We have certainly been having lovely October weather this August. This is the coolest summer I have experienced since I spent a few months in coastal Washington state some years ago. The warm weather today(Sunday)seemed almost tropical in contrast. I guess summer has to get a few licks in.

The coolness has made outdoor work easier and we have been keeping up with the pace of weeding and harvesting. Some of our garden crops have moved along and others are still going strong. The cucumbers are a memory but we are trying to stay ahead of the tomatoes and green beans. We are starting to harvest the winter squash and other late summer vegetables. The chillier nights have not affected most of our harvests but I do notice that some of my hot pepper varieties don't have their expected bite.

Stan has also been harvesting our dried bean crop with the help of some of the rest of us. We grew pinto and black beans this year. It is hard to beat a pot of home-grown beans in the winter.

Our fall fair season kicked off with the Salt River Folklife Festival at Mark Twain Lake August 14 and 15. This is one of the fairs where we dress up in costume. Michael and I go as "Farmer Fred and His Wife", a quaint pioneer couple. Bekka made me a new fair dress, which I got to wear for the first time. Salt River emphasizes "lost arts" craft demonstrations, re-enactors, and performances of music and humor on the stage. After the fair closed for the day Saturday evening, we hung out with some of the other vendors, re-enactors and "Mark Twain"(one of the performers). It was a fun evening of great music and story-telling.

We also set up for the September edition of Dog and Gun in Rutledge that Saturday. Our interns Susie and Kristen ran the table. The weather was perfect and folks turned out.

We have had some more visitors recently. Earlier this week, a visitor named Eric came up from Columbia to spend three days with us. He found out about Sandhill from one our customers there. He then went on to attend the Herb Fest at Frontier Herbs in Norway, Iowa that is taking place this weekend.

On Friday, Kiyo, Mari and their six year old son Yo spent most of the day and stayed overnight. Kiyo was here in June for a short tour as part of a group travelling with the editor of Communities Magazine to a conference at Amana. He and his family are from Japan and own a tea farm in the mountains outside of Tokyo. Kiyo has been teaching permaculture(a form of perennial agriculture) for the past few months at The Farm, a community in Tennessee. Mari and Yo have to return to Japan next week due to the start of the school year, but Kiyo will be in the US for about three more months.

Renay had a lot of fun playing with Yo. They were joined by River, another little boy who has been visiting Dancing Rabbit with his mom Stephanie. Stephanie and River had already been over here on a couple of previous occasions during their visit. It has definitely upped the kid energy on the farm lately.

We had a too brief visit from Jess and Skyler this week. Jess brought along a friend from work, Mark, who wanted to meet us. They spent the night this past Thursday before returning to Columbia.

Laird, Ceilee and Jo returned from their canoe trip in northern Saskatchewan August 14. Most of their time was spent on the Churchill River. During the driving portion of the journey in Canada, they got to see lots of wildlife. They even spotted a wolf. It sounds like they had a wonderful time.

Bekka took a break from routine for a few days and went down to Rolla to spend some time with Marsha, the mother of our former intern Brad. Bekka and Marsha share an interest in rug braiding.

Bekka stopped in to see Cedar, Jess and Skyler on her way back through Columbia and also visited our friends Bob and Jan in Shelbyville.

We know the summer is almost gone when the interns begin to leave. Jayd bid us farewell on the 21st and got a ride east with a group of the Rabbits. He went to Delaware where he will be starting his new teaching job in a couple weeks. His family also lives there and he plans to spend some time with them beforehand. Gigi made a lovely cake and we had a farewell gathering for him on Thursday evening after supper. It seems strange not to hear him singing in the garden.