Country Living

Country living has its ups and downs as does everywhere else.  Sometimes, however, the downs are unlike anything city people encounter.  

Our well pump quit this past weekend.  That meant no water in our house unless we brought it in from an outside source.  We took showers at our son's house who is on city water.  We bought water from Wal-Mart.  We ran up to our church (which is, thankfully, right around the corner from our house) just to brush our teeth.  But the well pump has been replaced along with the wiring and the pipes down to the well.  Once again, we have clean fresh water from our aquifer.

Driving anywhere takes a long time.  My husband drives an hour and a half to work every day.  With traffic, it can take as long as two hours for him to get home in the evening.  It's an hour's drive to Denver, half hour to the next major towns, and an hour to Colorado Springs.  Of course, now that we have our own Wally World we don't have to leave our little town so much.  I spend too much time at Wally's.  

We get hail.  Sometimes a lot of it.  We had hail damage to our roof and it took almost a month for the roofers to get to our house.  It was a busy summer for them.  Now, we await the new gutters because the hail punched nine big holes in ours.  They'll be delayed for a couple weeks, too.  The storms we get can be so violent.  Other times, like now, we can be so dry.  After those storms came through in July, we haven't had any rain to speak of since. 

The ups outweigh the downs, though. 

For some, the complaint of "it's too quiet" might be valid.  Personally, I can't get enough of it!  I came home this morning from my workout and just sat in my car watching the squirrels and the crows doing their things in our yard.  I listened to the crickets and a few songbirds in the distance.  No, it's not too quiet.  It's peaceful.

I decided I'd like to have some juice.  So I took my cup of OJ and went out to our "round-about."  We call it that because it's a round patch of trees and grass (and a ton of pine cones) in the middle of our circular drive.   I sat there again watching the birds and listening to the quiet when, through the trees, I saw a hawk soaring on the thermals.  If I'd had a really great camera, it would have made an amazing shot!  He just soared lazily in circles, flapping every now and then to keep his height, framed in the trees making that perfect shot.  I don't think any camera could have done that view justice.  


I love my tall pines and my gnarled elms.  I love my honeysuckles and my lilacs.  I love the native grasses and flowers.  I love my view of Pike's Peak.  I wouldn't trade it for a view of a highway or skyscrapers for anything.