COEUR d'ALENE - Bold orange pumpkins peeping through floppy green leaves; huge pigs in the barn; and white geese on the green lawn, heads lifted with orange beaks open to honk - these are what Prairie Home Farm owner Linda Swenson loves, and what she shares with the public every October.

She opens the farm for business today, and welcomes the public every Wednesday and Saturday in October from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Swenson started Prairie Home Farm in 2004. Every year, her business grows by 20 percent.

"It just has gotten bigger and bigger, just by word of mouth," she said.

At the farm, children and their parents can pick pumpkins, smell the sweet straw in the barn, stroke a horse's nose, and offer up tidbits of food for appreciative animals. Loping springer spaniels welcome everyone with wagging tails. The entry fee is $2 per person, and Swenson tries to keep pumpkin prices about the same as those in area grocery stores.

As it has gotten bigger, Swenson has gotten busier and busier every year as October draws near. The food bags are the most work, she said.

The food bags are $3.50 and come with food for 10 different animals - from horses and ducks to cats, dogs and even humans. She and her helpers made up 800 of the bags with each kind of food this year.

Swenson puts the pumpkins in during her vacation. This year she has numerous different kinds: beautiful bright orange globes for children to pick, brilliant red Cinderellas, encrusted pale "peanut" pumpkins, and even a few bluish green ones.

Additional activities include the Spokane Storytelling League, which is scheduled to come out to tell stories in the barn on Oct. 19. A food drive is also planned that day, with Mark Miller Photography on hand.

The farm is quite popular for field trips, which are $6 per person and come with cider, popcorn, a food bag for the animals and a pumpkin the size of a head, as well as plenty of fun.

Before the pumpkins and field trips, it all started with a few animals. The house on the farm land came with geese and Swenson had several goats.

"I thought it would be nice for field trips so kids could se the animals in their spots," she said.

The next year, she put in pumpkins, and the horses came quickly too. Even as the number of plants and animals grew, Swenson never intended her business to grow to become such an attraction.

But people found it, by talking to others or driving by on Atlas Road.

Some of them may come from the housing developments creeping up all around the farm. Swenson doesn't mind it, and the neighbors don't seem to mind her operation.

Even with the nearby homes, Prairie Home Farms feels far afield, with the animals snuffling, geese honking, and tall corn waving gently by Swenson's arbor of gourd vines.

"I still have people who ask me when they come to my house if I need anything, like a bag of sugar," she said with a smile. "I live five minutes from Fred Meyer."

* For a taste of the farm in the city, visit Prairie Home Farm at 7790 North Atlas Road in Coeur d'Alene. See http://prairiehomefarm.com for more information.