Moving to the Country - for City Folks!

Whether it has been your life-long dream to move to the country (though you've never tried it) or whether a family member is talking you into it, there are things to consider seriously before taking the plunge. Living in the country can be a wonderful and satisfying experience for some people, and for others it can really be a tough go. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into depth about all the comparisons, but I've made this transition from city to country more than once. Maybe I can share some of what I learned to help others in this position.

I grew up in a small city that was close to farmland but living in town we really weren't near livestock. Still, I always felt draw to quiet country life. Ponds stocked with fish and groves of pecan trees drifted through my dreams. One of my big longings was to own a horse, too, and my parents were convinced that boarding a horse was too expensive and impractical. Though I never convinced my folks to head for 'green acres' I started thinking in that direction before I even moved away from home.

I chose a college in a neighboring town that was known for its agriculture program. I learned a little bit about livestock and a barely more about horses and also learned about some of the dangers involved. I was lucky to do all this under the watchful eyes of an excellent professor of agriculture and horsemanship. At the tender age of 18 I started my search for land and the purchase of a first horse. I ended up with the horse before the land, so I boarded my horse inexpensively at the university stable. Then, my young spouse and I purchased a 1 acre plot of land with a barbed wire fence and we began the try for country life. It wasn't rustic and it wasn't far from town, but it did begin a little of my education. One acre was still small enough to keep mowed between a grazing horse, two push mowers, and two teen-age nuts.

What I didn't know about the country began to show up pretty quick. I learned that horses get injured on barbed wire much more easily than when kept in stables. Keeping chickens for eggs and a goat for a pet was fun, but taking care of them on cold days was tough and going on any sort of vacation was tougher. A neighbor or friend might easily feed
your dog while you head for a shopping weekend in a bigger city. In the country- not just anyone wants to worry about
the possible health problems of other kinds of livestock, taking care of dogs that may be in pens far from the house, gathering eggs before they rot, and making sure that mice don't get in the cat food.

Still, by and large, I enjoyed that one-acre time and I lived there about three years before moving back to the city due to job and other concerns. A few years and a reasonably friendly divorce eventually commenced and it was time for me to move on again. I headed to a bigger city being along and needing good gainful employment. I found the city and the job- but the country needs began to heat up my blood again. In time, I met someone else who cared for me and wanted to share my life. By then, I had purchased a couple of horses again but had them boarded just outside the city. This time, it was my partner who thought we could save boarding fees and enjoy a different life if we tried for country life. The ideas were different from those I'd tried before- there was interest in growing some of our own food, raising goats and chicken for eggs and milk, and really considering a real homestead. We weren't sure about going all the way with it, but we were definitely intrigued. What about getting windmills and solar panels and being free from the electric company or 'the grid' as many homesteaders call it.

Sometime I can fill a few articles with information about my research on partial and full homesteading and I'd like to do it. For this beginner's view, though, here is what I'd suggest: read magazines like 'Mother Earth News' and other homesteader magazines before you even start looking for land. For some people, I absolutely believe that homesteading can be absolute nirvana and I also think it can be a fantastic way to raise children. I'm not at all sorry that we tried the partial way just for the experience. We bought two and a half acres which won't raise food for a whole family but will give you room to experiment. We learned so much. From that time, I do believe that with the right acreage, a good well or other water source, and a family willing to work hard - it is possible today to homestead. However, don't believe that it will save you money in the beginning. Eventually, yes, it might even earn you money. But- the cost of drilling wells and/or pumping water and filtering it is quite expensive just to start. Add on a large array of solar panels with windmill backups and then a small building with battery sources to retain the electricity from the wind and solar generation. Depending on where you live, you may also have to consider a wood, coal, or corn burning furnace to avoid dependence on natural gas or propane. Life as a homesteader does have its simplicities, as Henry David Thoreau would tell you. Sitting on the porch admiring the scent of your own kitchen herbs planted nearby can be blissful. But, Thoreau himself will also tell you that you may have to scrounge for materials for some projects to keep costs low. In our more modern society, you'll also have to consider that the power you do generate may do fine for some lighting and a small refrigerator and coffee pot. If you have kids, though, they may not understand that a couple of cloudy days can mean choosing between keeping the fresh-butchered chicken cold enough to eat for dinner or playing with the Nintendo and watching television that night.

So, before a try at full homesteading, just think some of those things through. My third shot at country life was a strange kind of hybrid attempt to blend all I had learned. I moved to a fourteen acre plot of land with a nice-sized newer manufactured home. There was plenty of room for vegetables and livestock, but I stuck to a fairly small menagerie of the horse, a few chickens and I kept a large garden. I didn't even consider trying to run that property as a homestead - and mind you - I still believe that there are many beauties about that lifestyle and the right person should go for it. I had just decided I wasn't that person. I mixed my pleasures very well. One day I might spend weeding the garden, then sitting by the little creek, and maybe even sleeping in my sleeping bag out under one of our many juniper trees. On a rainy evening, though, I'd be inside chowing down on frozen pizza and watching the satellite television that can conveniently go just about anywhere a person can choose to live. It still had its difficult sides. For a piece of property that large, even our good riding mower wasn't enough to keep the weeds at bay. Even a weekend vacation was out of the question. For me, though, this was probably the best of my country experiences. The worst of it was that I'd learned that to own a large piece of land in my area, you pretty much had to buy further from the larger and mid-sized cities. So, to get a good variety of groceries, to work at a good job, and to find social outings to my liking- every day meant a two-hour commute.

Now, I do live in the city again. I get my taste of country by doing volunteer work for a ranch near my city that helps disabled people. I get to play with horses and take walks in a beautiful pasture without needing to own my own tractor. Maybe
one day I'll make the leap back to life in the country again. Maybe not. In the meantime, though, I'm glad for what I've
learned so far and I hope to keep right on learning