I have to admit, I always wanted to live in the middle of 10 acres. I grew up with neighbors really close in a small town setting and I just felt like I wanted something different. My husband wanted to live on water. Somehow he won. But in letting him win, I have won too.
I think the longer I live on this small lake of ours the more I appreciate it. A lake offers so much. It has an abundance of wildlife, like the geese and the beautiful swans. We have deer that roam around the lake. Of course there are the fish. This year we were able to see nearly two dozen fish beds on our shoreline. The water in our lake this spring was unusually clear, so it was the first time we had seen the numerous beds. I could not get over how the fish hovered over their plate-sized beds, that were in almost perfect rows. Like synchronized swimmers, they turned in circles at the same time, and went back to hovering, all facing the same direction. I find it so curious how nature has all of these peculiarities that were you asked to design them from imagination, you couldn’t even compare.
We see muskrat, turtles, and many beavers. The beavers have been very active over this year and have taken down nearly a dozen large cotton trees around the lake. I have joked that if they continue, our lake will be bald. But in truth, it might not be a joking matter. Such a small animal has an unusually large impact. They create these elaborate dams that can wreak havoc with our water levels as they block the outlet streams from the lake. Every so often the DEQ comes out and clears the streams of the dams. And the beavers start all over. That must be frustrating.
I imagine that 10 acres would hold a good deal of wonder. For now, I’m just enjoying this over-sized mud puddle we share with the animals.
I envy you...we live in the city and while I have flogged myself repeatedly for 7 years now for buying in the city, we have appreciated it with the high cost of gasoline...so I guess there's good and bad in everything. If we lived on a private lake that was stocked with fish I'd be in Heaven. We did own 11 acres on a private lake in the U.P. that we wanted to build on but with the economy and my disintegrating disks we finally sold it and gave up that dream.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. I lived in in close neighborhoods for most of my life in Dearborn up until about five-six years ago when I moved out to rural Holly. The difference is indeed big, and I love living out in the woods, depending on the seasons you can see deer and flocks of turkey wandering around in our lawn. I love the picture of the lake too.
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