The 5 things you should do if you want to live in rural Colorado: (Colorado Springs: house, buying)

[Pathwalker]

Jazzlover, you have the right to express yourself in these forums. But so do I, and I'm telling you that I am so fed up with your negativity, that you have officially turned me off to wanting to move to Colorado. Why don't you just put up a great big sign at the Colorado border, telling people to turn around and go home? I've never encountered such an unwelcoming attitude, and frankly I'm sick of it.

If you don't want people coming to Colorado, fine. I'll go somewhere else. It's a shame, because I really had my heart set on the area. But I'd be too reminded of your attitude and it would just make me feel uncomfortable and unwanted.

I'm sorry you feel the rest of the country is to blame for the problems in Colorado. I'm sure the native Americans felt the same way about the settlers.

[Nadine]

I am not real sure if this is the right thread to put this on especially since so much negativity from posters. I would like all of you to go to a couple articles in our local paper today. It is about a family and their rural way of life and what they have done are doing to protect the land for future generation.--- http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/region-story.asp?ID=7313 and http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/region-story.asp?ID=7314---- (broken link) I thought maybe some people that do not have any idea about this type of living, but think they do, maybe would understand better after reading this and why some of us are so adamant on protecting the land. It isnt not just a way of life in danger here but the land and the environment, wildlife, our food and yes the very air we breath . No I am not a tree hugger or a radical environmentalist. Just a person who has been accussed of living in the past. There will be no future if we do not protect some of these open spaces now. It is not just Colorado.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by Nadine

I am not real sure if this is the right thread to put this on especially since so much negativity from posters. I would like all of you to go to a couple articles in our local paper today. It is about a family and their rural way of life and what they have done are doing to protect the land for future generation.--- http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/region-story.asp?ID=7313 and http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/region-story.asp?ID=7314---- (broken link) I thought maybe some people that do not have any idea about this type of living, but think they do, maybe would understand better after reading this and why some of us are so adamant on protecting the land. It isnt not just a way of life in danger here but the land and the environment, wildlife, our food and yes the very air we breath . No I am not a tree hugger or a radical environmentalist. Just a person who has been accussed of living in the past. There will be no future if we do not protect some of these open spaces now. It is not just Colorado.

is it negativity or reality that people have a hard time with? and if it's the reality (that sounds like negativity, maybe), what's to blame for that reality? politicians? those that elect them? the media and hollywood and some of the fake-realities they paint for people? greed? and no, i would not say it is "just colorado", but, the front range of colorado seems an almost comical caricature of some of this stuff that, yeah, i'd agree we had better pay some attention to.

[jazzlover]

Thank you, Nadine. I sometimes feel like a lonely voice is the (disappearing) wilderness. I'm no rabid environmentalist, but I think there are things described in that article (which, by the way, the link did not get me to, but I found it on the Record website) that most Coloradans don't have a clue about.

Oddly enough, yesterday, I had a conversation with a Wyoming rancher friend. He was telling me about a neighboring ranch to his that had recently sold for development. It had been under the same family's ownership since patent in the 1880's. The owners, and elderly couple, were having a difficult time of making it, and their children--tired of the hard work and meager income--had moved to other careers (ironically, in Denver). The rancher told my friend that they now (with the sale of the ranch) had more money than they had ever dreamed of in their lives, but both of the rancher and his wife were being treated for severe depression. The rancher's wife cries constantly. Why? Because they lost their way of life and are seeing the land their family stewarded for over a century being destroyed--for the sake of nothing more than "recreation." The wife told my friend that they had made a mistake selling--she said she would have rather starved to death on the ranch than to be living in comfort now, but losing what was most valuable to them. Our mobile, yuppie society will never understand those ties to the land. Too bad.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Thank you, Nadine. I sometimes feel like a lonely voice is the (disappearing) wilderness. I'm no rabid environmentalist, but I think there are things described in that article (which, by the way, the link did not get me to, but I found it on the Record website) that most Coloradans don't have a clue about.

Oddly enough, yesterday, I had a conversation with a Wyoming rancher friend. He was telling me about a neighboring ranch to his that had recently sold for development. It had been under the same family's ownership since patent in the 1880's. The owners, and elderly couple, were having a difficult time of making it, and their children--tired of the hard work and meager income--had moved to other careers (ironically, in Denver). The rancher told my friend that they now (with the sale of the ranch) had more money than they had ever dreamed of in their lives, but both of the rancher and his wife were being treated for severe depression. The rancher's wife cries constantly. Why? Because they lost their way of life and are seeing the land their family stewarded for over a century being destroyed--for the sake of nothing more than "recreation." The wife told my friend that they had made a mistake selling--she said she would have rather starved to death on the ranch than to be living in comfort now, but losing what was most valuable to them. Our mobile, yuppie society will never understand those ties to the land. Too bad.

but, hey, those same mobile yuppies might know what it's like to pretend to be paris hilton or the boy-band-star-of-the-moment and to live in a manufactured, plastic bubble with little or no allegiance to much beyond what seems most satisfying here and now. that's something, isn't it?

as for the denver "irony", it is interesting how so many of those folks that probably spent parts of their childhoods working on a farm in the midwest find themselves living in denver, now. maybe that's a bit to do with how some other posters here talk about the sort of weird vibe they sometimes find in denver - maybe that "weird vibe" has something to do with the adjustment from aggie to yuppie "life in the big city of denver" and not knowing quite what to make of it, consciously or subconsciously, and how that affects the overall mood and feel or soul (or sometimes lack thereof) of the place? oh, identity... something to be said for sense of place, sense of past, sense of connection...which it seems many of us might be losing and replacing with virtual reality.

[canyontiger2]

Originally Posted by hello-world

but, hey, those same mobile yuppies might know what it's like to pretend to be paris hilton or the boy-band-star-of-the-moment and to live in a manufactured, plastic bubble with little or no allegiance to much beyond what seems most satisfying here and now. that's something, isn't it?

as for the denver "irony", it is interesting how so many of those folks that probably spent parts of their childhoods working on a farm in the midwest find themselves living in denver, now. maybe that's a bit to do with how some other posters here talk about the sort of weird vibe they sometimes find in denver - maybe that "weird vibe" has something to do with the adjustment from aggie to yuppie "life in the big city of denver" and not knowing quite what to make of it, consciously or subconsciously, and how that affects the overall mood and feel or soul (or sometimes lack thereof) of the place? oh, identity... something to be said for sense of place, sense of past, sense of connection...which it seems many of us might be losing and replacing with virtual reality.

Forget it Jazzlover. These city slicker tunnel visioned people will not nor do they want to every look at how some one else feels or live. They have only one thing in mind ME ME ME. MINE MINE MINE. No one elses way of life or opinion have any merit. They don't even want to check it out. If not their way or their opinion------well you get the picture. Good article Nadine!!! I wonder if anyone else bothered to find the article since it website given did not work, other than you and I. Doubt it. It was not their idea or point of view, and it was in a little heck town paper, what could possibly of interest to them.

[janetjanetbobanet]

Change is happening everywhere, not just in Colorado. Those of you who live in rural areas and want to stay there but have trouble making it financially as you get older could maybe sell just part of the land instead of all, and stay in the area, couldn't you? I've seen lots of people do that in my state. This is a universal problem, not just a Colorado one. People are moving in and out of everywhere. You can't prevent change. You must learn to adapt.

[Katiana]

I agree with janetjanet. And just who is selling this property to "city-slickers"? The local owners! Who is building the apt complexes for "city-slickers" to live in? In general, the locals. In some ways, growth is a way for some people to retain their rural roots, by making some money off their land. Agriculture is a constantly shrinking part of the entire US economy.

Calling people names is not helpful, canyontiger.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

Agriculture is a constantly shrinking part of the entire US economy.

I guess all the people who think that food just magically appears in the grocery store shouldn't worry then. The fact that we are turning our prime agricultural land into subdivisions, drying up thousands upon thousands of acres of irrigated land to water Kentucky bluegrass lawns, forcing thousands of people who actually know how to grow food for us off of their land, and--now-- setting up programs for ethanol production that will (quoting an energy expert) allow us "to burn up the last 6 inches of Midwestern topsoil in our gas tanks" means we should just take the Alfred E. Neuman "What, me worry?" attitude, I guess.

Somehow, knowing that the U.S. is going to be a net importer of food just like we are for oil doesn't make me very comfortable. But, what do I know? I'm just one of those dumb hicks who spent part of my working career in agriculture trying to feed those people who can't be worried about where their next meal might come from.

[Katiana]

One of the biggest health problems in the US today is obestiy. Agriculture is producing more food than we can eat, and we seem to be able to eat a lot. When we lived in Illinois, farmers regularly put some of their land into some sort of reserve, and got paid for not planting (to keep up the prices).

I have utmost respect for farmers. But I think the day of family farming is over, and that's not all bad.