Minnesota Prairie Roots

We met an occasional vehicle on our country drive southeast of Faribault, Minnesota.

I ABSOLUTELY, UNDENIABLY needed this. To drive into the countryside on a Sunday afternoon. To get away. To view the greening of the land. To forget for a half hour about the realities of life. To focus on nature. To photograph rural Minnesota.

We drove past farm sites.

Past lovely barns…

Clouds and cold weather defined Mother’s Day in southern Minnesota.

And that’s exactly what Randy and I did mid Mother’s Day afternoon, aiming southeast of Faribault to follow back country gravel roads. My sense of direction doesn’t exist. I trust Randy to steer us onto roadways that fulfill my need to go at a leisurely pace, to stop when I see something I must photograph, to appreciate the details of place.

Following gravel roads. Up and down.

Occasionally the cloud-heavy sky spit rain onto the windshield as we dipped up and down, hilltops offering sweeping vistas of a lush landscape.

We spotted corn coming up in this field along 250th Street East southeast of Faribault.

Corn popped green, curving rows into one field.

Chickens strayed from a farm site across the road to a field.

Those chickens seem so small in the vastness of farm fields.

Rogue chickens paused in another field to observe us while I swung my lens to photograph them.

An old farm site along 233rd Street East.

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a gas barrel like this.

At one point, atop a hill, we studied a farm site below with broad barn, weathered corn crib and a red gas barrel next to an aged shed. Such building sites remind me of yesteryear, when an assortment of small structures defined a farm place.

That baby goat wanted so badly to scale that rock, without success.

Even the adult goats are cute.

And then, the road curved, leading us to the sweetest surprise of the drive—goats, fenced on both sides of the roadway. Windows rolled down, we heard their plaintive baa and watched as a baby goat struggled to climb a rock. I ooohed and aaahed over the cuteness of these goats.

Spring blooms, finally, in southeastern Minnesota.

Too soon we headed back to town. Randy needed to light the charcoal grill to smoke and cook a pork roast for supper. A Zoom call with family awaited us, too. But, in that short time, I found exactly what I needed—a joyful, therapeutic and sweet escape into the southeastern Minnesota countryside.

© Copyright 2020 Audrey Kletscher Helbling