Quiet

[r.man]

I was working in a new square timber off grid house this past week, I was the only one there, it is about 1 km from the closest highway and I stopped and realized there was absolutely no noise. Other than me moving once in a while and the slight noise of stripping wire and putting on connectors it was absolutely quiet. Very enjoyable. People seem to want noise around them all the time, music, tv, talk radio. Work noise is bad enough, carpenters were always banging away but it was spaced out, now the compressors run for long periods of time and turn new construction into one large oldtime sound box with me in it. Lots of noise around all the time without adding to it. Nice to enjoy the quiet in a day.

[JohnM]

That sounds wonderful, rman. ;)   Some ppl hate silence, personally I love it.

[sandhills]

Took my cousin out to check water for the cows late one night, she grew up in the city and commented on how eerie it was out there because of the silence, that sounded pretty strange to me until I thought about it a bit.  We lived right on the edge of town up until about a year ago, the jake brake sign was just past our driveway heading into town, I don't miss that one bit, now we're 1/4 mile off a road that only a few people use (mostly minimum maintanice anyway)  , I like quiet.

[Cedarman]

Stopped at the chalk cliffs in western Kansas one summer afternoon.  Temps in the 80's.  Only me there.  Total silence except for a few bugs zipping around once in a while and a cow or calf bawling in far distance.  Absolutely beautiful and very peaceful.  Staid a couple hours hunting for sharks teeth. (Didn't find any) And enjoyed the solitude.

[ancjr]

Sometimes out here, when you can catch a moment when the poultry barns aren't running their fans, no chainsaws are running, no one shooting and there is no traffic or wind... in the summer you only hear insects buzzing.  Winter, on really quiet days, it gets to where your own heartbeat and breathing seem ridiculously loud.

[jdtuttle]

That's one of the things about hunting I enjoy so much. Get in my tree stand an hour before sun up. Dead quiet, then just before light the animals start to wake up. First a couple birds come in, then squirrels, (squirrels make alot of noise) & if your patient deer come in. It's amazing how many deer I let walk & just enjoy watching them anymore. That is until I see a nice one.

[scgargoyle]

When we first bought our rural property, we were standing where our future living room would be, and I said to my wife, "Hear that?" She said, "What?" I replied, "Exactly!"

There's usually some kind of sound out here- bugs, birds, wind, etc., but nothing like the city.

[thecfarm]

Any home makes alot of noise too. When the power goes out,it gets real quite.

[Magicman]

Thanks for the reminder r.man.

I remember "camping out" when I was a youngster.  Total Quiet.  I can still hear that feeling early in the morning waiting for a turkey to gobble.   ;D

[justallan1]

I think the quiet is one of the nicest parts of a job on a ranch. I really enjoy going out on a Sunday in the spring looking for elk sheds. There are certain spots that I won't take my 4-wheeler, so I walk it. I'll get up on a ridge line and follow it, appreciating the beauty and listening to the sounds of whatever may be running about. Other times I'll park the bike near old homesteads and going poking around the homestead, the garbage pit and just walking around the general area to see what I find.
Some days I find things and some days not so much, other than a much needed day of relaxing out in the open air, enjoying the beauty of things.

Allan

[firecord]

I grew up two blocks from the inerstate. During the60s i cant rember hearing it cause they just built it and where we lived was the country.  In the 70s i colud hear some of it cause people were moving out and clearing.  In the 80s it got louder and continued to grow through the years. i now have a house less than 300 yards from it and cant hear it.  i also have a house 20 miles from town 8 miles through the woods north of the same highway.  I hear the trucks running up and down the road every time im there. wierd hunh.

[Chuck White]

Lot's of times if I'm home alone, I'll get on the computer (no tv or radio in the background) and realize that the only noise I'm hearing is the clicking of the keyboard keys!

Nice.

I also (in fair weather) like to take a coffee break on the back deck and just observe all that's going on in nature!

[ancjr]

Just thought of another quiet sound in nature... in the spring, just as our clay soil is drying out from the snow, you can hear a sound that is not unlike the sound of squishing a wet rag or sponge.  Dad always said it was the earthworms working, and it'd be my guess as well.

[r.man]

Hearing so many good stories has triggered another memory of a pleasant quiet time from about 10 yrs ago. I had hay baled and bunched in the field when I got an emergency repair call. After doing the call it was fully dark when I was passing by the farm and not knowing the weather forecast I decided to bring in the 100 or so bales that were out. I didn't realize until I got out of the vehicle that the moon was almost full so instead of loading by headlights I just drove from pile to pile and shut off the tractor to load by moonlight in the quiet. That is by far my favorite haying memory. It was a quiet cool and pleasant way to spend an hour in the evening and more than once I took a breather by sitting on a bale and watching the moonlit world around me.

[Al_Smith]

I have gotten so used to noise I have a hard time falling asleep in silence .The wierdest thing to me was 9-1-1 .not a plane in the air not a locomotive running hardly any truck traffic .Rather eerie actually .

[Wudman]

My most peaceful time is fishing at night by myself.  I so enjoy sitting in the middle of the lake in the peace and quiet, listening to the waves slap against the side of the boat.  My wife always says....."so and so will go with you"......she just doesn't understand.  I spend my days chasing problems and answering phones.  When I get a day off, the last thing I wan't is a cell phone close to me.  I look at most folks around me and the phone is in their hand all the time....not for me.  When we first met, my wife liked to go hunting with me, but she never understood why I never pulled the trigger.  The older I get, the more I enjoy the quiet.

Wudman

[47sawdust]

The quiet I enjoy the most is listening to my Percheron's eating hay in their stalls on a winter night after a foot of new snow.
Pretty close to being in church for me.

Merry Christmas to a great brotherhood!

Mick

[sawguy21]

I have lived in  the city most of my adult life, so used to noise I don't think much about it. I used to visit my mom at her acreage, couldn't sleep the first couple of nights because it was so quiet. A few cars on the road a hundred yards away, the odd farm dog barking and the coyotes singing were all I could hear. I could stand getting used to that.

[thecfarm]

Speaking of noise and how we get use to it. I grew up with a driveway about 40 feet long and a state highway with traffic going at least 50 mph.Then I moved to houses around me and speed limit 30 mph and no truck traffic. I would go visit my parents and think how loud it was. Now I have a 500 foot driveway and a dead end dirt road that I live on.

[red oaks lumber]

hard to beat  hearing nothing, i have coffee in the predawn mornings on my porch listening to nature waking up, just beatiful man! has to be about 45 deg. to sit out there.

[Roger2561]

When the weather gets warmer I'll have my morning coffee on the front porch listening to the creatures wake up.  I've visited many a city and enjoyed the visit but there is nothing like the quiet and solitude of country living.  My oldest brother recently moved back to the country after living nearly 40 years in NYC.  The first month he felt very uneasy due to the quiet and when the sun goes down, it's dark!  Approximately 2 months living in his new home he had the joy of listening to a pack of coyotes hallowing not to far from his house.  It scared the heck out of him.  Roger

[Holmes]

Merry Christmas to a great brotherhood!

Mick
[/quote]
                     That is one of the BEST descriptions I have heard of the Forestry Forum. Thank you for putting it in writing.   Merry Christmas to you and all

[Autocar]

Years ago we had a 4-H club on forestry and once we were on a feild trip behind my place and it was dead silence and I told the kids to stop and asked them what they heard and they said Nothing. I told them to remember this day because the day would come in there life that they would give anything to hear only silence. Something of the past in my area theres day that its tuff to hear a turkey gobble in a woodlot for the noise , it depends on the weather a lot of times.