Since moving to Columbus, I have struggled with the hustle of city life and find myself longing for the quiet pace that I had in the mountains. I am a very adaptable person though and am able to bloom where I'm planted but my soul needs that space away from everything to clear my head once in a while. So, I often head to the trails in the woods and keep a close eye on poison ivy while listening to the sounds around me. Is it just me or has poison ivy taken over the state of Ohio? Recently, at my water aerobics class, a gentleman named Lou, was telling me about his farm and how a peacock appeared one day and prefers to live on top of his Mercedes. I asked if he had horses and he replied yes and that he also has some beautiful falling down barns. Promptly, I blurted out, "Can I come take pictures?!" Why yes of course I can and bring the kids! So that is what I did that very evening.

The directions there were not hard and I was able to see some countryside that I hadn't ventured along before. We pulled into his driveway which had a closed gate. How giddy were we to jump out of the van and manually push the gate aside! What a thrill! A simple task like that was maybe a pain to farmers who constantly have to assure there is no exit for their farm animals; but for us, it put smiles on our faces knowing we were about to leave our stresses behind. We drove in and promptly jumped back out to close the gate, yet more smiles:)

As we drove along the driveway, past the sheep and barns, I felt lighter and lucky for this little adventure.

Lou has 250 acres on his farm so we jumped on the "Gator" to go looking for the cows.

Lou and his wife were so kind to invite us out for the evening. They filled me bags of fresh lettuce and collard greens that the kids helped pick from the garden and encouraged me to stay and enjoy a glass of wine. Oh how I wanted to stay longer but after our joyride through the countryside of plants and weeds as high as our chests, Ethan had a major allergic reaction to something growing out there. His eyes were itchy and swelling up and he couldn't stop rubbing them. I thanked them profusely for their kind invitation and rushed to the nearest pharmacy back in town. At 9:00 pm, we ran through the grocery store just as the pharmacist was leaving. She looked at Ethan and grabbed me some Benadryl and anti-itch eye drops. Thank you!! Oh well, it was all worth it Ethan assured me.