A couple of good (and free) “resource events” are coming up this week. This Friday, at St. Patrick’s Church, Academy Hill in Newcastle, from 1 to 3 p.m. there’ll be a Lincoln County Community Resource Expo with info tables, exhibits, staff and volunteers covering a wide variety of programs including Midcoast Maine Community Action, Tedford Housing, Healthy Lincoln County, Spectrum Generations, Lincoln County Dental, Lincoln County Healthcare, United Way/211, Stepping Stone and several others.

TRIAD’s Senior Appreciation Day will be at the Boothbay Region Elementary School on Saturday, Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is a popular event, full of lots of good information on services available for seniors. Stop in for a free medical screening and a flu shot. TRIAD is a coalition of local senior citizens, law enforcement officials, and community service providers.

This Saturday, Oct. 18, is a wonderful family event — the Scarecrow Festival — which takes place on the Wiscasset Town Office front lawn from noon to 3 p.m. Your family and friends can make a scarecrow to help decorate Route 1 or to take home. There is a small cost: $5 to make for display, and $10 to make one for home. This covers all the materials needed (clothes, hay, and a stake — they do need help standing up, don’t they?)

You can also enjoy face painting and cart rides (thanks to a hard-working miniature horse). The Community Center is also busy getting ready for the Halloween Raven Egg Hunt on Friday, Oct. 24, and the Halloween Ghosts and Goblins Parade on the 31st at the Middle School.

Hope you’re all getting creative with costumes for our Halloween Costume Party and Dance, next Saturday night, Oct. 25, presented by the Westport Community Association and the Human Resource Committee.

There is absolutely a lot of family fun these next couple of weekends. After that, things go serious on us! On Nov. 4, not only do we elect local, county and state officials, but there are seven questions on the state referendum ballot. Question 1 is the Citizen’s Initiative on banning the use of bait, dogs or traps in bear hunting.

Questions 2 through 7 cover several proposed bonds that would support Maine’s agriculture and marine economy, small business financing to spur investment and innovation, create jobs, and revitalize downtowns, a research center for genetic solutions for cancer and the diseases of aging, modernizing a tissue repair and regeneration biological laboratory to increase biotech workforce training, retain and recruit biomedical research and development groups, and create a drug discovery and development facility, and improve drinking water supplies and restore wetlands.

OK, lots of big words, but are you curious for more details? Check out this website www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/upcoming.html for a Citizens Guide with legislative details and public and private funding amounts.

You may have heard that Val Lovelace started a new organization, It’s My Death, to provide services and education to people who wish to explore the meaning of life by embracing the certainty of death. They are presenting an award-winning film, “A Will for the Woods,” on Saturday, Oct. 25, at 1 p.m. at the Patten Free Library in Bath. A Q&A period will follow, with Cush Anthony (Funeral Consumer’s Alliance of Maine) and Chuck Lakin (Last Things) who will answer questions about home funerals, green coffins, and green burial options here in Maine. Please call 207-240-3186 for more information.

Different light coming through the woods each day as more leaves drop. Still fussing on that list of fall to-dos, grateful for 60 degree days (how quickly our standards have fallen).