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Show To Evei Season There are ; the routine pre-. parations for winter, cleaning clean-ing the stove pipe, checking insulation and stocking up on visquine, all of which have taken on a traditional air. In celebration of our continued rural traditions, locals hold county fairs. Ranchers talk cattle and shake their heads over new stock theories. Under the brim of a well-worn Stetson, a dairyman raises his eyebrow eye-brow at a .neighbor's prize winning milk cow and in the ring proud young 4-Her's show their stuff. ; In the agricultural hall, there are ooos and ahhs over by the quilt racks and down by the -canned goods a bystander pauses to wonder how that ribbon winner packed such perfect peaches. Here is where all of the old recipes are kept alive to be passed down along the generations. Maybe it is the proximity of winter that makes these days so sweet. Each time the thunderheads gather in Provo Canyon and the temperature takes a dip, we hold our breath and wonder whether Autumn is already trying to muscle it's way into the valley. Where did the summer go? NC It could happen any day now. One night we will awake with a shiver and get up to close the window. In the morning the house will be chilly and we will wrestle with the impulse to light the ' furnace. Deep in our bones we will know that summer is over. In some parts of the country, the heat will last into October but here in the mountains when the heat wave breaks in August, it rarely returns. Oh, there will be a few hot afternoons, but at night gardeners will sleep fretfully, worrying over a possible frost and in the forests' the sound of chain saws will replace the swish ' swish of flyrods. Still it is a beautiful time of year. The holiday hustle is over. The tourists have returned home. The mos-quitos mos-quitos have nearly all retreated re-treated for the year and at dusk the light has a lovely-quality. lovely-quality. Harvesting and can- , ning are the predominant activities. . There is. the uncomplicated - sense of ac; complishmeni which comes from lining up the mason jars ft with their bright new 1980 : labels' and .the sense of : self-sufficiency they bring.- |