Patriotic Pig Roast

One of the annual community events in Bickleton is a 4th of July Patriotic Pig Roast.

They roast a large pig and everyone in the community brings something for the potluck meal.

We arrived to the sound of a Christian family band--mom played the keyboard, dad was on a bass cello, the only son played guitar, and three girls in matching hand-sewn jumpers all played the violin.

After the local pastor welcomed us and prayed over the food, we dug in to the delicious pork and potluck dishes of varying deliciousness (or not).

They recognized all the veterans in the community and four of them spoke about what serving their country meant to them. We all sang along to The Star Spangled Banner and My Country 'Tis of Thee.

This is one of the times when it's a benefit to be part of a very small community.

In a Town This Small

"In a town this small, you just have to get used to the fact that everyone knows what color of underwear you put on in the morning, and then get on with your day." - owner of the local market/cafe

Outside Our Window

We have a large window in our living room that faces the street. The view leaves something to be desired, in my opinion, but more goes on outside our window than you might expect. And all of it serves to entertain my toddler.

She now thinks that all pick up trucks have dogs in the back of them, and around here, she's usually right.

We get to see horses and their riders taking walks down the road. This helped her learn the word "horse"--she used to moo when she saw horses.

Now that the (sort of) warmer months are here, we get a lot of biker gangs taking road trips that pass through Bickleton. My daughter loves these. She gets really excited and says, "bike! bike!" Thankfully they usually come in groups, so she gets to see a few at a time.

The local school doesn't have a track field, though track is one of the few sports here, so they run down our street. She gets really excited and says "run, run, run!" while she runs in place.

The Possibility of Ice Cream

It's a struggle to buy dairy and meats when it is at least an hour from the store to your freezer. And that doesn't count the time between putting it in your cart and buying it. Even with a cooler or cold bags, frozen foods rarely stay frozen. I've tried buying ice cream a couple of times, but even in the winter, the top layer was melty by the time we got home. I thought buying ice cream in summer months, when we want it most, was going to be impossible.

The local cafe has ice cream by the scoop. When I bought some to share with my daughter today, I commented on how hard it is to get ice cream out here to the cafe owner and she revealed the secret of how Bickletonites get their ice cream fix: The Schwann's man.

Much like the bookmobile, every two weeks we have the possibility of access to town luxuries like library books and ice cream. I never thought I'd order Schwann's because I know it's more expensive. But I'd rather pay $5 for a half gallon of ice cream that I actually get to eat than $3 for one that melts all over my car.

Mmmmmm. Ice cream.

More Postal Shenanigans

So last week we got a bill for our "free" post office box. We were told that we got it free because we weren't on the mail route. I was hoping the bill was a mistake. Today I made an extra effort to walk to the post office to talk to the lady who works there despite the fact that the morning sunshine was quickly turning into threatening clouds.

Funny story, we are on the mail route. All we have to do is put up a mail box. Most frustrating is that we could have done that when we moved in and then had mail delivered to our house. Seriously? All the drama and issues that have surrounded the simple act of getting the mail was all unnecessary? Grrr.

Colors

One of my complaints about Bickleton in spring, besides the fact that spring apparently never comes to Bickleton, is the lack of colors. There are few flowers--because of the deer, most people don't even try to plant around here. And there are no blossoming trees, which I sorely miss about Portland springs.

My wonderful husband brought home some color--a bouquet of flowers. Which is quite a feat in a town where no flowers are sold.

But yesterday the drizzling spring day found a way to bring a little color to the beige landscape.





Scenes from the Road

One morning we drove by the corner ranch at just the right time. One man was driving a pick up slowly along the fence while another stood on the trailer behind and threw bales of hay to feed the cows. Dozens of lumbering cows and stumbling calves rand down the hillside for their breakfast. A small calf was nestled on a bale of hay at the feet of the rancher on the trailer and another one stood outside the fence on the roadside and stared at us as we drove by.

This is one of the scenes that I am both afraid my daughter will forget (in the scenario in which we actually get to live in civilization again) and that she will not pay any attention to one day (in the scenario in which this becomes an ordinary scene in her life).