Positive Aspects of Rural Living

Mike Barkley wrote:One never knows when a friendly critter will drop by for dinner. Or to be dinner. It depends:)

Had a trio of 9 banded outside the kitchen window yesterday afternoon. Cute, cats did not know what to make of them. Kept sniffing and the 'dillos just ignored them.

I have lived only briefly in a city and I truly enjoyed the experience but nothing, nothing can beat going to the grocery store, pharmacy, gas station, veterinarian or church and people speaking to me and knowing my name. When the pandemic hit and everyone seemed to be losing their minds, most of the people I see regularly continued doing exactly the same things they were before hand. In the city, if there’s a disturbance you call the law, on the farm, you grab the shotgun by the door and go looking for the booger. When a drifter wandered up to my neighbor’s house one Sunday morning and frightened her, 3 different families responded within 10 minutes, armed and prepared. If I need a tool I don’t have I can borrow one easier than going to town to get it. When someone’s cows get out we help capture them, when their kids act out or they have sickness, we pray for them and when someone dies we take them food but sitting down to a meal last Sunday with everything on the table coming out of my pasture, greenhouse, planter boxes or chicken coop is one of THE absolute BEST feelings in the world!

James Freyr wrote:It's so nice to not hear noise like airplanes and car stereos.

Even better -- not to hear those cars that have been deliberately made louder. I could say quite a few unkind things about my impression of the people who do that.

The Bugs- There were tons of fireflies each night during the summer, reminding me of my childhood memories of lots of them in the backyard when I was a kid.

Just the diversity of them. In the Dominican Repermies, there are the regular firelies, and also fire beetles, which are big click beetles that also light up.

Devin Lavign wrote:I struggle in cities with the idea that I should treat pee as waste.

Even worse is the hostile attitude toward having to pee in the first place. At least in the United States, the cultural hatred of people who have lost their homes has become so extreme that the entire civic infrasturcture has been retooled around that one agenda. As in, make sure that there are no bushes bushy enough to pee behind, have all the storefronts put up signs stating that restrooms are for customers only, and for good measure, make urinating in public a sex offense. And if people with overactive bladder or other medical conditions suffer, oh, well, they're just collateral damage.

I was so conditioned to this, it took some getting used to to see Dominicans in rural places just casually step aside to pee.

I'll add one of my own. When I ask a campesino about a tree or plant, not only do they tell me its name, they usually also tell me why it is important. Maybe that kind of tree is good for wood, or its leaves are nutritious for dairy cows. Maybe that plant is medicinal. At least in the Dominican Repermies, country people seem to have a closer connection with nature than was the case in the American suburbs where I grew up; depending on it in many complex ways, and so, of necessity, having an understanding of it.

I noticed the recurring themes in this thread: lots of stars, lots of wild critters. After my suburban upbringing, those were what most struck me about rural places. And that was why I sense such a disconnect in what is termed "country" music. A lot of those songs seem to be about people making bad decisions. "Blame it on your lying, cheating, cold deadbeating,
two-timing, double dealing, mean mistreating, loving heart." Or, "Momma's in the graveyard, papa's in the pen." Or even the one about counting rounds with Jose Cuervo. If that was what country living was all about, no one could be blamed for wanting to stay as far away from it as possible. But then, there are songs like "Wildflowers," by Maddie Poppe. That one is also about a country upbringing, and a much more positive view. If that's what country life is about, count me in.

Reading all these posts is making me miss my last house which was in the middle of nowhere, half a mile from the nearest neighbour. Yes, the stars, the smells, the sounds, the water that doesn't smell of chlorine, being able to pee outdoors and nobody seeing me if I took the dog for his morning walk with me still in pyjamas. Actually, I only did the latter if I forgot to get my clothes out the night before and Mr Ara was still asleep. Unfortunately, health issues meant that we had to move closer to "civilisation". There's still a farm opposite us but it's just across the road and yes, we can still see sheep from the living room window but they aren't ours. I can no longer go out in my pyjamas as I meet so many people even if I go out at 6am. As an introvert  I still find the increased interaction with other people difficult and some days I am tempted to stay indoors all day just so I don't have to talk to anyone else. (Mr A excepted, we're used to each other.) There are some advantages in that people here in our village (no, we're not in a huge town) are friendly and helpful but I did love the old place. Many people would still describe where we live as rural but I suppose there are degrees of "rurality".
To those of you still living in a place like my former home, I envy you. Do enjoy it.