It's a way of life

During a recent conversation, I had to excuse myself so I could head home. I had been away for nearly six hours, and I needed to get home to tend to the fire.

"You sound like you live like a settler," replied my friend sarcastically.

I guess to some, we do. My house is heated solely from firewood.

Early in the morning before dawn, I emerge from the warmth of my flannel sheets into the cold house and head downstairs to stoke the wood stove. I have no propane, so I can't just turn a dial and wait for my house to get warm. I have to work for it. No matter what the weather, or my mood or health, certain things have to be done. Animals need cared for. Eggs need gathered. Fires need stoked, and firewood brought inside and stacked. I like to think it builds character as well as muscle. 

There is no television as in "cable T.V." We entertain ourselves with books, animals, coloring, games and obviously, the Internet.

The Ranch has become a sort of sanctuary. Without the clamor of television, it's so quiet and the sounds of nature fill the air.  In the evening, we burn candles after dinner, and the dogs fill our seven acres with song; sometimes coyote join in. A neighbor two doors down reported a black bear on his back deck last fall. One evening, across the road in the farmer's field, my daughter and I counted 16 deer. In the evening, we sometimes see half dozen rabbits hopping along in the grass. Foxes bark in the woods around our home. Bald Eagles and Red Tailed Hawks are frequent fliers;  bats swoop in the air at dusk in summer. Field mice scurry across the country road.

We move with the seasons and we never, ever stop.

Somehow living in solitude and in sync with nature grounds me, and I think it grounds my family. Some may see this way of life as difficult; others, desolate. We see it as beautiful.

There is not a day that I miss city life. We have lived at the Ranch almost six years, and I can't imagine ever going back to the suburbs, the luxury of turning a dial for heat or the sounds of traffic filling my ears.

Whole lotta nothing

As I type, a flurry of lightning bugs flutters around outside like tiny yellow strobe lights. The beauty is, with all of our tall grasses all around the Ranch - a firefly's natural habitat - we have a billion of them. And, with a whole lotta nothing around us, there's no light pollution to dampen their glow.

Fireflies in one of our pastures at midnight

When we first moved to the Ranch last summer, I asked my sister, who was from this area, what was down our road in the opposite direction. Her reply still resonates with me.

"Just a whole lotta nothin'," she said flatly.

I smiled, knowing I was home.

It's true: there really isn't much where we live. I drive over 20 miles round trip just for groceries. The horizon around our neck of the woods isn't polluted with neon McDonald's signs; in fact, the nearest McDonald's is at the same place as the grocery store, over 20 miles from home.

A pasture of sheep about three miles from the Ranch

Indeed, I think this corner of NE Ohio is the only place that doesn't have a reliable cell phone signal. My phone notoriously drops calls.

But, for a whole lotta nothing, there sure is a lot of something going on out here: life.

A bird's nest I found at the Ranch: made of (what else): husky hair and pieces of blue tarp I use for roofs over the kennels!

I recently spent over 12 hours in the city for several back-to-back photo assignments. As soon as I returned home, I breathed a sigh of relief. The city is nice, but I wouldn't want to live there.

I have so many things here that I love. Like, my sweet hens, "The Ladies."

The Ladies leaving the barn for a morning spent free ranging

Acres and acres of space.

A field of winter wheat just about ripe for the harvest across the street from the Ranch

Gorgeous lilies that grow wild and cover the grounds at the Ranch.

More space.

The 150 acre corn field directly across from the Ranch

More flowers...

Yes, it might be a whole lotta nothin' out here. But I will take that "nothing" over the city any day. I can't think of any place I'd rather be!