Positive Aspects of Rural Living

Here on Permies we have the thread Downsides of Living Rural and it’s largely comprised of plaints and lamentations of rural living, but some entries do note good aspects of rural life, so I thought it would be nice to have a thread all about the joys and delights of life in the country. The glass is half-full, or at least I think so.

I’m about to move to a rural location, and I’ve been camping out 5 days a week since July building the house my wife and I are soon to move into. Here’s some positive observations about rural living that I’ve had.

The night sky- man o man are there gazillions of stars in the sky and it takes my breath away. I’ve never seen the Milky Way before, and there it is above my head every clear night.

Wildlife- Every evening when the sun goes down, the owls come out. Having lived in or around the city my entire life and not hearing owls, I was delighted to hear a Barred Owl on my first night camping out on the new farm. And I’ve heard him hootin’ away every single night since. There’s another kind of owl, and after reading Audubon Societies information of owls in Tennessee, I think might be an Eastern Screech Owl. He makes me smile too.

The quiet- It's so nice to not hear noise like airplanes and car stereos. On any given day this summer, maybe a dozen vehicles would go down the road, and it was always more tractors than automobiles. After nightfall, maybe a car or two go by before 9pm. Otherwise the only thing to hear at night are the owls, bugs, frogs and toads. Now that it's the end of the growing season, the tractor traffic has really subsided.

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.

The people- It’s so refreshing to be in a community of down-to-earth, genuine people. When I go to the local diner, people I’ve never seen before in my life say hi, ask me how I’m doing, and chat me up like we’ve known each other for years. My next door neighbors (not exactly next door, more like a quarter mile to a half mile away) have welcomed my wife and I and have been so kind, and have stopped by and checked in from time to time while I’ve been building. I don’t even live there yet and I have spent more time with, and seem to know those folks better than my current next door neighbors of 9 years here in the city.

So, fellow good people of Permies, what do you love about rural living?

I love the feeling of space, the quiet, the clean air, and being able to appreciate the sounds of nature.

I'm totally hooked on rural living. I was born and raised in a big city, so I'm well capable of making comparisons. And I'm much more content living the country life. Two of my siblings are still 100% urban. One other shifted to 100% suburban living in a housing development. I broke away from that rat race, so I'm the oddball.

The upsides of rural living for us are.....
...elbow room. Everybody around us has at least 10 acres, most have 20. So we don't live right on top of each other.
...quiet. We hear little human made noise. There's some, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to city noise.
...greenery everywhere. That's not true for all parts of country, but where we chose to live is full of greenery. I grew up with lots of concrete, so greenery is better.
...nature connection. Wildlife, insects, plants all doing their thing around you. As mentioned, the night sky is magnificent. Sunrises and sunsets can be grand.
...natural country smell. I really appreciate smelling rain, flowers, greenery, even the animals. It's far superior to smelling vehicle exhaust, sewerage, garbage, and dirty human stench (try riding the subway on a rainy day during morning rush hour while heading to school each day.)
...community. I know all my neighbors, plus hundreds of people in my town area. Contrast that to when I lived the city lifestyle, I was friends with one neighbor and could recognize a couple more if I met them on the street. But in general, I knew very few people. I could have died and the neighbors wouldn't have noticed it for days.
...a sense of safety. The country surely isn't devoid of crime, but it much safer than the city.
...freedom. At least where I'm living, people are more free to follow their hearts. There is not the intense scrutiny from the "department to make you sad", compared to the city. You can paint your house any color you want, replace your house roof without the building department official showing up, keep a junk vehicle in your driveway, turn your front lawn into a vegetable garden, set up a table along the road to sell your excess vegetables, butcher out your cow or pig without complaints, etc.
...privacy. I could walk out my back door naked and nobody would see me. There's no one spying on us through our windows. I had that problem all the time when living in the city, though I wasn't aware of it initially. There's no one snooping through my trash can or peeping over my privacy fence.

Yes, there are downsides to being rural, but for me the positive aspects make rural living worth it.

I like the security of it.  When I wake up in the house at night because I heard a noise, I don't even have to think about what the noise was.  If the dogs aren't ruckusing, it's not important.  Go back to sleep.

There's never a surprise knock on the door.  Nobody ever messes with a vehicle.  No pamphlets under a windshield wiper.  People drive by, but they don't go down driveways where they don't have business you are going to recognize as legitimate.

I once found legal papers face down in a mud puddle at the end of the driveway with a bite missing out of one corner.  I guess our alpha male pack leader at the time (an 80-lb "yellow dog" hunting cur of indeterminate breed) convinced the process server that he (the dog)  was an adult of legal age and competent to receive service of process.  (We were not home at the time, but the papers were definite bullshit. That process server did in fact go on to file a fraudulent notice of successful service of process.)

The biggest upside for me is the feeling of security in having undeveloped land around me--I have resources, even if I'm not utilizing them right now.  

A close second is being surrounded by nature.  The wildlife can be destructive, but it can be the best free show you'll ever see, too.  Like a herd of deer converging on and chasing a feral cat, or a hawk picking a squirrel right off the birdfeeder, or a jake trying to pick a fight with itself reflected in a chrome bumper.  Sure, you can see that stuff on YouTube nowdays, but nothing beats seeing it live.  And I'm always discovering new things, like a bug or fungus or weed, even though I've lived on this land for (most of) 30+ years.

Privacy is nice.  I like being able to walk around looking like a slob, staying in my pajamas all day if I feel like it, with no one to see or judge me.  I like keeping the curtains open all the time.  I often find people tiring, so not having to do the dance of smiles and how-are-yous with five different people between my car any my front door is a slice of heaven in itself.  And the most noise we get from neighbors is the occasional dog barking (except for the guy with all the guns, who decides to fire his entire arsenal over the course of a few hours once a month, and the other guy who loves his newly-legal-in-PA fireworks).

Being able to leave cars and houses and sheds unlocked is great.  

It's so much cooler in the summer in the woods.  The humidity might be a little higher, but it's always 10F cooler here than it is in town or in the cities nearby.  We usually get the first frost a little later than everybody else, too (though the snow sticks around a lot longer and we get more of it than the low-lying areas, usually).

No one can see our yard from the road, so it doesn't matter if the grass is mowed or if I've got vegetables growing right next to the front door.  If I want to repurpose parts of a washing machine or old cabinets for outdoor uses, there's no one to cluck their tongues or get me fined by some governing body (within reason; townships get involved when the place looks like a junkyard).

This isn't a pleasant thought, but it's still a consideration: if my neighbor's house goes up in flames, I'm not as likely to lose my house because it spreads.  Similarly, I'm not directly affected when there's a problem with a gas or sewer line or any kind of industrial incident.

I like that there is more to talk about. Having been a city dweller, i didn’t know how to fix things or conserve food or brew wine, propagate plants. In the countryside you can talk to people about these things, the basics. That’s nice, because it makes you get to converse with all sorts of people. I find people in cities cluster together in likeminded groups of the same age. Here i am friendly with folk i wouldn’t have bothered with when i was a city dweller. Which has made me more adult cmplete and humane.

Relatively clean air.  Water that is not chlorinated.

-- Security. No one comes knocking at your front door. They stay in their vehicle and honk if they need something. Cars stay unlocked as do doors.

-- Privacy. No worries about the neighbors seeing you in old house clothes. No worries about your music/tv being "too loud" or your dogs raising a ruckus.

-- Great scenery and wildlife. The deer scampering across the road, the coyotes howling in the fall, the wild turkeys walking along in groups, the snakes and lizards and well...just all of it.

-- People watch out for each other. If your car breaks down on a rural road someone will stop and see if you need help OR you can flag down the next car and tell them you need help. People may or may not be sociable but they do help each other out when there is an obvious problem.

-- Friendlier police. The cops know who the criminals and psychos are so they don't treat everyone they encounter as a potentially dangerous lunatic.

-- People are polite in permies. In most rural areas people share the same values, language and cultural mannerisms which means people are more polite to one another.

-- Drivers are more polite -- road rage is rare. Drivers are more forgiving since the chances are good you will see that "idiot driver" in the parking lot at the grocery store in 10 minutes.

-- Businesses remember their customers and are happy to accommodate special requests.  They usually don't operate off of corporate handbook that expects the worst from every customer.

-- People get involved. If folks see a crime in progress or something really serious like an assault others WILL get involved since keeping the community safe is every bodies business.

(Some items may be regional, I do realize that crime rates are high in some rural areas due to drug use etc...)

I'm 61 and have only spent a few years of my life living in towns or cities.  Most of my life, we've lived in rural areas, sometimes VERY rural (a homestead in Alaska, for example).  As a result, I have a bigger 'personal space' than most people seem to have, and feel crowded to the point of claustrophobia in an apartment or in a big urban area.  I need the space of open fields around me -- right now, we have a cattle farm on three sides of us, and get to use their fields for our open-space view.  

Also -- probably as a result of my upbringing -- I'm missing some of the cultural habits required to live peacefully in crowded environments.  I do not like other people telling me what I can and can't do on my own property, or complaining about my roosters crowing or my dogs barking (my dogs bark to warn predators away from my goats and chickens).  And I could not live where my neighbors or some city agency controlled what color I could paint my house, whether I am allowed to fence my front yard or have a garden there, or where I'm allowed to park my vehicle.  Nobody is giving me a ticket for letting the grass in my yard grow taller than three or four inches, either!

So probably personal freedom is at the top of the list of my reasons for living in the country.  Not that there aren't country neighborhoods that are just as controlling and intrusive, but with careful searching you can eliminate those.  

Second would be peace and quiet.  For me, with an autistic daughter living with me, I have so much stress in my life already that I have to minimize external stress as much as possible, and having a quiet, somewhat isolated location helps me with that.  

Third is having room to grow much of our own food, not just gardening, but also some livestock.  I like veggies, and we can consume much of our calories in plant material, but in order to be healthy and feel well, we need some animal fat and protein in our diet.  I'm not going to criticize those who choose to be vegan, but it doesn't work for us.  A city lot -- those folks in Pasadena notwithstanding -- isn't sufficient (they have pretty much a year-round growing season).  

And I like being able to see the wildlife -- we've seen coyotes (which my dogs scared off, thankfully), deer, wild turkeys, a snapping turtle, and all kinds of birds since we moved here.  We were enchanted by the fireflies this summer -- we've seldom lived where there were fireflies.  I had family from Oregon and Wyoming visit us about the time the fireflies started to come out and it was the first time some of them had ever seen the shiny bugs.

We can sit out in the back yard around a little bonfire and we don't need a tall fence to screen us from the neighbors or passers-by.  When we first moved here we didn't have any water in the house for several weeks, and I actually took a couple of showers in the back yard (with a privacy tarp, but still....I wouldn't have done that in town!).  My garden is in the front yard; I'm going to plant chestnut trees on both sides of the driveway and black walnuts and mulberries on the other side of the barns, and nobody cares!!  I can make my own decisions, and make things work here the way I want them to.

Kathleen

This thread deserves more love! You captured much of the glory for rural living, but it deserves stating again and again.

The night sky is precious, with more stars than one person can ever comprehend.

I love the distance from my neighbors,  I care about them, and like checking in once in awhile. I do not miss intentionally ignoring the awkward intimacy of overly close proximity.

The peace of mind, with fresh air, sounds of wild birds, and the casual presence of deer and rabbits is worth more than my words can convey.

There are occasions I miss the convenience of food delivered to my home, or quick jaunts to the store , but I never really needed that crap and am better off when the most convenient meal is cooked be me.

I love life in the woods.

Our rural neighbours come first to my mind.

They have been so helpful, given so much advice when we've asked, lent us stuff, sold us stuff, all of which hasn't been of much material gain for them. Sure we've paid them and given them some farm produce, but I feel that's insignificant compared to what we've received from them.

Take for instance our cows. Our neighbors have sold us hay and delivered it to us, a round bale or two at a time with their tractor. The delivering easily takes 2 hours of their time. In addition, they always take the time to answer our questions about the cows. They've taught us when to call the inseminator, how to help a cow with delivery, how to take care of the hooves, eartag calves, etc.

Another neighbour has sold barley for our chickens and even 50 kg bags of wheat for our own consumption (we make our own flour and bake our own bread). The trouble for him in making those little sacks of wheat is far greater than the little sum of money that he asks for it. He has ploughed and sanded our yard and the road leading to it, without us even asking, just because he noticed we were struggling with yard maintenance in the winter.

I could go on and on with these stories  We have been blessed with super nice neighbours! I hope one day we will be able to return the favours! I doubt we will ever be of as much help to them as they have been to us, but maybe one day we'll have another newbie as our neighbour and then we can the pass on what we have received

I just read the topic and it straightly attracted me to post a reply without reading any of the above.
The Ruralism, it's simple without much complications. The life is not composed of much extra things that kill your time. In our country, the rural areas are were people still meet, talk, discuss whereas the urban people are just on their technology, doing show offs and engaged in their own.
Rural areas are were people are close to nature, spend more time with it, and are actually breathing. I have a dream of living at a place where I can just view the greenery all around doing farming, gardening, sleeping, relaxing and nothing more.

Rural living gives a sense of where the resources for modern life come from and the effort required to provide the food for the cities. We have many old farmers by us we often see planting onions, garlic, beets for seeds - damn hard work.

We grow some of our own food which has made us appreciate how much hard work is involved to produce a substantial harvest. We now know what our soil is like, the weather impact on its fertility and life (we live in the SW of France is hot and dry in the summer). We see the infestations, moulds etc. first had and now have a better understanding on what causes them and what nutrients and protection they need.

Our land was industrially farmed before us. Only now after 5 years we are seing biodiversity return, bugs, bats, birds, wild orchids and a change from deep rooted "weeds" to grass wild flowers and clover cover. It is great to see permaculture principles having such a big effect and the joys of rural life.

Darren Tasker wrote:Our land was industrially farmed before us. Only now after 5 years we are seing biodiversity return, bugs, bats, birds, wild orchids and a change from deep rooted "weeds" to grass wild flowers and clover cover. It is great to see permaculture principles having such a big effect and the joys of rural life.

It's disappointing that it's taken 5 years, but heartening that it isn't permanent.  Thanks for your thoughts.

Another positive aspect of being rural is spectacular firefly shows.

I love living where I am surrounded by wild creatures.  I don't see them every day, but I see them regularly.  

From my game cams:

I forgot to mention, I also really like to pee outside.

Trace Oswald wrote:I forgot to mention, I also really like to pee outside.

Living in the city currently, and not having gone camping for a while... it was enjoyable being able to pee outside while at the PEP1 event at Wheaton Labs.

Anyone who hasn’t been to visit for an event, I highly recommend doing it if at all possible!

Trace Oswald wrote:I forgot to mention, I also really like to pee outside.

This so very much.

I struggle in cities with the idea that I should treat pee as waste. I will often sneak out and pee on a bush or tree that looks like it needs a little nutrient boost when visiting family. I even mentioned this in the "You might be a permie" thread.

Like many posted here, I love the wildlife and nature, the privacy, and so much more.

A lot of folks mention security, but I do have to mention that security in rural life is a bit less in my experience. Since due to the rural privacy bad folks can make as much noise as they want and spend more time doing bad than in an urban suburban area. That said, though the bad folks have to find ya to do bad, and I am off the beaten path. But I had a chainsaw disappear from my property last fall that I had left out where I was cutting a log. Someone walked through my place and just took it.

The biggest thing for me that I like about rural living is the sense of community I have found out there. People miles away still consider me their neighbor, and want to get to know me and help me get settled in. The old barn raising concept is still alive, and neighbors tend to help each other out. Folks with very diverse ideology have little to no problem getting along. Religion, politics, etc... No big deal as long as you can respect each others different opinions. All it takes for most I have met is a willingness to want to get along, and everything else that divides people in cities tends to just fall away. To me this is one of the best things of rural living. the sense of togetherness and community that forms. The people out here recognize the differences don't really matter that much, in the overwhelming similarity of us all choosing to live rural.

The pace of city versus rural living – one too fast and the other just plain natural. Simply working to the basic and natural cycles of nature: sunrise, sunset, seasons, rain or clear weather, etc.

Importantly, not needing to have that ‘game’ or ‘team’ face on, which is so common in city living and work environments. Things considered to be abnormal eccentricities in the city are more often than not accepted or appreciated  in rural areas.

In the city, if I want to fish or spend time on a beach, it’s likely to be shared with many other people. In ‘my’ rural area, it can be done without anyone around – just me, the seagulls, pelicans, and hopefully a swag of fish!

Oh yeah, walking on uneven, natural surfaces rather than manicured concrete footpaths, paving or tiled/carpeted office floors.

I look back on the photos I took while on a visit last year to SE Arizona, and I can't wait to be out in that landscape again, maybe with a Xolo or other sight hound as companion.

I'll never return to living in a city longterm. Quarantine is showing me I'm not as much as a culture vulture as I thought I was.

While I do feel less protected In the country, i find that being rural offers it's own protection.  Of course, city or country,  much depends upon the quality of ones neighbors.

How great to discover this thread!

I really like living in the country when there is big winter weather.  In Vermont, the state and towns take clearing the roads seriously, which is helpful.  The roads are uncrowded, which is handy when driving home in a blizzard.  And one can stay home, heating with wood, cozy and warm, even when the power is out.  There is so much less of that filthy snow that is so demoralizing.  And the quiet!

I love being in the country during this pandemic.  I am outside every day, unless it's pouring.  I go hiking with my neighbor - there's plenty of room!  She is pregnant and medically trained, so she takes no chances.  We are becoming good friends.  

We aren't stuck inside.  We don't get delivered groceries, but our local small stores offer curbside pickup and online ordering.

When we built our barn two years ago, we invited family, friends, and neighbors to help with the roof.  The lumberyard folks delivered the trusses and had equipment to swing them up over the building, and our friends directed and maneuvered them into place.  We provided an enormous pot of chili and plenty of beer.  

And I have chickens!  They are hilarious, roaming around eating bugs and demanding treats from me.  They are better company than my old neighbors in a small city!  My ancient Chihuahua, nearly blind and deaf, gets to go outside and RUNnnn!  Inside he has to be so careful.  If I take him anywhere I have to hunt up the leash - but now I keep it in the car.  

I've often said the best part of living in the country is the ability to start anything on fire, whenever you feel like doing it........bahaha, there is nothing more stress relieving then lighting something on fire.

I agree with so many of the points above- I love my life in the woods.

My husband and I both grew up rural and moved to cities for school and work. We were married for a few years before the idea of moving back to the country began to percolate. It took years before we could make it happen.

In our first winter on the land where we live now, we bought an old tractor that broke shortly after the first snowfall. It was an unusually snowy winter, and we couldn’t even get to the tractor to fix it.

Our neighbor dug us out multiple times before we even met him. He is a very shy person, and keeps to himself, but saw we were in need and helped us out without even knowing if we were jerks or not.

So we respect his space and just try to reciprocate when we can. But it was such a relief to move back into that culture.

Here is today's reason.  I wish I could attach the smell and the sound.  There are literally hundreds of bumblebees in each of these trees.  The trees are buzzing with them and you can hear them from 20 feet away.  When you stand directly under the branches, they fly about your head buzzing and it is just amazing.  I have dozens of apple trees in blossom right now and it's just incredible.

I love the fact that in the countryside, for the most, the problems are somewhat on a solveable level. We have (I am sure) political differences, but most of what people are interested in are schools, roads, the dump they want to install, the big ass natural gas pipeline. Crap, well the first part applies...

It does seem that people don't divide on things without meeting someone and giving them a fair shake. I have people who live literally a stones throw away who could not be more different, but out here we just figure most people are products of their upbringing and not as much of their choice necessarily. As such, I see lots of the communal behaviors people note, because until proven otherwise we just figure that's as much a part of them as their culture of origin and foot size. If people don't reciprocate that sense, they tend to get ostracized. If people get some warnings they are violating the norms and persist, they probably aren't going to have a good time because those communal behaviors stop pretty quick. But there aren't very many of those norms. I badger my neighbors about their chemicals and they badger me about my "unkempt yard". But in reality they happily eat my tomatoes and I accept their help fixing my hydraulics or whatever.

I was laughing because I got totally busted peeing on a tree in the yard by a neighbor in a really quiet car, and never heard anything about it! Just chalk it up to the weird hippy behavior and move on. And don't accept tomatoes unless it just rained I guess...

Here is mine for today. My lady spotted this guy this morning on my chicken tractor. Later this afternoon, 5 of them were singing to one another. We just sat and listened for 15 or 20 minutes. It was awesome.

I'm adding to my list.  I just posted on my local small-town web list that "It's that time again, for a grandparent to request to borrow a crib or buy a used on for impending visit of grandbaby."  Such posts are pretty routine for our little community.

Somebody has grown out of her old Pack'n'Play!

Since I'm not really rural at the moment, I'm going to post the things I miss about rural living.

Space. Looking all directions and not seeing a bunch of other houses and streets.

Long walks without meeting any traffic or people.

Quiet. No hum of traffic or train whistles loud enough to give you hearing damage at all hours of the day and night.

Animals. You can have more than two pets, and get chickens if you want to.

Being able to sing at the top of my lungs without worrying about disturbing neighbors.

Being able to look up and see the stars at night.

The air feels and smells fresher in the country.

Feeling closer to nature.

peace and quiet. no noise and distractions to interfere with your thoughts. you can play music as loud as you wish and police don't come to your door.
theres nobody to say your trees are too big or your grass is too tall. no code enforcement.
nobody goes on your property to steal the fruits and vegetables.
theres no water bill and many other necessities are less expensive than it is in the city.
oh yeah, if you want to make a fire outside the fire department doesn't show up to hose down your toasted marshmallows

The morning sun sets its target walnut aflame with brilliant, dancing green leaves in deep contrast to the dark woods beyond. And of course it gets modified as the day progresses.  Unlike aspens and maples my oaks and walnuts turn dull brown with but little concern for the lower end of the spectrum.   Now the sumacs and maples get all dandied up in the fall.  Alas I fell for more diversity in fall colors and planted some more maples to liven things up in my corner of the world.  

It is a joy to watch the various critters trespass into my world.  Surely they have a different opinion about who owns what. Here in SW Missouri, we have bobcats, deer, turkey,  whippoorwills (lovely night serenade), owls, hawks, crows and other creatures related to Pepe La Pu.  It changes every day.  Even a bald eagle dropped in.  It seemed a long way from their habitat around Stockton Lake.  It is rumored they have a floating sushi shop.  Alas, no sober human has spotted it, yet.  I have been told that Bambi has seen it.  

Folks get into growing stuff or gleaning it from the woods and fields.  They grow, therefore they can.  And such indigenous delicacies get passed around to guests and neighbors.  Speaking of foods and feeds, there is some serious BBQing in the neighborhood.  The various meats are locally grown or harvested.  The big cities don't know what they are missing.

Then there are the local wines from the local grapes.  Indeed some have received high ratings from the city folks out east.

We have a grist mill that has been hanging around since 1840 that can still grind your corn.  www.hulstonmill.com

There is a freedom that pervades rural America that cannot be found amongst the larger settlements.  Freedom is one thing that is not appreciated until it is taken away.  A pox on the grids!
Jim Johnson
Greenfield, MO

The quiet...no screaming neighbors, no loud vehicles, no TV or Stereo blasting (unless it's MY choice), no constant drone from lawn mowers, no incessantly barking dogs (that aren't one of my 11!), no one ringing the doorbell (okay, I disconnected THAT!)...the Quiet.

Feeling competent...knowing I have the ability to provide the basics: light when it is dark; heat when it's cold; food when the roads are difficult; entertainment from books, the animals, or from nature. Knowing that IF some cataclysmic event occurred, we will be just fine. Knowing I can truly TRUST myself and my abilities, and when faced with a completely new situation; I have the skills, logic and experience to muddle through.

Living with true freedom... freedom to NOT wear makeup, high heels, uncomfortable clothing. Freedom from constantly being polite when someone truly needs "a slap up the side of the head"; freedom from others who often pollute our world with toxic thoughts, words and actions.

The freedom to engage in "acts of kindness" without someone being suspicious of your motive; the ability to ask for help and not be judged incompetent; the freedom to "sleep in" or live as a night owl - freedom from clocks, watches, alarms, schedules, commuting...Freedom.

Lastly, nature, in all it's splendor and, at times, it's brutality - either way, it is honest, unvarnished and real. The pleasure of watching a bird build a nest, raise their young, and watching them fledge. The glorious night sky, a lightening storm, a shooting star, a sunrise, a sunset...

Watching a buried boat, reinvent itself as a pond, acquire plants, frogs, dragonflies; watching clusters of egg sacs hatch into tadpoles, absorb their tails as their legs sprout, and transform into tiny, perfect Chorus Frogs.

Glimpsing a cougar, bear, deer or any of our secretive, silent, wild residents.

Talking to animals without worrying about being observed by someone who thinks you have "lost the plot".

Watching a naturally provided Maple tree grow from a knee high "twig" to a 30 foot tree with a gracious, shade providing canopy, all by itself.

The peace, quiet and security that nature offers, no charge, simply an exchange of respect.

Ah, will, country living - more or less! My friends in Florida and LA just do not believe me when I tel them there is nothing here really to see as I live in the middle of corn field and soybean fields at the edge of a small town of around 4,000 people

When I was still teaching I took my camera with me one day and took a photo of "Rush Hour" on my drive to work. This was in the fall with all of the leaves turning the trees along the highway all kinds of colors. There were a whole TWO cars ahead of me in the photo, one about 1/2 mile ahead and the other about 3/4 mile. I sent the photos to all those friends in the big cities who were still stalling in traffic tie-ups every morning going to work. I didn't hear a PEEP from any one of them.

Say la vie! I just sit and watch the grass, the weeds, and my garden growing and doing some occasional woodworking. Then there is my habit of reading any time I want to also.

I'm happy and content!!!

a cricket is singing in the house tonight-- sure wouldn't have that in the city or suburbs

For me its the sounds. Sit on the back porch and hear nature sing.

Whoever said they were moving out to the country for peace and quiet, never have I suspect.

All of the above mentioned.  The night sky, the sunrise, the sunset, the wild life, the fresh air, the quietness, the security, the freedom, the space, the community, definitely the fires and peeing outdoors!  But also the sound of rain on a tin roof, and the smell of the earth after the rain.  The feel of the grass under my bare feet.  The birds dawn chorus heralding a new day, the awesomeness of a summer storm, noticing the seasons changing and me changing with it,  being a witness to the rightness of what is taking place around me, and finding my place within it.  I would not swap for anything.

Yesterday it was a skunk wandering around the garden while I was raking in some seeds. We gave each other some space (actually it seemed to be ignoring me completely) & all was well. Now I know I didn't plug the hole under the fence quite good enough.

Like Olga said ... all the above.

I like the view, from my bed room window I see row after row of mountains stretching into the distance.
I like living close to nature, seeing the plants coming up and blooming in spring, the heat in the summer and going to the river to swim and sun, receiving the people as in our area there are a lot of tourists in summer. In fall when the leaves fall, all of a sudden I can see things that were hidden behind the greenery, like houses. I like the old stone buildings that are in my area, the beauty of it all!
I like the feeling of being at home here, knowing my neighbours and indeed the friendliness and help of the neighbours.
I feel very blessed here in the nature.

I like the feeling of possibility when planting trees and sowing seeds. The wonder of the little plants coming up, each in their own way.
I like the song of the frogs and the birds.
I just feel more tangibly part of the whole web of life, the changes, the connection and also my place in it, doing what I can to take care of things, to support the land and the buildings. In my area there are the terraces made by the ancients on the mountain sides. Much of it is not used now and crumbling but I like to try to care for it, to repair the walls and be able to use the land again.
I like the feeling of being part of that history, we continue the life of those people who lived here and build all those houses and terraces. Our life with cars etc. is so much easier than theirs. I feel like I am here thanks to their hard work. I feel grateful!

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