Our Valley Home Parent Teacher Club met this past week at our Valley Home Park. Exciting news; we will have our Fall Harvest Festival this year, yay! We will have so much fun! We missed having everyone gather together. The group also discussed plans for our Pie Fundraiser, Red Ribbon Week, Stuff The Bus, Classroom Parties and School Spirit Wear, and made for a great afternoon meeting.

Our Valley Home Fall Festival will be held on Saturday October 30th. This fun festival was created several years ago to celebrate the Fall Harvest Season throughout our region. The fall harvest has always been an important way of life to many in Valley Home! Years ago there were beautiful shimmering rice fields all throughout Valley Home; those flooded rice fields created the most beautiful sight ...  pristine sparkling water glistened and shimmered all across the surface as the rice grew! Today only a few rice fields remain but the harvest continues in this beautiful agricultural community we all call home. Almond and Walnut trees are plentiful. They provide food and jobs and continue the agricultural way of life so important to our rural community. During this year’s Harvest Festival, we will celebrate the crops, the rice, the almonds, the walnuts, the hay fields and especially the home gardens throughout Valley Home! Our community and our Valley Home School will welcome all to our Harvest Celebration. Many years ago, I remember our first planning meetings being held at the Monschein Ranch and the Martin Manor; it was an enthusiastic group that worked very hard that first year to make our Harvest Festival a reality! I recall the discussion about whether we should call it the Harvest Festival or the Harvest Fair; as you can see, it became the Harvest Festival. It is a great joy to see our families, friends and neighbors come together to help celebrate this Harvest season. We are blessed! For all these many years our school and our community has come together to raise much needed funds for our Valley Home school students. We celebrate together the very special way of life that we have here in Valley Home. We are blessed to live in a safe, peaceful beautiful farming and ranching community. We have a top notch school with an amazing staff, our churches are a great blessing to all, our General Store is well stocked and always welcomes each of us. Yes, we are blessed for sure! So this year as our Fall Harvest Festival nears, we will be thankful for the many bountiful crops and the many folks who come to Valley Home to help us celebrate the Harvest season.

Please mark your calendars for Saturday October 30th!

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing the many fun things you will find at this year’s Harvest Festival. A delightful old fashioned roadside fruit stand will welcome visitors and in the true rural way of life, it will be self-serve, on the honor system; help yourself to vine ripened fruits and vegetables, delicious grapes, fresh sweet corn, persimmons, pomegranates, colorful fall pumpkins, and juicy tree ripened peaches will be among the many fruits and vegetables. Carnival games, cotton candy, ice cold slushees and so much more; the fun will be waiting for you at our Valley Home Fall Harvest Festival on October 30th!

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As always you may reach me by email at Winniemullins51@gmail.com or by telephone at 209-985-5233.

Until next time, “Happy Trails To All!”