An unconventional year involving quarantine, face coverings and social distancing may have helped contribute to one of the busier years at Country Bumpkins that owner Tina Strinz could remember.
Strinz has hosted the pumpkin patch and haunted house for four years now. Popularity for both has only grown for the lot outside of Milford.
That growing popularity, awareness and the year of quarantine may have all helped make this season, which started Sept. 18, busier each and every week.
“I think so,” Strinz said, “just for the fact that we can get outside when they've been cooped up.”
This year the pumpkin patch has featured a bounce house, corn pit, hayrack, playground area, yard games, playground houses and even a corn maze. That variety has cast a wide net, helping bring in a bigger audience.
And since Strinz has always been a fan of scary movies, she's enjoyed watching the haunted house grow and gain popularity. Each year the haunted house is the same structure but redecorated. The nearby corn maze becomes a haunted corn maze at night. Customers are taken by hayrack ride to the corn maze, like something out of Sleepy Hollow.
“I've always been interested in scary movies and draw from them and all those places,” she said. “The biggest addition to the haunted house this year was we added a mirror maze. It has movable doors so it changes up on you and you get lost in there for a while.”
Strinz said part of the fun of the annual haunted house, which started Oct. 2, was making it different so families could return to something new each year.
Like most other businesses this year, Country Bumpkins has had to adapt, although the nature of a corn maze and similar activities allow people to socially distance.
Both the pumpkin patch and haunted house continue to welcome patrons through Halloween weekend. Strinz said every weekend since the start of the season has brought a bigger crowd and she hopes the weather cooperates long enough to bring an even bigger crowd for the season's final weekend.
