Ramblings about my rambling...

[Cat]

We drove through northern Indiana last Monday and down into Illinois to go near Peoria to buy a used wood stove. It was an interesting trip.

 

One thing that surprised me was the vast farmland in Illinois that is different from the farm fields in Indiana. In Indiana, we have lots of fields, but every direction you look, you'll see trees... it may be a mile, mile-and-a-half, or two miles, but there's trees. Nearly every farm has a stand of trees, which we call a "woods", rather than a forest. Sometimes up to a quarter of the square mile is trees.

 

In Illinois, the fields just go on and on, with farmhouses and barns with a few trees dotted on the land like a Lego set with few pieces. It looks lonely and cold and unsheltered. The fields were harvested, and I imagine it doesn't look so bare with corn growing tall, but I was just struck by the strangeness of it to my eyes.

 

Indiana has a program they call "Classified Forest", where if you leave trees according to the rules they lay out, such as cutting only selected trees as they direct, leaving some of the underbrush grow, and following water guidelines, they give you a huge tax break. I'm guessing that's partly why we have so many woods among the fields. It provides protection, food, and shelter for wildlife, and cleans the air. I don't know if Illinois has that.

 

In an area northeast of Peoria, we came across a huge wind farm... all these bare farm fields with huge white windmills slowly whirling around and around. As far as we could see, there were white whirling arms across the land. It looked so foreign and strange… like being inserted into an alien land of the future. Crops were harvested, and there wasn't a lot of green anywhere. The homes and barns clump together under those strange, strange white arms.

 

 

We took FIL's pickup truck back to Michigan Saturday. Another long drive.

 

Another thing I noticed in both places were what seems like hundreds of empty houses, many with "for sale" signs in front. Some were just abandoned. Some looked like they were unfinished after being started when times were better. In the city streets along the highway, the small towns, the single homes in the country... so very many. Where do people go when they lose a home? Do they move in with a relative? Move into apartments? Band together in family groups?

 

And the businesses... small towns, larger towns... some boarded up, some sit empty with dark windows, some with "for sale" signs, and some simply abandoned. Somebody's dream, somebody's hopes for the future left behind in dust and darkness.

 

We know things will turn around, but it seems this one will take longer, and I suspect it will not be a gentle road we walk.

 

 

[Momo]

My Uncle lives in rural Illinois and the biggest thing I noticed is that the farmers plant their corn right up to the road. They actually plant on the right of way! It can obstruct your vision at intersections once the corn is high enough.

[Carie]

I'm in "just south of middle" IL. Our land has a few more trees than up north but not much. Dh originated in far southern-IL, on the Ohio River and it is beautiful down there. Around Champaign/Charleston area you can tell where the glaciers stopped so many years ago.....north of that "line" the dirt is rich and black...the blackest you have ever seen. Real fertile. South of that - where we are - the ground is brown and a lot of clay....still good ground but not as good. They farm every last square inch here too....very frustrating when driving.

Blessings,

Carie