It is not proper for birders, naturalists or any type of scientist to anthropomorphize: a 50-cent word that means giving a human personality to something that is not human. It’s often hard to avoid this, but the most difficult test for me is the Carolina wren.

By LYNNE IRONS

It is difficult to set my priorities this time of year. It is still so warm and pleasant. Should I finish picking and processing those late peppers, tomatoes, and green beans, or should I clean out the wood stove and gather kindling? I had so much to do the other day that I became paralyzed. I sat on a stool and picked dead leaves off the ladies’ mantle. It is rather like organizing the Tupperware when in the middle of a crisis.

Pigs. Goats. Compost. What do they all have in common? They all love pumpkins! And they especially love those tasty, candle-roasted, day-after-Halloween jack-o-lanterns — the perfect nosh for the farm (minus the wax, please)!

The Island Grown Initiative presents the first annual Feed a Pig a Pumpkin Day‚ Saturday, Nov. 3.

Post-Halloween pumpkins can be dropped off during regular business hours at:

Allen Farm in Chilmark,

FARM Institute in Edgartown,

Native Earth Teaching Farm in Chilmark,

Julianne Vanderhoop’s front yard in Aquinnah features a modest house and small pond fed by a Black Brook underground spring. The property is otherwise unremarkable — unless you count the 20,000-pound beehive-shaped bread oven, made of several thousand terra blanc tiles mined from a clay quarry in France.

The wood-fired oven produces 30 to 40 pieces of baked goods a day for The Orange Peel, Ms. Vanderhoop’s new home bakery.

Federal and state regulators have issued their approval for the merger of The Martha’s Vineyard Co-operative Bank and Dukes County Savings Bank.

The combined bank, to be named the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, will continue to be mutually owned and locally based, with more than $460 million in assets.

The merger will become effective for customers over Veterans Day weekend, Nov. 10 to 12, when the two banking operations will be united.

Morning Glory Farm Set

To Air on Television Program

Jim and Debbie Athearn of Morning Glory Farm have received word that their farm is scheduled to appear on the Food Network show Tasty Travels with Rachael Ray on Friday, Oct. 26 at 10 p.m.

Two Become Associates

At Hutker Architects Firm

Asked to describe his team's effort in last Friday's crushing 20-16 loss to the Crusaders from Cape Cod Tech/Harwich, no-nonsense Vineyarders football coach Donald Herman doesn't have to think long for an answer.

"Soft," he said roundly of his team's effort in the loss that effectively eliminated the team from going to the postseason. "We were soft and we were flat. I am not happy with what is going on right now."

Kitty Dukakis, the former first lady of Massachusetts and wife of 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, will be on the Vineyard Tuesday to speak about her struggle with mental illness, the stress added by the public life, and how electroconvulsive therapy saved her life.

Her talk, Shock of Recognition: Depression, Addiction and Hope, is set for Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center on Centre street in Vineyard Haven, as part of the fall season of the Vineyard Haven library’s evening lecture series.

Catch a sneak preview of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s upcoming fall theatre workshops on Tuesday, Oct. 30, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Theatre department students will perform free on the theatre room’s black box stage, offering a conceptual tour of the very dramatic year to come. Kate Murray, director of theatre and television at the high school, will speak about her goals for student enrichment and how the community can be a part of those dreams.