Wild Life

Or maybe more correctly as wildlife.

If you're in my age category, you'll rememer watching the show "Green Acres" growing up. Well, that show could easily describe the relationship between my wife and I as she grew up in New Jersey, not too far from New York City, and I grew up in the little town of Crothersville, Indiana.

My wife lived in a suburban subdivison, I grew up on a farm. My high school graduation class had 58 students in it; hers had somewhere around 700. Heck, her high school was bigger than my town!

Anyway, since graduating from Purdue, we've lived in the Indianapolis area. Our first place was a one bedroom apartment. We jumped into home ownership with a three bedroom ranch in a newer subdivision that we outgrew fairly quickly as kids came along. Our next house was a three bedroom two story with a basement in a brand new subdivision that was okay but not necessarily comfortable as our kids got bigger. Both of these houses had wide open yards that left us open to all of our neighbors anytime we were in the front or back yard. While this was what my wife was accustomed to, I still longed for a little more privacy as I had grown up without a neighbor any closer than about a quarter mile away.

So this past summer, my wife and I moved into our current house. Honestly, it's only a little bigger than the last house but does have a fourth bedroom so everybody has their own. The best part for me though, is that our lot is wooded and during the summer when the leaves are on the trees, we can't see any of our neighbors even though they're not really that far away. It's got a small creek on two sides so traversing to the neighbors to borrow an egg is not that easily accomplished.

Growing up, I had always enjoyed walking back into the woods and seeing animals in their natural habitat but I never expected to see them at our current house because, while the lot is wooded, it's much more of a suburban setting in a subdivision.

I've been pleasantly surprised. I put up a bird feeder and bird house within the first week we were here and attracted all kinds of birds that I could sit and watch on a Saturday morning. I've probably seen a dozen squirrels at one time chasing each other around in the trees. We've seen snakes, raccoons, possums, and rabbits from time to time as well but all along I've been telling my family that the ultimate would be seeing deer in the back yard. Well........it finally happened..........twice..........both times while I was not home. I'm so disappointed that I'm thinking about running to Tractor Supply and picking up a salt block just and putting it out only when I'm at home to increase my chances of seeing them.

I did get a nice surprise last week as I was standing at the kitchen window and thought I had seen a dog running through the back yard. I did a double take as I realized that it wasn't a dog but rather a wolf making his way through. Probably going somewhere to see if he could get a little venison.

I'll let you know when I finally get my deer. Maybe this week...........