Who else is truly living rural?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I consider myself, living in a rural small town...but probably not to the standards discussed in this thread.
Glencoe's Pop. is 5500, it is the county seat in a county that is mostly flat farm land,
BUT,
I suspect, before I die, Glencoe will officially become a suburb of Minneapolis...or as a outer urban ring is often called a X-urb ?

Glencoe is about 7 miles from the county line...which borders what is called "The seven county metro area" of the Twin cities. That in itself, doesn't bode well from my ability to say I am rural.

[MaryB]

Jon do you know the Mustang Boys there in Glencoe? I met them way back when in the 80's helping a friend build a 70 Mach One 428cj. We were on a parts run and their name came up.

[hwilliam01]

I think I'm about as rural as a person is going to get.

HOUSE:
Attachment 186693

SHOP:
Attachment 186694

Chicken Coup:
Attachment 186695

Nearest town: The actual town of Concho is so small all there is there is a small mini-mart of sorts with 4 gas pumps, an Elementary School, a Library, and the Post Office, no A.T.M. in town either.

What I do is done from the power of the sun, so when the sun doesn't shine I'm at a virtual stand still. There isn't any services here, no water, no phone lines, no power lines, no sewer lines, etc.

Takes me almost 1 1/2hrs round trip just to get to the P.O.


RANGE: Front door yields a 4 mile range as a crow flies. Backyard about 250yds.

We have 40 acres here..

OK!!...So WHAT DID I WIN?

What do you win???? Well...a free all expenses paid one day excursion to the country....

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Jon do you know the Mustang Boys there in Glencoe? I met them way back when in the 80's helping a friend build a 70 Mach One 428cj. We were on a parts run and their name came up.

I don't know any people known as the Mustang Boys ...I didn't grow up here, my job moved me to this area in the late 80s. The only serious motorheads I know of, are the Christensen's, I don't know them personally, I just know they are Big in the Tractor Pull circuit, Team Rat Pack. But I don't know if they are/were into Mustangs or not?

[johnson1942]

i live in north western nebraska. the average ranch he is 10,000 acres in this county. i have one of the very few 4 acre spots in this county. i used to think n.dak was rural when i lived up there years ago. this is rural, it may get more rural than this but not by much. in the county just east of me the average ranch size is 100,000 acres. ted turners ranch is just 14 mile from me as the crow flies. it is in the millions of acres. their are villages that are very livable. hot springs, custer and rapid city s.dak are a couple of them. been thinking about renting my place out and moving up there in a couple of years. yard is getting bigger every year to keep up.

[snowwolfe]

Our house was built in the middle of 42 acres of mature oak trees. Closest town is 15 miles away. If I want to sit on the back porch in a rocking chair drinking my coffee while watching the fish play in our lake without wearing more than my underwear I do so. If I want to shoot a gun I shoot anytime anywhere. I can burn all the trash I want and cut down any tree I want.
We do have direct TV and internet and dont plan on giving up either of them.

[paul h]

Our house was built in the middle of 42 acres of mature oak trees. Closest town is 15 miles away. If I want to sit on the back porch in a rocking chair drinking my coffee while watching the fish play in our lake without wearing more than my underwear I do so. If I want to shoot a gun I shoot anytime anywhere. I can burn all the trash I want and cut down any tree I want.
We do have direct TV and internet and dont plan on giving up either of them.

If I leave Alaska when I retire, that's pretty much my exact blueprint for happiness. Being able to fish and shoot in the backyard and having a few acres to roam around sounds perfect.

[Mtnfolk75]

SWMBO and I have lived in our 536 Sq Ft cabin for 17 years, it is located in the Southern Sierras at about 6k feet. We have no Grocery, Bars, Gas or Restaurants unless we drive off the mountain, the nearest place with Bars & Gas is about 9 miles. Grocery, Banking & Restaurants are about 13 miles, closet Medical is about 25 miles, Walmart & Warehouse Groceries are about 60 miles as are our Primary Care & Specialist Doctors also. I can order a Take-out Pizza, but I have to meet the driver 9 miles down the mountain, 3K feet difference in elevation. It is a State Highway that is 13% grade in a few spots, average is about 8%.

We have one Full-time neighbor, a woman going through a divorce, her 18 year old Daughter also is staying there. Her and her ex built the place in 2008 as a Vacation Home, it is a 3k Sq Ft three story Log home, really improved the Property Value of our place She is a Flatlander and is finding out the hardway that the mountains are not for the faint of heart, we were all been snowed in from the afternoon of the 19th of January until I got my Dodge 4x4 finally dug out on the afternoon of the 28th, her BMW X-5 did not get out of her garage until yesterday, she missed 8 days of work and also ran out of Propane on the 23rd. The Propane Company thinks they may be able to get a truck in by the 10th if we don't get anymore snow. We have averaged about 165" of snow a winter since we moved here, from the 19th until the 22nd we got 64", still over 30" on the ground.

Forgot to mention, our Mailbox is about a 1/2 mile away and we use a 4x4 ATV or Side-by-Side for Mail runs. We are 1/4 mile off the County maintained Road & 1/2 mile from the State Highway by vehicle, as the crow flies the State Highway is only about 200 yards above us and the County Road about 100 below, the only things we normally hear is Logging Trucks & the State Snowplows. There is a Seasonal Day Use Ski Park about 3 miles by vehicle and 1/2 mile as the crow flies, because the forest is so dense we never hear anything from it. Our water comes from spring fed gravity tanks across the State Highway. We can ride our ATV/Side-by-Side for 30 miles in either direction right from our drive, I can legally shoot with a 2 minute ride on the ATV. We really do love living here and can't imagine living anywhere else, but the winters are getting hard on us. FWIW, I haven't lived in the City for over 30 years, prior to our moving here we lived in Tehachapi, a small community located about 60 miles away at 4k feet elevation.

[Hick]

There's a fellow we know who has helped us with our horses a time or two. He invited me to his place. When I asked for directions he said to drive south out of town on the freeway to the first off ramp (7 miles), ignore the paved road to the left and turn right on the dirt road. "Follow the dirt road 19 miles over the mountain and then look for a house" I did-- it was easy to find his place because it was the only house in the entire large valley and the dirt road ended a few miles past his place anyway.

[MaryB]

Dick and Dale DuBrava(sp?) I think was the name. They did a lot of work on steam power plants and the stacks etc, plus local plumbing... Lived across from the school of my poor memory is working. Thy had over $1 million in Mustangs back then...

I don't know any people known as the Mustang Boys ...I didn't grow up here, my job moved me to this area in the late 80s. The only serious motorheads I know of, are the Christensen's, I don't know them personally, I just know they are Big in the Tractor Pull circuit, Team Rat Pack. But I don't know if they are/were into Mustangs or not?

[MaryB]

Winter is one reason I am seriously considering moving south, cold = pain to me now. Problem is finding a rural tiny town with decent medical only 30 miles away in a state with good medicare advantage plans... TX is out, their advantage plans are bad.

[Idaho Mule]

Idaho45Guy, I am on 36 acres, not far from you. As a matter of fact I can possibly see your place from mine. We should have a beer at the Caboose some time. JW

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Dick and Dale DuBrava(sp?) I think was the name. They did a lot of work on steam power plants and the stacks etc, plus local plumbing... Lived across from the school of my poor memory is working. Thy had over $1 million in Mustangs back then...

I know of "DoBrava Brothers Plumbing", they are still here and doing business, besides plumbing, they also rent commercial equipment (small engine stuff, plumbing related, as well as lawncare), I wasn't aware they were Mustang aficionados.

Winter is one reason I am seriously considering moving south, cold = pain to me now. Problem is finding a rural tiny town with decent medical only 30 miles away in a state with good medicare advantage plans... TX is out, their advantage plans are bad.

when my parents retired in 1985, they started spending the winters down south...after 3 years of scouting out several states, they decided TX was the place to be, they bought a lot in a RV Park Co-op about 50 miles out of San Antonio. They spent nearly 20 winters there (summers in MN), but always kept their residence in MN, for just the reason you mention, Medical care/coverage through their insurance.

[Idaho45guy]

Idaho45Guy, I am on 36 acres, not far from you. As a matter of fact I can possibly see your place from mine. We should have a beer at the Caboose some time. JW

Heck, we probably know a lot of the same people! I'm headed into Moscow now to go feed my mom's horses and mule...

If you have been around long enough to remember the Husky Sport Shop in Moscow, then you will have known my dad, who owned the place...

Attachment 187009

[Idaho45guy]

Winter is one reason I am seriously considering moving south, cold = pain to me now. Problem is finding a rural tiny town with decent medical only 30 miles away in a state with good medicare advantage plans... TX is out, their advantage plans are bad.

My mom and stepdad winter in Yuma, AZ and love it! Very conservative community with a LOT of snowbirds from Minnesota and Iowa.

They started off by going down there in an RV and renting a lot. Then they bought a nice little park model on a larger lot with room for another RV parked there. I think they paid around $70k for it.

Then they sold that place after a couple of years and put the money into a 3yr old normal stick-built home in a nice neighborhood for around $170k.

Attachment 187008

They still have a home up here in Idaho, but spend seven months in AZ...

[Idaho Mule]

I know him, and where he lives. PM me when you have time. JW

[quail4jake]

OK, rural... Twp pop 1500, 58 sq miles. 2nd largest county in Pennsylvania...we burn PA anthracite coal in a PA built furnace, eat PA venison, garden and I have a rifle range in my back yard. I fire full scale Civil War artillery whenever I damn wish. And if not for the electoral college would be subject to the oppression of the urban liberal cartel. God bless this USof A, our Veterans and current Military Personnel. PRO PATRIA ET GLORIA!

[fatelk]

I miss living out of town. I grew up on a 200 acre dairy farm and didn't know how good I had it in many ways. My folks still own the back 40 (sold off the rest). They're several states away from there now, even farther out. The nearest stop light is a 45 minute drive.

[shdwlkr]

I grew up in a small town in upstate NY and at age 12 went to work on neighbor's dairy farm. I spent lots of hours in the fields and no people around. Then I went to work for the state on construction and again lots of open space few people Think 600 acres, worked on my cousin's place also that was like almost 1000 acres. Spent my free time many days hunting wood chucks that made holes that our cows stepped in sometimes, that is where I really learned to shoot. Army time again site chief on a few sights and when there was no training going on lots of open space few people.

Now I am in a city and know a few here, like my church but way to many people way to close, one day I hope to be able to go back to the country.

As to winter and enjoying it with my arthritis, it really is just a state of mind, this year we have had a lot of snow and I don't like shoveling, so will be glad when spring shows up, then it is grass that needs mowed and sweating. There is always something that can be a pain. Forgot to mention the garden work, but the food tastes so much better that it really seems like a good thing to be doing.

[KCSO]

I covered a County of 11,000 square miles with a population of under 10,00o and lived in Center...population 70. I even had a second bathroom right back of the Garage!