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I've almost always lived in a rural area. But the big complaint from city folks who move in is the noise and smells. Farm animals make noise and they produce manure. They are forever trying to get new laws passed to limit farming after they move in and discover they are annoyed by it.
My big complaint about the city folks is that as soon as they move to a rural area, they think they are free to do whatever they want and that there are no rules. it makes them very bad neighbors.
Oh gosh, and the woeful complaint that there is no Trader Joe's. They won't shut up about it.
I so agree. We had newbies who had lived in Singapore for 30 years start a petition to end target practice on our private property. They didn’t get very far. Yet another wanted to cut down my hedge to build a brick wall. Now, I have a very wealthy neighbor who wants a huge big leaf maple cut down that straddles our property line. I told him no, that I like my trees. Now, he is calling me a bad neighbor.
My point is to be aware when the gentrification starts or be aware it could happen. We are among the last of the long time blue collar middle class. A home recently sold for $1.5 million. The are privileged and think they can do whatever they want. They will call code enforcement if they they think you are doing something illegal but don’t hesitate to burn large piles of treated lumber for days on end. They are suburbanizing the neighborhood with landscaping lights, huge lawns that they replaced trees with and thus incessant mowing and weed whacking and they go crazy with loud booming fireworks which cost a fortune and are illegal off the reservation.
We have 6 acres in an R5A zone and thankfully can ignore them for the most part. We don’t want to move as we have lived here 40+ years and, besides, where would we move?
Another thing is to buy a good small tractor. We have a Kubota 2501 and can blade the snow, our gravel driveway, haul dirt and rocks, plant trees, etc.
Rural folks or at least our former neighbors, love to barter, either goods, labor, or whatever have you. I miss that aspect of what we used to have.
Only thing I think that might bother me is no library, but maybe I could work with the towns folk to have one. Don't have any issues with farm animals if I had a small place, long as their owner feeds them and they don't wander around and eat any garden i might have.
I have lived in dozens of small towns and learned that a good library is critical to MY NEEDS in a community.
Every town that had a good library, I liked living there, but if the town had a poor library it probably meant that didn't value other things that I find important in a community.
We lived in a community with a awful library. After living there for a couple of years we discovered that just across the river, was an excellent rural library district. Wait, make that EXCEPTIONAL. It was part of a five county rural library district with a FIDO net connection where you could order library books with your computer and the library district would MAIL the books to you.
We were in the process of looking for a home in THAT county just for the library. At that point I got a job offer that was in that library district even though the move was 150 miles!!! Yeah, distances are much farther out west.
The important thing is to make a list of what is important to YOU and then judge the community by those things that are on your list. For me I was always the library.
Even to this day when I think about moving to a community the first thing I do is go to their library and check it out.
We didn't realize how deeply, deeply religious this area is and how that religion has its hand on everything, from the public schools, both teachers and administration, to the city leaders and what places can serve alcohol or even open up a tattoo shop, to whether someone will give you the time of day at the grocery store.
Every thing seemed fine on a surface level, but once we started living here and saw/felt how deeply this religion is entrenched in everything, I may have thought twice about moving here. If you are not of their religion you are an outsider here and will always be treated as such.
Religion has never been an issue for us before, people so their thing, we do ours, but in this place it's unavoidable.
Only thing I think that might bother me is no library, but maybe I could work with the towns folk to have one. Don't have any issues with farm animals if I had a small place, long as their owner feeds them and they don't wander around and eat any garden i might have.
In New England almost every tiny town has a library, often a surprisingly opulent, well-stocked one, dating from the time when rural New England was prosperous and education was honored (that last is still comparatively true).
People who don't keep their livestock in are disfavored in rural areas, although some escapes are inevitable. Even worse are people who let their dogs run loose. If a livestock owner catches a stray dog harassing their stock, the most popular solution is to SSF (shoot, shovel, and forget). Be warned. And ANY dog, no matter how sweet and gentle at home, is capable of harassing, wounding, or killing livestock. Some people don't wait for the harassment to occur, they just get out the rifle.
In New England almost every tiny town has a library, often a surprisingly opulent, well-stocked one, dating from the time when rural New England was prosperous and education was honored (that last is still comparatively true).
People who don't keep their livestock in are disfavored in rural areas, although some escapes are inevitable. Even worse are people who let their dogs run loose. If a livestock owner catches a stray dog harassing their stock, the most popular solution is to SSF (shoot, shovel, and forget). Be warned. And ANY dog, no matter how sweet and gentle at home, is capable of harassing, wounding, or killing livestock. Some people don't wait for the harassment to occur, they just get out the rifle.
I totally agree with the entire post.
As for the second paragraph, that is exactly the same in my rural county of CO. People understand that animals sometimes get loose despite good efforts to keep them on the owner’s property. What they won’t tolerate is too many such incidents due to letting fencing go unfixed, or deliberately letting animals roam.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Originally Posted by Crazy4Chickens
We didn't realize how deeply, deeply religious this area is and how that religion has its hand on everything, from the public schools, both teachers and administration, to the city leaders and what places can serve alcohol or even open up a tattoo shop, to whether someone will give you the time of day at the grocery store.
Every thing seemed fine on a surface level, but once we started living here and saw/felt how deeply this religion is entrenched in everything, I may have thought twice about moving here. If you are not of their religion you are an outsider here and will always be treated as such.
Religion has never been an issue for us before, people so their thing, we do ours, but in this place it's unavoidable.
I wished I had researched the Medical Care and access to it more before moving here. However I don't think there was much more I could do on that level, until I actually moved here and was exposed to it. It is absolutely horrible on all levels and the area I found actually has a C- to D rating overall for care. It's impossible to find Specialist and if I do something I have never heard of before. They will call you up when they receive a referral from the primary and interview you. The next day they call back and tell you the Doctor has decided not to take you for a Patient. This has been both a Urologist and a Endocrinologist. I ended up having to go all the way to Boston for an Operation because I could not get a doctor here. I'm very concerned about this serious lacking in some areas of Florida. If you travel to another Florida city for treatment its miles and long long waits for an appt, like a year at times.. This is very unsatisfactory for some people with certain health care needs. Florida doesn't impress me as putting much effort into much of anything, beyond its hand out for money.
I also would have liked but was actually prevented by the subdivision I lived in because it is gated. I looked at my house with the Real Estate Agent and there were others looking at it also, so I was put on a scheduled time to be there and to leave. I had about 30 minutes time. It was a small house so I saw what I needed to see to make a decision on the house. I wanted to though get a feeling for the neighborhood and the subdivision, because it is a large Retirement Community. My instincts told me I may not be a candidate for this type of living, but it was really all that was affordable for me. So I had no time beyond the few minutes with the Agent to drive in a few neighborhoods and see a Rec Center. Buyers are not allowed to return on their own as they have no access. What I needed is what most people need. Some time to return on my own to look at the property and get a feel for the place and its residents. To spend some time without being rushed by an agent. It's almost like a setup here see the house but not be given adequate time, to make a decision on what you are getting into. Had I had say a day or two and really got to see and interact with some of the residents, I would have turned this home down. It is not a very friendly community and is far to big. The residents are primarily overly conservative and far to open with their politics and far to nosy for my taste. I have nothing in common with them, and many are well into their 80's and 90's. However the home is affordable to me and unfortunately at my age that ends up being the deal breaker. So I make the most of what I have and things could be so much worse, in the messed up times we are living in. At least I have a roof over my head that is affordable.
Having the mental outlook of self sufficiency is a big thing. When something breaks, goes wrong, runs out, you can't necessarily run out to the store and get it. This state of mind can be far reaching such as seeing things when the roads are taken out by weather to when there is a fuel shortage (ie post Hurricane Harvey) and you don't travel unless you absolutely need to.
The infrastructure for such a state can be extensive. For me, fortunately, I came to it through other methods such as getting into large coolers when I was doing field biology work and 5 gallon water coolers when I had to outfit my bed ridden Mother's house (with water purification tablets as well) with them....just in case. Plan and buy ahead because....during that Texas blizzard, I had a friend in town asking me about my water coolers since the stores were out of them.
As I said before, more, More, MORE! During the Texas blizzard, I used shopping freezer bags for my daily meal. That is, take .25-.5 lb of hamburger out of the freezer when the power was on, let it defrost in the freezer bag during the day, cook it up on the gas stove to have with tortillas. That worked but it wasn't perfect so now, I have a Playmate cooler, too!
As part of my multipower source approach to the ranch house, I eventually want to get a 55 gallon drum BBQ. Something I found out recently by word of mouth.....hornets like to build nests in them. A problem known to figure out ahead of time.
Never been a part of those companies but for things like that, that's my "Grand Tour" shopping trip. Say Wally World, Big Lots, Dollar Tree, HEB to the north or south, all on the same side of the highway. So for Wally World, it is kitty litter & canned cat food where they have it at a good price. Big Lots it is spices and maybe something decent in food. Dollar Tree it is cheap canned goods and often, DVD though that is in hold for right now to let the selection switch out. HEB for main grocery shopping.
It is a trip that can be done with the Forester or of course the F-250 but it is not a 4 shopping bag trip. It is one of, if not the only one, main shopping trips a month.
One thing about shopping like this is that if for any reason you are stopped from making the trip, you are not hurting but have enough in stores to continue for a while. The Forester is scheduled to be gassed up ever 2nd day, at an 8th of a tank; the F-250 whenever it has been out and is returning home. The basic point is that if I am at home and I hear on the radio that gas is cut off, that is a long way to go to try to panic buy to fill the tank.
Right now, there is the house footprint and the rest of the ranch is wild. So if there are farm animals not mine, "Cowkittens", down there, out of sight, out of mind.
Eventually, I might do sunk in the ground greenhouses and/or root cellar/larder......but not there yet.
Yes, that's an issue between cataract surgery, type II, eye appointments, attempted being off'd by the cats, the like. Wouldn't it be better to live in town and be closer to all that?
Well, that's the trade off between being wild in the country or in town where my spirit would DIE. Now, since I do live alone, I check in with my minders 3-4 times a day.
One other thing as I think about my traveling friends, actors who arrive to show the evil Lord what happens to bad people, who might stop by for an over night.....tall floor screens. The ranch house has a door between the great room and the Mistress Citadel but to the rooms on the east side of the house, it is just the room doors with the open hall way to the bathroom in between. Floor screens might be a way to give a little privacy.
I shop online at the closest Wally World, once every 1-2 months, for my groceries & some other goods they sell online.
A store shopper picks out all my groceries, puts them in a cart, & keeps them in a cool/cold location until i pick them up.
I choose a date & time for pickup. For refrigerator & freezer goods i bring in 4- Igloo 48 quart ice chest coolers. Walmart has specific parking spots for grocery curb pickup.
My shopper brings out my groceries & loads up my jeep.
I'm very thankful, & it saves me much time shopping this way.
I pick up some ammo & a few other goods, then head home.
Not sure I could have researched this until I got here, but I wish we'd been able to establish relationships with skilled workmen/women to do repairs and such in our home. It's darn near impossible to get anyone out here to do work (such as the overhang project we wanted to do).
We've come to the conclusion that the really reliable and skilled people are booked by word of mouth and are always busy. Just the way it is.
A question to the folks that live in rural areas - what is the best way for someone from the city to fit in? If I have different opinions about politics or religion than most of the locals, should I just keep my mouth shut? Try to engage in a civil conversation? Get to know the local customs before offering any opinions?
Would I be treated differently because I'm Asian? I don't want to make any judgements, I would just want to know what I'm getting into.
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