We invited a bunch of folks from St. Patrick’s over for our first annual Springfield Farm Friends-Giving this past weekend. My brothers Mark & Steve came over Friday to “prep” for the first day of hunting.

On Friday we set everything up, cleaned out the barn, setup a big screen TV with chairs, kerosene heater, etc. and gave it a tryout Friday evening.

We all went out on the UTV and gathered downed wood to use for our usual large bonfire.

We started frying the turkeys at 10am with a target guest arrival of noon. This was the first time I’ve fried turkey in at least 5 years but all went well with Patty prepping the birds and my brothers assisting with the frying operation.

Folks started arriving at noon and very quickly it became quite busy, kids riding scooters and bikes on the driveway, hay rides, chowing down on a very large amount of food, folks brought some delicious dishes. And of course the bonfire, cuz, well, we’re all pyros at heart. Below are pictures of a large number of minivans parked, and people generally chowing down.

Patty hid letters around the yard/house for the kids to do a scavenger hunt and the Radel sisters helped “ride herd” on the process. Kids really liked it. Below is the result, although there was one letter I found later stuck by the garage??

I took a bunch of guests on a tour of the property, trying to give a flavor for the local history and the family that owned the property for so long. Here are a few pictures from the game camera of the tours.

Looks like Matt, Rob and their wives & kids had a blast riding the ATVs.

When it started getting dark we lit up the Christmas lights for the first time.

By the time it got dark we were pretty much gathered around the bonfire. My wife tells me I fell asleep before everyone left, but I’m pretty sure she is wrong.