For those of us middle-aged folks who grew up in the Midwest, we remember summers full of catching fireflies (lightning bugs), hearing the deafening chirps of the cicadas, and seeing the evening air thick with swarms of insects. We’d even pick monarch caterpillars off the milkweed on the side of the garage, put them in an acrylic cage, feed them, and watch them turn into butterflies in our bedroom.

Where did that all go? The ditches at night used to look like the stands during a Super Bowl halftime show. Now, everyone has perfectly manicured, single-species lawns and cars drive up and down the streets, seemingly all night long.

I’m going to answer my own rhetorical question with: pollution. Light pollution, indiscriminate insecticide spraying, and habitat destruction might have something to do with it, I would guess.

We really don’t cross paths with many creatures in our little slice of suburbia. It’s dull and uninspired. It was rather eye opening when our 8 year old was downright awestruck by an empty snail shell we ran across on our first hike through the woods. It was empty! My first thought was, “We gotta get this kid out more.”

We treasure all the creatures we encounter at our property, big and small. They’re all part of the cycle. We want diversity, we want all life to flourish, and we want to create a sanctuary for them. Ok, maybe not the mosquitoes and ticks so much, but I’ll share more on that later.

It makes us smile when we take a step and we see something hop or fly out of the corners of our eyes. Some of us startle more than others, but it’s nice to see we’re not the only animals out there.

My dad is a bit of a herpetologist. The first time we saw a snake on the property, it disappeared before we could get our phones out to snap a picture, but we got a good enough look at it to identify it as a smooth earth snake. Dad’s response was: “Cool. Now find another one.” I’m not sure what species we’re supposed to be looking for next, but at least we were able to nab a picture of a garter snake for him.

All the different calls from the birds, frogs, toads, and insects makes us forget where we are in time. We imagine it sounding the same a hundred years ago. No horns, no squealing tires, no sirens, no garage doors, no bass. Just nature.

Our son loves how some animals can camouflage themselves. I’m mildly concerned he’s going to figure out that he can camouflage himself too and scare the snot out of us!

Not all of the creatures we encounter are still alive. In fact, there’s quite a lot of evidence of former life. The bright white color of bones stands out among the green or brown, depending on the season.

Even though we see evidence of former life, we also get to see evidence of future life. We love seeing the tadpoles in the creek and pond in the spring, and we encounter caterpillars from time to time.

Hopefully we’ll catch a glimpse of that moth flying around. Maybe another link between our healthcare lives and our homestead lives is that we see both life and death. We witness the whole cycle as it continually repeats itself. Past life gives way to new life, and we will continue to embrace that revolution while building our modern homestead.