Favorite Outdoor Autumn Activities

Many people are making plans for summer vacations, but here at my house we are talking about the fall season. This morning I spoke with my friends about the spring baking day and the autumn season day of baking was discussed also, in fact we set a date.

Know that in five months my husband will start organizing his Halloween decorations so I guess it is okay to discus autumn activities in February. Needless to say all this talk about autumn has got me thinking about my favorite outdoor autumn activities.

When the leaves change from green to golden, orange and red and the weather changes to the point where the nights are cool enough for a sweater that is when you will find me sitting by the fire pit drinking hot apple cider. I will make plans to celebrate this harvest time of year by participating in the activities that I enjoy with my family and friends.

Missouri Shoal Creek Autumn Photo Print by Susang6

My Favorite Fall Activities

1. Hiking off trail in the Ozark Mountains
2. Photographing the trees in full seasonal color
3. Floating down Shoal creek on an Indian summer day
4. Touring corn mazes
6. Attending a harvest bazaar at a country church
7. Baking harvest fruit pies
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Note: Shoal creek is located just south of Joplin Missouri and this creek features Missouri's largest waterfall. The creek plunges 15 feet over chert rock which is a very hard creek bedrock. In fall hiking or taking a float trip along the Shoal creek is one of my favorite things to do.

Harvesting and Ripening Pears

One of my favorite fall activities is going to my brother’s to harvest pears from his trees.  We harvest all pears on the trees.  If the pears are not ripe then we take steps to ripen them in a cool area in our basement or fruit cellar.

We gather bushels of mature pears and put them in cardboard boxes or large brown bags. Then we will ripen the pears by storing them in a dark cool section of our basement. This area should be 60 to 70 degrees for best results.

Check on the pears every few days, they should be ripe and ready for cooking in a few weeks. You can also put the pears in a brown bag and put the bag in the refrigerator. This method of ripening will take approximately ten days for the pears to be ready.

Traditional Holiday Baking

Today I met up with my friends and we agreed that we will all get together before Easter and then again in the fall for a day of baking. Baking with friends is fun and it enables us to to have variety of desserts and breads for our family.

In the spring we will make cream pies, cookies, breakfast muffins and sweet bread recipes and in the fall we bake with our harvested fruit; apples, pears. Plus we will make cranberry, chocolate and pumpkin recipes.

I always look forward to baking day, but my favorite holiday for baking is in the autumn. I really enjoy making comfort bake goods. Last year the baking day was in my kitchen and it was way too small. This year I will go to my friends house and there will be plenty of room for all of us.

As a rule, we must use recipes that are passed down through the family. Or in other words none of the recipes are new, they are all from our childhood.

When all of the baking is done, we will grab our food containers and go through the line picking out a variety of desserts and baked goods for our families to enjoy, throughout the holiday season.



Do you participate in a Tradtional baking day?

Autumn Season is Best for Activities Recipes Crafts

Today was warm so my husband and I went to our storage shed to organize the autumn season decorations and my craft things. There were 22 storage boxes labeled for the autumn season.  In comparison to the other holidays, the autumn season had more storage containers for crafts, decorations, kitchen recipes, and there was no question about it, the autumn season is by far the best and favorite season at my house.

Know that we start preparing for the travel activities in early summer, plus how we will decorate the yard and home is planned in July. Which includes what crafts we will do for the upcoming season and how we will decorate for the holidays; Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Autumn is the longest and the best season for activities, recipes, and crafts as each year is a bigger celebration than the year before? Hoping this year will be the best autumn ever.

Autumn decor ideas for living room

Autumn Harvest Living Room Decor by sgolis featuring Zazzle throw pillows

Here are a few of my favorite blog posts; activities, recipes, and decorations/crafts for the autumn season.

Mushroom hunt in the woods

Autumn parties; plans and menu ideas

Decorating your autumn home