Country Complaints

I absolutely love living in the country. It's quiet, peaceful, private and I have enough room to move around. I love just about everything living in the country...except a couple of things:

During harvest time, there is corn and bean dust everywhere. We haven't had any wind (which is quite shocking) so there is a general haze as far as you can see. It makes my eyes itch and my nose and throat dry. Being that it's harvest now, I have stopped dusting (not that I ever really started) and I refuse to close the windows because there are very few days left of this beautiful weather and I'm going to take every advantage to enjoy it.

We've had quite a lot of traffic lately; tractors, semi trucks and combines have been driving up and down our road. My only complaint is that it's very busy and very noisy. Well, another compaint is that, because it's been so dry, road dust is mixed with corn and bean dust, making it even more hazy.

Now that the corn has been taken off the field across from our house and stored in a grain bin, the farmer has his dryer going. Normally they run the dryer (which pushes warm air through the corn) when the moisture level in the corn is high. Being that it was, as Art says "Crackin' dry", they are still running it, which seems like a waste to me. It's not overly loud, but a constant hum of irritation that blocks out the sound of the crickets and natural night life.

The mice are getting ready for winter. This means they are coming in droves to my house, hoping to find a warm place to spend the cold winter and have their babies. Everytime I open a cupboard or drawer, I see the tell-tale signs that mice have been there. We've been catching one mouse after another in the kitchen and attic and it prompted me to buy some D-Con to kill them, hopefully in large quantities. This turned out to be a bad idea, as one has died (presumably) underneath the refrigerator. It was especially bad this morning. Someone was spreading liquid pig manure and I was blanching Brussel sprouts. The combination of dead mouse, boiled cabbage, and pig sh*t was just about enough to make me sick.
Art says no more De-Con.

So I don't have too many complaints, and very few that won't go away in a matter of weeks. The mouse problem will last until spring, though. As long as no more die under my appliances, I should be able to handle it.