Joomla Login LightBox powered by WowJoomla.com

It’s November and I think we all know what that means.

Apart from it being time to gear up for Thanksgiving and Christmas a little further on down the line, it’s also the last leg of fall and the last window of opportunity to really enjoy the great outdoors before the mercury plummets and the ground gets its winter coating.

I’m not a weatherman, but I’d say you probably have a good month before old man winter starts to really settle in and the idea of leaving the house for anything other than essential activities — work, shoveling snow, buying groceries — seems like something only a yeti would risk.

So, to help you make sure you get the most out of this last little stretch of bearable weather, I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a list of outdoor activities that may help you wring some more enjoyment from the great outdoors before what will surely be a dreadful, Missouri winter we can leave to the real outdoorsmen.

1. Make a pile of leaves, jump in it

While it may seem like they’re just cluttering up your yard, autumn leaves are actually nature’s ball pit. While they’re not covered in a foot of snow, go ahead and pile some up with a rake or leaf blower, then jump in them to your heart’s content. Once you’ve had your fill, you can dispose of them.

2. Bonfire!

Enjoy the last few days of livable temperatures with a small, contained fire in your backyard as a way to subtly protest the coming winter. Nothing says fall like an open fire, some folding chairs, tiny, misshapen sticks and either a bag of hot dogs or marshmallows. If you’re musically inclined, you can also gather up your friends and neighbors and rip into some oldies.

3. Combine hot cocoa and relaxation

Mix up a batch of delicious and hot, hot cocoa, grab your favorite Snuggie and pick a spot outside to enjoy the changing scenery of fall while you sip. For the manlier among us, this activity could also be done with coffee and a flannel blanket. Depending on the weather and your seating options, this activity can also be performed from a windowsill, but that sort of defeats the point, doesn’t it?

4. Harvest apples, convert them to pie

Fall is the perfect time for harvesting nature’s pie filling of choice: the apple. For a small fee, you can head to a local orchard, grab a basket and gather up a few dozen of the scrumptious spheres and then do whatever it is with them that makes apple pie happen. If you don’t like pie, you can drop your finished product off at 310 N.W. Englewood Road and we’d be happy to get rid of it for you — seriously.

5. Chop down a Christmas Tree

Most of you may be more familiar with the green or white plastic thing that comes out of a box in the garage, but Christmas trees actually sprout up from the ground in places we call Christmas tree farms. For the right price you can make like Paul Bunyan and chop one down and learn all about the nuisance of pine needles. Or if you’re a little more daring, find a pine forest and do your handiwork at night. Just remember, people almost always react negatively to strangers with axes.

When you’ve completed the list, come up with a few of your own outdoor activities to pay homage to the season before it gives way to winter or just buy some heavy clothes and hunker down in your bedroom until spring comes.

Tip: watch the groundhogs. Apparently they have something to do with this.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed