We don't want no highfalutin' city-folk comin' here (garden, fence, building)
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Yep. That's the fallacy a lot of people have when wanting to go rural, they imagine a quiet place where the locals respect nature and everyone is happy, hiking and loving life and enjoying the clean air and the stillness.
Reality is a lot of drunk, uneducated slobs raping nature, animals and their neighbors with their ATVs and guns (I am not against guns and I own my own but they have a purpose and it is not shooting into the air or into the traffic signs or deer or squirrels for fun).
I have long said that anyone who wants a true rural village atmosphere should move to Europe. Any small village or town will do. That's the countryside most people imagine, wealthy farmers, great looking fields (the villagers there actually still farm!), quiet and polite people etc.
There are isolated pockets of semi-rural areas in the States you can find with somewhat similar attitudes but very rare.
I agree.
If you want a quiet place to live where nature is cared for and respected, your best bet is probably in the outer suburb of a big city, especially one that has dedicated nature preserves. People who don't have nature (city people) are the ones who are going to respect and cherish it the most. That's who moves to the far burbs.
Examples from the Chicagoland area:
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore - Porter, Indiana, and Jackson Township near Chesterton.
Yorkville or any of the towns along the Fox River in Illinois.
Northern Illinois near Zion, the Chain O'Lakes, or the Openlands project which is restoring a former military base as a nature preserve.
You'll have just enough "rural" in these places (not much streetlighting, not as many residents, some working farms), but you'll also have a progressive and modern attitude toward the preservation of nature - and the political power to protect nature. You'll have established organizations that invest in the land, and volunteer groups that work on expanding the nature preserves.
And because you have people who came from the city - the police/fire departments, medical centers, courts, town councils, and so on - are going to be a touch more professional. Maybe not as highly organized or capable as city or near suburban departments - but probably better equipped than what you'll find clear out in the country.
Plus, you're still close enough to the city that its not hard to get there for a ball game, to see friends, to go out on the town, or to get high quality medical care if you need it.
So, whose fault is it? The local who sold the farm? The developer? I mean, the developer did not "beat" the farm out of the local? Is it maybe the real estate agents and misleading advertising? I mean, I am sure nobody mentions to the "stupid city folk" before buying that the place will smell bad, have gunshots and hunting season etc. The real estate guy just wants their money . I have seen a lot of places advertised heavily to city people as a "clean getaway", "going back to Nature", "endless hiking opportunities", "dark skies".... Nowhere does it say a pig farm is part of Mother nature . Neither does it say "hiking in the middle of hunting season, better wear an orange vest"...
OD
The fault lies in the newcomers that need to recognize they can't expect the old-timers to change to their standards.
When I move to the country (my house just sold today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) we know we're coming to the party late...we wont' expect the town to change to suit us.
The fault lies in the newcomers that need to recognize they can't expect the old-timers to change to their standards.
When I move to the country (my house just sold today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) we know we're coming to the party late...we wont' expect the town to change to suit us.
Oh dear. Do you know how many places sell without any mention of the locals' habits? After all, you got to spend a lot of time in a place to make a decision about it. The standard advice I would give anyone thinking about purchasing a piece of land is to spend all four seasons on it or around it. How many folks do you think do that or CAN do that given that they work, have families and other obligations? You can't put your life on hold for a year just to assess if a place is good or not. It's just reality. Most people get their information from books, Internet but MOST OF ALL, from their real estate agent (big mistake!).
I can see a small town in WY (like Dubois), very clean, 900-1000 people, all well to do, strong local community of normal people who do what they do, respect their land and each other. They don't run around drunk shooting signs, they don't trespass on each other's land, don't shoot each other's dogs ('cause nobody's dog is loose) etc. You coming into that community and trying to impose your will by asking for this or that may or may not work but it will definitely end up in a civilized discourse. These people are reasonable and will accept what sounds right or will reject you and your money if it is wrong.
I can also see a small town in TN, full of redneck trash, loud, dirty and obnoxious and ready for a fight. Someone comes from the city, thinking they are coming into the small WY town I just described above only to find what I described here.... If it is only one city family they will most likely get chased out of town with some property damage and probably be lucky they saved their necks. If there are quite a few well to do outsiders who were sold the "beautiful mother nature" story, they will eventually prevail and clean up...for the betterment of all
Now, there is also everything in between. Those cases are gray and you win some, you lose some. In some instances the locals are "more right" and in some the newcomers are. Most often money wins.
I've always loved nature and was thrilled when I moved to a very rural area in NE Mississippi. But walks in the woods were few and far between due to it always being some kind of hunting season, birds, deer, turkey, etc. Locals were unbelievably rude when it came to their hunting, and anything that interfered with it, so the peaceful walks through the woods along logging trails were out of the question 10 months out of the year.
Unwanted pets were constantly being dropped off at my home. Hunting dogs that didn't perform well were abandoned in the woods and found there way to my home, starving and emaciated. There was no animal shelter in the county and my offer to volunteer at one if it was created found no interest. It was too easy for the locals to either shoot their unwanted dogs or dump them off.
Weekends were hell with the ATVs that would speed up and down the dirt road in front of my house, stirring up clouds of gritty dust and making the dogs go ballistic. The peace and quiet of country life just wasn't to be found, despite living surrounded by hundreds of acres of woods and meadows. I finally gave up and moved.
I've always loved nature and was thrilled when I moved to a very rural area in NE Mississippi. But walks in the woods were few and far between due to it always being some kind of hunting season, birds, deer, turkey, etc. Locals were unbelievably rude when it came to their hunting, and anything that interfered with it, so the peaceful walks through the woods along logging trails were out of the question 10 months out of the year.
Unwanted pets were constantly being dropped off at my home. Hunting dogs that didn't perform well were abandoned in the woods and found there way to my home, starving and emaciated. There was no animal shelter in the county and my offer to volunteer at one if it was created found no interest. It was too easy for the locals to either shoot their unwanted dogs or dump them off.
Weekends were hell with the ATVs that would speed up and down the dirt road in front of my house, stirring up clouds of gritty dust and making the dogs go ballistic. The peace and quiet of country life just wasn't to be found, despite living surrounded by hundreds of acres of woods and meadows. I finally gave up and moved.
No! The highly praised, always right good church-going rural folk did all that?! Must have been your fault for not being friendly enough. Or you are just a stupid city slicker who has no business crashing that rural party... go back to the city!!
I think its a attituide that comes form experience as with mnay oither not rural.Its really the basisi for codes and mnay law governaing what you can and cannot do;including those of HOAs.
I've always loved nature and was thrilled when I moved to a very rural area in NE Mississippi. But walks in the woods were few and far between due to it always being some kind of hunting season, birds, deer, turkey, etc. Locals were unbelievably rude when it came to their hunting, and anything that interfered with it, so the peaceful walks through the woods along logging trails were out of the question 10 months out of the year.
Unwanted pets were constantly being dropped off at my home. Hunting dogs that didn't perform well were abandoned in the woods and found there way to my home, starving and emaciated. There was no animal shelter in the county and my offer to volunteer at one if it was created found no interest. It was too easy for the locals to either shoot their unwanted dogs or dump them off.
Weekends were hell with the ATVs that would speed up and down the dirt road in front of my house, stirring up clouds of gritty dust and making the dogs go ballistic. The peace and quiet of country life just wasn't to be found, despite living surrounded by hundreds of acres of woods and meadows. I finally gave up and moved.
I think your mistake was going to rural MS. You might have found more quiet time in a place like VT or NH or ME than down there, unless you buy land on a snowmobile or ATV trail. Hunting is huge here but deer hunting is what really gets the most hunters out. You won't hear the bowhunters, leaving roughly 3 weeks out of the year of firearms deer hunting. Turkey season is pretty quiet, just the occasional shotgun. Bear season, in VT anyhow, isn't incredibly popular. The best bear hunting here is in a few very isolated, sparsely populated areas of public lands (the vicinity of Ferdinand/Lewis/Avery's Gore/Warren Gore/Warner's Grant/Averill and thereabouts is the best bear hunting area here and hardly anyone lives there, as it's mostly land that can't be built on). The other game bird and small game seasons bring out pretty sporadic, spread out hunting. Moose season is less than 6 complete days. In short, unless you live along an established snowmobile or ATV trail or abutting public lands here that are popular with hunters you really won't have something like WWIII in your backyard even with the tradition of freely accessing private land here. Get deep into the designated wilderness areas here in the National Forest and the few serious hunters you find aren't anything to fear.
Last edited by arctichomesteader; 09-29-2012 at 02:27 PM..
I think your mistake was going to rural MS. You might have found more quiet time in a place like VT or NH or ME than down there, ....... Get deep into the designated wilderness areas here in the National Forest and the few serious hunters you find aren't anything to fear.
What arctichomesteader says is my experience too . . . Im an avid--almost luddite-- treehugging back-to-nature freak, and in my travels, VT, NH ME and upstate NY are where I would go(did go) to live that lifestyle.
The TN, WNC areas--any area rural area below the 36-30 parallel, while absolutely stunningly beautiful can be a dicey living situation based on the local populace. Very, very xenophobic and small minded. On all of my zillion of road trip miles, the only scary redneck / Easy Rider instances Ive suffered have been in those areas. But, as mentioned earlier, Even if it inconvenienced me, I sort of respect their concerns about being wary of anyone with an out-of-state plate. To them we might have been developers, or pill runners, or any other scummy plague on society
I am getting annoyed with a lot of the city people that are moving to my small town. Obviously you can't control where people move but if they are living a certain lifestyle why don't they stay in the city and live it? Why do they assume we ALL want to live that lifestyle in our 'burbs? Most of us don't.
We recently got warnings issued to our residences about people putting dirty diapers, condoms, paper towels and everything else down the toilets. It's not rocket science to figure out this is why their city waters are flooded with disgusting items. Hel-lo. We never had any kind of problems with this stuff before the influx of city people with no sense got here.
ha, i think my husband and i were considered this when we moved from san diego to rural missouri! we wanted everything rural and none of the city and all the realtors kept trying to put us in mcmansion type house, blah! we've since lived in rural parts of georgia and now virginia...love the rural-ness, everything that comes with it and i have that same mind set...no highfalutin city slickers trying to change things....if you want it like the city, then stay in the city!
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. I have seen a lot of places advertised heavily to city people as a "clean getaway", "going back to Nature", "endless hiking opportunities", "dark skies".... Nowhere does it say a pig farm is part of Mother nature 
You can't put your life on hold for a year just to assess if a place is good or not. It's just reality. Most people get their information from books, Internet but MOST OF ALL, from their real estate agent (big mistake!).
