With the crisp nights and warm days of fall now firmly in place, we are harvesting less of the summer

bounty from our gardens. Our fall harvests are accented more by leafy greens, long-keeping winter squash, rich orange sweet potatoes, and reddening peppers. Our fruit orchards have been giving us apples and peaches. The pears are beginning to ripen. Skyler has been discovering the joy of harvesting raspberries for himself with some help from friendly adults.

We have finished our honey harvest, which was somewhat smaller this year. We have been busy with bottling it so that space can be cleared in Sugar Shack for the coming sorghum harvest.

We kicked off our sorghum activities this past Friday morning with our annual parade to one of our sorghum fields and a first round of cane stripping. Taking off the leaves and seed heads has to be done before the cane can be cut for processing.

With the start of harvest, we begin looking forward to the arrival of folks from other communities, former interns, friends and visitors who come to help us get the sorghum in. It will be good to see old friends and make new ones.

We had visits for a few days with former member Lotus and her daughter Emma and ex-intern Stephanie. It was nice to have them take a pause from their respective travels to spend time with us again. We also had a visitor Jane who was here for four days before heading over to Dancing Rabbit.

We said some more goodbyes this past week. Our intern Josie left last Thursday to go on to new adventures. We had a candlelit dinner on her last night with us. Our friend Gretchen and her two daughters, Sydney and Sophie, left Saturday for Chicago with a promise to come and spend more time with us again in the future.

Another chapter ended on the twelfth when Sue stepped down from her job as the office manager for the non-profit Fellowship for Intentional Community. On her last day, the office staff went out for a great lunch at Java Jitters in Memphis. Andra from Dancing Rabbit is now filling the position. The rest of the staff is Alline and Susan Wright from DR and myself. Sue is looking forward to having more time for all the Sandhill projects she wants to do.

Rain kept us from setting up for the last Dog and Gun in Rutledge, but we had great weather for the fairs we did this past weekend. Laird and Sue represented us at the Columbia Heritage Festival. This is another one of the fairs we do in costume and Sue demonstrated hand-dipping beeswax candles.

Michael and I were at the Food Fest in Kirksville on Saturday. This is held in conjunction with the Farmers Market on the square. It felt very familiar since we sold produce and plants at a farmers market in Arkansas for several years. On Sunday the two of us set up at the Riverfest in Quincy.

Some of our folks went to the Rutledge Fall Festival Saturday and had a good time. Skyler won at chicken chip bingo and his dad Cedar brought home a trophy from the back seat driving contest.

Our own festival is coming up this Saturday. It will be held from noon to five and will feature

sorghum-making demonstrations, garden tours, hayrides, music and fun for the whole family. Hope to see you there.