Is Rural Living a Hobby?

[MossRoad]

That’s my definition of house guest!

MoKelly

They were a very nice old retired couple. He'd mow my side lawn to match his front yard and I'd shovel their sidewalks, driveway and alley in winter. Cocktails in the afternoon on the porch at their garage. Fishing some weekends. Drives in the country others. Really nice folks to us.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

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.

 

[JasperFrank]

MossRoad, you are a very lucky person. In the normal distribution of things, I have had terrible luck with neighbors. At best, I would say we are indifferent to three of them. Friendly, but not on close terms. The other five, all hate each-other even though none of our houses are close enough to each other to be a factor - though my direct neighbor is a fanatic about leaf blowing his driveway, and runs his insanely loud leaf blower for 6 hours every day in the fall, as he is doing right now, messing up a perfect fall day with this annoying back ground noise. And we have learned to never get involved with their squabbles or enjoin in some sort of alliance with any particular one.
I started out with the fantasy that rural neighbors, of course, would have a cohesive shared, "live and let live," attitude. This for us, didn't turn out to be the case. There is no sense of a shared community and everyone is out to maximize their own self interest. One neighbor, invites all his friends up the hill to spend two weekend days of target practice. Another has made what I have to call an ad-hock country club. In the summer there are 25 cars a day up and down the road of teenagers to use his Olympic sized pool that he has to run water trucks up, cause our wells are not very good. Another started a pot farm with seven perpetually stoned, budders, employees that are always getting stuck in the ditches, blocking the road and also runs propane, and port-a-pot trucks once a week. And another is a slum lord, with two rentals, and every few year, I get the police at my place, the driveways ARE confusing and the police are lost, at 2 Am, to serve an arrest warrant for some one I don't know. And they have guns at the ready, even though they are at the wrong place at 2 Am. A gate is in order. I still love living here, yet the honeymoon is over.

 

[jjp8182]

Not sure I'd consider it a hobby since (to me at least) the word "hobby" implies it's not a necessity ...and for me not being around too many people is a necessity. While I grew up on the outskirts of a moderate size city, the road I grew up on was ~2 miles of road cutting through farm country (much of it family owned) so there was quite a bit of land to run around on without having to worry much about other people's opinions or preferences (or actions in most cases).

So I was probably bordering on what some would consider a "feral child" in this decade, but it was fun growing up playing in the dirt, chasing squirrels & rabbits. However, I can also say that if you ever actually catch a rabbit (by hand) you're in for a surprise.

On the flip side, having been in and around large cities for work I can't say that I really enjoy many of the "pluses" that have been mentioned. If/when the rare occasion comes up that I want to go see some sort of cultural event I don't mind driving an hour or two (or even three) - if it's continuous driving at highway speeds (as opposed to sitting stopped on an interstate or other major roadway).

Of course, when it comes to restaurants there are few I've come across where I prefer their cooking over my own (and those few are usually worth a long drive to visit). There's just something about a good home cooked meal that tastes better than one that's made to assembly-line-like specifications (IMO). There's been more than once in the last 2 years since I met my (now) wife we've been out to eat at a restaurant and after she's taken a bite or two she'll stop, look at me and then tell me I've ruined it since my cooking tastes better than what she ordered.

Over the years I've realized I just can't stand the constant noise and press of people - at all. Granted the pure silence I experienced on trip into the Alaskan interior (for work) was almost unnervingly quiet (was a new experience hearing a commercial airliner at cruising altitude from the ground). Though it's something I could adapt to far more easily than the continuous cacophony of urban life (or even suburban life).

That's not to disparage city living - it's just not for me; especially not after growing up learning so many different aspects of different trades and rural living. HAs really left me with an attidue of "Why call someone when I can figure out how to do it myself?" (assuming I have the time) --and usually do it to a lower cost and better quality (I've seen how little pride in workmanship there is in many professions/trades).

Just my $0.02 though... and unfortunately I've got a great many more years to see rural places carved up and turned into housing developments for people who only want acreage for social status reasons....

 

[PuffyC]

They were a very nice old retired couple. He'd mow my side lawn to match his front yard and I'd shovel their sidewalks, driveway and alley in winter. Cocktails in the afternoon on the porch at their garage. Fishing some weekends. Drives in the country others. Really nice folks to us.

Must be nice. We share a road that has a painted wooden gate with a neighbor. The gate was falling apart and looked terrible. One day the whole gate section falls over in the middle of the road so we go out and reattach the gate, repair the wood, even give it a fresh coat of paint. Better than new we say to ourselves. The neighbors only comment was "gate wasn't good enough for you huh". Yeah, he was serious. This is the same neighbor who told us we needed to keep all the gates to our property closed so his animals wouldn't wander over onto our place. He was serious then too. I could go on like this all day.

 

[Oaktree]

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 a neighbor who lives too close. Waaay too close.

I've gotta say, (knocking on wood) that I've always had pretty good neighbors. Friendly, but tended to mind their own business. Can't really think of any who were annoying who stayed very long.

 

[MossRoad]

I do realize that my wife and I are very fortunate.

 

[California]

I inherited good neighbors from Dad along with this orchard. As I got to know them better I heard some funny stories. One time when neighbors had us over for dinner: "Did you have to come over and harvest apples with him, for him to give to his friends? He simply commanded us to help him, it wasn't negotiable!" "Yep". Sadly they moved to Hawaii a little later. Both had been stockbrokers who got rich quick. Then sailed a small boat around the world. Then bought the small farm near me and put in a small vineyard - a prediction of what was to come on nearly all my neighboring parcels. Then they moved on, also like many neighbors who have come and gone. Next owners were a DINK (double income no kids) couple, two women. Decent neighbors but little interest in becoming close friends. They eventually sold to same. These women are delightful neighbors. They bottle their own wine with big harvest parties of friends from the city (SF) and give us bottles (excellent wine!) in exchange for our pears and blackberry jam we share with them. Good folks.

Another neighbor, and friend of Dad's, asked if I still had the 100 lb TV/VCR/Radio combo. Yep, it's too heavy to move. Neighbor told me he was invited over then discovered this time it wasn't for a beer or something. Rather, Dad, then elderly, couldn't set it in place so he had this neighbor over to do it for him.

That neighbor and I maintained the easement out to the county road. But he finally moved away, because one summer his view out his front door changed from a beautiful old apple orchard to an absentee owned soulless vineyard with a high fence that claimed half the width of what had been an adequate country lane. Now I'm maintaining the easement alone because I'm the only one around here with a tractor and back blade.

Next owner there only stayed two years. Things like coyote howling frightening his little dog and mud in the lane were too 'country' for him.

Guy who owns that house now has a Subaru and Audi SUV, a Porsche in the garage, an immaculate recent model classic Morgan (like MG) in the garage, a small Airstream trailer, and they aren't there all the time. I think this is their weekend getaway. Nice decent people but I haven't found much to talk about beyond him thanking me for maintaining the lane.

A third neighbor here proudly told me he and Dad built twin apple presses, working together. Dad's unpasteurized apple juice had a powerful medicinal effect a few minutes after drinking a glass so that's a custom I haven't continued. Still friends with those neighbors. Wife was a school administrator and she knows everything about everybody around here.

Easement. Now half the width it was for 100 years. After the new vineyard was pushed to his legal boundary at the centerline of the lane. The vineyard (on the left) has now been sold to a second absentee owner. Not neighborly at all. I've never seen anyone but rarely laborers in there. Thankfully my place is well beyond this bottleneck.

Here's what's driving up prices around here. An hour north of San Francisco, just right for a weekend getaway if you're wealthy, or a Silicon Valley techie who can afford to work remote from anywhere.

 

[MossRoad]

Hang in there and keep your little orchard going. Maybe it's fortunate that the absentee folks stay absentee?

When I was a kid, my grandparents had a small cottage on an island in a lake about 35 miles north of here. There were about 60-70 houses on the island. It had a 4-car ferry that ran daily during the season. I got to go up there maybe twice a summer. Loved it. I had big plans when I turned 16 in 1977 to get a summer job at one of the marinas on the lake and live at the cottage. Maybe drive my grandpa's 62 Caddy around as well. The spring I turned 16, my grandpa got hit by a police car in Florida, totaling the Caddy (no injuries). Grandpa gave up driving after that. Then they came back for the summer and decided to sell the cottage and build a new house right next to ours. They were very happy that they bought the cottage for $8K in the 50's and sold it for $42K in '77 and built a brand new house for $42K. It was the first new house they had ever owned, and they were 89 and 81 respectively.

Today, that fishing shack and it's extra lot is pushing 7 figures.

 

[Frankenkubota]

neighbors to me are like employees.

lots of good ones out there but it's the 1 bad one that i tend to remember. 1 bad apple can do a lot of damage

my granny use to say, it only takes one bad apple. she was right.