Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The (cough) Simple Life

Well, I skipped posting an article at RegularGuy.com last week because I was screamingly busy living the (cough) simple life. So this week, just to illustrate how (cough) simple our lives are, I decided to write about this most popular misconception about rural living.



Come read about my thoughts on the (cough) simple life.

(By the way, feel free to leave comments at the RegularGuy.com site so they know I'm getting read! - Thanks!)

5 comments:

  1. As someone who once lived in a log cabin 41 miles from the nearest town, I heartily agree with your article! My days were full and busy there. Fuller than full. Busier than I ever was living in an urban area.
    People that speak yearningly about "getting up at the crack of dawn" have no clue that it is necessary to get up before dawn has even been thought of! And then, working until 9 or 10 at night...or never getting to bed at all because of a cow in labor that's doing poorly or a fence line that HAS to be repaired post haste or a storm is coming in and you HAVE to get that baled hay into the barn FAST, etc and so on.
    I, personally, loved it.
    I want....no, I NEED to *go rural* again and am making plans to. I am realistic about the work and labor it will entail as I have lived on farms and ranches before.
    I, too, know that the rural life is anything BUT "simple"!

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  2. You really should take something for that (cough). :-)

    Anonymous Twit
    USA

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  3. That was sooooo funny. We have our grandson visiting with us from Washington, DC. His mom is a police officer there. Once he got over his huge dislike of bugs of all types (well mostly over it), he seems to really be enjoying his stay. I chuckled at his comment the other day... "it's dirty outside, but Gramma keeps it clean inside" (all things relative of course).

    My husband has been working on the pile of logs that we had from clearing the land here, cutting, splitting and stacking and then covering it all up with roofing and tarps. We aren't in our home yet, so we are still in the camper. No need for the wood yet, but the house will have a wood furnace... I'm sure that firewood will be used.

    Loved the commentary and forwarded it to my daughters who were both raised in "country ways", though not on a homestead.

    Thanks for putting it into words.

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  4. Yep, there's nothing quite like bulldogging a young steer in a paddock full of manure on a hot day to treat his scours!

    I agree that a lot of folks have NO idea how complex farming life can be. It takes a different mindset along with adapting to a different rythmn of life.

    I had a great uncle that farmed a big section back in Missouri. He had a grandson that he was trying to train to take over the farm after he died. That grandson never could quite get the hang of things. I remember one day when i dropped by when they should have been out discing for spring planting and instead were trying to replace the seal on the power takeoff for the tractor. The grandson had pulled the tractor into the barn in the fall, and had never checked it nor done maintenance on it all winter long---which is when you are supposed to be fixing/repairing and doing maintenance on your equipment!

    You fix and maintain in the winter, plant in the spring, grow in the summer and work from 'can see to can't see' in the fall!

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  5. ...and you left out the part where the eagle
    flew off with their Yorky and the owls got their kitties.

    Yes, I know. I'm bad.

    But we all know this is life in the country.

    And Bill, I thank you so much. I'd been finding myself feeling a nagging guilt about the small but unused livestock accommodations here on the place, but your post snapped me right out of it and I got straightened up in a hurry thanks to your reality check post. lol

    A.McSp

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