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We have lived in an unincorporated area of our county for over 30 years. Life was fine until the gated communities infiltrated the area. We have people who move here from out of the area who want to change the rules. For instance we as homeowners are allowed to target practice on our property. A couple moved in and started a petition to prevent this. It went nowhere. Why move somewhere if you don't like the way people live.
do you know why Wyoming has a population of only 500,000 people?
People come here during the spring or during early summer for sturgis. They look around and say "wow! How pretty" And they buy some land and start building a house or just buy a house thinking they got a great deal.
Then Winter comes.....
Or they look around and think "This town dosent have a (Your choice of small business) here. Lets retire and open one. They retire, sell their house in XYZ city. Move and spend a couple hundred K on a opening their dream business and no one comes or at first business is good then Townie girl opens a similar business in her grandpa's boarded up store front and all the customers go there instead.
Of they show up and buy their house and settle in then never make any friends. Ever. Because the vast majority of people in Wyoming have no social skills
There must be another Wyoming that I know nothing about. The above doesn't describe the state where I live.
There's a reason why Maine is the poorest state in New England. The land of logging trucks in the northern half of the state is an economic wasteland. Sure, you can be Henry David Thoreau in your cabin in the woods but Thoreau died at age 43 and suffered from chronic health problems for his last decade. It all sounds great until the wheels fall off. The rest of us end up subsidizing those people. They wouldn't have electricity, telephone, or cellular service without the rest of the country paying a big tax on their bill. My tax dollars fund their Medicaid.
Have you BEEN to Walden Pond? It's smack bang in the middle of town and always has been. If Thoreaux ran out of milk he was closer to a store than probably half the current suburbanites are now.
There's a reason why Maine is the poorest state in New England. The land of logging trucks in the northern half of the state is an economic wasteland. Sure, you can be Henry David Thoreau in your cabin in the woods but Thoreau died at age 43 and suffered from chronic health problems for his last decade. It all sounds great until the wheels fall off. The rest of us end up subsidizing those people. They wouldn't have electricity, telephone, or cellular service without the rest of the country paying a big tax on their bill. My tax dollars fund their Medicaid.
The logging trucks still rattle the windows as they rumble by in the night, on the main road off our road. I've seen 'em every time of day. Somebody must have nothin' better to do, if there's no money in it now.
Thoreau did indeed live all his life in town (except for the brief 2-year period at Walden...and that was on Emerson's property, in the town of Concord). He graduated Harvard University and died at age 44 of tuberculosis ("consumption"), which was very common in those days.
We are retired and own homes in three states. No one in my family has ever been on Medicaid, or any other kind of assistance. I would not accept such. At age 69, I do not even use Medicare, as we have private insurance. I do not have public electricity or telephone at our Maine property. Our cellular service is via Tracfone, which involves buying minute cards. I don't see how you can subsidize that!
Oh - and we pay taxes, too...to support the poor in your state.
When people moved from the farms to the cities, it was because of jobs not quality of life, and that still holds true today as most rural areas don't have a lot of jobs available, and it's tough to make a living off the land when we in agriculture are in competition with cheap foods imported from elsewhere.
When the government pays farmers to take land out of production, (CRP program), that means the farmer does ok, but the implement dealer, the seed and fertilizer stores, the repair shops all take a hit not to mention the farmer doesn't need to hire any hands for working his property. The economy of small towns in my state is dire.
Normally they're peopled with older retired folks raising their grandkids as the parents drive trucks or follow the oil patch or construction or work out of state just to get enough money to survive.
If you have the money to support yourself from investments or an internet job of some sort, or you won the lottery and have a monthly mailbox check coming in, yeah, you can do alright in the country here, but if you need a job to support yourself, better think twice before telling your boss to shove it, packing up the family and going back to the country.
Many areas of my state lack medical care, you plan on driving 100 miles or so to see a doctor or dentist. (my dentist is 30 miles from where I live, and in a different town), and emergency care may only be a few volunteers covering an area the size of a small eastern state, and may not be able to reach you if the roads are blocked by snow or cut off by wildfires.
In the case of real time sensitive emergencies such as fire or heart attack or snake bite, it could be hours before help can arrive if at all.
There's no shopping unless you go to one of the handful of "big towns" of over 6,000 people, (as long as you only need to shop at a ShopKo or Pamida), power or the roads may be cut off at any time by blizzards, floods or high winds so you better be able to store about a month's worth of food all year round and be able to produce your own power and have a heat source for your home that is independent of any outside supply.
There are innumerable good things about living rural, but anyone contemplating moving to the country should be aware of the differences from the easy access to everything you have in the city, and what hurdles you can face living remotely. Services like city water, sewer, garbage pickup doesn't exist. County roads are plowed, usually when they get around to it, so you have to have your own equipment and do all of that including road maintenance yourself.
Not a lot of city folks realize the amount of work you do just for basic things like taking a trip to the grocery store.
We have problems here too, they're just different from city life. There is no perfect place, just what's perfect for you and the way you live.
This all true. Would I never say don't move to a rural area- just make sure it is right for you.
We had a commercial goat dairy. Every 3 days I had to travel from NY to Vermont to deliver the milk to a cheese maker, plus a few closer cheese makers. Then our feed prices quadrupled and those same cheese makers couldn't pay more money so we had to close.
Yes it's great to sit on my porch with my coffee and watch the turkey, deer and eagles, plus we have horses , 2 goats and 1 pet sheep. Amish live in the area.
But Hubbie travels 110 miles round trip for work (adds about 3 hrs to his day), our doctor and dentist is 2 hrs away, my specialist is 1 hr away in the opposite direction. Closest hospital is 1 hr away, the hospital my doctors are affiliated with is 2 hrs away.
The closest supermarket is 25 miles RT as is Walmart- my only shopping option.
If I want more than Walmart then I need to drive about 60 miles RT for that. My supermarket of choice is 40 miles RT. I need a health food store due to a special diet for medical reasons- That is over 100 miles RT.
We can't get hi-speed internet, the library is open short hrs only a few days a week. There are few restaurants, and many only have breakfast and lunch. Many small towns only have mom and pops, that are closed at 5pm and on Sunday and usually Monday also.
It is Ok when you are young- but can get old fast even if you love the area or lifestyle. Yes it's nice, usually cheaper COL, ppl are friendly and most know your business whether you want them to or not.
There are pros and cons to both and you have to weigh both to find what is good for you.
Joe33 is correct. Been to WY and MT several times. Beautiful. Everything a self-sufficient type would want. But I suggest you better be in great physical shape if you're 50 or more. Winter is a killer up there. Not for the more mature among us unless maybe you grew up there. The thought of driving a dozer up your 2-track driveway for 7-8 months each year just for access to the beauty is daunting.
Joe33 is correct. Been to WY and MT several times. Beautiful. Everything a self-sufficient type would want. But I suggest you better be in great physical shape if you're 50 or more. Winter is a killer up there. Not for the more mature among us unless maybe you grew up there. The thought of driving a dozer up your 2-track driveway for 7-8 months each year just for access to the beauty is daunting.
I live in NW Wyoming. There's not much snow. Winter warm spells are common. If someone needs some help neighbors are great. I'm 72; I live twenty miles from town including some steep dirt roads; I have no plans to move.
Those blizzard pictures are taken in southern Wyoming along the I-80 corridor. However, the blizzard belt ends a ways east of Rock Springs. Wyoming is frquently rated as the best retirement state. High cost of living keeps out the trash.
There's a reason why Maine is the poorest state in New England. The land of logging trucks in the northern half of the state is an economic wasteland. Sure, you can be Henry David Thoreau in your cabin in the woods but Thoreau died at age 43 and suffered from chronic health problems for his last decade. It all sounds great until the wheels fall off. The rest of us end up subsidizing those people. They wouldn't have electricity, telephone, or cellular service without the rest of the country paying a big tax on their bill. My tax dollars fund their Medicaid.
Electricity is provided by for-profit corporations, not the government [in towns that have electricity].
Telephone is provided by for-profit corporations, not the government [in towns that have telephone].
Cell phone towers are provided by for-profit corporations, not the government [in towns that have cellphone towers].
The majority of Maine towns do not have grid electricity, now telephone, nor cellphone towers.
When people moved from the farms to the cities, it was because of jobs not quality of life, and that still holds true today as most rural areas don't have a lot of jobs available, and it's tough to make a living off the land when we in agriculture are in competition with cheap foods imported from elsewhere.
When the government pays farmers to take land out of production, (CRP program), that means the farmer does ok, but the implement dealer, the seed and fertilizer stores, the repair shops all take a hit not to mention the farmer doesn't need to hire any hands for working his property. The economy of small towns in my state is dire.
Normally they're peopled with older retired folks raising their grandkids as the parents drive trucks or follow the oil patch or construction or work out of state just to get enough money to survive.
If you have the money to support yourself from investments or an internet job of some sort, or you won the lottery and have a monthly mailbox check coming in, yeah, you can do alright in the country here, but if you need a job to support yourself, better think twice before telling your boss to shove it, packing up the family and going back to the country.
Many areas of my state lack medical care, you plan on driving 100 miles or so to see a doctor or dentist. (my dentist is 30 miles from where I live, and in a different town), and emergency care may only be a few volunteers covering an area the size of a small eastern state, and may not be able to reach you if the roads are blocked by snow or cut off by wildfires.
In the case of real time sensitive emergencies such as fire or heart attack or snake bite, it could be hours before help can arrive if at all.
There's no shopping unless you go to one of the handful of "big towns" of over 6,000 people, (as long as you only need to shop at a ShopKo or Pamida), power or the roads may be cut off at any time by blizzards, floods or high winds so you better be able to store about a month's worth of food all year round and be able to produce your own power and have a heat source for your home that is independent of any outside supply.
There are innumerable good things about living rural, but anyone contemplating moving to the country should be aware of the differences from the easy access to everything you have in the city, and what hurdles you can face living remotely. Services like city water, sewer, garbage pickup doesn't exist. County roads are plowed, usually when they get around to it, so you have to have your own equipment and do all of that including road maintenance yourself.
Not a lot of city folks realize the amount of work you do just for basic things like taking a trip to the grocery store.
We have problems here too, they're just different from city life. There is no perfect place, just what's perfect for you and the way you live.
I'm going to be an over the road truck driver so my job is not an issue. As far as things being close like hospitals and stores etc... I've been researching places to live in many areas where everything you need can be about 20 miles away...at least in the places i looked in PA.
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