I love living in the country

Yes, I complain sometimes about druggie neighbors and lazy neighbors and loud neighbors, but I love where we live. And those neighbors? They give me something about which to feel holier-than-thou and superior. As Kris Kristofferson once wrote, "Everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on."

At 4 PM yesterday, Sadie and I went back to my cabin in the woods to spend the night.

Cliff's been mowing various areas of the pasture lately; when I saw these flowers grouped at the edge of a cavern during a walk, I said, "Did you leave those growing because they're so pretty?"

"No," he answered. "I left them because I didn't want to kill myself on the tractor."

Oh. There for a minute I thought I was getting a glimpse of Cliff's romantic nature.

The yard of my cabin, such as it is, is pretty weedy this year. That's OK, I have a lawn mower at the cabin.

Here it is. Hey, it isn't a big yard!

This is the path in front of the cabin that leads down into one of our deep, deep hollers. It's usually more worn than this; most years I ride Blue down the path quite a bit. Cliff's been so busy with our move that he hasn't had time to mow the stinging nettle that is so prevalent in the woods, and I don't like to make my horse suffer from itch-weed.


I do believe a seedling oak of some sort managed to grow in my unused path! I'm going to wait for a rain, then dig it up and bring it back here. It'll be neat to have something in my new yard that came from "back at the cabin".

I'm pretty sure that delicate viney plant on the right is poison ivy. Possibly due to my dark complexion, poison ivy has never affected me. As a teenager at camp, I used to pick it and rub it on myself to show off to the other kids. Then I read somewhere that you can go for years being able to touch the stuff, and suddenly one day it can get you. So I no longer handle it deliberately. Besides, Cliff is terribly allergic to it, and I'd hate to bring it home to him on my skin.

Sadie and I enjoyed hot dogs and marshmallows. While it was daylight, I read a book and Sadie explored the woods. We were in bed on my inflated air mattress by 9 o'clock, and slept through until 5 A.M. The moon was almost as bright as the sun when we had turned in, but this morning a thick fog made it difficult to get back to the house without running into electric fence. Thank goodness I had a flashlight.

I often wonder what my readers think about a woman of my age playing house in the woods with only a dog for company. Most ladies I've talked to say they'd be scared to death back there.

I guess I'm just weird.