The dusting of snow that arrived on the mountains outside my office window last week were a reminder that yet another season has come and gone.

Summer of 2017 will be remembered as hot, dry and smoky. Maybe Mother Nature will reward us with a mild winter.

With the arrival of autumn in Wallowa County, our focus turns more inward. Throughout the summer, we welcomed folks from across the nation and around the world to our small corner. Now the focus returns to those of us who don’t flee when the summer ends.

This weekend is the last hurray for the tourist season in the form of Alpenfest. There’s a complete calendar on Page 2 of this edition.

Who can resist the call of the yodeler or the definitive umph pah pah beat of a polka band? Or the food.

It’s difficult to describe yodeling –– you have to hear it to believe it –– so I amalgamated several definitions for print. It’s actually a form of singing and involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or “chest voice”) and the high-pitch head register or falsetto.

Alpine yodeling was a rural tradition in Europe. Most experts agree that yodeling was used by herders calling their stock or to communicate between Alpine villages. The multi-pitched “yelling” later became part of the region’s traditional lore and musical expression.

It was once a hit in popular music in the United States. Remember Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel No. 1?”

Other than Alpenfest, I’m willing to bet you will not hear yodeling anywhere else this coming year. Some of you are saying, “thank God.”

WE’VE HAD a couple phone calls in recent weeks asking why certain sports teams receive coverage on our sports pages and others not so much. The short answer is that it depends a great deal on the cooperation we received from the coaches.

If your favorite sport is missing, consult with the coach and then volunteer to submit stats and information on behalf of the team. Most will welcome you with open arms.

I wrote sports for my hometown weekly newspaper for three of my four years of high school. My first two full-time career journalism gigs were as a sportswriter, and somewhere I have a box of awards for that work. I often say those were the best years of my career. Imagine, getting paid to attend sporting events?

If we could clone Matt Brockamp, the football coach at Wallowa High School, we would have the most awesome sports pages in the Northwest. Matt uses a computerized system for keeping stats and makes sure that I have a link to the results each week. Then he makes himself available to discuss the previous game and the upcoming game to provide insights on his team’s performances.

I recognize that’s above and beyond the call of duty, but he is one of the most dedicated coaches I have encountered. May his tribe increase.

IF YOU have a younger student hanging around your home, don’t forget Kidfest 2017 3:30 p.m. Friday at Cloverleaf Hall, sponsored by Building Healthy Families. It’s going to be great fun for young and old.

If you attend, be sure to stop by the Chieftain booth and take a shot at making a newspaper hat. Remember those?

Hats are one more way to recycle a newspaper. And for whatever reason, children have found them fascinating for generations.