The Ohio Country

East of the Appalachian Mountains, East and North of the Ohio River, and South of Lake Erie, lies a rich country of farms and forest. It is my new home. I think Michael Pollan's description of a farm in Virginia could equally describe Ohio:

"The wail of farm machinery had fallen silent, and in the space it left I could hear the varied sounds of birds: songbirds in the trees, but also the low gossip of hens and the lower throat singing of turkeys. Up on the green, green shoulder of hill rising to the west I could see a small herd of cattle grazing, and, below them on a gentler slope, several dozen portable chicken pens marching in formation down the meadow. Laid before me was, I realized, a scene of almost classical pastoral beauty -- the meadows dotted with contented animals, the backdrop of woods, a twisting brook threading through it all...."