Every place I’ve lived in Southern Illinois I’ve always been within earshot of a distant train—or better yet, coyotes.
Tim (my husband, singer-songwriter Tim Crosby) got me a couple trail cams for my birthday. Best. Present. Ever.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so excited about chicken-eating predators so near our free-range chickens. But I am. A bobcat!!
When I lived at Broken Branch with Merlin and Crocodile and Odin (horse, horse, dog, respectively) and my son was little, the barn door had blown down—and that was most of the wall. Before my then-landlord set it back on track, a bobcat moved into the barn. I never saw her, but neighbors did. I heard her one night—an unearthly screech! The neighbor suggested I call the IDNR, maybe have her removed. “No way,” I said. “I have no ‘possums, no raccoons, nothing in the barn.” She wouldn’t hurt the horses. So we had a nice relationship for a while.
Underhill, though, our home now is a berm home across from the Shawnee National Forest. A creek circles most of the back pasture where eventually we’ll have horses again. We’ve got lots of neighbors we never see. Enjoy!