Downsides of Living Rural

I live within walking distance (and I have many times) visited our county recycling center.  They collect most things but not scrap wood.  I took a broken pallet and it was rejected, so had to burn it.  I done burns about 10 since at the house, found more broken up pallet material today so burned it today along with twigs, dry leaves, scrap lumber.  I also have picked up trash going to the place to recycle it or trash it.

I usually try to go once a week to town for groceries.

For the most part, the downside of rural living for someone who spent most of their life in the city is having to change your expectations. Shopping and services are further away, so you either plan your trips better or you drive a lot more, impulsive trips/purchases are tougher, which to me is a good thing since most of my impulse buys are junk food. If you are new to an area, making friendships can be tougher unless you have various activities you can do that gets you around your new community. You might also need to do more yourself versus hiring others, at least until you've made those new friendships.

Fortunately although I live in a rural area we have access to high speed internet (DSL). I used to live in a place that only had dial up or satellite as options... and dial up was faster.

I cannot say that I truly miss anything, but maybe that is because I grew up out in the sticks.

It would be nice to have access to groups of like minded people locally (martial arts instructors, meet up groups of various stripes, etc. ), but I'll get there eventually even if I have to start them myself. Seems to be enough local demand just no one with the means/drive to get one started.

We have clean well water, no neighbors that you can see from the house, and relative peace and quiet. We also know most of the people that live out here at least somewhat and tend to help each other out. Eventually we should produce our own food, our own energy, and our own gasoline... cutting our bills down to just taxes and any wanted services.

The only real thing that is lacking is paid work... but I've done software engineering and web development for three decades now so it isn't hard to pick up odd online work when needed. Most jobs around here pay minimum wage with no benefits as there are more people needing work then there are people wanting work done.

In the older posts in this thread it was mentioned as downside that the kids can't as easily just go to the neighbour and play with the neighbourhood kids. We have that here too and I do feel it's a shame, as I remember from my own suburban childhood how we were always running around the neighbourhood knocking on doors and asking friends out to play. It was so simple, there was no need to call and arrange something and the parents didn't have to bother to drive us anywhere.

I've thought about this a lot and then suddenly I got the idea: couldn't someone design an app for this ? (Maybe it does exist but I just don't know about it).
An app where you could easily let other parents know that you're now at home and welcome other kids there to play. One less step: no need to call every parent and ask whether their child can come out and play. Of course you might still have to drive your kid to the neighbour's. It's still no suburban neighbourhood, but it would be a little closer to it

I suppose it could be a facebook or other social media group too, but then the parents would need to be active in those, thus exposing themselves to all the other stuff too. I for one would not like to be online in Facebook all the time, even for this noble purpose.

Nina Jay wrote:In the older posts in this thread it was mentioned as downside that the kids can't as easily just go to the neighbour and play with the neighbourhood kids. We have that here too and I do feel it's a shame, as I remember from my own suburban childhood how we were always running around the neighbourhood knocking on doors and asking friends out to play. It was so simple, there was no need to call and arrange something and the parents didn't have to bother to drive us anywhere.

I've thought about this a lot and then suddenly I got the idea: couldn't someone design an app for this ? (Maybe it does exist but I just don't know about it).
An app where you could easily let other parents know that you're now at home and welcome other kids there to play. One less step: no need to call every parent and ask whether their child can come out and play. Of course you might still have to drive your kid to the neighbour's. It's still no suburban neighbourhood, but it would be a little closer to it

I suppose it could be a facebook or other social media group too, but then the parents would need to be active in those, thus exposing themselves to all the other stuff too. I for one would not like to be online in Facebook all the time, even for this noble purpose.

I grew up on a homestead (160 acres) in the middle of Alaska.  Mostly I played with my brothers, or my cousins when they came to visit (they lived over a hundred miles away, but we saw them once or twice a year).  But we did have one neighbor family who had a couple of boys near our ages and once in a while we spent time with them.  None of us even had a phone (or electricity, or running water); we walked or used a boat if we wanted to play with the neighbor kids.  We had a playground that went about a mile from the house on land, and close to that in the other direction on water, since our houses were all built next to a lake.  

Later, when we moved back to a rural area of Oregon, if we wanted to play with some cousins who lived near us, we walked over to their house to see if they could play, and vice versa.  We did have a phone there (party line) and sometimes used it, but rarely.  Mostly we just got on our legs, or later our bikes, and went.  

Kathleen

Mark Tudor wrote:For the most part, the downside of rural living for someone who spent most of their life in the city is having to change your expectations. Shopping and services are further away, so you either plan your trips better or you drive a lot more, impulsive trips/purchases are tougher, which to me is a good thing since most of my impulse buys are junk food.

Yeah, you learn to make lists. If you return from your big shopping trip and then realize you forgot that one important food/item that you really needed....well usually that means going without for a few days.

Though I have become a much better cook since I moved rural. I can make a lot more foods/dishes now including tempura, sushi, sashimi, etc...

Another potential downside to rural living is the fact that everybody knows everybody else's business (or at least they think they do). If someone wants to play the field dating wise a small town is NOT the place to do it. If folks can speculate and craft a wild/bizarre/perverse theory about you and your lifestyle chances are they will.

I grew up in the city in the 80s and mostly I would just go outside and look for my friends in all the places we would play - soccer field nearby, some benches where we hung out, so on and so on. We had phones (landlines at home) etc. but if I didn't find anyone (which was very rare), I would just hang around and someone would come by anyway. We all went to the same school and did pretty much the same things so my schedule was very similar to all the other kids, chances were if I was out looking to play soccer or ride a bicycle, someone else was as well.

I personally think the whole playing with other kids thing is overrated. Now that I am older, I would have preferred if my parents were rural folk and I played with horses and cows instead.

Kathleen Sanderson wrote:

Nina Jay wrote:In the older posts in this thread it was mentioned as downside that the kids can't as easily just go to the neighbour and play with the neighbourhood kids. We have that here too and I do feel it's a shame, as I remember from my own suburban childhood how we were always running around the neighbourhood knocking on doors and asking friends out to play. It was so simple, there was no need to call and arrange something and the parents didn't have to bother to drive us anywhere.

I've thought about this a lot and then suddenly I got the idea: couldn't someone design an app for this ? (Maybe it does exist but I just don't know about it).
An app where you could easily let other parents know that you're now at home and welcome other kids there to play. One less step: no need to call every parent and ask whether their child can come out and play. Of course you might still have to drive your kid to the neighbour's. It's still no suburban neighbourhood, but it would be a little closer to it

I suppose it could be a facebook or other social media group too, but then the parents would need to be active in those, thus exposing themselves to all the other stuff too. I for one would not like to be online in Facebook all the time, even for this noble purpose.

I grew up on a homestead (160 acres) in the middle of Alaska.  Mostly I played with my brothers, or my cousins when they came to visit (they lived over a hundred miles away, but we saw them once or twice a year).  But we did have one neighbor family who had a couple of boys near our ages and once in a while we spent time with them.  None of us even had a phone (or electricity, or running water); we walked or used a boat if we wanted to play with the neighbor kids.  We had a playground that went about a mile from the house on land, and close to that in the other direction on water, since our houses were all built next to a lake.  

Later, when we moved back to a rural area of Oregon, if we wanted to play with some cousins who lived near us, we walked over to their house to see if they could play, and vice versa.  We did have a phone there (party line) and sometimes used it, but rarely.  Mostly we just got on our legs, or later our bikes, and went.  

Kathleen

   I grew up in New Jersey. I used to use that as an excuse for why I was so green when it came to anything ranch related. I came to New Mexico after my parents retired and moved out here in 1971. Yes, a bit of a culture shock. All the guys my age already knew how to do all sorts of chores for survival. Back then for the locals hunting was how meat got on the table. One thing I had in common with the other 18 year olds, was partying. That used up a decade or so of my younger years. I did learn some important lessons about surviving in the country from my new friends. Irrigating the pasture was one of my favorite things to do.
  My brother who was 9 years older used to ride roughshod over me with demands that every trip to town required a load both directions. Bring firewood in, sell it, use the money to buy supplies for the way back, sheesh, hehe. I'm sure I was a handful every time,  but I learned the importance of making every trip count.  Looking back like this, I feel old, with thoughts like: We had a phone, albeit a party line shared with our neighbor. I think we were two short rings. UPS didn't exist, the mail box was our only connection to the rest of the world. Dad always hated television and I kept that philosophy alive until the Internet which was what my carreer became after three decades. I installed our solar powered WIFi tower on top of our highest mountain and connected the ranch to high speed Internet some fifteen years ago. We created a makeshift fire department, which enabled us to get into some great salvage places over in Los Alamos. We collected some pretty unique items and I began to augment my jewelry making income with up-cycling parts from vehicles to fix other vehicles as the auto-parts store was 15 miles away and parts cost money. I got pretty good at finding heater fans and motors from cars in our junkyard to fit in the vehicles, whatever we had with plates  on it.  I discovered a way to repair a broken taillight using a hole-saw and any taillight  lens using a soldering guns to weld it in place. The point was to not need to go to town and buy more stuff.  
That's part of how we learned to live in the country.
Brian

Brian Rodgers wrote:    I grew up in New Jersey. I used to use that as an excuse for why I was so green when it came to anything ranch related. I came to New Mexico after my parents retired and moved out here in 1971. Yes, a bit of a culture shock. All the guys my age already knew how to do all sorts of chores for survival. Back then for the locals hunting was how meat got on the table. One thing I had in common with the other 18 year olds, was partying. That used up a decade or so of my younger years. I did learn some important lessons about surviving in the country from my new friends. Irrigating the pasture was one of my favorite things to do.
  My brother who was 9 years older used to ride roughshod over me with demands that every trip to town required a load both directions. Bring firewood in, sell it, use the money to buy supplies for the way back, sheesh, hehe. I'm sure I was a handful every time,  but I learned the importance of making every trip count.  Looking back like this, I feel old, with thoughts like: We had a phone, albeit a party line shared with our neighbor. I think we were two short rings. UPS didn't exist, the mail box was our only connection to the rest of the world. Dad always hated television and I kept that philosophy alive until the Internet which was what my carreer became after three decades. I installed our solar powered WIFi tower on top of our highest mountain and connected the ranch to high speed Internet some fifteen years ago. We created a makeshift fire department, which enabled us to get into some great salvage places over in Los Alamos. We collected some pretty unique items and I began to augment my jewelry making income with up-cycling parts from vehicles to fix other vehicles as the auto-parts store was 15 miles away and parts cost money. I got pretty good at finding heater fans and motors from cars in our junkyard to fit in the vehicles, whatever we had with plates  on it.  I discovered a way to repair a broken taillight using a hole-saw and any taillight  lens using a soldering guns to weld it in place. The point was to not need to go to town and buy more stuff.  
That's part of how we learned to live in the country.
Brian

I agree. Part of the adjustment to rural life (at least to me) is to cancel your Amazon membership and stop going places to buy stuff you can grow, make or fix. :) Still learning ;)

I moved from Ctrl FL to rural MO and there was nothing I couldn't get in Ctrl FL. If  Orlando didn't have it, Tampa most likely would which meant the next day or possibly that afternoon. If Tampa didn't have it, Atlanta did and it would be a day or two. That's for commercial/industrial stuff. As far as everyday stuff, we had 4-5 grocery stores within a few miles. Home Depot right across from Lowes within 5 miles. Office Depot and Office Max right near them. Every restaurant you can think of. Fresh seafood, even Maine Lobster as there were trucks daily coming down I-95.

Now we're up against the Mark Twain National Forest. Small independent grocery store 13 miles away with 8 of those miles being gravel. 4 miles from us to any kind of pavement. 24 miles to a couple of small towns with bigger grocery stores, one also has a super walmart. Being in the Midwest as opposed to a coast, spices weren't available for a long time and people still cook like they don't have access to spices. The food at restaurants is bland.

If we drive 80 miles to metro St Louis, they have all those stores and restaurants we're used to.

People out here don't have as much of a sense of humor.

On the plus side, when we hear gun shots now, they're not aiming at people. Haven't heard a siren in a couple of years. Cops are nicer and not constantly on the hunt for their next adrenalin rush.

The airlift thing hits home. I watched a guy wreck on a dirt bike up the road. The ambulance showed up in 40-45 minutes and three 18-21 year old confused guys plus one old grumpy woman were the "EMTs". Then off to the air lift for a 30 minute flight to a trauma center in St Louis. He was technically dead when they put him in the helicopter.

No blue collar jobs out here. For every one, there's 3-4 relatives or fellow church members lined up and they'll get hired before an outsider even if they're dumb as a box of rocks. I had one guy tell me, if you're not 4th or 5th generation, you're an outsider. Gotta be able to make your own way. Pay sucks too.

Brian Rodgers wrote:I installed our solar powered WIFi tower on top of our highest mountain and connected the ranch to high speed Internet some fifteen years ago. We created a makeshift fire department, which enabled us to get into some great salvage places over in Los Alamos. We collected some pretty unique items and I began to augment my jewelry making income with up-cycling parts from vehicles to fix other vehicles as the auto-parts store was 15 miles away and parts cost money. I got pretty good at finding heater fans and motors from cars in our junkyard to fit in the vehicles, whatever we had with plates  on it.  I discovered a way to repair a broken taillight using a hole-saw and any taillight  lens using a soldering guns to weld it in place. The point was to not need to go to town and buy more stuff.  
That's part of how we learned to live in the country.

Good stuff, Brian. 👍

got a call from friend in NYC yesterday. and no he can't send me a pizza or some whole wheat bagels

The hardest thing about living rural is medical care. We have to travel 300 miles to get to some of our doctors

For us the three big things are and have been since we moved here in 2013:

For me, the downsides of rural living was having money to pay someone to build your house and no one will come.   I did the research and since there were plenty of contractors in the area I had no idea I would have a problem.  I would have thought they would want work.

They were too lazy to drive 30 miles.  In a big city, 30 miles is nothing.  You go from one side of town to another ... 30 miles.

S Tonin wrote:Trash is a big issue in rural areas; it's being discussed at length in this thread.  In my experience (and I live on a road that's been a notorious dumping spot for all kinds of garbage--stoves, sofas, tires, even a dead pony once), the locals aren't the ones doing the lion's share of the dumping.  People come from the more "civilized" areas (including the housing developments) to get rid of the stuff the garbage companies won't pick up (or charge an arm and a leg extra for).  

We didn't even have the option for garbage collection in my area  

Medical is also and can be a problem.  Most areas have rural health in small towns that have basic medical and even basic hospital care.  Specialty doctors and hospitals to take care of sick people that can't be cared for in the small hospital can be as much as a 200-mile trip.

These are all very much a downside of rural living.

The trash issue can be resolved with some thinking and planning.  Working towards zero waste can help.  Composting all food scraps or feeding them to animals can help.  And Having a system of burnables like this:

https://permies.com/wiki/119012/pep-nest/Set-system-collecting-burnables

I really like how just about everyone waves and smiles at others when they go by.
you have to plan your trips to the city.
neighbors in rural parts usually look out for one another in contrast to crazy drama that ive observed in the burbs.
I guess its not for everyone to live in very rural area.
as Anne says if you need labor, skilled or not it is a challenge.
ive met more than one young person who is perfectly content spending life on couch with chips, pop and thumbs fully engaged on cell phone.

I am sure there are some downsides. I just can’t think of any. The isolation is a strong positive.