Straw bales are always a nice touch with the tied corn husks leaning on them...

Possibly a scare crow?

You could always use the pumpkin garbage bags and fill them with leaves or straw.. I know they're nothing like the real thing, but they look nice if well kept.

And are we talking 16*F or 16*C? If 16*C puts you in the fall mood.. then you're living in a different zone 3!!

We've not had a freeze since mid-September, so our fall color progression has been beautiful. Just the smell of the woods puts me in a fall mood.

F.... Have had snow for the last couple of days. No accumulations at the lower elevations thank goodness. But our higher mountain tops have new snow... We really only have 2 seasons here. So spring and summer flow together as does fall and winter. I joke and say we have two seasons and they are fire and snow... Not far off really though.

Our foliage has cahnged, it does almost over night unfortunately. I have a scare crow, and bought some mums but never really thought about straw bales. I could use them next summer in the veggie garden too. Good idea. Thank you.

This is something I've always wanted to do for fall decorating but never had (yet).

Using old farmer looking clothes and whatever you can find to fill the clothes, create 2 life sized people - a man and a woman. I picture the woman sitting - on a bale would be nice, wearing a hat and with her head lowered (so you don't see her face). You could arrange tied corn stalks beside her, maybe a couple of bushel baskets. Buy a couple of ears of corn, strip back the husks to expose the corn, tie the husks at the tips and then and tie them to her 'hands' (gloves?) to make it look like she's shucking (is that the word? Looks funny) corn. Then the fella is standing with a hoe or something in one hand and kind of bowing toward her (again, so you don't see a face) holding out a bouquet of dried wildflowers. Or he could be on bended knee offering them up to her.

What a gaggy romantic I am, LOL.

Keeping the figures upright would be the toughest part in this, I think. If I were to try it, I'd think I'd use rebar - 20' pieces go for $5 here at our local co-op and they'll cut them to whatever length you need. Anyone with a welder could weld a few pieces together in no time to make a frame that would be sturdy and last forever.

One year I made a stuffed man and set him on the edge of my veranda. I stuffed an old long sleeved shirt and jeans with old newspaper, and used tufts of straw to come out of the arm and leg holes. For the head I used a round plastic pumpkin bucket that had a face on it. Then I put a cowboy hat on top. It was really good for the one year, but I didn't want to try to store him since he was so tall. The house I used to live in was a corner lot with a wrap around veranda so this worked really well. The house I now live in only has a small almost useless veranda so I am still thinking of how to decorate here.

Janet