Take a little walk in the country with me....

The first thing you'll see when you exit the ranch house is the barn. (That and the plethora of vehicles and other equipment that my family owns.) This is where most of my childhood happened. I learned how to handle a pitch fork, be thrown around by bulls, and how to groom a horse right here in this very building.


This is my little Chevy, hiding out behind the haybine. I can't afford to insure her this year, so she sits dormant in the yard. I love you, Little Chevy, and one day soon you will ride again. (And by soon, I mean hopefully by summer 2007).


This is my Mom's John Deere. SuperNan loves her John Deere like I love my guitar. John Deere tractors rock our socks here on the ranch. And because I'm a crazy person, we have hundreds of socks to be rocked.


This is the only bovine left on our farm, Bozo the Bull. He's actually a steer, but Bozo the Steer doesn't sound nearly as good as Bozo the Bull. He's the clever cow who we'd really like to consume in the form of steak and rump roast. Unfortunately, he outweighs us by hundreds of pounds and we can't figure out how to catch him. He'll be steak soon enough though. Just give me some time.

This is the yield sign at the 'intersection' in front of our farm. It's there in case there is traffic. Those oncoming from the direction of town have the right of way. Fortunately, no one is ever coming from town.



This is my Dad's bi-weekly community service. It's not so much that he's a criminal, thankfully, but the township people don't come around too often to trim the grass beside the ditches. So, because the gravel roads are so narrow and there is really no space to pull over in the case of oncoming combines, my trusty dad trims the ditches around our property. We're safe, at least.

This is my Field of Dreams. It is located across the road from the farm house. Bozo the Bull's pasture overlooks it. One day, this will be where I grow my berries. Currently the neighbor rents it from us, and he is growing corn there this year. Corn, you'll be happy to know, is perfectly compatible with having berries planted in subsequent years. If you look closely, you can see the neighbor's beagle has wandered over to eat some field mice. You can't see it in the picture, but this is the riverfront piece of the property. At the far end of my Field of Dreams, there is a river where every spring we catch Mud Pout (Catfish to my American counterparts).

This is the ranch house, from the front driveway. My bedroom is in the top left window. That's where I do all my dreaming. Laundry is strewn about as though a trailer park blew up on the floor, as SuperNan says. But it looks nice from the laneway!



And so, as I head off to berry season (Wednesday morning!), I leave you with these pice of my life! My farm! My car! Thanks for looking!!

Toonses