Saturday was the actual Fourth of July holiday, and that meant it was the day of the annual Gaffron holiday picnic at the Gaffron farm in Guffey. The forecast was trending toward stormy, but we were hopeful that it wasn’t going to ruin our plans. We arrived early to the festivities, more earlier than we have in the past.
As we pulled into our parking space, we saw some chickens in the yard. Those are my cousin’s chickens that he brought with him from the Midwest. He moved home last December. We set up our chairs in the yard and early on, I began to make my rounds. I caught up with everyone who was there and was hopeful this would be a good day. With more people arriving and more chairs set up, the skies began to open up and the rain began to fall. We were sent inside to dodge the fat sprinkles that turned into heavy downpours.
I was going to have to enjoy my food indoors and for that I sat at the table. Those desserts sure looked tempting. The rain had stopped momentarily and we set up our chairs and went back outside. We tried to make the most of it, and then the rain fell once again. It was obvious that this storm wasn’t letting up. Due to the torrential downpours, it was pretty crowded in the kitchen. Standing room only.
The high winds that preceded the rain and thunderstorms did their damage, taking the umbrella and glass table with them. Remember the warning message at the Pittsburgh Zoo near the aquarium? You know the one. It said Coins + Fish= Death (in pictures with Death being represented by a tombstone). Well, high winds + glass table= death (to table). Luckily, no one was hurt but it was a shock, nonetheless. At least there were people around to help clean up. That’s what Gaffrons do, they work together.
The best dish from the Fourth of July smorgasbord was the meatloaf with the hard boiled egg. A little bit of Frank’s made it really stand out. The best dessert was that peanut butter pie. I had to grab a slice (I cut half of one) not realizing that there were two pies. There were lots of cookies to satisfy my sweet tooth, and Mom’s cookie bar went over well. We left early due to the unrelenting rain, and lots of us were drenched. Perhaps I could have driven myself and stuck around a little longer. The picnic was called due to the rain and the fireworks cancelled (or were they?). We lit off a few fireworks at home as well as some smoke bombs. Nothing like the light show at the farm but it would do. My cousin took some pictures and there were fireworks plus a rainbow. But in a way it was justified to end our night early.
Stylish 🍒 