Life in the country has its advantages and dis-advantages. We really enjoy company because we don’t get a lot of it; when we go to visit, we have a good time because we know we won’t be able to do it again , for a while. When we go to the grocery store, we appreciate the times of our ancestors when there were no automobiles and it took a week to go to town; yet we still complain that it takes us an hour. We try to be careful not to forget anything, so we don’t have to go back for a week.
No one sands our roads in bad weather, we are on our own. We depend a lot on our neighbors during these times. In a recent snow storm, we had a foot of snow and could not get into our driveway at all; a neighbor with a larger truck came by and drove in and out of our drive several times to pack it down where we could get in and out. When it storms , if our phone goes out it could be a week before service is restored, same with electricity, because there is only one provider for each.
The advantages to living in the country are less pollution and less noise. I won’t say that we don’t have crime because we do, but we don’t have as much because most country folks have guns and know how to use them. We usually have biting dogs too and don’t be fooled if you don’t see a dog in the yard. My dog gets under a bush and will wait until you are on the porch with no way off and then he comes out. LOL. I have had to rescue many people caught in his trap. Another deception criminals fall into is that a lot of the country people are elderly; imagine their surprise when Grandma comes out of the kitchen with a gun or Grandpa has one behind his rocker. In the country , we don’t call the police because they are too far away to help; we just call them for cleanup.
There are some frightening animals in the country – Wild Hogs, Snakes, and Coyotes; but there are some beautiful ones you don’t notice in the cities – birds , squirrels, tortoises. At night its very dark unless there is a full moon and then the moon lights up everything; you can actually see the stars in the sky at night , that you can’t see in town.
In the country, children play outside and we don’t have to worry that someone will grab them. The dog will protect them and what he doesn’t chew up; Grandpa will shoot. We don’t have to worry about them getting ran over, unless someone decides to drive through our pasture, because that’s what yards are in the country.
I was raised in the city and thought I would hate country living, but I don’t. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
