goats, ducks, geese, and a big pot bellied pig.
They were hosting a fundraiser on the property for the ASPCA and we went on their hayride through the grounds (not the haunt part). They had some dogs their for adoption and had us cuddle with a puppy on the hayride. So cute, but we weren’t bringing a lab home….
After the event was over, Randy suggested that we let the boys drive the car on the big parking area. David kept control of the brakes and gas, but he let the boys steer….
Here is Randy with one of his 11 grandkids (this one is a twin!) An incredible BBQ was set that included ribs, burgers, hot dogs, and homemade kielbasa. There was even homemade wine! S’mores rounded out the evening.
This is one of the haunt props. A foam cement block that looks totally real.
Randy gifted the boys with some hoodies, and he gave me a t-shirt. A nice evening with a very nice family.
