By Judy Lee Jenkins
I love living in the country. I love having our own garden where we can pick fresh strawberries and other berries we have planted. Nothing like a tossed salad either that comes from growing your own tomatoes, carrots, and other vegetables. I also love living above the city and having fresh country air, especially if you raise cattle. Just kidding!!
Anyway, lately there have been the downsides and country life can be indeed a challenge. For the past week we have had a raccoon kill one chicken a night. Even though the chickens go into their coop at night the raccoon is getting in and having a feast one chicken at a time. We have set numerous traps but he manages to steal the bait in them and get away. So we bought an expensive trap last night just for raccoon and he didn’t fall for the trap in spite of the bait. Instead he was on our doorstep last night eating our cat food but at least he was not eating our cats or chickens last night. We were unable to get that coon again!!
Then because of the drought this year (and thank you rain for the other day!) we have to ration our irrigation water which comes from our reservoirs. They are very low this year and we have had to watch our yard get very dry. We are more concerned about our trees and garden. It’s hard to see that happen especially with fire season coming in now. It’s a scary time when you live where we do.
Then the other day a water spicket broke on the outside of our house in one of our flower beds when we were using our precious water to water our yard. We discovered that our basement became flooded with that precious water that needed to be on the yard. I spent all afternoon mopping up water that was wasted. It was a discouraging moment to mop up water that would not be turned on for awhile due to the rationing.
Then this morning as I was getting breakfast, I discovered sugar ants all over my kitchen counters. I had left some honey out last night and not screwed the lid on tight enough. They were not only in the honey but coming in by the thousands it seemed. I grabbed my vacuum cleaner and began sucking them up as fast as I could only to have them continually come in. As I was doing this, I heard on the radio that we might lose our power today due to the heat and people overusing the system. It was just what I needed to hear!! I thought whatever, power please don’t go off now!!
When the rain fell the other day, I felt encouraged and bought several pots of flowers to beautify the outside our home. However, I discovered that something was eating them. Then I saw the wild rabbits in our yard this morning and we also have rock chucks around. Another discouraging moment for me.
I know that these things are very trivial compared to the real concern which is the fire danger. That is one of our biggest concerns during the hot summer months which we are approaching! Other than that, country life can be very wonderful!! But then there is the slick snowy roads in the the winter which are scary especially going downhill!!”
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