Pro vs Con on Country Living

[Holladay]

Or "Why I should Live in the Big City"

Reading about the murder in St. Louis thread got me thinking. Why is good and bad to living out in the country.

Definition of "Out in the Country" is distance to buying stuff. I would say 45 miles. The ideal spot would be on 10-20 acres just outside of town. Those are cool CHEATERS. I am talking about out in the boonies.

Sorry about the format. I couldn't think of a better way

Pros:

Privacy is the biggest one.
I can go get the mail in my scuvvies.
Boff the wife on the trampoline.
No noisey neighbors including lawnmowers.
The closest neighbor in 1/2 mile away.
You know everybody.
Have a clay pigeon thrower in the back yard.
Can have multiple BIG dogs.
Dogs don't have to have fences. It's dog heaven. (when I whistle, it might take them 10 min to come because they were a mile away.
Get to have a big toys: big lawn mower, small tractor with all the implements.
Can have a big garden.
Can have a nice big green lawn to play football with the kids.
No neighborhood restrictions and guidelines.
Can play my guitar REALLY loud (if I had a guitar).
Get to sit in the back yard watching the sun go down over the valley with no noise at all except for those darn birds.
Can see vividly the Milky Way.
Can pee anywhere I want (fertilization).
Can plant a tree anywhere.
Get to have a 4 wheel drive vehicle for the snow.
Have a lot of space to do anything, like storing multiple vehicles.
Barns are cool.
Kids can play AirSoft gun fighting in the hay loft (except at night when they come in and ask where are the candles?)
No traffic, I live 15 miles from work and have only one stop sign and see 10 cars.
Property taxes are relatively cheap.
Have well water, thus no crap in the water to filter for my fish tanks...and don't have to pay a water bill.
I water my lawn for free!
Family and friends don't just stop by, they arrange a good time.
No City tax.
I don't have to lock my door (I don't know where the key is)
The BIG dogs keep the burglars away (Beware of Dog sign helps too. I added an "S")
Can own a bunch of guns and use them all.

Cons:

Isolation is the biggest one.
If I need a wiget to work on the house, it takes 2 hrs round trip to Home Depot.
When you DO go to town it takes all day, not only the drive, but you have to load up on everything because you don't want to go back soon.
Everybody knows you.
Big toys are expensive.
Mowing 2 acres sucks, weedeating is a real pain.
Kids can't hop on their bikes to visit a friend, you have to taxi them everywhere.
Gas is expensive.
Vehicles are expensive including the insurance for multiple vehicles (which you have because you have the space to store them)
If you have had a few, it is a loonnnggg way to walk since there is no corner bar.
I can't water my lawn because the well gives out.
Friends just don't swing by.
Finding a decent job can be hard.
Big gardens suck, weeding them and watering them all the time.
Big yards suck, if you fertilize well, your second home is the lawnmower seat and it better be a big expensive one.
Grass seed is expensive, I have to keep over seeding because my grass dies due to no water.
Up keep and maintenance is a lot of work (something always breaks) and expensive.
Guns suck. If you have a big place, people what to come over and shoot pigeons. They use all your guns and you have to clean them and pay for the shells.
Internet sucks...I have 3 different providers and none work at the same time.

That is about all off the top of my head. Please add more.

[DaneMcCloud]

In all seriousness, I couldn't live in the country. As much as I loved visiting family in Austin or Tampa and KC, those cities feel too small to me. I need the energy and electricity that only very big cities can provide.

My wife's the same way. She was born in a NoCal suburb that's the same size as OP and she can only handle 3-4 a year up there without going stir crazy.

Fortunately, our nation is big enough that its citizens have the option to live wherever it makes them happiest.

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

In all seriousness, I couldn't live in the country. As much as I loved visiting family in Austin or Tampa and KC, those cities feel too small to me. I need the energy and electricity that only very big cities can provide.

My wife's the same way. She was born in a NoCal suburb that's the same size as OP and she can only handle 3-4 a year up there without going stir crazy.

Fortunately, our nation is big enough that its citizens have the option to live wherever it makes them happiest.

It's sort of an interesting perspective on what people think "country" is in this thread. I live in KC and it's not crowded. It's also very country-ish.

You can walk in downtown KC and not hit shoulders with another person unless your going into the Sprint Center for a show.

You go to LA/DC/NYC, THAT is crowded. People shoulder to shoulder almost 24/7/365. I love all those towns for the reasons you stated. So much you can do and experience. But I don't think I could live in them at his point of my life. I'm okay with being situated in a place that is kind of both city and country.

[Red Dawg]

Originally Posted by mac459

If you are outside on a nice night enjoying a beer and you have to piss it's easier to stand up and walk over to a bush and piss than it is to walk inside take your shoes off then piss

So yeah it does have its merits..for someone who has a military picture up I would have thought you might have hadto piss outside before instead of walking to a porta john..unless you're Air Force then I understand

I was in the Air Force and on convoy's with the Army for two long tours up and down Iraq. 300 AF personnel did the same on every tour. I did my business outside probably over 1,000 times. Even when we parked it on a base for the night and stayed in our tents I was never so lazy to just step outside and piss. The rest rooms were a little bit of a walk at times but not that far away. The Air Force has ground personnel that do a number of jobs so I don't know what your comment is suppose to mean unless you think everyone in the AF stays in a room with a private bathroom in it.

If there is a toilet, then use it and stop acting like caveman.

[Frosty]

The only way I could live in a big city would be if they had a top notch public transport system like in NYC. I hate traffic and would hate to live anywhere you had to drive everywhere, like in Seattle.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

A gated entry takes care of that as well

So does having no friends.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Frosty

So does having no friends.

[Perineum Ripper]

Originally Posted by Tuckdaddy

I was in the Air Force and on convoy's with the Army for two long tours up and down Iraq. 300 AF personnel did the same on every tour. I did my business outside probably over 1,000 times. Even when we parked it on a base for the night and stayed in our tents I was never so lazy to just step outside and piss. The rest rooms were a little bit of a walk at times but not that far away. The Air Force has ground personnel that do a number of jobs so I don't know what your comment is suppose to mean unless you think everyone in the AF stays in a room with a private bathroom in it.

If there is a toilet, then use it and stop acting like caveman.

I was giving you shit..mostly because Air Force people are real sensitive about it..I worked with PJs all the time..of course on base you piss inside a latrine or wherever the have a porta john..but outside the wire you piss outside.

Pissing outside is acting like a caveman..that is some backwards city thinking bullshit

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by mac459

Pissing outside is acting like a caveman..that is some backwards city thinking bullshit

Except that it's against the law in every city

[Perineum Ripper]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Except that it's against the law in every city

I wasn't talking about in the city..I was talking about in the country..it was from a few posts up

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by mac459

I wasn't talking about in the city..I was talking about in the country..it was from a few posts up

Ah...

I can't remember the last time I took a leak outside. Has to be like 32 years.

****.

[Perineum Ripper]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Ah...

I can't remember the last time I took a leak outside. Has to be like 32 years.

****.

That is an impressive streak

I really don't care if a person pisses inside or out..I like living on my 500 acres because I can do what I want when I want..nearest neighbors are a mile away..it just frustrates me when people think country people are backwards for pissing outside or wanting to shoot guns off the back porch or whatever else

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by mac459

That is an impressive streak

I really don't care if a person pisses inside or out..I like living on my 500 acres because I can do what I want when I want..nearest neighbors are a mile away..it just frustrates me when people think country people are backwards for pissing outside or wanting to shoot guns off the back porch or whatever else

It's not impressive, it means I'm ****ing old!

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by mac459

That is an impressive streak

I really don't care if a person pisses inside or out..I like living on my 500 acres because I can do what I want when I want..nearest neighbors are a mile away..it just frustrates me when people think country people are backwards for pissing outside or wanting to shoot guns off the back porch or whatever else

Pissing off the back porch and shooting guns is normal. For me, it's the fake cowboy, the town gossip, the mostly uneducated hickishness that's such a laugh. And the fact that we portray these folks as though they were Michael Landon, carving out a living in a lean to on Little House On The Prairie, when they are mostly welfare queens of the annual Farm Bill.

Not you, personally. Or Buehler.

[Perineum Ripper]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

Pissing off the back porch and shooting guns is normal. For me, it's the fake cowboy, the town gossip, the mostly uneducated hickishness that's such a laugh. And the fact that we portray these folks as though they were Michael Landon, carving out a living in a lean to on Little House On The Prairie, when they are mostly welfare queens of the annual Farm Bill.

Not you, personally. Or Buehler.

I understand..those people are worthless..way too many people like that all over the country

[Holladay]

That's because the guy that posted that is one of the bigger idiots roaming the earth.

Huh? Speaking of me?

People thinking it's okay to let their dogs run free is one of the things that sucks about living in a rural area.

Name one farmstead that has a fenced in yard? Starting my business, I knocked on almost every farm door. The only dogs fenced in are hunting dogs. In a mile radius, there are 5 houses.

Multiple big dogs that run free? Uh-huh, riiiit.

You try that around herd(s) of cattle. Or somebody's chickens. You'll have multiple dogs that are laying on the side of the road.

See above remark. There are no chickens within 5 miles that I know of. There are a few cattle on the fields over winter. I have never seen them mess with cattle. They are smarter then that.

Lastly, that is the beauty of living in the country. I have the freedom to act as I see fit. A fenced in dog in a rural setting is just dumb. Unless there is some sort of history about the dog.

I would wager, that all the CP'rs who life in the country, do not have their dogs fenced in.