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This time every year, when the oppressive heat has overstayed its welcome and the power bill resembles a graph of the afternoon temperature, I start looking ahead at my weather app. Every day, I glance with anticipation for the first sign that summer is losing its fight with fall. 

This Friday, fall will deal its first blow with a low temperature in the fifties. The first time I see a low in the fifties, a switch turns on, and I allow myself to look for other signs of autumn. 

The first sign I look for is the apple-picking report from our local orchards. Early Fuji and fresh Honeycrisp apples taste like cooler weather is coming. Picking these apples is best completed early in the morning. If you wait until later in the day, the picking becomes tedious in the late summer heat. In the cool, crisp morning air, you can almost lie to yourself that the fall season has arrived. By the time you are done picking, you are headed down the mountain with a quickly evaporating package of apple cider doughnuts in your air-conditioned vehicle.

The next sign I notice is the male white-tailed deer losing their velvet. If you have seen an antlered deer recently, you will notice their antlers seem fuzzy. Throughout the summer, the deer have been eating and building these new billboards of genetic dominance to show off to the females. As the daylight decreases, hormones increase, and the groups of males disperse because they can’t seem to get along anymore.

Another deer-related sign of fall is the diminished supply of venison in our freezer. Last week, I had to buy hamburger meat for the first time in recent memory. Our kids have started to eat more as they approach their teenage years. Due to household protein demand, our usual yearly allotment of four deer will need to be increased. Our freezer will stay empty until fall’s abundance fills it.

Finally, the last sign of fall involves an increase in little gray birds. Doves start to weigh down power lines over ag fields this time of year. They seem to follow wherever hay is being cut. If it seems like their numbers have multiplied, it’s because they have. Their nests have produced more offspring, and those now join them, looking for grain and gravel. The opening day of dove season means the beginning of the end of summer. Happy hunters, with their happy retrievers in tow, embark on a new season with many new memories to be made.

Leaves at peak color in October are beautiful. Consistent cool temperatures make evenings rocking on the porch more relaxing. Fall will be here soon enough. And until the low temperatures are consistently in the forties and fifties, I’ll be looking with great expectation for the signs that summer is losing.