Rural Livin'

[Big Pun]

I know this forvm mainly caters to effeminate cosmopolite city slickers, but there must be a few country bumpkins out there. I'm considering moving from the twin cities to a small town. I'm single and 25 but i'm starting to think the pros don't outweigh the cons of urban life. Anyone with experience please share, tell me i'm a moran, etc. Discuss.

 

[Harold falcon]

 

[NorCal]

I know this forvm mainly caters to effeminate cosmopolite city slickers, but there must be a few country bumpkins out there. I'm considering moving from the twin cities to a small town. I'm single and 25 but i'm starting to think the pros don't outweigh the cons of urban life. Anyone with experience please share, tell me i'm a moran, etc. Discuss.

I live in the country. I grew up here, moved to the big city for a few decades then escaped back home. I love it. A lot of the people I went to high school with have left and come back as well.

Probably the most difficult part is work. Is there a local economy and how can you fit into it? Also, you won't ever be local for a really long time. Get involved in the community somehow. Get used to missing ethnic food.

Make sure you pick a town that has something that specifically draws you there, not just some amorphous romantic notion of rural life.

 

[Big Pun]

How small a burg is it, Norcal? Under 5k? under 2k?

The only benefits I have of being in the city is access to specialty grocery stores, variety of restaurants, ability to walk everywhere, and proximity to the airport. I don't really take advantage of anything else.

 

[NorCal]

How small a burg is it, Norcal? Under 5k? under 2k?

The only benefits I have of being in the city is access to specialty grocery stores, variety of restaurants, ability to walk everywhere, and proximity to the airport. I don't really take advantage of anything else.

Currently the town I'm in is about 6k it is the "city" and the largest town for hours. But the greater area has a mix of towns ranging from about 10 to 6k. When I moved back I was living about 7 miles outside of a town of about 50.
I love it.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I live on an island of 1200 people, a ferry ride away from a town of 120,000. We built a passive house. We have chickens and grow a lot of our own food. We have excellent neighbours, and my son goes to a school with 20 pupils in total. I love it.

When we're not there, we're in Tokyo - which I also love. I'm pretty sure it's not possible to get a bigger contrast than that!

 

[Big Pun]

^That sounds like the best of both worlds. I think I'd need to get married first. Slim pickins in the sticks, unless I start raising sheep.

 

[Piobaire]

I live on an island of 1200 people, a ferry ride away from a town of 120,000. We built a passive house. We have chickens and grow a lot of our own food. We have excellent neighbours, and my son goes to a school with 20 pupils in total. I love it.

When we're not there, we're in Tokyo - which I also love. I'm pretty sure it's not possible to get a bigger contrast than that!

Doesn't Don Cherry have a home there?

Big Pun, I grew up in a small farming community where the cows probably outnumbered the people. I much prefer the exburbs that we currently live in and don't think I'd go really rural again.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Doesn't Don Cherry have a home there?

Yeah, he does. We see him occasionally - although it can be hard to recognise him when he's not in his curtain material suits...

 

[Big Pun]

But aren't exurbs just future suburbs in ten years? I don't see the appeal of relying on a car to perform every task in my life. I tend to agree with what Howard Kunstler wrote about in The Geography of Nowhere.

 

[Piobaire]

But aren't exurbs just future suburbs in ten years? I don't see the appeal of relying on a car to perform every task in my life. I tend to agree with what Howard Kunstler wrote about in The Geography of Nowhere.

If you're living in an actual rural area you're relying on a car/vehicle for most everything. In grade school I was bused 20 miles one way, in high school I was bused 18 miles the other way. To visit my best friend I drove 22 miles. Grocery shopping was 18 miles away. Nearest booze store was by the grocery store.

You think rural living means you can walk to all the things you need?

 

[SixOhNine]

If you're truly livin rural, your house is a quarter mile down a dirt path from the blacktop, and you drive just to pick up your mail from the roadside box.

You wanna walk in something other than a field, you best stay in the city.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

If you're living in an actual rural area you're relying on a car/vehicle for most everything.

Vehicle, certainly - although functioning public transport / transit makes for a very different society than a purely car-dependent one. We wouldn't be able to live where we do without the ferry, which is a province-run, publically-subsidized service (thank-you, Canada). Makes it possible to cycle or walk for most things - which I do, even if most people just use it to take their car from one side to the other. Things are going to have to change though, with the end of the fossil fuel economy; eveyone's going to have to rethink transport and planning. Our new ferry (coming soon) is going to be electric, which is pretty awesome...

 

[Piobaire]

Vehicle, certainly - although functioning public transport / transit makes for a very different society than a purely car-dependent one. We wouldn't be able to live where we do without the ferry, which is a province-run, publically-subsidized service (thank-you, Canada). Makes it possible to cycle or walk for most things - which I do, even if most people just use it to take their car from one side to the other. Things are going to have to change though, with the end of the fossil fuel economy; eveyone's going to have to rethink transport and planning. Our new ferry (coming soon) is going to be electric, which is pretty awesome...

Outside of the major population zone of Ontario, basically the Windsor-Ottawa corridor, things are not like that at all and particularly in northern Ontario. Enjoy living in the favoured section of the country while it lasts. For instance, ferry services are being cut and/or eliminated for more remote towns in the Maritimes this year.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Outside of the major population zone of Ontario, basically the Windsor-Ottawa corridor, things are not like that at all and particularly in northern Ontario. Enjoy living in the favoured section of the country while it lasts. For instance, ferry services are being cut and/or eliminated for more remote towns in the Maritimes this year.

Oh, I know. We're totally fortunate to live where we do...