The Boonies

On Saturday we took a family walk to the post office. As we left, we passed an old lady sitting in her car. She smiled at my daughter riding in her all-terrain wagon with a cover, as all older people do.

***

Old Lady: I like your covered wagon.

Hubby: Thanks. We figured that since we live in the boonies, we might as well act like it.

Old Lady: This isn't the boonies.

***

Ummm, what? Turns out she lives in nearby Cleveland which has a population of 17. I guess our town of almost 100 feels a little crowded to her.

Bickleton Birds

Bickleton has a surprising amount of birds for the lack of trees here. It not only has bluebirds, but robins and lots of other birds that I can’t name. They even come in some bright colors like yellow, orange, and purple, which really surprised me for this area. We enjoy watching the birds, and a pair just built a nest right outside our door so we get an even closer view of them than before.

My two year old daughter loves having so many birds around. She gets excited when she sees them and tells me that the birds sing and fly and eat. And more recently, when we’re playing outside, she looks for birds and then leans forward and yells “BIRDS! BIRDS! BIRDS!” at them for no reason that I can see, but she is always very pleased with herself afterward.

The birds in Bickleton are abundant and beautiful. But to be honest, they are not that smart. These birds do not move out of the way of a moving vehicle. In fact, they fly off the side of the road, into the path of the car, and then panic. My husband and I have both killed more birds with the car than I care to think about.

One day a few weeks ago I was sitting in the living room when two birds slammed into our large front window in quick succession. Yes, it’s a big window, but there are no windows beyond it and though I’ve had every intention of cleaning these windows inside and out, it hasn’t gone beyond thinking about it. A few days later the birds started flying into all of our windows—even when the blinds and curtains are closed!

Seriously, what is wrong with these birds? Are they suicidal or just stupid? It gives a fresh understanding of the term “bird brain” for me.

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.