Is Rural Living a Hobby?

[mapper]

Interesting thread, I grew up on a wooded mountainside outside of the city limits. Out back of my folks place was miles of rugged uninhabited forestland, a beach on Chuckanut bay was about a half mile walk away. I loved that place and found that I was not very comfortable living in town. I have lived where we are at now for 40 plus years now. It is a lifestyle with a lot of hobbies. It does keep us busy and out of trouble.
I couldn't imagine living in town let alone a big city. We have friends who lived in Seattle for many years, a few years ago they moved to New York. They love it, their hobbies are cooking, cocktails and entertaining.
It makes them happy and if we ever want to visit New York they will host us and show us a good time. We may do that, but we have absolutely no interest in living in a similar circumstance.
I love taking a walk around our property with my golden retriever pup and not having to worry about picking up poop, just consider it fertilizer for the pasture. Yes being able to pee outside is rather liberating.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I'm guessing that most suburbanites have a much longer than 7 minute commute, but I generally agree. Each has it's own set of advantages/disadvantages. Much as I like living in the sticks, it would be nice not to have to drive an 1.5 hr + each way to get to a store that isn't called Walmart.
The small town I live in has no industrial/retail base, so my property tax rate isn't much lower than I paid when I lived in suburbia, but except for road maintenance we have almost no town services. Even town hall is only open a few hours a week.

Wow, on the East Coast that puts you in a different state, maybe two! What happened to all the competition? In my area, there are two Bi-Mart stores within 20 miles. That's an employee owned membership discount store that has been in business far longer than Wally World. We have grocery stores that are less expensive than Walmart and have a much larger selection. We can always go to Costco to save money on major purchases. I haven't set foot inside a Walmart in over a decade. The huge store is inconvenient and they are not very competitive either in price or service.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Chinese and Thai food! Pizza delivery! The Blue Jays! The Old Spaghetti Factory!

Any small town around here offers Thai, Chinese, Mexican, Indian, Greek, Italian, and Japanese cuisine. Even with pandemic shutdowns, they seem to be hanging on with delivery and take-out meals. The only thing I can't find locally is a decent Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. If I want one I have to grill it myself, because nobody seems to know what they should taste like. I have learned to order a Reuben instead.

I feed birds, so have lots of corvidae. I call the blue jays my Air Force. You can't get within 50 yards of the house without the jays sounding an alarm. We also have crows and ravens.

 

[MossRoad]

I dunno, I know more of my neighbors here than I ever did in suburbia, and have only been here half as long.

At our rural property, there are no neighbors. None. Just fallow land, woods, a few farm fields.

 

[MossRoad]

We want to know the story on number ten!

For me, at this stage of life rural living is just living. I barely have time to keep the place maintained, let alone do fun projects. That will change eventually and I do like being in the country, even though the city is rapidly encroaching.

She lives on painkillers and alcohol (her words, not mine.) More tragedy and drama that I shouldn't go into. Even she, in that past 5-6 years, has quieted down. There's now a mutual detente between her and the rest of the block.

 

[CoryB]

We have lived outside of cities since about 1984. Not too far, but not in the city itself. But, as always happens, the city kept encroaching. It got progressively shorter distances to get places, but took longer to get there.

A few years ago we moved out of the city again. This time though, we’re on 50 acres in a rural county. Our closest neighbor is 15 acres away. We’ve spent more time talking, visiting, and helping each other out in the last 4 years with them, than we did in the previous 29 years in the old neighborhood. Folks out here are just friendlier. We have 4, soon to be 5, houses on our private dirt/mud road. I fear that more will come eventually, but our area is zoned A-20, so a minimum of 20 acres per lot is required.

I ride through the old neighborhood periodically and it’s a mess. Road construction has been ongoing for over 3 years with no end in sight and more houses/condos/apartments are springing up all over.

I couldn’t be happier with where we are now.

 

[Oaktree]

What happened to all the competition? In my area, there are two Bi-Mart stores within 20 miles. That's an employee owned membership discount store that has been in business far longer than Wally World. We have grocery stores that are less expensive than Walmart and have a much larger selection. We can always go to Costco to save money on major purchases. I haven't set foot inside a Walmart in over a decade. The huge store is inconvenient and they are not very competitive either in price or service.

Around here there never really was any. Most of the towns here aren't large enough to support more than one of any given type of store, though Littleton (maybe 40 min away) does have both a HD and Lowes right next to each other. The Walmart there only has a couple of aisles of food...mostly canned/packaged goods and dairy items. Berlin has one a bit larger, but they're the only grocery store in town now.

Never even seen, much less been inside a Costco...they don't seem to have much of a presence in New England. There are a couple BJ's and a Sam's club, but they're both far enough that any savings will be eaten up by gas.

If nobody wanted to live in the cities, and everyone wanted the rural lifestyle, then our rural life style would probably be ruined. Lets be glad that some (make that most) people like to live in the city.

It'll be interesting to see how many of those who moved to the country in the midst of all the covid crap stay. I've read that there's already a migration back. Hopefully, the over-inflated real estate prices return to something more normal when they do. There's a piece of property down the road a bit from me, 4 acres, half of it swamp that didn't sell in the time I've lived here for $30k, now they're asking twice that.

It's really totally different types of people who go for rural vs city life, and if you enjoy the amenities the city has to offer, you're going to be bored out in the sticks once the novelty wears off.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

At our rural property, there are no neighbors. None. Just fallow land, woods, a few farm fields.

Of course there are neighbors. They may be a mile or so away, but that is what rural neighbors are. Distant. I talk to my neighbors once a year or so. Just last month I found out one household had 100% Covid-19 infection, thanks to one squirrely daughter who practices homeopathy but doesn't realize all vaccines are homeopathic. Like all good rural neighbors, they are distant, so I never was at risk for infection.

 

[MossRoad]

Of course there are neighbors. They may be a mile or so away, but that is what rural neighbors are. Distant. I talk to my neighbors once a year or so. Just last month I found out one household had 100% Covid-19 infection, thanks to one squirrely daughter who practices homeopathy but doesn't realize all vaccines are homeopathic. Like all good rural neighbors, they are distant, so I never was at risk for infection.

At our first house, if I was eating breakfast in the kitchen, and the window was open, and my spoon went 'clink' in the bowl, my next door neighbor, sitting in his kitchen, eating his breakfast, would ask me "Whatcha havin for breakfast?" I'd reply "Cereal." He'd reply "Irene made pancakes. Want some?" And I'd walk out my back door and into their back door and eat some pancakes with them, then go to work.

That's my definition of neighbor.

 

[MoKelly]

At our first house, if I was eating breakfast in the kitchen, and the window was open, and my spoon went 'clink' in the bowl, my next door neighbor, sitting in his kitchen, eating his breakfast, would ask me "Whatcha havin for breakfast?" I'd reply "Cereal." He'd reply "Irene made pancakes. Want some?" And I'd walk out my back door and into their back door and eat some pancakes with them, then go to work.

That's my definition of neighbor.

That’s my definition of house guest!

MoKelly