Farm fun
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 months, 3 weeks AGO
Three-year-old Lenny Mendoza of Royal City makes the acquaintance of a goat at Palmer’s Adventure Farm, located about five miles east of Moses Lake.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Paige Palmer, 11, takes aim with an apple blaster at Palmer’s Adventure Farm.
From left: Vanessa Palmer, Shane Palmer, Kyle Palmer and Janelle Palmer stand in the tulip fields at Palmer’s Adventure Farm.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | April 13, 2026 3:20 AM
MOSES LAKE — There’s a whole lot to do at Palmer’s Adventure Farm, about five miles east of Moses Lake.
“We have a train for the kids to go on,” said Shane Palmer, who owns Palmer’s Adventure Farm with his brother Kyle Palmer and their wives Vanessa and Janelle. “We added animals this spring. We’ve got a mini-Highland cow. We’ve got goats and bunnies and donkeys, and they can feed the animals. We just put in two jump pads for the kids. They’re air pillows inflated with a big blower and a fan, and the kids jump on it like a trampoline and have a blast. We’ve got a mega-slide (and) a double barrel slide into a corn pit. It’s like a sandbox, but it’s full of corn and the kids play in it.”
Palmer’s Adventure Farm started out four years ago as Strawbelly’s Straw Maze on Wheeler Road, Shane said.
“We had a bunch of extra straw that first year,” he said. “We’re like, what are we going to do with the straw? And my brother and I were like, well, let’s start a straw maze. “
The straw maze went over so well they did it again the next year, Shane said, and the third year they added pumpkins. Last fall, they moved to their current location on Road O Northeast, just off I-90, with all the attractions. They opened for a fall festival in September and are open again weekends through April for the Inland Northwest Tulip Festival.
“People really like it,” Shane said. “(We) grew up farming, so it’s what we’re used to. But a lot of people in this day and age aren’t able to be outside very much. How many kids have gone through a corn maze or climbed on hay bales or even fed an animal?”
For the bigger kids, there’s a paintball shooting gallery and apple blasters, pivot-mounted cannons they can aim and fire off fruit at targets.
Palmer Adventure Farm is a family business; the brothers’ kids help out.
“I work at the Sugar Shack,” said 13-year-old Halle Palmer, Shane’s daughter. “And I take care of some of the animals, too.”
Kyle ’s daughters, 8 and 6, help with kettle corn and planting, he said.
Palmer’s Adventure Farm will close down when the tulips are done blooming, probably around April, Shane said, so the brothers can concentrate on their working farm. They grow about 4,000 acres of corn and 1,000 acres of hay, Shane said, among other crops. The adventure farm is a way to combine fun with agriculture, he said.
“It won’t ever be as big as Silverwood, but we hope to have it be a draw for people in the Inland Northwest to come and have a good time,” Shane said.
Palmer's Adventure Farm
576 Road O NE
Moses Lake
Paige Palmer, 11, takes aim with an apple blaster at Palmer’s Adventure Farm.
From left: Vanessa Palmer, Shane Palmer, Kyle Palmer and Janelle Palmer stand in the tulip fields at Palmer’s Adventure Farm.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
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Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.