Friday, August 24, 2012

Pros/Cons of Country Living

I thought I would share a little about how we moved from the "subdivision" life to the "country".
 
I grew up in West Virginia and lived in the "country" my whole life. My husband  Kevin grew up in a small city but it was still near local stores (Walmart, McDonalds, etc). He could walk to school and always had a buddy to play with. I on the other hand, did not. It was a lot different having friends over. Their parents had to drive them so it was harder to get together outside of school, but my sister and I still managed to have a "social life".
(Our old house - Halloween Night 2011)
 
When Kevin and I got married in 2007 we moved to the city where he grew up and rented a house in a subdivision with intentions on soon buying the house. I seemed to like this life but there were the cons and the pros to it just like the country life has it's ups and downs.
 
 
*Note that this is my personal opinion :)
 
Subdivision Pros
 
-Easy to take walks around the neighborhood
-Local parks nearby
-Always a close person if you need a quick babysitter
-Close to Walmart, Fast Food, etc
-Other kids for our boys to play with
-Always something going on around in the neighborhood
-Block Parties
-Kids Parties
 
Subdivision Cons
 
-Nosey neighbors (this was #1 on my list)
-No privacy
-No land or space
-Competition between neighbors
-Keeping up with "The Joneses"
-Gossip
-The kids are constantly coming over. When we were outside it was
free game for the backyard to be flooded with kids. No family time.
 
*These are just some of the things that happened in our subdivision. My main reason for wanting to leave the subdivision life was the competition/gossip portion of it. It seemed like everyone was so worried about what the other was doing and gossiping about it. When we were just married it seemed ok. I will also admit that I was in on all of the talk. But after I had kids something didn't sit right with me anymore. God had put it in my heart to stop the talk and raise my kids the right way. The together family way, and that just wasn't with the subdivision life anymore.
  
 
There are also the pros and cons of moving to the country. It is not the life for ALL but definitely for our family. We are so happy with our move, and I am pretty sure the boys would say the same.
 
Country Cons
 
-Gravel roads (not great for pushing a stroller or wagon)
-No houses/people in sight!
-No kids to play with nearby
-Some flat land but more hills to mow, walk, etc.
-More land to keep up with (we have 4 acres)
 
Country Pros
 
-We like to work! So living here we have plenty to do. We love being outside as a family and working on something. (mowing, planting, having a huge garden, cutting/splitting firewood, building campfires)
-Having so much space! We have plenty of room for a barn, chicken coop, to have our boat, our house, plus about 3 more acres of land.
-So much privacy! No one is constantly watching you and when you come and go!
-More family time with no distractions from others coming over
-Plenty of places to ride our 4-wheeler
-Ponds nearby to fish. Acres in our backyard to hunt (Kevin)
-The boys can be boys and enjoy nature and "boy" things
 
We love finding treasures like acorns, nuts, pinecones
 
 
Enjoying and raising our chickens
Getting fresh eggs
 
 
 Rides on the tractor in the open fields
 
 
 
 
Nature walks
Bonding as brothers
Finding treasures
 
 
Sleeping on the front porch swing
Being on the front porch in your pj's  :)
 
 
Beautiful trees/scenery
 
 
 
 A pro & con - all the hard work!
 
 
Enjoying the barn
Riding tractors
 
 
Digging away with no cares
Sharing life with his best friend - his brother
 
 
Loading the deer feeder with corn
Watching the deer from our back door while eating breakfast 
 
 
Pretending to "cut the trees" down
Using a screwdriver to cut the tree down. HA 
 
 
Building small fires in our fire pit
 
Building BIG fires all around our property 
 
 
I hope that this post doesn't come off to some people that the subdivision life is not a good life for raising a family. To some it is. But for our family the move to the country was the right one for us. Of course I feel like you must love the outdoors and have a passion for working in nature to make you LOVE living in the country. I think because of the fact that we have BOYS makes our move much easier. I don't know that we would have made the move had we had 2 girls. I know that sounds strange but I think raising boys in the country is pretty easy. I try to think what it would be like if we had two girls living in the country. I'm sure they wouldn't be too happy with lots of hard work and dirt all the time, but maybe?? I was raised in the country and it was fine but who knows?
 
I am glad to have documented this so that I have a record of how I felt about our move to the country. Hope you have enjoyed it!
(October - 2011)
 
(August - 2012)
 

2 comments:

Simply Handmade Farmhouse said...

I love this post...You made the best move!! I love your place. I love how private it is. Good for you.

Unknown said...

I enjoyed reading this post! I feel as I am in an epsiode of the real housewives sometimes! This helped ease my mind about taking the leap to move to the country !