Synopsis of the Summer

tkscovill ♦ September 23, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

For the first month or so, Lake of the Springs was hot and dusty and just a little too wide-open for me. But I adjusted eventually, once I discovered civilization again. Yuba City, is about 45 minutes from us, has a cute downtown, a few decent restaurants, a health food store, several Starbucks, and an actual mall. All of this helped me to feel less isolated. Plus we found a great farmer’s market (emphasis on the singular here.) There is a farm in Oregon House where the farmer specializes in grass fed beef and free range chickens. She actually goes out in the morning, harvests whatever is fresh, then sells it to savvy customers between 10 and 3 on the weekends, at the farm. It’s a real rustic experience. I’ll probably write a post about her later since she is quite a character.

We saw Jenny almost every Saturday. Getting such fresh produce and meat made us feel healthy and happy. Of course, there were other good things. Living in a campground has its benefits:

1. You get to see the day emerge and fade as often as you want.
2. Your neighbors are either adventurous souls like yourself, or some of the many wild animals who wander through your “yard,” looking for scraps of people food. You don’t even mind when the deer eat your best tomato just as it is getting ripe. After all, they were here first and you are just visiting.
3. Sitting outside on your “patio” is a pleasure that you might not take advantage of in a real house.
4. Having a lake in your back yard is more than anyone could ask for.

There is an abundance of animals to marvel at: deer, jack rabbits, wild turkeys, geese, woodpeckers, quail, hummingbirds, squirrels and more than enough bugs to satisfy any kid’s curiosity. I feel as if I have been immersed in the natural world, with all its plusses and minuses, and I will never look at a zoo with the same eyes again.