anyone move from city to farm?

[Winemaker]

I live in a southwestern PA suburban township in a developement of about 200 homes. I have a small plot of land, grow grapes, two apple trees, about a 20x40 garden. Deer roam the neighborhood, hawks and an occasional eagle soar above me during the day. In the mornings, sometimes I hear a cow or two, and lately there's a pair of woodpeckers that have returned from last year. Most evenings I can sit on my deck in the late afternoon/evening and hear nothing, I've been in noisier Nat'l Parks. Sure beats the farm I wanted and the one DS and BIL live on.

It takes me an hour to cut the grass with a pushmower, two weeks in the fall to trap all the mice who want to move in with me in the winter, and I am at war with groundhogs 9 months out of the year. As long as I spray the garden with Dawn liquid soap, the deer leave me alone too.

 

[IMATERP]

Yep. Oliver and Lisa Douglas. Google Green Acres.

Not sure I want to live next door to Arnold "the pig" and Mr. Haney, though.

I

 

[Bamaman]

I like to live out where I can get on my four wheeler with the grandson and ride thru 1/2 mile of wilderness to get to a swimming hole. We could hear water skiers and their Ski Nautiques late afternoons on glassy smooth water. Our rottweilers could run free their whole lives. And there were no homeowner associatiion to fight about the color of my house trim or boat in my 4 acre yard. It Was 2 miles to a Big Star grocery, but the mall was just 5 minutes farther.

I fell for my wife's desires to buy a big house in foreclosure in an exclusive city neighborhood. I now look at my fourwheeler. The grandson rides his bike in the street. And Xena the Rottweiler wakes me up at 4:00am to walk her in the rain. And we don't even know our neighbors because they work all the time to pay for this lifestyle. But Wal-Mart is just a 2 minute drive.

 

[folivier]

A few years ago before I retired we sold 180 acres. It had a 4 bedroom/4 bath farm house along with a separate 1500 sq ft house and barn built in 1860. 1/4 mile wide x 1 mile deep, had river frontage and a 10 acre spring fed lake. I loved the place, enjoyed hunting and going there on weekends with the kids when they were younger. Always dreamed of moving there when we retired. Unfortunately things don't always work out like you want them to. My DW didn't want to be so remote, 15 miles to nearest grocery, 45 minutes to nearest good hospital. 2 hours from her mom and our kids. Then a gravel company bought the property on both sides of me. That alone changed the whole dynamics of the place, lots of dust and noise. Fortunately they offered me a good buyout price, over twice what I had paid for the place, so we did good selling it. But I still dream of living out there.

 

[Car-Guy]

Ha, ha, we actually just sold the big tractor! We'd bought it used shortly after we bought the place but it was too big for me to handle, I couldn't use the clutch and I liked shredding pastures way more than DH. So now we have a smaller John Deere and I love that thing. Our goal is to rotationally graze the cattle so we aren't doing much pasture shredding. We have 30 acres ; I'd be happy with 10 but that's what we have and I'm grateful for it. We've tried to find something smaller but it seems it's not meant to be.

We'd like to give it 5 years of trying all the things we've dreamed about and either get it out of our system or find that we rather like country life.

I guess if you live long enough, you hear/see just about everything. I'm sure it happens but I don't anyone that has dropped down on tractor size. Many just live with what they have and complain about wanting something bigger. I've upgraded mine "twice" in the past 10 years and I am now pretty happy with what I have.

 

[Ronstar]

I used to live in a town of 3500 people. Moved to a rural area of 5+acre lots in 1984. Moved one street east in 1994. Lots of grass to mow, trees to trim, snow to plow. Lots of deer, birds, and other wildlife. And a lake in the back yard. And a workshop outbuilding. Closest neighbors about 300’ away but can’t see or hear them for the trees. Only sounds I hear are from wildlife.

 

[steady saver]

I guess if you live long enough, you hear/see just about everything. I'm sure it happens but I don't anyone that has dropped down on tractor size. Many just live with what they have and complain about wanting something bigger. I've upgraded mine "twice" in the past 10 years and I am now pretty happy with what I have.

Ha, well the main problem with the big tractor was that I couldn't physically drive it! I just could barely manage that clutch. Our acreage isn't so big that we really needed it, though DH did initially have a hard time parting with it though he rarely used it. Once he made up his mind, he couldn't wait to get it sold, though it took a while. Took a loss on it and it's the happiest loss I think we've taken in years. Come to think of it, it was my equivalent of the boat money pit. We had no business buying a used tractor from a guy we didn't know when we knew nothing about tractors. Lesson learned.

 

[steady saver]

A few years ago before I retired we sold 180 acres. It had a 4 bedroom/4 bath farm house along with a separate 1500 sq ft house and barn built in 1860. 1/4 mile wide x 1 mile deep, had river frontage and a 10 acre spring fed lake. I loved the place, enjoyed hunting and going there on weekends with the kids when they were younger. Always dreamed of moving there when we retired. Unfortunately things don't always work out like you want them to. My DW didn't want to be so remote, 15 miles to nearest grocery, 45 minutes to nearest good hospital. 2 hours from her mom and our kids. Then a gravel company bought the property on both sides of me. That alone changed the whole dynamics of the place, lots of dust and noise. Fortunately they offered me a good buyout price, over twice what I had paid for the place, so we did good selling it. But I still dream of living out there.

At least you made money on the deal. And there is always land to be had...maybe you're not done with that dream.

 

[steady saver]

I used to live in a town of 3500 people. Moved to a rural area of 5+acre lots in 1984. Moved one street east in 1994. Lots of grass to mow, trees to trim, snow to plow. Lots of deer, birds, and other wildlife. And a lake in the back yard. And a workshop outbuilding. Closest neighbors about 300’ away but can’t see or hear them for the trees. Only sounds I hear are from wildlife.

Sounds lovely. Except for the snow

 

[steady saver]

I like to live out where I can get on my four wheeler with the grandson and ride thru 1/2 mile of wilderness to get to a swimming hole. We could hear water skiers and their Ski Nautiques late afternoons on glassy smooth water. Our rottweilers could run free their whole lives. And there were no homeowner associatiion to fight about the color of my house trim or boat in my 4 acre yard. It Was 2 miles to a Big Star grocery, but the mall was just 5 minutes farther.

I fell for my wife's desires to buy a big house in foreclosure in an exclusive city neighborhood. I now look at my fourwheeler. The grandson rides his bike in the street. And Xena the Rottweiler wakes me up at 4:00am to walk her in the rain. And we don't even know our neighbors because they work all the time to pay for this lifestyle. But Wal-Mart is just a 2 minute drive.

Sounds like there's a little plot of land somewhere out there just waiting for you, your dog, and your fourwheeler

 

[karen1972]

For your cons, you can always make your home a getaway for others. I grew up on a farm, didn't enjoy the endless work. I do however enjoy going home, spending time there, they have a woods, with trails and a pond for fishing. We go three wheeling and play paint ball.

My neighbor moved to the country, has a gorgeous flower and food garden, cute chicken coop and several llamas. Their downstairs is pretty much a bed & breakfast for all their friends and family with a constant rotation of people visiting because its a neat little place for people to come out, have lunch, and enjoy a Saturday and if they have too much wine, well they can crash downstairs.

Farms are as much work as you want them to be. They can be gorgeous and peaceful but isolating (which is either a plus or minus).

 

[steady saver]

For your cons, you can always make your home a getaway for others. I grew up on a farm, didn't enjoy the endless work. I do however enjoy going home, spending time there, they have a woods, with trails and a pond for fishing. We go three wheeling and play paint ball.

My neighbor moved to the country, has a gorgeous flower and food garden, cute chicken coop and several llamas. Their downstairs is pretty much a bed & breakfast for all their friends and family with a constant rotation of people visiting because its a neat little place for people to come out, have lunch, and enjoy a Saturday and if they have too much wine, well they can crash downstairs.

Farms are as much work as you want them to be. They can be gorgeous and peaceful but isolating (which is either a plus or minus).

That is SO true! You hit the nail on the head Karen. That's what we've been plotting and planning. We figure that if we were attracted to it as a refuge then others might be true. Even our sons would like it a lot, I think, if it was all fixed up. Right now they just remember weeekends of double digging garden beds, watering trees out in the middle of the pasture by the bucketfuls, etc. It wasn't all work, of course, but the work that we did was something DH and I took great pleasure and pride in. Sons, not so much.

There is a second smaller house on the property (about 1200 sq ft) that is currently pretty much gutted (new metal roof, outside paint, etc) that we are in the midst of planning a major redo on. For family/friends, for a B&B...or maybe for us. We love that house so much and are considering moving into that one and using the "main" house (a neat old house that has had some weird additions) for the aforementioned guests. When I think of this part of it, I really get excited. Both DH and I do. We love our privacy but we love fixing up things and we love hospitality. Right now it's frustrating b/c it doesn't at all reflect what we'd like it to look like. Being there so infrequently doesn't give us much time to do much more than keep the fences repaired, the pastures mowed, the problems fixed...

Thank you for that very significant reminder of one of our biggest dreams about the farm.

 

[pjigar]

I have not officially moved to "country" but we have a 17 acres place about 15 minutes from nearest walmart near a metroplex. We picked the size and distance after listening to several debates on these topics. Not too big, not too far. So far, I have been building a home on the property and like several mentioned, getting tradesmen to show up reliably has been a challenge and end up paying more. I am a handyman so I can build the house myself if I wanted to but time is the precious commodity at this point in my life. But I am so peaceful and happy everytime I visit the place. I am mostly working and sometimes shooting when I am out there but beats the city living everytime. We plan to move there full time in few years while we are still young.

 

[catluvr]

I'm new to the forum but wanted to share my experience with buying and moving to a farm. We bought a farm about 15 years ago after our last child graduated from high school. The place we bought was approx. 150 acres with a 50 year old home and several outbuildings. We bought this place thinking it would be our final home in our retirement years (I retired in 2014). The number of buildings, fences, gates, waterlines, etc. have overwhelmed us and it gets harder to keep up each year. I wouldn't want to move back to a city environment but what we have has not been much of a joy in recent years. If I had it to do over again I would buy something without so much infrastructure to maintain. Just my two cents worth.

 

[Bir48die]

Came very close to buying a winery within an hour of Portland. Not only would have isolated us but I'd be busy every weekend. Woke up from that dream. Glad it never happened

 

[Choices]

We left the big city in June and live in rural VT., a village of about 1800 people, small general store 2 pump gas station. We have yet to fill the chicken coop as I get eggs locally and if I was a red meal eater, I could get all of that stuff, organically grown and humanely butchered.
Our neighbors raise goats and milk cows. One has a huge sugaring operation. It is pretty quiet except for my barking dogs and the coyotes and a red fox that feeds her young off our land. There are wild turkeys and pheasant and woodpeckers. A big old owl is sometimes in a nearby tree. Deer cross through our pasture.
I like it. I admire the resourcefulness of my neighbors and am thankful I do not have to work as hard as they.

 

[steady saver]

I'm new to the forum but wanted to share my experience with buying and moving to a farm. We bought a farm about 15 years ago after our last child graduated from high school. The place we bought was approx. 150 acres with a 50 year old home and several outbuildings. We bought this place thinking it would be our final home in our retirement years (I retired in 2014). The number of buildings, fences, gates, waterlines, etc. have overwhelmed us and it gets harder to keep up each year. I wouldn't want to move back to a city environment but what we have has not been much of a joy in recent years. If I had it to do over again I would buy something without so much infrastructure to maintain. Just my two cents worth.

Catluvr, thanks for your candid remarks. That is a concern I have. Right now I am tired of dealing with both home and farm because it is just more than I want to deal with anymore. Too much to keep up with! My current thinking is to fix up the little house at the farm while doing some things to update our home in the city. DH retires and starts spending more time there, we then lease out our city home for a couple of years to just see how we think we'd like living at the farm before we completely pull the plug on city home. We don't want to sell the city home yet b/c we're in a desirable area and assume that it will more or less continue to appreciate over the years and we want the option of moving back if farm life doesn't suit us. And yep, we've been keeping our eyes on the lookout for a smaller farm property. I'm a beach person as much as a farm person so that is always in the back of my mind too...My parents lived in Hawaii for a year and then off and on after they retired and I have fond memories of visiting. I don't think I'd want to live there but, gee, maybe at least a month out of the year would be great...in a RENTED place. Honestly, I just want to stop everything and get off this fast train. I am so done with juggling balls.

 

[steady saver]

I have not officially moved to "country" but we have a 17 acres place about 15 minutes from nearest walmart near a metroplex. We picked the size and distance after listening to several debates on these topics. Not too big, not too far. So far, I have been building a home on the property and like several mentioned, getting tradesmen to show up reliably has been a challenge and end up paying more. I am a handyman so I can build the house myself if I wanted to but time is the precious commodity at this point in my life. But I am so peaceful and happy everytime I visit the place. I am mostly working and sometimes shooting when I am out there but beats the city living everytime. We plan to move there full time in few years while we are still young.

It sounds a bit like how we've felt when we go to the farm, though as the years pass it gets a bit harder to schlep back and forth and work all weekend. I hope you get there permanently sooner than later.