Anyone move from the city to a ranch/farm? - day dreaming here...

[hesperus]

ERs who want to experience a rural life should do it early when they still have the health and energy for it.

+1
We have a second home on 10 acres, which is a mix of irrigated pasture land, forest, a large pond and a stream. It's zoned agricultural and is prime horse property. It sits at an elevation a little below 8000', in the foothills of the san juan mountains. The work it takes (and this is only 10 acres) to irrigate, mend fences, mow, snowblow, fix (just had to patch a number of woodpecker holes), and generally maintain that land is taxing. We used to come out there and enjoy the work, we'd find it relaxing. But now, into my late fifties, I'm kind of tired of it. I bought a JD 4120 tractor to help with the heavy lifting, and although that has helped, I still can't go out there without seeing something that needs attention. The irrigation work is very demanding as we still irrigate by a ditch network. Every spring we have to clean out those ditches for the upcoming water season. Irrigating is hard work. Lots of walking and shovelling heavy mud in and out of the ditch as we move water around the property. One day I had a pedometer on me and logged 9+ miles in the hot sun in less than 8 hours. I'm a very active person, but that work wipes me out.

 

[Car-Guy]

ERs who want to experience a rural life should do it early when they still have the health and energy for it.

The regional hospital may not have the specialist he needs either.

I think this is good advice for anyone contemplating a move to the country. I know in my case, the DW and I are already talking about the inevitable move back to civilization. Probably a town with a population of 25 to 50k, at some point in the future. But when that happens, I hope to keep this place as a retreat for as long as possible.

With regards to the regional hospital in this area, I would rather take my chances with one of the local Vets.

 

[Car-Guy]

Another positive thing about living in the country. All the local Cops know you and what you drive.

 

[pb4uski]

ERs who want to experience a rural life should do it early when they still have the health and energy for it. ....

+1 I recall when I was in my early 40s and was in a stressful time at work I thought about quitting the rat race and buying a small lot (say 20 -30 acres) with a cabin and living off the land. Between a large garden for fruits and vegetables and canning/freezing fruits and vegetables for the winter, heating with wood with a propane backup, hunting for deer, rabbit and the like for meat, perhaps chickens for eggs and a cow for beef I figured we probably had enough money to live off what we needed to pay property taxes, electricity, etc. However, as I thought more about the details it sounded like more and harder work than I was doing at the time so I abandoned the idea.

 

[Major Tom]

Another positive thing about living in the country. All the local Cops know you and what you drive.

Or a negative thing, depending on your lifestyle

 

[Car-Guy]

Or a negative thing, depending on your lifestyle

So very true... For me, I'm glad they know me.

 

[EllisWyatt]

Late to the party, as usual, but want to add my 2cents.
We moved out tot the country from suburbia 6 years ago this month. Nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away, next is over a mile. Despite the apparent isolation, we have become very close to our neighbors, and consider them to be good friends who we can (and do) depend on.
Our house is that last on the electric grid, so at least once a month our generator provides us power for anywhere from 2 to 36 hours. If you move to the country, I highly recommend a full house generator!
Having lived here for 6 years, there is NO WAY I would move back to suburbia. Our two chickens provide us with more eggs than we can use, our gardens, orchards, vineyards provide us with fruits and vegetable 10 months of the year. We make our own wines, which are ...well, satisfactory :laugh.
Since retiring 2 years ago, I've lost 25 lbs due to working/playing on the property and am enjoying myself immensely.

BUT.... This is something DW and I have been looking forward to/planning to do for a very long time. It has worked out well for us, I think, because this was what we knew we wanted and worked resolutely towards. And, I have to admit, surprisingly to me, not as inexpensive a lifestyle as I had expected.

It's a lot of work, and definitely not for everyone, but we wouldn't trade it for anything else.

 

[OneDay]

Wow, great to see a lot of comments, suggestions and even questions. As I said it's a dream at this point- something that I'm looking forward to after I retire. I don't know if it'll work out or not. I'm still at least 10-14 years away from it at least until DD is finished with college and on her own.

Perhaps the sizes I mentioned might not be what I'll end up with e.g. it might just be a pre-built ranch on 2-4 acres with a 800sq ft shop. I don't even know which state the said ranch will be in either- ideally closer to DD but again that's not realistic because she might end up on the opposite coast after college. Lastly I don't quite know how I'll be accepted into small close-nit communities either being that I'm of the south east Asian decent and many rural parts of the US are not quite as accepting to eclectic cultures and people unlike say SoCal. So lots of unknowns but I can dream

Lol, I think you'll be just fine,most of those close knit communities are exactly where you want to be, I'm from one of them, we just hope you don't mind that we'd come over and help you in any time of need, that's what we do out in the country, lol.
As far as the size of the place you'd like to have, that's not a problem whatsoever, you do need the equipment to maintain though. Oh and by the way, country folks love cars too.

 

[Turn_the_Page]

Great thread. Thanks for starting it!

It's certainly has a lot of appeal. It's not the route we selected, primarily due to our desire to have many social activities, events etc within 10-15 minutes of home. Plus, desire to be close to world-class health care.

We've lived 15 years out of the 30 that we've had together in or just outside of smaller towns. We just got too bored with the lack of social activities. Yes, some will argue - we'll make our own fun - absolutely. If you can make it work - go for it.

I'd love to have a big place and a big shop, but we've settled for suburbia on the outskirts of Houston. I have a 1 car stall for a shop and I make it work. DW would love to have chickens and llamas, but who's going to take care of them when we decide to leave for a few days?

Most of us are very lucky that we have the resources to choose how and where we live. Good luck and keep us posted.