Disdain

I've been making a mental list of the things I don't like about living in SW Minnesota, rurally or not. But, for the record, I live on a 15 acre farmstead a number miles north of "town".

• The humidity is outrageous. Literally. Papers curl, even books pages are wavy; this scares me a bit, as I am afraid that our books will be ruined. Is it possible?? In addition, I can't get 4 out of the 6 most used drawers in our bedroom furniture opened or closed. I am not kidding!! We bought them at an antique store years ago and have had nary a problem until moving out here. I can't get them to budge. I'm hoping that once the summer (errr...humidity?) ends, everything will go back to normal. Oh, and a lot of the doors don't shut properly, either. All the wood is swollen. Bah!
• The flies and mosquitoes are enough to give you full-body shudders. I'm not kidding! There must be a fly boon around here, because all of a sudden, they are everywhere. In the house, in the car, swarming. I must have killed 10-12 of them yesterday inside our house. How are these buggers getting in?? The mosquitoes aren't so bad anymore, but that first month we were here (July), you couldn't go outside at all in the evening or near any kinds of trees/bushes/grass during the day. It was sick. I hate mosquitoes.
• As previously posted, the small-town public library is a blow-out. I don't want to be too harsh, because I know they are wheeling and dealing with less money; but it is quite a shock to the system to go from urban and suburban library systems [which I now know are outta this world] to a one-room small-town biblioteca. Seriously: shocking. I don't think I'll ever be able to browse the shelves again. My only salvation is inter-library loans, which, by the way, I was able to easily request two books I've been looking for: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by my girl Barbara Kingsolver, and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. The second of the two, granted, is coming through MNLink; but the Kingsolver book was sitting on a shelf, available to me, in my own library system. I thought that was a little strange -- I figured I'd have to put it on hold and wait a few months.
• Bugs again: The crickets are insanely loud -- 24 hours a day! I'm not kidding. The chirping of crickets is a constant background noise. It used to be a night-thing only, but they've upped it to high-gear and are going for bust. I suppose they need to mate ASAP. I actually really enjoy insects, so please don't think I'm a bug-hater. I suppose I'll just get used to it.
• The birds are insanely loud -- at 4 am. No more sleeping with the window open (or, at least, not all night). The birds wake up with gusto and sound like they are flapping their wing and hollering with the excitement of being up for another day. I suppose the small-operation milkers enjoy this, as it might help them wake up. But me? I'd rather be sawing logs at 4 am.

Other than that, I've made some observations on things I didn't know about before. Like, for instance, bigtime corporate "farms". Dairy farms, in particular (although there are enormous barns filled with chickens and pigs that never leave their pens either). I love milk. I can't help it -- it is so wonderful. But to see where your milk comes from when you buy the regular super-market milk is a little disconcerting. Why? Because it has been milked from cows who never, ever leave their enormous barns. They stand there, on cement floors, with hundreds (if not thousands) of other milking cows all day long. Every time we drive by, they have their heads through the bar-things (yes, I know a lot about barns...LOL), eating. They don't go out. It doesn't look like they even get to move much. I've recently read that conventional milk cows live only a few years before they become hamburger, specifically because their legs give out from the stress of their living conditions. From what I've seen, I believe it. Maybe someday I'll be able to take a tour of one of them [the sign says visitors must check in at the main office] and be able to tell you more up-close observations. I think that would be fascinating.

Meanwhile, I'm going to work towards my goal of locating a small dairy in the area to buy milk from. One of the neighbors up the road is a bee-keeper and from what I've heard, she is the person to ask about natural food connections. Her name is Walentyne (pronounced Valentina), she is Polish, has been bee-keeping for who-knows-how-many-years, and is in her early 80's. I'm excited to meet her! The lady across the street said that she would bring me over to meet her soon. [I don't think I've mentioned her -- she's a couple of years older than me and has twin 3 year old boys that Starbeans is wild about. We have been hanging out once a week, which has been very nice.] I'd like to glean as much knowledge from an old-timer as possible; especially a bee-keeper. Doesn't that just seem so much more thrilling??