I've been making an annual trek back to southern Wisconsin in June to visit family and friends for several years now. It's always refreshing coming from the plains states to this area of much higher annual rainfall as you can just feel the lush greenery that surrounds you everywhere you look. So after our spring chores were done around the yard we headed east once again to get in a visit before the flowers bloom at home.
On most visits at this time of year I try to stop in rural southwestern Wisconsin to visit my friends Tom and Mary at their Sand Hill farm. They bought this place in the mid seventies typical of farmsteads at that time with old buildings and a house that had served out most of it's useful years on 80 acres. However the setting is breath taking with both high and low ground and a spectacular ridge with old growth pines serving as sentinels of the valley. Home to white tail deer, turkeys and upland birds there's also a beautiful trout creek just across the road that winds through the valley to the south.
On this day my son Carson and I stopped to visit and enjoyed a cup of coffee with our old friends and they're weekend guests.The Setters were along resting in the air conditioned comfort of the van as the late morning temperature was already in the upper 70's. Everyone was then headed out after coffee for a walk through the property. Carson was going to walk down to the trout stream with his fly rod so I let the Setters out and quickly realized the heat was going to be to much for Molly now struggling with a tumor putting pressure on her right lung. I settled her in the shade and stayed behind with Mary as the crew headed off on the walking trails on this beautiful day.
Over the years Tom and Mary together have built a new house over looking the valley and planted thousands upon thousands of trees transforming this property into a post card vision of Wisconsin. We walked around looking at plantings and discussed the phenomenon of the sweet spot. That being finding just the right place for a plant species to grow and thrive. Mary has a gift for this as I pointed out several plants I had seen the year before now growing vigorously. But the subject of the "Sweet spot" stuck in my mind as this entire property is just that for my friends who have now put 40 years of their lives into making it what it is today. A place for them to thrive and experience all life has to offer.
We all need these places but they are different for each of us. It starts with a vision and an intuitiveness that draws us to them. Then once we're home as it were we embrace these places and are inspired by what they represent to us. Our lives are transformed by them and we in turn transform the places forever leaving our mark on the landscape in various ways.
Just a few years after my friends moved to their "sweet spot" I found mine 8 miles away to the northwest also in the rolling hill country of southwest Wisconsin. That place with a long lane a beautiful valley and a trout stream not far away was where the Setters were raised. It was certainly a "sweet spot" for young pups as we had a small wild pheasant population in the surrounding area and I kept quail and pigeons year round for all of our entertainment! The Setters tirelessly stalked the pigeons until they retreated back to their coop and kept vigil on the quail pen as part of the daily ritual.
I was drawn to this place. This "sweet spot". But as time went by and we traveled on our annual hunting trips to the western plains states I was enamored with the vision of my bird dogs casting about and coming to point in the wide open spaces. It was a beautiful and again inspiring experience that brought me a new vision and my intuition subsequently led me to yet another place. A new "sweet spot". The place we had called home for 30 plus years was now a barrier to where I now needed to be. With the Setters approaching their prime I realized I may never have the chance to train and develop a team of bird dogs with this potential again. I knew this journey I now found myself on was special. These Setters were all exceptional hunters. Beautiful animals and trusted companions. So we left that place where it all started and embraced a new spot in the bird country of North Dakota.
Several years into our journey together in this new "sweet spot" I have no regrets about moving on. No feelings of wanting to go back. Only the need to move forward seeking out the next "sweet spot".
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