There's No Life Like a Rural Life

Sometimes, the struggle is real. I start thinking about what I need to write about this week and my mind can literally go blank. So I go on a word search. I look through properties to see if something stands out. I research my favorite land blogs to see if there are any fresh ideas. I sometimes even type ?land? or ?country? in the thesaurus and see what words pop up. Today the word I saw several times was ?rural?. Now if you know me you know I DO NOT like this word. (I'm chuckling and shaking my head) The word itself is great and I love everything it means, but it does not roll off my tongue very well, even silently. I cannot say the word without stumbling and having to repeat it several times to get it out of my mouth. But I think I want to talk about ?rural? anyway.

Dictionary.com defines the word adjectively as ?of, relating to, or characteristic of the country, country life, or country people; rustic. I consider myself a rural person. Country to the core. I grew up on a farm with cows and pigs and chickens. We grew our own crops and spent every summer canning vegetables. Sadly, I do less of those things these days. But I still live on a farm and there are cows in my backyard, even if they aren?t mine. I?ve lived in different places as an adult, but when it was time to settle down for good I wanted to come back to my roots, to the farm life. It?s where I wanted my boys to grow up and learn the valuable lessons the rural life instilled in me. 

I sometimes think about the things we were participant to that they may never be. I know our vegan and animal activist friends may not appreciate this memory, but I was around 5 years old the first time I witnessed my Daddy and Papa wring a chicken?s neck. That was frightening a little, but more interesting and down right funny when the headless body of that chicken kept going. I got to watch my mom dip that chicken in boiling water and pluck the feathers and later that evening we enjoyed the bird fried up to perfection. Because of this I never questioned where our food came from, I knew firsthand. My boys think chicken just magically appears in the grocery store. 

Daddy raised pigs and cows and we always had pets out there. I would tell my daddy that the pigs loved me because they always smiled at me when I went to visit them. He still teases me about that to this day. We often bottle-fed the calves when for one reason or another the mama cows wouldn?t nurse their young. There were other farm lessons too, like collecting eggs (we got jumped by a mean mama hen on more than one occasion) and planting and weeding and harvesting our garden. Some of my favorite memories are sitting on the front porch with my sweet Mama, snapping beans or shelling peas. It was a catalyst to many hours of good conversation and learning from her even when I didn?t know that?s what was happening. 

Now don?t get me wrong, I really only appreciate these lessons in my seasoned adulthood. As a kid I didn?t understand what my parents were teaching us. My brother and I complained A LOT more than we enjoyed our rural duties in the moment. But today we are both thankful for what we learned and the time it gave us with our parents. 

So when I think RURAL, these are the things I think about and feel appreciation for. You will never enjoy a sunset or sunrise quite the same way in the city as you will in a rural setting. There is just something so peaceful about looking out on the pasture with the cows grazing in the distance and the sun peaking up over the horizon with brilliant yellows and oranges splashed across the morning sky or maybe the blues and pinks of a gorgeous sunset. And the smells of the country evoke their own emotions. I will take the farm smells any day over the paper mill in our town. My friends would quite often come for a visit and without fail comment on how smelly our cows were. I would roll my eyes and say, ?Seriously? I don?t smell anything.? To me it just smelled like home. 

So what about you? Do you have memories evoked by the word ?rural"? Does it bring a longing to get back to your roots and bring the experiences you lived to your kids and grandkids? If it?s something you are thinking about, look around our website. We have several properties that would make great rural homesteads. Whether you want it to be your permanent homesite or maybe just a weekend get away, we can help you find the perfect tract. We have several land experts that are waiting to work with you. So let us know what rural location you would love to hang your hat and call home. 

BEGIN YOUR SEARCH WITH THESE RURAL TRACTS

*Photo courtesy of mwah... this is actually my front yard!