Strange Friends

Life in a small town has so many wonderful benefits.  The air smells so good, so fresh.  I'd notice this especially after returning from a day of work in Akron.

But there are other interesting things -- visual sensory delights.  The neighbor just two doors down has chickens.  I've seen them follow his grown son around like puppies.  So I imagine that the owners harvest the eggs from these beautiful brownish/reddish birds and have something that I hear is amazing -- fresh eggs.

All the way to the end of my allotment streets and to the left is a farm owned by Tim Rohr.  It's a small dairy farm and if you look back to the barn farthest from the street you can see the cows in their stalls or eating some grain.  He also grows crops in his fields, usually soy beans.

Farther yet from my house is a huge dairy farm with more than 450 head.  On any given day the milk trucks make their way from the farm to the processor and then the other kind of trucks -- the ones that take what's leftover -- leave the farm to spread their valuable commodity on approved fields in the area. 

Another neighbor, this one is at the corner by the large dairy farm, raises miniature horses.  These aren't ponies as most people assume when they see them.  They are miniature horses, and were used back in the mining days to drag out the wheeled cars full of coal.  He is preserving a piece of history at his farm.  They say the miniature horses aren't all that friendly, and I notice that they also have a small mule for company.

Around the corner from our house, not far if you could cut through the woods, is a veterinarian who has a pet deer in her house -- Dolly.  Dolly has her own room and is potty trained.  She sleeps on a regular bed. 

Just down the street from the vet is a home set back in the woods, very close to our house as the crow flies, and they sell raw honey.  I don't know if they keep bees or if they just have a supplier somewhere, but it's kind of neat.

At a beautiful house with a treed front yard, I saw just this week that they had their horse grazing. 

A neighbor at the corner of Portage and Akron Avenues has sheep and chickens.  The sheep and chickens appear to be friends, and more than once I've seen one certain chicken with one certain sheep.  They must be the best of pals.  Once in a while a chicken somehow gets out of the enclosure and there it is -- right beside the busy street -- pecking around in the ditch or up closer to the fence.  I presume someone comes and puts it back inside or maybe it can fly just that far.  Hard to tell.

There are two special work horses that are boarded in the area and these horses pull the St. Helena III canal boat to Lock IV and back.  I've forgotten their names, but they are a regular part of life in this small town.

And in a small town, so it is with people.  There are those who were raised here and learned the life in a small town from a very young age.  One of my friends remembers running through the fields when they missed the school bus.  And so former city dwellers who move here become friends with the country folk.  There are always great stories about life here.  Each day is to be cherished, appreciated, and used. 

I waste time sometimes.  Part of it is I'm tired -- a little anemic the doctor said.  So I'm working on that with some iron supplements, but in the meantime before that kicks in, I rejoined Curves.  I recommend it.  If a machine or two bother your joints or cause problems, you can just skip them.  But in about 40 minutes time, you get a decent workout and come away feeling a LOT better.

When you are driving about and take a route through a small town like Canal Fulton, keep your eyes open.  There are so many neat things to see that might not be obvious right at the start. 

Take care, everyone.