I know it's 'Rural'...but then what?

[baysidebunny]

Deleted

[tooltime]

When referring to mail being delivered in the country,

RFD = rural free delivery

[sylvar]

The RFD in Mayberry RFD was "Rural Free Delivery" I think. I haven't seen the channel, but I just looked at their website. Sounds neat

Sylvar

[Hank - Narita]

Is that the one with the horse training shows? That is one of our favorites. We like the shows about gardening and farming.

[Jan Sears]

Would like to look at there website! Care to share it? Haven't seen that station up here in Canada, & we have satellite tv or we would get next to nothing.

[baysidebunny]

Rural Free Delivery? Thanks ya'll.

Yes Hank. It has alot of horse training shows on it and other rural programs.
We stumbled on it by accidentl. It's in the upper channel area...like 370 here.
Jan, I haven't seen thier website yet. Sorry.

[Rod Torgeson]

Originally Posted by Jan Sears

Would like to look at there website! Care to share it? Haven't seen that station up here in Canada, & we have satellite tv or we would get next to nothing.

Here is the web address for RFD-TV.
http://www.rfd-tv.com/start3.html

Hope this helps. Rod in Appleton, WA

[Kygardengal]

I thought it was Rural Federal Delivery?????But I might be wrong.....

[kesoaps]

Thanks for the link, I'll need to see if we've got it!

[kppop]

Looks like an awesome channel. I will be contacting my cable company and request it.

Kim

[moosemaniac]

Now I always thought it stood for Rural Farm Delivery. Anyway, I've had RFD TV for a while now. I love it. They have a lot of cattle shows too. They've recently added some goat shows.

Ruth

[mamagoose]

Great channel! They even had a 1/2 hour Boer goat program in December that might be re-run later. It's on 9409 on our DishTV.

[Bob_W_in_NM]

Up until reading this thread you would have a hard time convincing me that ANYBODY living outside of town would be unfamiliar with the terms "RFD" or "Rural Free Delivery" or their meanings and implications! I can't even remember where or how long ago I learned what all this meant. Clipped this from the 'net:

"Rural Free Delivery"

Today it is difficult to envision the isolation that was the lot of farm families in early America. In the days before telephones, radios, or televisions were common, the farmer's main links to the outside world were the mail and the newspapers that came by mail to the nearest post office. Since the mail had to be picked up, this meant a trip to the post office, often involving a day's travel, round-trip. The farmer might delay picking up mail for days, weeks, or even months until the trip could be coupled with one for supplies, food, or equipment.

John Wanamaker of Pennsylvania was the first Postmaster General to advocate rural free delivery (RFD). Although funds were appropriated a month before he left office in 1893, subsequent Postmasters General dragged their feet on inaugurating the new service so that it was 1896 before the first experimental rural delivery routes began in West Virginia, with carriers working out of post offices in Charlestown, Halltown, and Uvilla.

Many transportation events in postal history were marked by great demonstrations: the Pony Express, for example, and scheduled airmail service in 1918. The West Virginia experiment with rural free delivery, however, was launched in relative obscurity and in an atmosphere of hostility. Critics of the plan claimed it was impractical and too expensive to have a postal carrier trudge over rutted roads and through forests trying to deliver mail in all kinds of weather.

However, the farmers, without exception, were delighted with the new service and the new world open to them. After receiving free delivery for a few months, one observed that it would take away part of life to give it up. A Missouri farmer looked back on his life and calculated that, in 15 years, he had traveled 12,000 miles going to and from his post office to get the mail.

A byproduct of rural free delivery was the stimulation it provided to the development of the great American system of roads and highways. A prerequisite for rural delivery was good roads. After hundreds of petitions for rural delivery were turned down by the Post Office because of unserviceable and inaccessible roads, responsible local governments began to extend and improve existing highways. Between 1897 and 1908, these local governments spent an estimated $72 million on bridges, culverts, and other improvements. In one county in Indiana, farmers themselves paid over $2,600 to grade and gravel a road in order to qualify for RFD.

The impact of RFD as a cultural and social agent for millions of Americans was even more striking, and, in this respect, rural delivery still is a vital link between industrial and rural America.

[sisterpine]

I just discovered that channell too and think it is great, course i am working on saving for a horse so I just love watching all the horse training programs and the old tractors oh my!

[MullersLaneFarm]

RFD-TV is the only reason we have satelite - cable doesn't carry it. We recently asked them to think about running a show featuring homesteaders ...

sisterpine, do you know about the ruralheritage & their website??

Clinton Anderson (downunder horsemanship) was a neighbor of ours for a while. He and wife, Beth recently moved to Ohio so Beth could be closer to her family. She use to stop by the homestead to buy milk soap.

[mightybooboo]

RFDTV- I like the classic tractor shows and the old machinery shows and the tractor auctions.
BooBoo

[kesoaps]

Baysidebunny, I'm glad you posted this, because I've found it on my channels! Now all I need to do is find time to watch it, lol! Not an easy task with the Nickelodeon crowd here :no:

[2horses]

I sure wish my cable company carried it - with the two horses that I'm training, those shows would be awesome to watch! Wonder if I could talk my cable company into carrying it....

Pam <--- would love to see a Clinton Anderson clinic....

[deberosa]

I knew that. HEHE

Originally Posted by Bob_W_in_NM

Up until reading this thread you would have a hard time convincing me that ANYBODY living outside of town would be unfamiliar with the terms "RFD" or "Rural Free Delivery" or their meanings and implications! I can't even remember where or how long ago I learned what all this meant. Clipped this from the 'net:

"Rural Free Delivery"

Today it is difficult to envision the isolation that was the lot of farm families in early America. In the days before telephones, radios, or televisions were common, the farmer's main links to the outside world were the mail and the newspapers that came by mail to the nearest post office. Since the mail had to be picked up, this meant a trip to the post office, often involving a day's travel, round-trip. The farmer might delay picking up mail for days, weeks, or even months until the trip could be coupled with one for supplies, food, or equipment.

John Wanamaker of Pennsylvania was the first Postmaster General to advocate rural free delivery (RFD). Although funds were appropriated a month before he left office in 1893, subsequent Postmasters General dragged their feet on inaugurating the new service so that it was 1896 before the first experimental rural delivery routes began in West Virginia, with carriers working out of post offices in Charlestown, Halltown, and Uvilla.

Many transportation events in postal history were marked by great demonstrations: the Pony Express, for example, and scheduled airmail service in 1918. The West Virginia experiment with rural free delivery, however, was launched in relative obscurity and in an atmosphere of hostility. Critics of the plan claimed it was impractical and too expensive to have a postal carrier trudge over rutted roads and through forests trying to deliver mail in all kinds of weather.

However, the farmers, without exception, were delighted with the new service and the new world open to them. After receiving free delivery for a few months, one observed that it would take away part of life to give it up. A Missouri farmer looked back on his life and calculated that, in 15 years, he had traveled 12,000 miles going to and from his post office to get the mail.

A byproduct of rural free delivery was the stimulation it provided to the development of the great American system of roads and highways. A prerequisite for rural delivery was good roads. After hundreds of petitions for rural delivery were turned down by the Post Office because of unserviceable and inaccessible roads, responsible local governments began to extend and improve existing highways. Between 1897 and 1908, these local governments spent an estimated $72 million on bridges, culverts, and other improvements. In one county in Indiana, farmers themselves paid over $2,600 to grade and gravel a road in order to qualify for RFD.

The impact of RFD as a cultural and social agent for millions of Americans was even more striking, and, in this respect, rural delivery still is a vital link between industrial and rural America.

[sancraft]

I just love Miss Lucy's Cajun Cooking and Culture. That is the only reason we will have satellite again when we move.