Coon Hollo

We visited the 2nd annual Coon Hollo Corn Maze this year. Last year was their first year, and it went quite well.

Some pics of the fun...

Kids love this stuff! Something as simple as corn!
And being able to climb up on hay bales! Can it get any better?
This year was a little different because I had a personal stake in how well they did. Amy offered for me to sell some 'wares in her mom's "Nana's Country Store." So, true to my nature, rather than break out the old sewing machine, I broke out the internet and started ordering wholesale.

There's this store in St. Augustine that Jim and I always visit and the purses in there are cute. Cute enough for me to talk about them after we leave because I'm always so cheap I don't want to buy one. The last time we visited, I took a peak of the brand name of those purses and decided to do a little investigative work. They were sold online by a company out of Atlanta. Whoo hoo! Hot diggity dog! I've got my merchandise.

Six shipments later, a month worth of sales, and one full weekend of working the store, I came out ok. Enough to start a pretty good Christmas fund.

The highlight of my little attempt at retail is being able to add "celebrity clientele" to my resume. A movie star celebrity and his wife happen to live here in Ocala. John Travolta didn't make it to Coon Hollo, but his beautiful, 8-months pregnant, wife, Kelly did. And she bought one of my purses! (I don't really have to go into how it was for one of her daughter's friends, but I'll save her the embarrassment anyway.) It made working that weekend even more special.

Faithful Field of Dreams

Amy, my middle school/high school/college roommate took a huge leap of faith. I keep thinking of the 1989 Academy Award winning movie "Field of Dreams" with Kevin Costner when I think of her and her family. Costner's character is a novice Iowa corn farmer who becomes convinced by a mysterious voice that he's supposed to construct a baseball diamond in his corn field, while hearing the voice whisper, "If you build it, they will come." The film's underlying theme is the fulfillment of dreams and my friend Amy and her family have certainly fulfilled a dream of theirs. Similar to the movie, she lives on a beautiful piece of land in rural America, in a farm house, surrounded by farmland and has been convinced for years to follow her "inner voice".

Amy and her family were the ones who orchestrated the Coon Hollo Corn Maze we visited a couple weekends ago. With close to 10,000 people attending in 5 weekends, the plot of land sitting at the bottom of the hill in front of her barn-red farm-style home has become her Field of Dreams.

I admit, when she first told me about this plan of hers, I was extremely skeptical. Skepticism has become rampant in my world since becoming a wife and mother. All the whos, whats, wheres, whys and hows flooded my thoughts and I couldn't get past the details to see the overall dream for what it could be.

Don't get me wrong, it was a risk, it was a pain in the rear, it was stressful. It took a lot of hard work with at least 8-10 family members pitching in serious hours for this to be successful; but in the end it paid off. Their exhaustion and worn corn maze are there as battle wounds they can proudly show off. I know of a hand full of little ones who were disappointed when told they'd have to wait until next year to go again. A little icing on the cake the last hour they were open was a special visit from an "official" Hollywood movie star.

I am so happy for her and hope to learn from her faith. She has been a true inspiration to me. Thank-you, Amy.

Jesus replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20

Fall Family Fun on the Farm

If you have pre-schoolers and live in this area, you really need to take them to the Coon Hollo Corn Maze.

Coon Hollo Corn Maze

A good friend I've known since middle school (above), and her family have put it on and it's a nice family outing. We went with our family and friends Saturday night, the first 'cool' night of the season. There was the corn maze, lots of hay for children to jump on, a paintball area, a bucking bull ride, a hay fort, Nana's General Store, an area to "milk the cow", a water trough full of whole kernel corn, an area for kids to dig in the dirt and pull out potatoes, old trucks, lots of tractors, a farm animal train, scarecrows and lots of pumpkins. Here's a peek at our fun.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com