October Update on My Fall Bucket List 2020

This is my October update on how I'm coming along with getting items checked off my fall to-do list.  After the 4th of July seems like fall to me, kids start getting ready for back-to-school, golden rod starts blooming, garden harvests starts coming in, we're canning & freezing, bugs chirp their fall noises.  By the time fall officially arrives, I've already done a lot of fallish stuff.  I still have a few more items to check off on my list, how about you? Here is how some others are doing.

1.  Go to County Fair  ✅  Attendance seemed to be down this year, perhaps because of the you know what - Covid.  Kevin pitched in the horse shoe tournament.  I go for the cinnamon buns.  Kevin got 2nd place in his division.

2.  Send Grands a little money for back-to-school supplies ✅  The Grands started back to school having 2 days of in person attendance & 3 days of distance learning at home.  The oldest Grand decided to do distance learning full time.  His 2 days of in person attendance was online learning with a lunch provided & not a teacher in front of the class teaching.  He came up with a plan of what he would do at home.  Daughter said it's working good so far & the Grand tells me he is getting all his school work completed.

3.  Put out fall decorations ✅  I'm not much of a seasonal decorator but I do have a few items I put out to set the mood.  My decorations are inside.  I'm going to add - drive around town & look at outdoor fall decorations & leaves.

4.  Make a snack mix using candy corn ✅  I like candy corn, how about you?  I made this pumpkin spice snack mix.  I sent some to work with Kevin & me to have for lunch.  The rest I sent to the Grands in a care package.

5.  Get candy for trick-or-treaters ✅  I plan ahead for special treats due to our little grocery store being limited on seasonal selections.  I also have to plan to get enough candy, so when Kevin & I eat some of it all the good stuff, there will be some left to give to the trick-or-treaters.

I like to eat brussel sprouts on occasion but never seen or thought about
what they looked like growing till I see these at the fair.

6.  Stock up on canned goods & personal items ✅  I like to stock up about every 6 months - fall & spring.  I'm not much of a shopper.  When there was the Covid toilet paper shortage, it was here too in our small town & everywhere else that I have family & friends, we had what we needed already on hand.

7.  Start Christmas shopping ✅  Christmas is the busiest time of the year at work for me.  The more Christmas stuff I can do ahead of time, means less stress & more time for Joy.  I plan to mail my presents the week after Thanksgiving.  Season passes to an amusement park for the Grands & sent money for bicycles.  Daughter let me know Walmart was stocked back up.

8.  Watch the Adams Family ✅ Snacked on spiced apple cider & homemade pumpkin cookies while watching.  That checked 3 items off my list.  I'm going to add - watch 31 nights of fall/Halloween movies. 

9.  Get out coats, hats, gloves & long johns ✅  We had our 1st freezing temperatures the 1st week of Sept.  That got me in the mood for getting out the cold weather gear.  Also, we were planning for freezing weather & maybe even snow during our camping trip.

10.  Go camping in the Big Horns of Wyoming ✅  Kevin & I took 5 days off work.  We did some 4-wheeler riding & walking, saw lots of wildlife, spent 2 days fishing.  The nights & mornings were cold.  During the day was perfect vacation weather. 

Coats & gloves were needed at times while riding the side by side
when we were camping in the Big Horns.

11.  Make tator soup ✅  Kevin harvested the rest of the garden that included the tators, after the 1st frost.  I'm not much of a soup maker.  Never been able to really get the right blend of savory spices.  I have a loaded baked tator soup recipe we like.  We ate soup for several days & I put the rest in the freezer for later.

12.  Go to a football game ✅  I like to go to a game before it gets too stinkin cold.  The telephone/electric companies had their customer appreciation tailgate party & we went to that game for the hotdogs snack bags due to Covid.

 13.  Drink spiced apple cider ✅  Kevin & I like the kind that comes in packets.  It's quick & tasty.  I saw on someone's else's list to have doughnuts with cider, so we gave that a try.  I'm adding that to my list.

14.  Have a hotdog roast ✅ I like to have a hotdog roast every chance I can get.  It's on my bucket list for every season.  Our favorite dinner party is roast hosting.

15.  Make a pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins & pumpkin cookies  I made pumpkin cookies from scratch starting with peeling & cooking the pumpkin that came out of our garden.  With the leftover pumpkin, I made muffins starting with Joanne's 2 ingredient recipe.  I also made Laura's pumpkin apple pancakes. I'll be making pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, so I'm not marking this complete just yet.  

Tators dug out of our garden.

16.  Take a leaf drive & have KFC for a picnic ✅  We stopped by KFC to get our chicken & they were closed.  New temporary hours being closed on Sunday...  Ohhhh what a bummer.  We substituted chicken from the deli of a grocery store for our picnic.  Lots & lots & lots of other folks had the same idea as we did.  There was not a picnic table available in our picnicking spot. We ate our lunch on the creek bank before going fishing.

17.   Make caramel popcorn ✅ I was planning to make real caramel corn & then I saw I had some popcorn caramel topping, so I used that. 

18.  Carve a jack-o-lantern

19.  Make pumpkin chili

20.  Get vehicles ready for winter ✅ I put a blanket in my car along with a small snow shovel, extra gloves & hand warmers.  I washed the car it's final time before winter.  Kevin checked the fluids & changed the oil.

Saw a couple of mountain goats while leaf looking.

*  I have 3 things left on my list.  Yay me!  I'll be making pumpkin chili & carving a jack-o-lantern for Halloween.  I'll be making  pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.  

This has been my fall bucket list update, how about you, do you like candy corn & take a leaf looking drive?