What Does the Fox Say?

It's been a crazy long time.
Crazy Long.

But now that we have an internet connection, well, here we go.

Things didn't pan out in Nebraska.  Maybe someday we'll write down everything that happened, but not now.
What now?  South Dakota.

Yep.  South Dakota.

We live just outside of Hoven.  (That's Northern South Dakota, in case you were wondering.)  And, despite being August, my kids put coats on when they went out to play this morning.  I can't complain too much though.  We've been here almost two weeks and I can already seem improvements on ol' NE.  There is slightly more variance in the landscape.  You know, instead of paper flat it's like blanket flat.  Still flat, but at least you can see things.  I'm also pretty surprised about the wildlife here.  In addition to the to-be-expected deer, we've seen frogs, foxes, turtles and a whole slew of birds, including heron and ducks and seagulls.  Seriously, seagulls.  We've got some marshy areas around plus a lake maybe 15 miles away.  That's our best guess as to why they'd be here.  I wouldn't have guessed that as a good enough reason, but there you go.
But I'm not gonna lie, I think the part that gets me to most are the foxes.  Have you ever heard a fox?  'Cause, despite popular media choices, they don't say "hockey hockey hockey po".  That first night was bizarre.  I had no idea what I was hearing.  That noise sounded like it should be coming out of the mouth of a baby moose.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Well, this Animal Planet post is pretty good for that.  You can hear different fox calls as well as an explanation for that "hockey po" bit.  I'll let you guess which fox calls I've been hearing.  

But, strangely enough, one of the biggest plusses has been the dirt.  Have you ever been grateful for the dirt?  I realize that farmers think about dirt a lot.  But do the rest of us?  Well, I didn't until Nebraska.  Let me tell you about Nebraska dirt.  It's pretty much a combination of sand and dust (which, as a side note, grows spurs and not grass).  And when it rains that leaves you with a combination of mud and quicksand.  Multiple times we were 'mudded in'.  Traipse up North a bit.  It's just dirt.  Virginia was clay.  Nebraska was sandy dust.  South Dakota has dirt.  Right now we could use some rain, so it's dry, but it's just dirt.  And it grows grass.  The kids were so excited when they could walk outside without being stabbed.  Totally not kidding.

Anyways, sorry I don't have pictures now.  But I'm thinking I need to pull out the camera again.  Every spring I used to go picture happy.  In Virginia at least.  Not in Nebraska.  But maybe in South Dakota.