Guest Post: Living the Rural Life
June 11, 2009
I love living in an urban environment. But I’ve often said that I wouldn’t mind living deep in the country, where I could have my own chickens and maybe even a cow! And of course the organic garden.
This is a guest post from Melinda of Behind The Stall Door. It’s all about:
Living The Rural Life
Hi, I’m Melinda and I live in BFE, SC. *chorus of “hi, Melinda” ensues*
photo credit: René Ehrhardt
Ok, so it’s not totally BFE. We have a Walmart and a Lowes, which stock the basics of life and home repair. I can’t complain much. It was my idea to move here from the big city (my hometown of Charlotte, NC), because it was a better environment from raising kids than the carnage my city had become since my childhood. We live in a small house (I think it may be a little over 1K square feet, not including the car porch) and several acres of land. Our automobiles are paid for. Our house is paid for. The kids and the animals have tons of room to run and play and not have to worry about strangers around the corner (we only have two neighbors and any unusual traffic is immediately noticed and is broadcasted by our three large dogs). I have an herb garden, a veggie garden, several flower beds, rose bushes, pear trees, cherry trees, apple trees, fig trees, blueberry bushes and even some grape vines. We have room for a composting area and a chicken coop and several storage sheds.
I am in absolute heaven. Until I need something unusual, something crunchy related, or just something that is plain odd.
Then I have to travel to the nearest big town, thirty miles away. Which means packing up the three girls, making sure the diaper bag is stocked, the two little ones have sippy cups and munchies to keep them happy during the drive and the teenager has her IPod and earplugs so she won’t grumble the whole way.
Sometimes, though, even that trip doesn’t pan out. It is too obscure for this little corner of the world, with their farms and pastures right out of a Currier and Ives painting. So, then, it’s the internet we go, shipping costs required.
You should have seen the look on the lady’s face when I, with the piercings and tattoos, lugging two small children and a teenager, also with piercings and strange hair, asked where I could find cloth diapers in the store. (Yes, you guessed it; they didn’t have any because everyone buys disposables.)
Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t change living here for anything in the world. I love it – even the coffee shop which doesn’t open on Sundays. It’s just taking me a while to get my stubborn head around not having easy access to the things I am used to being able to put my hands on immediately. I get to play in the dirt and walk in the woods and breathe clean air, I just have to buy most of my green materials online.
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