My goodness! It sure was another chilly one again this morning, so after I took care of my Sunday morning spiritual duties, I decided it would be a good day to get some additional yard and garden work done, and especially since those vile gnats were nowhere to be seen.
With our weather being as crisp as it was, I was able to get some difficult weeding done, along with using my trusty potato fork to get a widening patch of quack grass completely dug out. I learned a long time ago, that if you don’t keep ahead of that nasty stuff, it’ll quickly take over a person’s garden. It’s quite remarkable how rapidly it sends out those underground rood shoots, and if you don’t work at getting nearly all of them, they’re right back at it again. Of course another annoying perennial are those wild violets which are also quick to spread, and for some reason, they just love to grow alongside plants we want to keep.
Before calling it a full morning, I forced myself to get out my bottle of vegetation killer and spray a large patch of Day Lilies which are also the damnedest to get rid of. Yes, I truly like the new varieties of Day Lilies they have out now, but those I refer to as ‘Ditch Lilies’, can take months, and sometimes years to get rid of. I’m in my second year of trying to get rid of them, so hopefully that vegetation killer will do the trick. As much as I hate using chemicals on weeds and plants, there are times when I feel there’s no other option.
It was approaching the hour of Noon when I finally had to call it quits, and since I was doing some deep thinking while out there, I decided it was time for me to take another Sunday road trip, so I cleaned myself up, changed my clothes and headed out with camera in hand.
Today’s journey took me to the County and towns near where my family lived before we moved to the Mason City area when I was quite young, and having not been there for more years than I want to admit, I had some real eye-openers.
With it being such a beautiful day, I decided to spend some quality time at a lake resort which wasn’t but three miles or so from our farmstead, and since I wasn’t old enough to be out splashing around in that lake, I had to remain home while my older siblings had their lake outings.
Knowing that area mushroomed over the years, I decided to take a long four mile walk completely around it which became quite a delight because there were also people sitting around in their yards or out walking who were exceptionally friendly. I dare say some of those newer tricked-out homes were just as remarkable as those you’d find perched on the shores of Clear Lake. I did happen to notice two more lakeshore homes being built which also looked to be on the grand scale.
After getting the ‘feel’ of that lake resort area, I came to the conclusion that the bulk of those owners were they type who were into quiet lakeside enjoyment instead of the hoopla, traffic and congestion we find in Clear Lake during our summer vacation season. Yes, I could easily live on that charming lake, and after today, I fully understand why my parents and older siblings enjoyed spending time there. I did notice several signs posted by the DNR giving instructions on the size requirements of fish which an angler could keep. Back when I was young, about all my family used to catch were Bullheads, so I guess the DNR must’ve decided to stock that lake with the fighting fish like Northerns and Walleye.
Since I was already in the area of the ‘big farm’, I decided to drive there, just to see if the current owners were home, but unfortunately, the moment I pulled into the driveway, I could hear that little voice in my head saying, “Don’t go there!”
For that minute or two I was parked just beyond its drive entrance, I became almost nauseated when seeing how many changes were made, and the unbelievable amount of neglect and dysfunction I was seeing, and so much so, if I didn’t know better, one could’ve sworn it was the wrong farmstead.
It was evident the current owners are young because there were several children running around the dooryard with three mutt dogs trailing behind while the husband and wife were doing something with some tree branches in the bed of an old truck, and believe me, the amount of yard clean-up that place was in need of, would be a daunting task in itself, not to mention the sagging buildings without paint, knee-high weeds everywhere, along with what appeared to be a mini junkyard behind a large area of trash trees.
I must’ve been in visual shock longer than I thought because the husband and wife were glancing towards where I was parked near the roadside, and giving me a few dirty looks. Truth be told, if they were the kindest of homeowners wanting to show me around, I would’ve graciously refused because I couldn’t even imagine how much the inside of that large home had changed. No thank you very much!
While driving towards the town where we went to church, I was sadly reminded that nothing stays the same, and especially once working farmsteads where the owners took great pride in their field work, the animals they raised and sold to the markets, along the families they nurtured. Yes, over time, those productive working farms were sold to bigger row-crop farmers and those homesites surveyed-off and later re-sold. Yup, that’s exactly what’s been happening all over the Midwest these recent decades.
Tonight’s One-liner is: Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.
