Best bets for the weekend

October? How did this happen? It was only just August. Suddenly, our Datebook calendar is full of stuff like pumpkin patches and haunted houses. Excitement for all the boys and ghouls. (We learned our sense of humor from J.P. Patches and Boris S. Wart, can you tell?) The trees outside our Fairview Avenue window are all golden, so summer must be over. While the rest of the world might be asking, "Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?" you've got a fall weekend of fun ahead. Here's what's up:

Never sausage a good time! That's what you'll say after this weekend. If you haven't had your share of beer and tubular meat products this season, head for the Everett Sausage Fest. Other options include Oktoberfest Northwest in Puyallup. Or polka on over to Washington's own Little Bavaria — wear your lederhosen in Leavenworth, where Oktoberfest stretches over the next three weekends.

Get your goat: But first attend City Goats 101, a Seattle Tilth workshop about how you can keep a goat in your backyard, right here in River City. No kid-ding.

Ride in the rain? Not to be Johnny Raincloud; you never know when we'll get sun breaks. For Sunday bike tours, choose from the Kitsap Color Classic, with Cascade Bicycle Club, or join the Skagit Farm Pedal (up where they're also having the Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms; no biking required). There's also a farm tour on Whidbey Island.

Salmon or oysters: That's the menu. Issaquah has its big Salmon Days festival (see Weekend Highlight), and down in Shelton, it's OysterFest, where you learn that "shuck" is not the name of a store where you buy oil filters and wiper blades.

Plan(t) ahead in Bothell: Daffodil lovers unite. Help plant daffodil bulbs all over town on Saturday, to help put a sunny face on Bothell's 100th birthday next April.

Dodge ball, anyone? You might want your chain mail Saturday at Bartelheimer Farm in Snohomish, where they'll use medieval-style trebuchets (look that one up, kids) to propel pumpkins up to 1,600 feet. Yes, it's the Pumpkin Hurl. Sounds like a jolly gourd time.