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Books About Life on a Farm Written Especially for People Who Like to Read! "Highly recommended reading." The Midwest Book Review Reviews & Readers' Comments |
LeAnn R. Ralph Rural Route 2 Author E6689 970th Ave. Colfax, WI 54730 (715) 308-6336 |
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by LeAnn R. Ralph After living away from my hometown in west central Wisconsin for about fifteen years, my husband and I decided to move into the house my parents had built when they retired from farming. Of course -- as you can expect -- many things changed while I was gone. When I was growing up, people out in the country lived on rural routes. Now the main components of our addresses are streets and avenues, a change resulting from the installation of the 911 system. But I had a hard time explaining the address (970th Avenue) to my friends in the southern part of the state, where I lived for more than ten years. "I thought you moved up north and were living out in the country," they said when I gave them my new address. "I do live in the country," I insisted. "It's smack, dab out in the middle of nowhere." My friends were skeptical. Well, if I don't live in the country, how come I have deer tracks in my driveway? Why, then, do I hear coyotes howling at night not a hundred yards from the house? And that tom turkey I saw foraging near the end of our field -- which I suspect was the same one I flushed while walking the dogs a few days before -- must have been a figment of my imagination, too. And there's another thing that's changed. I grew up on our family farm about a half mile from where I live now. When I was a child, the most exotic wildlife we observed were deer, chipmunks and pocket gophers. Imagine my surprise when -- at 3 a.m. on one of the first nights in our Town of Otter Creek home -- my husband and I were awakened by the howling of coyotes. Not one or two but more like ten or fifteen. Not in the distance, but just across the road. A barking, yipping, howling chorus lasting for several minutes. Since then, I have noticed the train's whistle from a half mile away sets off the coyotes. If it weren't for the train, we might not even know coyotes are around. I didn't expect to see tom turkeys, either. In the southern part of the state, I lived near the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Wild turkeys were reintroduced to that area right around the time I moved there in 1984. But I didn't actually see any turkeys until just a couple of years before I moved away. And if you do happen to see a wild turkey at fairly close range -- say about a quarter mile -- count yourself lucky. They have excellent hearing and eyesight and a wary attitude, which became even more apparent to me one autumn day when my husband and I went for a walk on my brother's farm. As we emerged from the woods into a pasture, we caught a glimpse of a wild turkey more than a quarter mile away at the edge of another woods. We almost missed him. He had already spotted us and quickly disappeared into some nearby brush. Yes, some things did change while I was away. Rural routes became streets and avenues -- but I'm glad to know emergency personnel will have an easier time finding my house if I ever need them. I'm just grateful the wildlife didn't object to the changes of address. |
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