October, the official countdown to Halloween and, even more importantly, the relief from summer's torment. Weather allows us to go out and about and it's ideal in the daytime and magical in the evenings. Let's take a look at 31 things to do in October -
1. Hiking. Hit the trails in the woods, take pictures, collect colorful leaves to iron between wax paper, acorns, twigs, bark, and other items for crafting. Sit and study a waterfall while you experience the negative ions it puts off (creates feelings of euphoria).
2.Oktoberfest. There's nothing like a bratwurst and beer, the chicken dance, and folks dressed up in lederhosen to bring up your spirits (figuratively and literally).
3. Firepits. Nights allow for a wonderful bonfire/firepit scenario. Add some storytelling, hot dogs, and smores, and you're good to go!
4. Apple picking/festivals. Go to a farm and pick apples, or better yet go to an apple festival and try some apple wines, apple cider, hard cider, apple pie, cobbler, apple butter....
5. Raking leaves. It's pretty common to rake leaves, bag them up and toss them out or burn them. The thing is, it's nature free mulch! Think about spreading this under your bushes.
6. Mood lighting/scents. Start using jar candles to create soft lighting at night and beautiful scents that evoke autumn.
I love these, not your usual pumpkin spice -
7. Horror movie marathon. Consider doing 3 movies in a row with a similar theme:
Witch movies (Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic, Witches of Eastwick)
Alien movies (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Paul, Disclosure Day)
50s scifi movies (The Thing From Another World, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet)
80s slasher movies (Friday the 13th, Silent Night Deadly Night, Prom Night)
Halloween theme movies (Trick R Treat, Halloween, Hocus Pocus)
Monster Movies (Creature From the Black Lagoon, King Kong, Godzilla)
8. Halloween and autumn crafting. Wax paper iron fall leaves, use twigs to make a picture frame, make life-sized cardboard cutouts painted black to put in the window with a colored light behind them for a cool design. Heres one I did of a dead tree with a cat in it and a lamp on the floor behind it with a blue bulb in it -
I suggest places like Goodwill, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General for items to craft with if you are a real DIY freak.
8. Corn Maze. This is a blast with your gal pals or take the grandkids, maybe hold hands with your partner, and laugh and play like children. It's magical with the moon overhead and the chilly maze with earthy scents.
9. Leaf peeping. The majority of the country goes for drives to enjoy the leaves changing and October is the most "peak season" month of the year. Some of the most popular drives - The Catskill Mountains (has an adventure train ride), Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky, Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, Green Mountain Byway in Vermont. Be sure and check out your state's peak leaf peeping time!
10. Meal prep/canning/harvesting. This is a good time to pre-organize your diet before the holidays begin to make big demands of you. Harvest the garden, buy organics, or hit the farmer's market on the weekend. Consider trying your hand at canning your own spaghetti sauce, making pickles, or jam.
meal prep containers
A new trend in meal prep is to use silicone molds to mold individual foods and freeze, then remove and bag them for freezing so you can mix and match meals. Think of doing rice ones, quinoa ones, mashed potato ones, green beans ones, salsa ones, spaghetti sauce ones, cooked ground beef ones, etc.
11. Wood pile designing. Don't just stack it, spend the day making it look badass!
13. Cruise the Halloween yard haunts. If you look up your city and halloween houses or yard haunts, you will find listings of the yards that are decked out and awesome. Go for a cruise one night, just don't forget to bring your candy corn to munch as you view.
14. Add warm lighting with candles and lanterns. The Danes call it hygge and it is the practice of adding warmth through light, textures, fire, and coziness. They have a very long winter, so these people are pros! Jar candles, tapered candles, and even hurricane lamps around the home to add soft light on dark days or evenings.
15. Give yourself foot treatments and care. By now, tootsies aren't just dry and crusty from sandals, sand, barefoot walking, and being exposed to air all the time to stay cool, but they are also chilly and tired. If you've been doing polish on toenails all summer, now that they aren't exposed, consider letting them air out. Treat nails with tree tea oil to keep away fungus. If you have diabetes or pre-diabetes, foot care is critical! Please always always always wear foot gear when awake, except sleeping and bathing. I know many people who got a cut on their foot and are now missing an entire leg due to infection. Diabetics are doubly in danger because their circulation to the feet is compromised and diabetes is an autoimmune situation in which fighting of common infections is hard.
if you have diabetic neuropathy, there are some tips and tricks (I have horrible neuropathy)
use Vicks on your feet at night or, better yet, use frankincense and myrrh lotion! The are also some good supplement combos available for helping nerve pain with the right nutrients. Because sleep is especially tough with feet not making contact with the floor, I wear sock shoes to bed so soles of feet and the nerves there don't just buzz nonstop. It's ideal to get something with a firm sole but soft fabric.
16. Go fishing/hunting. Don't need a reason, tis the season!
17. Plan a football party. There rare any number of great YouTube Channels for ideas on what to serve, but ultimately the key is keeping drinks and finger foods in a number of areas where people are seated, allowing places to set down drinks.
For me, I would bring in a cleaned off wheel barrow and fill it with ice, stuff beers and sodas and waters in it and roll it into the room for easy grabbing.
18. Bring back an old hobby or talent. Sew a quilt, knit a blanket, play a guitar, sing karaoke, go in the shop and do some woodworking, watercolor paint, sculpt. Pick up an old talent or hobby you haven't done in a long time and enjoy!
19. Become a stargazer. The nights are cool, the skies are usually clear in fall. Enjoy some stargazing. It's a romantic hobby for two, an educational passtime with kids and grandkids, and something to share with other hobbyists. If you're like me, get the CE5 protocol app and meet others in your area who are calling in UFOs.
20. Men go to the barber shop, women go to the stylist. I admit I am tired of baseball caps and beards on men. If you must wear a beard, please get it trimmed properly. It shows laziness if it grows ragged and down the neck. In fact, for instant sophistication and to keep the lady you kiss happy, consider looking younger with a bare face or trim into a Van Dyke style beard (mustache and trim beard connect, but no beard growing up to the sideburns - see pic below)
Now, that is sexy!
Women, how about adding some caramel or cinnamon to your hair tones for the colder months? Likely your hair is crispy and bleached out from the sun. 
21. Prepare your Halloween costume. You say you have no Halloween plans? How about making them? This year, be among the dressed up crowd, playing your alter ego. Nothing makes you feel liberated like being someone else for the evening.
I put on Elvira makeup, but once the wig was on, I became Elvira. It was like another woman I never knew before. Men, consider going as female favorites - a vampire, a pirate, the Phantom of the Opera, a cowboy. Women, be the ever popular ones, a witch, a gypsy, a saloon girl, a pirate wench.
22. Flea market. This is the ideal time of the year to hit a flea market and browse. Most have nice food stands and plenty of cheap items you just can't live without.
23. Heat up the crock pot. I like to have that thing running all day long, adding warmth and scents to the promise of supper. I might do a bunch of chicken breasts, tear it apart and add it to things like taco seasoning for part of it, barbecue sauce for part of it, buffalo sauce for part of it. I package and freeze them for quick meals and tacos later on. Maybe I cut up and freeze a stew beef chunks in a freezer bag with onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, fennel, and a bag of au jus seasoning for a stew later on. Crock pots make it possible to toss things from the freezer in and just let them slow cook until the meat falls apart, the flavors mingle, and you have something later on with a gravy or stew base, spaghetti sauce, that feels like you went out of your way to make comfort food.
24. Cook with autumn ingredients. Walnuts, figs, pears, mushrooms, root vegetables, apples, cinnamon, brussels sprouts, persimmons, cheddar, feta, blue cheese, kale, pomegranates, cabbage, squash, pumpkin.
25. Enjoy a day in bed. Turn your laptop off. Put the phone in the other room on the charger. Just laze in bed the entire day. Ideas: Hot cocoa and hot baked cookies. Tea time with tiny triangle-shaped sandwiches. Order a pizza, serve with cold beer. Line up your movies to watch. Grab some real books you hold in your hands and read. Don't answer the phone. Don't exist to anyone else in the world. My favorite is to darken the room and play Halloween horror movies and hot cocoa. This one (below) is my favorite of the store-bought ones. I make it with milk and add a dash of cinnamon. OMG! The link is for 12 boxes of these - to last the entire fall and winter.
26. Ferment honey garlic for cold season health. This is a long-time popular healthy remedy people swear holds off colds and aids fast recovery. Your body will like this one. It sits on your shelf and has not one additive, coloring, preservative, fake flaving, or other things your body doesn't need. You need 1 cup of garlic cloves peeled and crushed enough to break the surface, 1 c. raw honey. Use a wide-mouth pint-sized mason jar that has been in boiling water to sterilize. Place the garlic in the jar, pour the honey in to cover. Now, cover the jar loosely with a lid to let gases escape. Put in a dark cabinet. He would bubble up and some honey might seep out as it ferments. Every day or so, turn the jar over to mix gently. Be sure garlic is covered with honey. Don't forget to screw lid tightly for turning. Return to upright position and loosen lid again. In a few days to a week, you will see bubbles forming on the honey. It will ferment in about a month, but you can at it at any time. The garlic will mellow. The garlic can turn green or blue. This will last all winter long.
27. Shop farmer's markets. Most towns have a farmer's market. You will be outdoors in the pretty weather, shopping among local honey, in season veggies and fruits, sacks of nuts, and more.
28. Visit a winery. This is a great time of the year to enjoy the spoils of the growing season. The weather is beautiful, the pace is casual, and a good winery can offer some yummy treats that involve cheeses, nuts, figs, and others that fit the season and complement the wines. And, if you love something you tasted, get extra bottles for future Christmas gifts.
29. Go on a ghost tour. Major cities have ghost tours and some are really excellent. There are also ones that offer you the opportunity to ghost hunt. Haunted B&Bs are very popular in historic districts too.
30. Go to a haunted attraction. Buck it up, be brave, bring a friend, and head out to a haunted attraction. Most cities have them. Here's a LINK to learn more about the haunted attractions in the US.
31. Plan a visit to a hot spring. Some folks dream of hot springs in the wintertime, but given their outdoor location and remote areas, getting out and getting dry and dressed could be uncomfortable. But, fall is a great time to do this and feel like you splurged.
Enjoy every day of October - it is a beautiful month!
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