It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American writer, teacher, journalist (1867-1957)

In winter’s chill or summer’s heat, a farmer works so the world can eat – Randy C. Frazier, Naturalist, park ranger, raised on a farm-author “What I’ve Learned from 9,000 Years of Farming”

You ever wonder why you live where you live? Last week it was cold and cloudy outside. The kind of day that you love to stay inside and catch up on things you need to get done. Or maybe you just need some time to stare out the window and watch the seasons change. Cedar trees are bowing with the wind while yellow daffodils push through the ground waving their blooms. I started thinking about life and land where I lived before and the land where I live now. Each location was in water-rich areas, with every home, apartment, or high-rise offered a close proximity to both rivers and lakes. Washington County provided Lake Ferguson and the Mississippi River. The Pearl River flows through the eastern border of Hinds County. Also, nearby is the Ross Barnett Reservoir. Multiple lakes are available in Oktibbeha County. Lowndes County offers the Tombigbee River and Lake Lowndes. The St. Lawrence Seaway in Canada was near my high rise.

Now my home is in the Prairie. At first it was both beautiful and scary. Coyotes howled in the night and were sometimes seen in daylight. Coyotes have also been called Prairie wolf. It could be a bit unnerving. Then came bobcats who like dense forests, swamps, and agricultural areas, mostly at night. You learn to hear the sounds of native critters, hawks and owls.

There’s beauty in Prairie land. There’s areas where land runs for miles. Look far enough, you’ll see slightly rolling hills, farmland, cows grazing, momma’s calving February-April, horses eating on haybales. There’s a good bit to see in the Prairie though you may find yourself riding down gravel roads. That’s just the way it is in the Prairie.

Farmland will be cultivating and getting ready to plant seed in row crops soon. It may be cotton, soybeans, corn, tobacco, rice, peanuts, sorghum, wheat, barley, millet, oats, or sweet potatoes and pecans. Planting hardy, cool season vegetables starts now-to-March.  Vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, leafy greens and by mid-March when the cold spell is over add tomatoes, okra, and peppers.

As for trees, forestry is an industry in Mississippi and is constantly ranked as one of the top three agricultural commodities in the state, reports the Mississippi Forestry Commission. The Black Prairie was not originally covered with solid dense forests but more like a treeless prairie grassland with scattered patches of trees. Much has changed as it always does. While the fields are not yet cultivated, they are covered by purple henbit. It’s not a nuisance, it’s a natural cover crop for soil health, providing erosion control, adding organic matter and serving as an early food source for bees. Prairie land has so much beauty, ever changing and ever growing.   

Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].