Things to expect living in the country.

[groundpecker]

Be prepared for everything. Medical needs, food, disaster, unexpected human and animal guests. Must teach your children about encountering animals. Get to know a neighbor or two, you will find each other useful in certain situations.

 

[Avalon1984]

I am only about 10 minutes away from civilization here but we are quasi in the country. I don’t talk to my neighbors all that much. Half of them are using drugs an do target practice at 2AM at night, the other half I have never seen in the 5 years I have lived here. We have guns but barely use them. I have 2 Fort knox coops and haven’t had a break in despite anything from coyotes, coons, possoms, hawks, dogs, cats, foxes, etc. The thing I had a hard time getting used to is the loneliness. My husband is gone during the week to work and it is me, my full time job and the farm- and stuff always goes wrong during the week. Maybe get used to being entirely on your own and go through scenarios in your head of what might happen so that you are not entirely overwhelmed when disaster strikes, i.e. storms, tree on barn/fences, animals get out, weird people showing up at your house, animals are sick, no vet nearby, etc. Those have been some of my scenarios and after you had it happen once you usually learn. I had to learn to put on my big girl pants pretty soon when I had to put chickens down that were sick, had to find animals that broke out in the dark, had my fences completely malfunction on me in the middle of the night, got trampled by a draft horse with nobody there to help, had to do chores for a 14 acres farm on crutches by myself (and no convenient ATVs or something).

You will love it out there, and some days you will hate it. But it will make you a stronger- and in my eyes- better person.

 

[TheHalfWayCoop]

Ahhhh everyone stop talking about the weird people at the door!!!

That is my BIGGEST fear about moving there, like we aren't even on a main Rd, our 'lane' is share by three other farms and is a dead end, but I am SO worried that some weird people are going to show up at my door at 11pm when DH is at work. That's why I was thinking guns... but you can't really shoot people here just for showing up at your door...

so I don't know. I'm afraid we'll get barn squatters too, don't know if that's a rational thought, but one I'm having LoL

This is all great advice!! I'm taking notes of everything, definitely stock piling, Costco will be big on our list before we move. After two years of looking, seeing some really awful rural housing, finding the perfect property just to find out it was previously (As in the last tenants) and grow op, etc... I'm so ready to find 'the one' and I don't want my fear of change/different get in the way of doing what we've always wanted to do. I like to think we aren't too city slick, but with all the dumb questions I have and all the stuff I'm realizing I don't know, I'm coming to the conclusion that we're just city slickers who keep chickens and read farm magazines

In some ways it will work out better for us as DH commutes over an hour to work now, but this move could take his commute to 30 minutes, and keep mine at 30 minutes, so that would be an improvement for us. I mentioned to DH about getting some guardian livestock (llamas? alpacas?) as well as a BIG dog, and he just shook his head, he thinks those are stereotypical country things, not things that are actually necessary. Now I can tell him that they are

We've got the cat situation undercontrol, we have one excellent outdoor mouser now, and three indoor ones (who probably suck at mousing, realistically) we'll have to get our coop situation under control, I might house them in the garage again for this winter and get into super coop mode in the spring when we can see what's what. I've never moved in the winter, so this will be new too...

I can't wait to see what the farm up the street farms, I hope it's cattle, I would love for it to be a dairy farm, I was a milker at one once and I can honestly say that was my favorite job

I'm hoping we can be friendly with our neighbours, they aren't THAT far away, like probably a neighbourhood block away, the way the lane is set up is really neat, and I think we'd get the opportunity to meet them. I have no problems with anyone herding anything at 5am. I still love that my rooster wakes me up at 5am. And 7am. And 10pm. And... what is wrong with my rooster?! But I think I'll love quirks like that. I really respect farmers and how hard they work, etc... we would like to keep a proper farm one day where we could do CSA shares, raise heritage meat, homemade cheese, soap, spin some wool, but first I have to find out of I'm afraid of the dark

I'm looking forward to the dark nights and big stars, but so afraid I'll need to go out to the barn or the car and get lost, like on Beetlejuice, I'll walk out the door and be in the middle of nowhere and can't find my way back!!!

Thanks again everyone, this is the kind of info you can't really find in a book! Does anyone have any suggestions for a guardian dog? We've looked at a few, but wondered what your experience was.

 

[X2Farm]

Here's another thing to expect

(scuse the messy yard)

This was the moon, at about 7am a few days ago

\\

And here, shortly after, the sun just peeking out over the tree tops in the East

 

[gryeyes]

Just a real quick funny "city to country" story to tell on myself:

I moved to my little rural mountain parcel in mid-July. I have a good flashlight, but I keep misplacing it and can't find it when I hear sounds outside, or chicken parties in the coop when they are all supposed to be asleep on their roosts.

However, I DO know where my iPhone is, and I've got an application called "iTorch," which is very good as a bright flashlight. So there I am, walking across the very dark yard to the coop, holding out my iPhone on iTorch mode, looking for critters.

 

[SC-ChickMom]

Instead of llamas, what about a goose. They can be very territorial and very loud with new people.

 

[Avalon1984]

I hope you will have nice neighbors. I have 6 horse farms within a couple miles. You’d think we could work together and share vet expenses, supplies in bulk, etc? Nope.

Don’t worry about the weird people. They will show up but I have found that being assertive, taking their plate number and shooing them away helps. When somebody drives by slowly I jump into the truck and get their plate number. Once they realize they are being followed, they get creeped out and don't come back. I am the local PDs perfect citizen

Just make sure you have all your supplies, animal supplies and the house can live without electricity for a few days and you should be good. It will be a journey for sure.

Oh, one bit of wisdom I have learned. Don’t get too upset about not getting all your yearly projects done. As long as your place improves with every year that you work it, that’s all that matters. I have yet to have a year where I get all my plans and projects done.

 

[Avalon1984]

Quote:

We have a large yard light. I have felt blessed having it many times

 

[Okie Amazon]

Quote:
You want a guardian that is or can be AWAKE at night, when most predation occurs. Geese go to sleep at night with all the other poultry.

 

[Stacykins]

You get to enjoy the sounds of the country! Coyotes yipping late at night, donkeys braying, and the sound of cows at milking time (MOOOOOO, we're so full, milk us, MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!), roosters crowing, etc. I personally LOVE IT! I'd rather hear those sounds than sirens and traffic (used to live in downtown Milwaukee) at all hours.

Lawns don't matter much in the country. They're not kept prim and proper. They're cut, but most of the time they are rough grass and weeds. And nobody cares if your lawn turns brown when there is no rain, because nobody waters their grass. So awesome!