Let's talk about Country Living

I'm also loving this thread. This is the kind of helpful informational threads that make this forum a good thing. I know it's not about scrap metal, but scrap metal to me is not just making extra money; it's more about being able to choose your own way of life. I'm encouraged by Sledge's questions and his desire to make good, informed decisions for his family along with his wife.

Here's my situation. I'm out in the country 4 miles from town (1200) 15 miles from Wal Mart and 28 miles from FedEx.

The good:
My back yard is 510 acres of cotton, peanuts, sesame, soybeans and pasture with a fish pond and woods with squirrels and deer. We schedule dove hunts over the sesame fields and all the local guys love it.
Anyone around here can come hunt or fish on our land as long as they are nice and safety and game laws are followed. That's true with several farms around us.
I can grow my own food. I have corn and peanuts that we eat as well as canola for greens, but I don't grow a garden like my mother has. We do have cows and occasionally, we'll go in with friends and have one butchered for the freezer. We also have pecan trees and let people pick them up on halves. They can pick up a few to make a pie or a ton to sell. My Dad makes fig preserves every year from our 4 fig trees.
My kids can walk out to go hunting, ride the Mule, or go frog gigging at night without me worrying about them.
Well water.
Just about everyone knows each other in my town and my church family is great.
As Patriot, the keys are in everything around here, mainly so I don't lose them. It is not uncommon for us to wake up in the morning with from 1 - 6 extra teenagers watching TV, sleeping in various couches or beds or even
cooking breakfast (always welcome).
Neighbors are great and are around 1/8 mile away. They don't complain about loud music (Country is not a requirement) or me working on equipment or piling up scrap.
There aren't many restrictions to what I can do on my own land.
Noone bothers me if I'm standing in my yard shooting at coyotes.



The bad: I have to stand in my yard and shoot at coyotes.
Well, not often, Max my German Shepherd keeps them at bay pretty good.
Lots of places don't have high speed internet. I just got it here(medium speed really) last year. Before that, I would click on a youtube video, pause it and check on it in the morning to see if it loaded yet.
Kind of tough area to get a lot of scrap. I do pretty well, but it would be hard to make a living. Ewaste, which is what I love doing, is really tough to get and takes lots of networking to find and buy.
Beyond movies and resturants, there's not much to do in the nearby towns. You have to be self sufficient on entertainment.
Small town life is not for everyone. We feel the need for our kids to know what's out there in other places and try to take two trips per year somewhere very different.
When scrap metal theft gets going, it is very hard to police because everything is spread out. The Sheriff's department does the best they can, but I might not notice something missing for 5 or 6 days.
Our power went off today......again. That's way more common than people think and when there's no power, there's no water either. I do keep a reservoir of water for hurricane season.
Hurricanes. Snakes. Mosquitos.

I love it here and wouldn't change.....much.

I lived in the country for 17 years. NoI i live in small city. I was born and raised in city. Living in the country I had to commute for work. Several years I worked off shore in the gulf of mexico so commuting was only a monthly thing. However, I missed out on a lot with my son. But on the time I wasn't working ,a week or at a time I was able to devote much of my time to family! The cons ,in my opinion were very minor inconveniences. I found early on that Mother Earth News was a way to learn about country living. And it still is. This was the 70's & 80;s internet to me was a mystery. Wish I was back in the country now! You will never regret such a move. In my opinion anyway . Good luck.

really great thread enjoyed everbodys post was raised in the country nothing like it ,