WILTON, Calif. — A popular pumpkin farm reopened for its comeback season after suffering extensive damage from last winter's storms.
The land at Fog Willow Farms is now flooded with pumpkins and livestock instead of water.
The farm now allows attendees to see and pet baby animals, go on a hayride tour and hunt for their perfect pumpkin as fall comes into full force.
"This is seriously magical. I've never been out here before. I've heard of it. We didn't make it out last year,” said Elayne Anderson, mother and volunteer. “I'm really glad we're here."
Damage ranges across the farm and caused significant flooding after the Cosumnes River overflowed at the beginning of the year. Owners are thankful they’re able to open after so long.
“It's been the longest, most stressful 10 months of my life,” said owner Joe Cates. “During the flooding, we were completely underwater right here. So it's been a long journey."
Cates says his kids were home from school and were able to rescue the animals from the flooded farm and have been helping bring the farm back to how it was before the damage.
He said there was a time where the family thought about closing shop for good, but the community support helped them through the tough journey.
"Out of the ashes rises the phoenix. When you rode on the hayride you saw the whole big tractor town, and the slide and the new buildings up there. We had to rebuild an awful lot and maybe we needed to,” said Cates.
This is the farms 19th year of operation and the theme is "if you build it, it will come."
Cates says the kids, their laughter, and their eager parents make the tough work worthwhile.
"It didn't click until we got here how much devastation that they had.You would never know. Genuinely you wouldn't know that they ever had any sort of flooding out here. It looks fantastic. Whatever they did, they did a good job at it," said Anderson.
Farm owners say they expect about 100,000 visitors to stop by in October alone. The farm is open 7 days a week and owners are optimistic about the winter ahead.
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