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nunya
LXI 483
MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
·Charter

1 recommendation

nunya to fartness

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to fartness

Re: If I move to the country?

I'm from a rural area and moved to the city and later the suburbs.
The city I live in now is pretty nice, but it's gets getting bigger pretty fast. The population is up to about 82,000 now (in 1990, the population was 18,000).
I'm going back to the country myself. As I tell my wife, I'd rather drive 20 miles in the country than 2 miles in the city.
I also have a lot of "stuff". I need a place to put all my "stuff". It's hard to put up a pole barn on a suburban lot.

Fortunately, I'm in an area where you do not have to go far to get to the country. A lot of my customers are rural.

There are a lot of benefits to living the rural life. I'll give you some of the downers first:

City services go away (water, sewer, trash). While you won't have a monthly bill mailed, you will have to pay to maintain these systems. They aren't "set and forget".

Some places do not have mail delivery. You have to get a PO Box. Some places will only plow main roads when it snows. Some private trash services only run 2X a month in the country.

Homes in the country aren't always built as well as those in more regulated areas. There often isn't any code enforcement to be an owners advocate during construction. People in the country also tend to be more "creative" with their repairs and construction methods. I'm not saying all are like that. I'm saying what I've personally found is that quality goes down in the country.

In the country, you can expect more pests. Field mice, stray animals, wild animals, insects, etc...
I don't know why, but mud daubers (dirt wasps) seem to be attracted to carburetors.

Internet service is often lacking. Internet is very important to me. I recently made an offer on a property and put reasonable internet access availability as one of the contingencies.

TV. You can pretty much count on having to use DirecTV or Dish Network. If you are way out, OTA may not even be an option.

You'll need equipment to maintain the property. Mower, tractor, brush hog, etc... Driveways and access road maintenance often falls to the property owner(s). Rock, grading, plowing, etc...

Services such as fire, police, and ambulance are going to take longer. Fire dept. may be volunteer. Police dept. may be volunteer as well, or county sheriff. Your insurance may go up.

Getting away from it all really does mean "away". You can't just run over to Lowe's Depot, IGA, or Walmart on a whim.
Want to buy ice cream in June? Better remember to bring the cooler.

If you have the luxury of natural gas heating now, you'll probably lose that in the country. You'll have to pay for much more expensive propane, oil, or electricity.

All that crap being said, I still prefer rural life to city living. People are nicer in the country. I hate to say it, but it's true. I think the benefits far outweigh the minor inconveniences.
I like reduced crime, friendly people, fresh air, space, stronger community (ironically), peace and quiet. I'd rather smell cow shit than hear traffic on highway 70.

cdru
Go Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

1 recommendation

cdru

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said by nunya:

Getting away from it all really does mean "away". You can't just run over to Lowe's Depot, IGA, or Walmart on a whim.
Want to buy ice cream in June? Better remember to bring the cooler.

Obviously it's going to depend on the specifics of the area you live in. I live about 4.5 miles from a shopping center with a Walmart, Meijer, Menards, Kohls, Office Depot and various smaller shops and restaurants. Everything to the west of that shopping center is very suburban. Everything to the east is very rural (by almost every definition except distance to a city) with a very large Amish population.