Frozen In Time: Nelson Farm [VIDEO]

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LITCHFIELD -- This week in our Frozen In Time series we took a trip out to the Nelson Farm in Litchfield.

Farmer Don Nelson and his wife bought the farm 24 years ago to raise hogs. The couple both have a background in the agricultural industry and thought they should try farming.

The red dairy barn is the original structure built back in 1900. The farm house was built the following year.

Thirty families helped assemble the barn using notch peg construction. It took them one day to complete.

The side-hill barn was designed for cows to be able to roam from the basement to the pasture and out to Youngstrom Lake.

Families who attend the farm can get rides on the 1958 tractor called "Alice" and see old farm equipment.

Farmer Nelson says they started growing pumpkins for students on school field trips to the farm, "when they would come on the school field trip they could pick a pumpkin and bring it home."

Word eventually spread and families started planning trips to the farm to pick out pumpkins of their own.

Since then the Nelson Farm has been open during the fall months for families to tour the farm and participate in fall activities.

A few years ago the farm added a new attraction used centuries ago for knocking down castles in times of war.

Farmer Nelson calls the device a "Pumpkin Chucker Flinger Thinger." It's a trebutchet his son built with some friends from college.

They launch pumpkins from the trebutchet three times a day during their pumpkin patch festival. Farmer Nelson says the Pumpkin Chucker Flinger Thinger is pretty accurate and can chuck a pumpkin pretty far.