Country Dwellers 101

Funny thing about moving to the "country". The "country" people do all of the things people have posted here not to do. There are good people and A-holes everywhere. Moving to the "country" assures you nothing. You'll also find that not everyone in the "country" is Mr. Greenjeans and just like everywhere else most think milk comes from the grocery store and chickens look like Foghornleghorn. A good example is my friends niece who's in her late 20's. She grew up in the "country" with relatives that raised cattle. She believed you could tell a bull because that was the one with horns.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

country people are very friendly and helpful. Ask questions politely and see how great a place you have moved to.

I am building in the country, but haven't moved out there yet. (Long story).

I got a call at my house in town one day from a guy that says he drives past my place everyday on his way to check on his cows and noticed that a piece of my roof ridge vent on the barn was flapping. He thought I might want to know about it before it got worse, and he knew that I wasn't out there a lot to check on things.

Wasn't that nice?!

The "rest of the story" is that I had met no one in the area, but everyone seemed to know who I was, my name, and that I lived in town. You know how gossip travels! I'll forever be "that girl that bought the corner of old Dr. Jones property"

CC

Chickinista's post above covers it for me too. We are also in Western NC and some of those same people are over this way. Too much perfume, too snooty, four wheelers tearing up the roads, they wanted to pave and widen the road so "two cars" could drive side by side rather than just waiting......torn down and BURNED a perfectly good 120 year old barn because "it was old"........

The main advice I would give City folks moving to the country would be to listen, watch, learn, be polite to all the neighbors because you are going to need them at some point and if you shut everyone out (while you are drinking all night and blasting music the rest of us do not want to hear)........then you will not have any help.

Don't try to turn the country into the city.

I have asked SEVERAL people if they were stupid or illiterate "cause you just drove past 3 signs that say-private drive, no trespassing, keep out"

Luckily, I have not been shot yet.

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I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.

There is so much good advice here, but to be quite honest the majority of it is applicable to city as well as country living. We have problems with people letting their dogs run loose, who play their music cranked up loud (you think it's bad when the houses are farther apart, try it when the buildings are 10 feet apart), who love the sound of an engine revving high (especially at 2am) and believe me, the majority of the neighbors don't like it either! Although we don't know our neighbors by name, we all stop and chat when we're out and we keep an eye out for each other. We were going to rent a Uhaul to bring home a sliding glass door we purchased. A neighbor up the street has a pickup and trailer, so I asked first if I could pay him $20 for his time to go up the street a couple miles and pick up the door. He refused the money and not only picked up the door but helped us load and unload it. A neighbor across the street can't move into their vacant house for a bit and asked us to keep an eye on it. We do our best to watch for any suspicious activity, as are the other neighbors they've asked. Yep, good neighbors are necessary whether one lives in the city or in the country.

Much of the behaviors that drive country folks nuts about their city neighbors very likely drove the old neighbors back in the city nuts, too.

I dont know if they still offer them, but Sterns county in MN offered scratch and sniff cards to people moving out so they know what to expect when things start to thaw out in the spring.

What I have found out is when you move to the country, the people who where here first will wait to see what type of person you are. Do you want to make the country the same as the city you left? Or do you want to join what they have in place.

It took about 3-6 months for my family to really be accepted and fit in. Keep in mind, we did business local, socialized local, etc.

A perfect example of this. Over the summer my brothers from the city came out to help me put on a new roof. One of our nail guns died on us. I called Wayne at the hardware store to see if he had one in his rental area. He did so I send my brother to get it.

When he got there, Wayne looked at him and said, You must be here for the gun, and handed it to him. My brother had no idea what to do next. No paperwork???? No Credit Card?????

It is your choice to fit in or not. Enjoy the choice you make.

Oh man WNC one of the most beautiful places in the U.S. Folks move to the mountains because of the beauty then build huge houses On the side of them. Like coming into Boone.


Also When you get to the country dont complain about the wildlife.

Words that should never pass your lips are "Where I came from we did X" or "When I lived in A they did B" etc.

If those places were so much better or more "progressive" you should go back there. We don't wish to be like them or do the things they do or we'd live there.

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Respect The Cactus!

A'yup, we don't want to hear how they do it on the mainland. (Unless it is in the middle of the pavement and you have a video and in all actuality probably not even then.)

Moving to any rural area you may as well only say nice things about folks since as soon as you say it the whole area will know what you said.

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