All and all, the strangest part of my trip was the sleeping arrangement. I didn’t have much money but if I’d had money I wouldn’t have missed sleeping with chickens one night and with fish on another.
The first evening I was taken to an ancient and tiny white clapboard house that was tightly crowed inside with the living accessories and projects of its owner Iva Lou. Iva Lou was then in her eighties, easy to be with as though I’d known her always and in who’s honor I’ve named a dragon Iva Lou the dragon is a main character in many of my children’s books. See “Dragon’s Tale” and the series ‘Leafman Attacks‘ books on Amazon.com.
My brother was soon to marry Iva Lou’s granddaughter and those two women cleared a small area of floor for my sleeping bag up against a heat lamp and box of newly hatched chickens. What my sleeping lacked in darkness it more than made up for in lullabies.
The next night was a little dimmer but just as noisy when I slept on my bother’s living room floor. A street light illuminated the couch against one shoulder and a large sized wading pool touching the other shoulder, with its insistent bubbler.
In the pool were trout! My brother was so happy to host me because those fish needed a baby sitter, “Trout love to jump,” he said instead of good night, “so if one jumps out of the water just wet your hands, find him in the rug, and toss him back in.”  I couldn’t sleep for worrying.  nancymauerman.com