Fall is in full swing!  A Southern wind on Tuesday became a North wind on Wednesday, and morning lows dropped from upper 60's to mid 40's in two days' time.  Brr!  Possibilities of a low in the 30's this weekend is a little bit of a concern, as my tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes.  Just a little early to be quite that low.  Yikes!  We'll see what happens.  The garden has wound down in many respects.  Squash are almost completely done, and cucumbers are nearly so.  Tomatoes will keep going until the frost hits.  My melon are mostly done, and the corn crop was a total dissappointment this year.  Pumpkins, too.  I'm hoping my pole beans do well.  There are loads of blossoms, but I had a hard time finding any for the festival.

Speaking of the festival, last week was busy, but fun.  We entered 72 items in the fair...an average of 9 per person participating from our household.  Much of our produce did well, with 13 yo son earning first place ribbons on all of his entries.  5 yo son picked a watermelon, and got a grand champion ribbon on it.  I got lot champion ribbons on my yellow pear tomatoes and on my "Long of Naples" winter squash (28.2 lbs.).  13 yo entered the big (31.2 lbs) watermelon, which got a first.  10 yo dd earned several ribbons with her sculpey clay artwork, and with her decorated cake.  I entered some of my last year's poems, one of which received a second and a reserve lot champion.  The judge's remarks indicate that he/she wasn't all that taken with most of them, as the one ribbon-winning entry said, "At last...continuity"...oh, well.  The poems with Christian reference seemed to receive the worst marks and comments.  The ribbon winning one, "The Quiet Sounds of Evening".  Gotta laugh, though...many of my poems are a little disjoint because of the manner in which they come together, reflective of a busy Mom who must grab the moments as they present themselves.  New strategy next time I enter more than one item:  package and print them all differently so as not to cause the judge an attitude if they dislike one or more.  Grin!

Fall in our corner of the desert means birthdays, and we have two coming this month.  We will also be watching our flock of turkeys fatten up for Thanksgiving and beyond, Lord willing.  One of the hens had a limp, and perhaps hurt its leg.  We butchered it yesterday.  14 lbs. after cleaning it.  2 years ago, the hen we had for Thanksgiving dinner weighed in at 30 lbs. after it was butchered and cleaned.  It had nearly 2 more months to fatten up, though.  Turkey cooking tomorrow, and a little time to wait before the next one. 

Soccer is still busy, kicking back into gear after the Fall Festival break.  14 yo dd has 4 games to go before the high school JV season is finished.  The other kids have games through the first week of November, and then playoffs for the older 2.  Busy, chilly weeks ahead.  And, that's the news for now from the ranch!  Blessings!