Livin' in the country...

For as much complaining as I do about having to drive so far to shop for this or that, I really do love living in the "country." We really do live in a pretty rural setting. We live at the corner of 2 dirt roads across the street from a big river. We pass huge farms of all types whenever we drive anywhere. Fruit orchards, vegetable farms, horse barns, and sheep farms are all commonplace within walking distance or a 2 minute drive from our house. We can shop at farmstands to our hearts content and see just about any domestic animal you can think of.

Today, Grace and I vistited Pilot Grove Farm which is a very short drive from our house. It's a HUGE farm that was built in 1783 and has acres and acres of rolling green pastures around it. It's gorgeous. David and I want to take some really nice photographs of it when things get green and the weather gets nice. We don't know the owners, but a friend from our ward, and fellow riding instructor at Hybid farm boards her sheep there. She shows sheep in 4H competitions and raises lambs each spring. She invited Grace to come and see her lambies today.

Grace, of course, has a blast with any animal and loves farm animals in-particular. We can't wait until the weather warms up (and Harriet is born) so we can use our membership at Drumlin Farm and go see all the animals there on a regular basis.

We've been sort of keeping track of all the wild animals that are in our yard or in our immediate neighborhood - including the river which is literally a stone's throw away. So far, we've shared our breathing space with:
ducks, Canada geese, swan, woodpeckers, cardinals, all sorts of finches and other birds, frogs of several types, a turtle, a mother fox and her babies, a beaver, a blue heron, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.

My favorite thing to do in the morning is open my south-facing window shades to see what is swimming on the river. The part of the river that is just across from us looks almost like a pond. It is wide and often looks very smooth and we see the swan and geese several times a week. We also see the wake of the beaver a couple of times a day. We can't see him, but we can see the wide V he makes in the water as he swims up and down the river and David and the dogs hear his big flat tail splashing the water when they go for their evening walk.