This May Explain Some Things

I live in Indiana now, and I love it here, but I am not a native Hoosier.

I'm from Pleasant Hill, Ohio, home of the Aqua Silo.

(The locals call it "P. Hill" - There are a lot of farmers in P. Hill and they can't be bothered with unnecessary syllables. And, like any good townspeople would do, we follow suit.)

This statue is smack dab in the middle of town. The town itself is one mile by one mile long. For most of my growing up years, it was a one stoplight town, but I think there may be two now.

This quaint, irksome statue has been the catalyst of many a fender bender, over the years. And in the ultimate, much-buzzed-about act of defiance, someone painted his face blue when I was in high school. Rumor had it that my brother may or may not have been involved, but nothing was ever substantiated. Plus, my brother would not have done something like that. Nope. He was too busy jumping into the river from the Penny Rd. bridge.

I'm much enamored of these quilt murals. I would love to have one on my barn someday, and I think my Amish kin would be tickled pink.

And I, too, would hang a light overhead and plant a wheelbarrow beneath.

Sugar Haven Farm.

Would it be wrong to plagiarize the name of a farm? Is it illegal to carry a farm name across state lines?

As I wandered around my old stomping grounds, I was at peace. I realized that I took all of this for granted, when I was younger. I wasn't one who dreamed of escaping my small-town existence, but I had no idea that the country way of life had taken root so deeply within me.

I had no inkling, back then, that I would ever swerve to the side of a lonely road just to photograph rows of corn.