{"id":1723,"date":"2014-07-21T22:32:09","date_gmt":"2014-07-22T02:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/?p=1723"},"modified":"2014-07-21T22:33:31","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T02:33:31","slug":"is-living-in-the-country-peaceful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/is-living-in-the-country-peaceful\/","title":{"rendered":"Is living in the country peaceful?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"robin\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So many times when people come to visit us they say, “Oh, my, it’s so peaceful here.”<\/p>\n

\"hummingbird\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Saturday night at ten my mom said, “I just have to get used to this quiet. \u00a0I think I’ll go out on the porch and just sit there for a \u00a0little bit.”<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/p>\n

It is<\/em> so quiet here. \u00a0It took me awhile to describe it as peaceful though. \u00a0For a long time I felt almost claustrophobic. \u00a0As though I’d been cutoff from the entire rest of the world. \u00a0People and crowds energize me. \u00a0While other Mom’s talk about being completely overwhelmed at a homeschool convention, I walk in and get more and more excited. \u00a0I love the feeling of a crowd. \u00a0I love busy intersections. \u00a0I loved being outside and looking up at any given time to see airplanes criss cross the sky. \u00a0I love the hum of traffic. \u00a0It makes me feel connected to the world. \u00a0Not just in my corner, but everywhere there are people going, doing, moving, living, breathing.<\/p>\n

\"baby<\/a>{Baby tree swallow who had a little trouble learning to fly. His parents swooped down to feed him.}<\/p>\n

This land is quiet. \u00a0It’s reeeeeaally quiet. \u00a0On an average day we might see six cars go past our house and I can pretty much guess who it is by what time they drive past. \u00a0On a nice weekend when people are heading back toward the Middle Ford we stop and stare at all the traffic. TWENTY cars in one day! \u00a0Airplane sightings are less common than seeing deer or wild turkey.<\/p>\n

\"wild<\/a>\u00a0{wild turkey create traffic jam when they all decide to cross the road}<\/p>\n

Living in the country where it’s quiet doesn’t necessarily mean nothing happens. \u00a0In the last two weeks we’ve lost power for over 24 hours (which means no water either), hosted friends from out of town three times, and then had our well pump go out (another 24+ hours without water)\u00a0while<\/em> hosting one set of guests. Nothing like having ten people in the house and no running water. \u00a0I told David we must have had every appliance in the house go bad since we live here and he said, oh, no, not yet. \u00a0The furnace hasn’t quit yet. \u00a0Anyone up for a visit, say mid-January?<\/p>\n

\"Aug<\/a><\/p>\n

But quiet {or peaceful, whichever you want to call it} can be delightful.<\/p>\n

\"hummingbird\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I love that we get to see so much wildlife. \u00a0Besides the more common deer and turkey, it’s not unheard of to see a black bear. \u00a0Coyotes yip in the neighborhood and nearly every evening we are serenaded by the song of the whippoorwill. The birds are the best. \u00a0We’ve spotted hawks, woodpeckers and even an occasional bald eagle. \u00a0The boys both put up nesting boxes they made. \u00a0Bluebirds claimed Adam’s and tree swallows settled into the one Liam made. \u00a0Last year there was a wren nest in one of my ferns on the front porch, a robin nest in the cedar tree in the front yard, and a mockingbird nest in a pine to the side of the house. \u00a0We’ve always loved watching the hummingbirds, but this year we really got to see them up close and personal. \u00a0In the early spring when they were just returning from the South, someone found a hummingbird just barely flying in a building at camp. \u00a0It looked weak and exhausted and maybe sick. \u00a0It tried to fly but after several feet would collapse. \u00a0David had just hung a feeder outside his office window so he took the bird over to the feeder and tried to get it to drink. \u00a0The poor bird was too exhausted to lift it’s head. \u00a0He laid it on the ground and expected it to die. At lunchtime he checked on it and found it still alive. \u00a0After finding a medicine dropper, he syphoned some of the nectar from the feeder and fed little drops into the hummingbirds mouth. \u00a0Surprise, surprise, it was just enough energy to let the little bird take off! \u00a0Last month Liam found a dead one in our flower bed near the bird feeder. \u00a0It appeared to have been stabbed by one of it’s own. \ud83d\ude41 \u00a0Silly birds. \u00a0They could just share. \u00a0But then we’d only have half as much fun watching them.<\/p>\n

\"tree<\/a><\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/p>\n

\"June<\/a><\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/p>\n

\"June<\/a><\/p>\n

\"June<\/a><\/p>\n

\"June<\/a><\/p>\n

I love that there is so little traffic the boys can bike on the road in front of our house. \u00a0I can go walking on a paved road with a stroller and two little people on bikes way out ahead of me and the biggest threat is the black lab on the corner. \u00a0You would think<\/i> I’d get exercise regularly.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\"June<\/a><\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/p>\n

But the best part of quiet living is the moments stolen on the front porch. \u00a0Our ridiculously full calendar hasn’t made for too many moments; but when they happen, they are perfect. \u00a0Even if it’s just for a few minutes. \u00a0With a cup of coffee to sip in the cool morning air. (Yes, I said cool and it is July. We also have yellow leaves on the tree and few to crunch through on the ground. Don’t you dare say that word that reminds us of pumpkins.) \u00a0A few moments stolen to watch the rain roll in across the fields. \u00a0Sitting with a friend and watching the hummingbirds at war. \u00a0Or my favorite. \u00a0Those twilight moments when the world outside is going to sleep. \u00a0A few last drinks of nectar for the hummingbirds. The loud chirping of still hungry almost ready to fly tree swallow babies. \u00a0The lazy walk of a dog headed for her favorite corner. \u00a0The deepening pinks of the sky and then, there it is. \u00a0The call of the whippoorwill.<\/p>\n

\"May<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So many times when people come to visit us they say, “Oh, my, it’s so peaceful here.” Saturday night at ten my mom said, “I just have to get used… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boys-camp","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39ynQ-rN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1723"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1758,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions\/1758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}