Will Taking Care of Acreage Get Old?

[uppermich]

I agree with all. I've lived in the country for more than 20 years and I couldn't stand city or even small town living. My friends all try to convince me to sell and move into town; that I have too much to take care of. Well, there is a lot to take care of, but out in the country, you're not so fussy. i.e. I mow quite a bit, but that's all I do for the lawn. It sure isn't what city folk would call lawn - it's just green! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Also learned to try to keep obstructions out of the way so I can mow about 3 or 4 acres in an hour or so (18 Hp 42" cut mower).

I've had a tractor for 10 years, but just got my Kubota 3 weeks ago. Now I have a 3 pt hitch and the implements to really do the things I've been wanting to do. It's amazing how much you can accomplish with the right tools and how easy it is. The place was overgrown a bit 10 years ago when I bought it. I had to pull brush with a chain and drag it to the brush pile, remove the chain and struggle to get it on top of the pile. Now I do it all from the tractor seat! How could this get old????

Just bought 2 piglets yesterday; more to take care of, but come April when I'm enjoying the pork, the "work" won't seem like anything.



Pat (Techno-Tractor Mom)

 

[ERNIEB]

I love living out here, I like being outdoors and working outdoors. I wouldn't have it any other way. Sure I get behind on taking care of it, but as Pat has said, you tend to get a little less fussy. Bird brought something up that hits home for me. My wife likes the peace and quiet of life out here, but is not an outdoor person. She could never manage this place should something happen to me. I got some time(I hope) to think about it, although I really don't want to. I don't have a clue what I'll end up doing.
ErnieB

 

[M. Sullivan]

Can't see it getting old. As a city boy, we dipped our toes into rural living about 7 years ago. After a couple years wanted more land (=work!) and to get further out from the suburban chaos. Now when I visit friends/relatives can't believe we ever lived there. Have 2 little ones (+1 on the way) and must say I'd live in a box if that's what it took to have them grow-up away from daily (sub)urban influences. Drive extensively for $$, but everyday when I get home I feel like I'm on vacation. Better have a very good reason to get me out of here on the weekends.

Taking care of the property is just another bonus imo. Have a couple neighbors in their golden years and see how fit they are--must be the water! One is 90 and still farms his 300A just for kicks. Personally, I'm hoping that down the road I can get bigger equip. and have the luxury of spending even more time setting-up the place the way I want it. Found many country newbies feel the same--only frustrations with respect to their property (outside of trespassers this time of year) is it's too small. Ditto their toys.

Heck, I'd even like to see daylight saving time abolished to provide even more time to play outside!

 

[gerard]

Born and raised in New York City with a 10 x 10 patch of grass we called a lawn. Moved to upstate NY and thought we had acreage in the suburbs on a 1/3 acre lot! Enjoy having neighbors further away as I get older and don't see that changing. If it does i'll be the first one to know and I'd just reverse the process and move back to the burbs! I don't foresee it though. I echo the other sentiments so far. Just want to be able to get bigger equipment as I get older. I buy hay from my neighbor up the road and he still does that + a full time job. He's only 80. Must be something to be said for staying active and you certainly do that in the country!! Rember - you can always move back but I think it would be a hard move for me!!

 

[Wingnut]

Alan,
I had to downgrade from 80 acres (and complete privacy) to 8 acres (and close neighbors) when I got transferred to Michigan .... but we didn't - for one second - think about city living! The work on an acreage is a pleasure ... not a chore ... and you get used to the routine real quick. In fact, you miss it when you're away.
My wife and I just returned fropm a (business and pleasure) trip to Paris ... and I'm glad to be back ... just so I can stop having to listen to the whining about cities, crowds, etc .... and this from a gal who lived in Texas towns and cities until I married her and moved her to the wilds of Alberta. She says she's never coming along on another business trip to Europe unless we spend the time touring the country instead of a city!
Heck, in a city ... I'd have no excuse for a lawn tractor and an ATV and a tractor and a snowmobile and all those other toys ... nor anywhere to use them.
Believe me ... it won't get old.
What does seem to get old is ferrying kids to town for sports, events, school outing and all that ... which is usually why you see acreages going to "older" families ... too much stress on young families.


too bad that common sense ain't

 

[JimBinMI]

Wingnut,

I'm on 8 acres in Michigan too! You hit the nail on the head about ferrying kids! I'm in the Northeast corner of my township and it's a 20 mile round trip to the kid's schools, high school and jr. high are right next to each other...the elementary was closer about a 5 mile round trip!
We've got about 6 more years of the 20 mile round trip, I think we can hang in there! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I grew up in a small town, two doors from the elementary, two blocks from the jr. high and one block from the high school. One thing about being in town, there was always someone to play with, friends, etc. And you could ride your bike anywhere. Out here, the speed limit on my road is 55. Still, I really like the roominess of being out a little bit with fewer neighbors. And what others have said about sometimes you let somethings go...I only trim mow about every other time, unless we're having planned company. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

JimBinMI

 

[glennmac]

This is a great question that I also have pondered after all the time and money I have spent on tractoring since this summer. I will re-post the following message which I posted in a short NH thread last summer discussing our favorite thing about tractorining, and which I hope remains true as I grow older:

"Land is unique among all things; it is forever.

I grew up in NYC and always hated yard work. When I bought my first house in Austin, Texas, I had a yard. Every weekend I sweated in the 98 degree heat--never 100, never 95, always 98--mowing and trimming and edging my 1/3 acre, and hated it. Absolutely hated it. Vowed I would never do yardwork again. That was 1979.

Later, when living in Malibu and San Jose, California, and in Woodstock, NY, I deliberately had small yards that my wife mowed. In Tallahassee, we had an acre and hired someone. Hated it; avoided it.

Bought 10 acres here in CT in '91 and hired someone to cut one acre of lawn and let everything else go wild until last year. Then we bought another acre adjacent to our front lawn to prevent a house from being built. Paid through the nose and had a one acre lawn installed.

The bargain I made with the Financial Devil to purchase the land is that I would stop hiring out the work and do it myself. I dreaded it. Hated the thought.

Bought a DR brush cutter and swappable lawn deck. Started brush cutting by my creek because that seemed more interesting than lawn mowing. Last summer WE had the drought and heat wave. It took me seven full days in 90 degree weather to cut two acres of 10' tall phragmites and brambles.

I liked it. I looked forward to it. I took off days from work to brush cut. I mowed. Didnt like it as much as brush cutting, but looked forward to it too. Realized I had the wrong tools and began thinking about a small tractor.

Why do I like it? How did revulsion become attraction? What changed?

I think it is feeling at one with the land, the eternal thing. It is MY land. I am changing it. Improving it. I am proud.

I feel that I am involved in the process of creation."

Glenn

 

[MJB]

Was your love of working the land tempered by the experience of sinking your Kubota? I am sure I am not the only one waiting with much anticipation to read about the sinking of the SS Glennmac./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I once lost my JD 440 bulldozer in a mudhole deep enough to make me question exactly why I wanted to do the land clearing work myself. I was lucky that the place where I sunk the dozer was within the cable reach of the 10 wheel tow truck that pulled it out. About a hundred dollars for the tow truck and 4 hours of "quality time" with my pressure washer later I was back in business./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[RobS]

Glenn, I think I read this when you posted previously and enjoyed it as much this time around. The only thing I'd add from my experiences is that having the right tools (tractors in this case) make any job more enjoyable.

Rob

 

[JonE]

After reading all the posts I can honestly say that I hear all the same kinds of things ringing in my head too. I have also come to the conclusion that you have to be patient and satisfied with status quoe because you will never have everything completed(at least I feel that way) and you'll spend all kinds of time just maintaining and repairing what you already have. And when it snows and rains and I get the truck, tractor and car stuck at the same time and then track all kinds of mud into the house and ruin the last "good" pants I have and etc, then I question what the heck it is I am trying to accomplish. Then I go back to work in the city and return home at the end of the day and ? no more.