The country is still our choice

Thirty-two years ago, Rick and I packed our bags, and moved across the country from Arizona to Michigan, discarding our city ways for the country life. It was, overall, a good choice. We came to the country without jobs and bought our small farm on M-99. We had no equipment, minimal farm experience, not much money and two little kids under the age of five. Visions of Mother Earth News danced in our heads. I guess you would call us optimists.

We chose the country as the place we wanted to raise our family, and though our kids are all grown-up now, it’s still where we want to live. Like any other major life style choice, country living has brought us both happiness and tears. I admit I had visions of a Walt Disney farm, a place where white fences would edge perfectly groomed green lawns. A place where proud red barns would house pink, smiling, odorless pigs. A place where orderly fields of corn would dry swiftly and be sent to market at a comfortable profit. The alternate reality included unpaid bills, duct-taped fences, many meals of deer, long hours weeding and canning, and finally facing the music….you just can’t make a full-time living on a 200 acre farm.

Still there’s no better life. The highs have included : walking in a wooded fairyland after an ice storm, planting spruce and white pines with the entire family, smugly surveying shelves of our own home-canned produce, and hiking with the dogs along the old rail bed in the late Fall afternoons. The lows were there as well. Having to put Honey ( our ancient milk cow ) down when she could not give birth to her calf, finding aphids in the soybeans, hydraulic leaks in our old John Deere tractor, and one memorable winter losing $25.00 on each hog we sold at market.

These days I have retired from my job as a librarian. Half of our farm land is planted to Michigan oak savanna. We mow more. Our animals are dogs. But the country life continues to enchant us. We heat with wood and Rick cuts a year or two ahead as he logs out the hedge rows and our wood lot. We have dug a small pond (mostly used for dog washing ) and we cultivate a small garden. We love the small-town feel of Springport-and we consider going to the big town of Jackson adequate entertainment most weeks. The country life still suits us.