Great Fall Fun Frolics Outdoors

Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Fun Tip for October, 2003

Here in New England, the leaves are just beginning to create symphonies of color, the weather is crisp but not cold, nature's harvest is at its most bountiful, and it's gorgeous out!

So...let's go outside!

* Play an informal pick-up game of soccer or basketball with friends, or with your kids

* Bike to a lovely picnic spot with a knapsack full of goodies

* Visit a pick-your-own apple orchard and harvest at least five pounds of apples for every member of your household--and that very day, run one batch through a dehydrator and preserve that peak flavor for the winter, take another (large) batch and make applesauce, skins and all (wash off the pesticides before doing either one). Divide the applesauce into one-quart containers and freeze all but one (label them first!). And of course, eat lots and lots of them in the few days after you pick them. Try exotic varieties such as Stayman Winesap, Spencer, Macoun, Ida Red, Paula Red, Jonagold--but get some Macintosh and Cortland, too.

* Find out when the big bird migrations go through. Where we live, thousands of hawks fly by every fall, and people drive great distances to watch them.

* Enjoy a hike after the first frost, when the mosquitoes and ticks have all disappeared.

* Have a neighborhood contest to grow the biggest pumpkin

* Go to a county fair and spend some time at the agricultural exhibits, not just the midway

* Organize a neighborhood hayride.