Green acres..

Ah! The smell of cow manure in the morning.

Less then a year ago, we had a house built in the middle of nowhere, well - actually in the middle of what was once a corn field but is now a tiny little subdivision (tiny meaning a plot of land that was supposed to hold 290+ houses, but has only 35).

Needless to say, unlike living on the north side of Chicago, there is not a lot of ethnic food to try out, but there is a lot of land. A lot of big, open spaces - and a soy field behind us that was a corn field last year.

It's nice. Seriously. I love it. Especially the weekends when I don't have to commute.

I like not living in the big city anymore - but honestly, small town living (actually, it is a village of 1100 people - not having enough people in it to qualify as a town) takes a lot of getting used to - like everyone here waves at you, whether they know you or not. In the city, we waved at people too - but usually with one choice finger and not all of them.

Another thing, everyone knows everyone out here and that means everyone knows your business. Recently, there were cougar sightings in the local newspaper. One of the village cops saw me outside walking my Rolo dog one evening and told me that I should carry a flashlight to use as a club because of the cougars and (get this) because I walk my dog so early in the morning....! How the hell do these people know I walk my dog at 4:00 am?! No one is up at that time but me, the dog and God!

And the wildlife. Ah, the wildlife. Every Saturday and Sunday morning I sit in my backyard and stare off in to the soy field, serenaded by the sound of yipping coyotes while I watch deer tentatively graze at the edges of the property. Not to mention my on-going battle with a little rat bast...er, never mind. That's a completely different post.

True Story to further illustrate:

I wake up last Sunday morning looking for my husband. I know he was next to me sleeping some time during the night because his snoring woke me.
As I stumble to the kitchen, I see the basement door open.
I yell downstairs: "What are you doing?"
After all, it is 7:30 am on a Sunday morning - football doesn't start that early, or does it?
"You have got to see this! Come down here!" He shouts back.
I pull a face - after all, this could be a ploy to 'get some' and I have not yet had coffee nor brushed my teeth.
"No." I reply, thinking it may not be a ploy - after all, he never gets that excited a tone in his voice when he's trying to get lucky.
"C'mon - seriously, come down here and look at this."
"Why?" I yell back, pulling a face because I am slightly afraid to see what might be in the basement since he recently found a questionable lump of gray fur in the yard.
"Hurry up!"
This is said with such childlike glee that I cannot help but go downstairs - to find the images below in the window well, or 'escape hatch' as we like to call it.
Do you see that at the bottom there? WHAT THE HELL IS IT?!
Now, I have gotten used to finding frogs, toads, even a stray field mouse who got stuck trying to escape the resident hawks, falcons and owls - but I have never seen anything like that thing in my window well. Rather, things - because there were two of them. Just when I get used to my property looking like one of the Plagues of Egypt after it rains, I now have *this* to contend with...Not to mention the damned dog trying to eat every single toad that wanders haplessly in or around our yard.
"What do you think it is?" He asked, leaning closer to the window.
"I have no freaking idea." I reply, my breath steaming up the window as we both press our noses to the glass.
"Should we take it out to get a closer look?" He asked.
I turn my head and I suppose my face says it all because he grins. "Or not." He finishes.
"We need to find out what it is before we touch it." I say, eyebrows pulled together and slightly tentative as if it could attack me through the window. "Looks slimey."
"Yeah."
"Well, don't touch it til I find out what they are."
It was a salamander. Two of them.

Now, do an internet search for salamanders in Northern Illinois. Not much information, is there?

Anyway, the salamanders are gone. I asked the neighbor kid to remove them and he happily did so - putting them in the pond behind the house where they belong.

Yeah, I sure do like living in the country. All sorts of interesting flora and fauna - which I will show you more of in the next post.