On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
patrick II
I was born in Northwest Indiana, the industrial region of the state bordering Lake Michigan and along the east side of Chicago. I spent the first five years of my life in a small neighborhood in East Chicago one block away from Youngstown Steel and across the street from American Steel. You might say that the air we breathed was rich in iron.
When I was five my family moved to a working-class town eight miles south of the mills. Back then working class meant steady work for dad, union pay, and healthcare. The schools were excellent. Looking back, in the context of the time, we were pretty privileged kids. My wife and I left there nearly fifty years ago.
This past year I decided to move back to the region (“The Region” is the name the farmers in the rest of Indiana dismissively call our industrial area), and by some quirk my wife and I happened upon a home on a small lake adjacent to a nature preserve which we were lucky enough to buy.
The Nature Preserve
We live next to the Hoosier Prairie Nature Preserve which was dedicated in 1977. As suburbs and ancillary small industry spread through Lake County, the wet, sandy soil, small ponds and lake saved it from being developed just long enough for its value to be recognized and saved. The preserve consists of nearly 2,000 acres – land put aside to save some of the last unique biodiversity of the Indiana prairie, preserving 350 uncommon or native species of plants. There is just one trail through part of the park, the rest is left to nature. I like the idea of these small put-asides and wonder how many of them there are in the country.
The small eleven-acre lake is at the edge of the Nature Preserve. I fished here as a boy when it was completely surrounded by prairie. About three-quarters of the lake extends into the preserve. A clever local developer deepened the lake and put a concrete embankment around the edge. The lake has a well and water is pumped in if the water level gets to low, and is attached to storm drains for when the level gets too high.
Our new house is a nice split level. The lakeside back wall has windows or a sliding glass door. Most of the pictures that follow were taken from inside the house.
It Snowed the night we moved in. The next morning we received our first visitor – a beautiful and curious young doe.
During the winter the deer came out mostly at night. They seemed to like the grass in my backyard. They disappeared in spring, I assume to have their babies. Just this past week (the end of July) I saw a group of them again out back with a couple of young fawns now old enough to visit the neighbors. I missed getting their picture.
When the ice clears 5” in depth, ice skating is allowed. The kids on the lake get on their skates and sometimes a hockey game breaks out.
We had two geese hanging out in our backyard in March. We named them George and Gracie. They were fun to watch, but we soon learned that they are like cleaning up after about four fifty-pound dogs. They disappeared later in the month. We heard that someone had shot one of the geese and we were afraid it was Gracie – but she and George show up again with young ones in tow
I promised Raven that I would show him a top blue gill fisherman the next time I posted about our home on the lake. Here he is. This is Jake, a Great Gray Heron who, if you get up early enough in the morning, can often see fishing in our back yard. I see some people fishing here, but none as successful as Jake. The morning I took these pictures he caught two nice bluegill in about five minutes.
Breakfast for Jake
Goodbye.
Elizabelle
Love these.
VeniceRiley
Lovely
satby
Lovely setting! I had no idea you were so close to where I live.
eclare
What a great backyard!
p.a.
👍
raven
Thanks!!!!
raven
Here’s Bohdi and a heron at the beach.
Jack Canuck
I’ve driven past there quite a few times, but didn’t know about the nature preserve. My mom has a house outside of Crown Point very near by. She also has deer regularly show up on on the lawn and takes pictures to share with her grandchildren.
Geo Wilcox
We live in southern Indiana, in between Cincinnati and Indianapolis. We bought 22 acres of farm land and converted it to a nature preserve 24 years ago. The stuff I see outside my windows is about the same as your pictures but no other houses can be seen.
Our land is in the hollow, a small valley carved out by Salt Creek where the bank is full of fossils from 445 million years ago. Every season it is gorgeous and solitary, we are at the end of a dead end road and the only traffic is the neighbors’ cars and delivery trucks. I wish it were in a blue state but that’d be cost prohibitive and honesty with Covid flying around I never go out so I never see my red right wing nut case neighbors in town.
patrick II
@satby:
I haven’t lived here long. It is Highland, IN by the way. So, you live nearby?
WereBear
It looks lovely. I’m glad.
patrick II
@raven:
That is a handsome dog. We have a little Schipperke staying with us.
patrick II
@WereBear:
Thanks to you and others above.
WereBear
Also. Living in a wilderness area myself, there’s too many deer and they ate all my flowers this summer, so yeah, I’d rather they stay at a distance.
patrick II
I am not always quick enough with my camera. Particulary during migration season we get a lot of animals here. We had a flock of about 35 Cromorants taking a couple of weeks of from their journey and fishing in our lake. I saw two beautiful Bufflehead ducks for a couple of days. They are very small, beutiful mostly black ducks that dive for insects, mollusks, and small invertabrae. I had to look them up to know. Anyhow, I say this beautiful little duck diving and actually after I looked him up was the first time I knew some ducks are mostly carnivorous. Though they do eat seeds. A coyotes have come through the back at night, There was a mink living under my neighbers paddle boat for a short while. A couple of seagulls circle the lake, spiraling in from the edge and diving for fish. It is quite beautiful to watch. I lived in Virginia Beach befor here and the seagulls mostly were scavengers of tourist trash. It is nice to see them do what they are meant to do beautifully. Plus we the usual squirrels and rabbits. My desk sits beside glass doors that lead outside and I have my cell phone/camera sitting here beside me right now and that is where these pictures come from.
I go swimming in the lake sometimes. but just getting up and looking at leaves me in a peaceful mood. Finding this place was a very nice surprise.
Baud
@patrick II:
It’s very nice.
patrick II
@WereBear:
You can look up on google the flowers they don’t like — daisies is one and daffodil another, and there are others. They definitely like green beans though, as those have disappeared from the garden.
patrick II
@Baud:
Thanks Baud. I am thinking of getting some of those pictures of the egret catching breakfus, blowing them up and putting them on the wall near the entrance. I just really like them and think they would make a cool first sight as you came in.. My wife is less entranced. She is an artist, so I guess I will lose that one.
patrick II
@Geo Wilson:
The northwest here is the blue part of the state. We elect the democrats to both the state and national house. So there are plenty of democrats here, but the republicans can be pretty rabid. I saw demonstrations with “jail Fauci” signs at the old county court house (that Dillinger famously escaped from. You should sendin some pictures of your wilderness homestead.
patrick II
Looking back at some of my comments here, they are pretty disjointed in places. Sorry, I just woke up and was suprised (and pleased) to see this posted so my writing is a little foggy in places. The animal life is a real treat for me, the deer and heron particularly. They are so graceful. It also gives me a deeper appreciation of the complexity and beauty of nature that I had kind of lost track of. Life blends together in this beautiful and complex way.
A boy caught a 14 cat and a five pound small mouth bass. We through the fish back in, except for Jake. He keeps his.
patrick II
@Jack Canuck:
Stop by some time and have a beer. What kind do you like?
satby
@patrick II: South Bend. I drive through to Chicago to see friends or my kids there about once a month.
@Geo Wilcox: And I probably pass right by you on 74 to go visit the other kid in Lexington a couple times a year!
Hoosierspud
@satby: South Bend is my home town.
Hoosierspud
@patrick II: Growing up in St. Joseph County, I remember that Republicans often had a hard time fielding candidates to run. The Democrats pretty much had a lock on everything.
MelissaM
I like the heron breakfast pics!
Re. geese, our park district had a cull in 2020 which was hotly debated by some. I found the information the district dumped interesting and compelling for the cull: geese can poop 1-2 pounds a day. When you have 150 geese in a park, that’s well over 150 pounds of poop every. stinking. day. We won’t get into how they destroy the vegetation around the ponds and ruin the pond aquaculture.
WaterGirl
@eclare:
Nominated for deliberate understatement of the year.
WaterGirl
@raven: Beautiful picture, beautiful memory. (tears welling up)
WaterGirl
@WereBear: Frustrating. For me this year it’s been the (mostly baby) bunnies eating everything in sight. Colorblends has a number of deer-resistant tulips if you want to try again.
WaterGirl
These posts about your new home are so lovely. Maybe we’ll have another one sometime? :-)
patrick II
@WaterGirl:
If I get some pictures people might like. Thanks again Watergirl.
joel hanes
Heavily sprinkling deer-favored plants with cayenne pepper protects them, and doesn’t seem to hurt the plants.
After a couple experiences, the deer become somewhat more reluctant to try them, and so you can probably get away with a day or so delay restoring the pepper after the rain.
The deer in my mom’s backyard love to chomp her hostas and impatiens, and I have been successfully using this method to protect them.
cain
Lovely!
I also grew up in NW Indiana – although it was West Lafayette, IN. I still enjoy that town when I come and visit my parents. It was such a great place to grow up. I grew up with American traditions like drawing up and taking down the flag, folding it correctly etc.
Indiana conservativism back then felt a lot more healthy – than the MAGA crap that has happened now.
BigJimSlade
Was the heron using worms for bait? Ba-dum-pssss.
Seriously, I’m always surprised a bird can fly after swallowing a big fish.
Munira
Enjoyed these. It’s makes such a difference to live in a place where you have easy access to nature.
patrick II
@BigJimSlade:
I am surpised he gets it down through that slender neck.
Gravenstone
@patrick II: Jake sends his back too. After he’s done reprocessing them.
Tehanu
Nice pix, thank you.