pros and cons of rural living

[toddwulf]

We moved last July from Silicon Valley to the Sierra Foothills on 12 Acre's. Got a tractor and two horses. We started grading our property 9/10/01 and on 9/11/01, I was having a beer with my contractor and I felt that I was the luckiest guy on the earth as where I live now, no terrorist will bother with and if they do get to the upstream water supply, I'm on a well! We wanted the kid's to grow up in a more wholesome environment. The only con's I have are that I don't get to see the old freinds as often - Pop in for a beer-imprompptu BBQ etc...Driving the kid's to school is 12 miles from our temp rental, but as my wife say's, there are only two stop signs that whole distance and it takes the same time it took in Silicon Valley to go 2 miles! I'll never go back unless economics mandates it.

 

[Inspector507]

Mosey,
I only have 2 acres. The city limits is across the road, so I get no city water or sewer. I get pizza in 30 mins. And the beer store is 1.5 miles away. I have it all, almost.

 

[JoeR]

You put in words, exactly how I feel about living in the country. There is some sort of unusual freedom to walking around outside with coffee and in your underwear. As men, I guess we still have the urge to mark our territory! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif But I agree with the statement!

Joe R

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The best part, deer looking at you thru the dining room window, from the wife's flower garden, and a nesting pair of Great Horned Owls in the tree 40 feet from the house. Enough land so I can't see the highway in front of the house. Wife has 1500 sf of flower gardens to keep her out of what little hair I got left.
Worst part, the [censored] assessor just raised my assessment by 50%. It seems he can't understand I been here 50 years and am a farmer, not a [censored] recently arrived yuppie with a huge yard. Dang city folks keep moving in around me, and think they need sewers and water lines cause they are too stupid to pump a septic tank on a schedule. They also need more schools and services.
What's so hard about remembering to pick up what you need on the way home, and why ain't they smart enough to know they need cigaretts when they only have 2 left on the way home.
Neighbors, well, you gotta live here 20 years before we consider you moved in.

 

[TAB]

This is something we were just talking about today. I do like the quiet and the dark when it is night. Here is my 2 cents worth.
Pros: My favorite part of living in the country is that when you need some help there is always someone willing to lend a hand. Some of my neighbors have good sized farms for Michigan but most everyone has time to help others. The wild game dinners of venison, turkey, pheasant, turtle, fish and a keg of good beer aren't bad either.
Cons: Times that people from the city are hunting on our property and rudely tell me how they have permission. Having similier hunters shoot through the front of my house as they shot at a deer that ran across the road onto my property and then not understand why I was not happy with them.

 

[crown]

Mosey,
You must live in the same place I do your pros and cons are exactly the same as mine.

 

[Argee]

I have to go along with everybody on the pro's. Yes, living in a rural area one does have to plan ahead when going to town for provisions. Thats just common sense.

The Cons. I guess what bugs me the most is city folk moving into the area to get away from it all , then wanting the same services, noise ordinances, dog control, etc. that they had in the city. That just brings the city here. Before you know it everything they got away from moves next to them.

 

[RobS]

All my stuff is pretty well covered already, but I'll add this:

Pros: I can be as loud or as quiet as I want on my rural property.

Cons: So can the neighbors.

Big Pro: Even when the neighbors are being loud, the sound doesn't reverberate off a dozen other homes all stacked up against each other.

(I write this from our subdivision home where the punk kid two doors down is mindlessly revving his motorcycle just to hear it make noise... can't wait to move!)

/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Mosey]

Argee - " I guess what bugs me the most is city folk moving into the area to get away from it all … That just brings the city here. "

I agree Agree! Have you ever seen those real estate ads that say “country living with city convenience”? Some people just don’t get it and never will. It also reminds me of the song by the Eagles with the line “call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye”.

Rob –
"Pros: I can be as loud or as quiet as I want on my rural property.
Cons: So can the neighbors."

When I lived in the city I tried to do some metal fabrication. I had a bench just outside the garage and was grinding metal with an angle grinder. Neighbors gave me dirty looks for that. But, it seemed OK to them to let the dogs bark at night and keep me awake. At least I did my grinding during the day. Now I can grind all I want and nobody cares, and I don’t mind the neighbors doing their projects since they’re at least a quarter mile away. This is where more than just a few acres would be nice though. The 100 acre farm I grew up on was great, any noise the neighbors made was very very distant.

 

[rdln]

Oh, so your Cutter, I just loked at your bio. whats up? I remember one of your first posts about having a hole in the water in which money is poured./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif