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Would you want to?

R

rrlund

Well-known Member
A little discussion with Tractorvet on another forum got me to wondering. He said he wanted to move to someplace like Montana,at least 50 miles from the nearest neighbor.
Would any of you REALLY want to live like that?

It all sounds good,but I think it's a different story when you get there. We looked at a ranch in the Ozarks about 15 years ago that was so far out in the middle of nowhere that the sun set between there and town. The realtor that went down with us from Salem Mo wouldn't even drive his car back there because it wasn't four wheel drive. He told us we were the first ones he'd ever showed the place to. Said everybody else that was interested got about half way and said forget it,it was too far out in the middle of nowhere. It was beautiful,no doubt about that,but all I could see in my mind was that hillbilly and the realtor running up over the hill waving my money and doing woo hoos,leaving me standing there wondering what the h@ll I'd just done.I'll guarantee you wouldn't go to town more than twice a month at most from a place like that.

Don't get me wrong,I want to live in the Ozarks or the Blue Ridge,but I want to be within a few miles of a general store so I can go sit around and BS everyday. I just want to be back in a valley without any neighbors within sight,that's all.

Someplace like that one we looked at would be OK if you were some kind of survivalist,but I'm too much of a social critter to live like that.
 
Just being able to look in every direction and not see any one or any buildings would be enough for me. I can honestly say that I can appreciate his preference.
 
I wouldn't mind a place like that, but i would test it out as a weekend/vacation camp first.(rental)
The other question is: As we are getting older, what if you ever have a medicacal emergency.... what are your chances of "making it"?
The only way you can garantee that you wont see your neighbors is owning a large patch of land and/or lotsa trees. That takes a lot of money or faith that civilization/ hill-billies won't follow you over the next years and decades ....
Personally, I don't mind a few trees, but I do prefer wide open spaces, the plains (live in sw OK now.), foot of the rockies, around Trinidad, CO for example..... at least the medic air-e-vac chopper can land.....
Just the rambling thoughts of a married 43 year old...... Ralph in OK.
 
I was raised on a small dairy farm in Cleburne, Tx and then a 1,700 cattle ranch near Corsicana, Tx.

I grew up with room to roam. It gets in you and to not have it any more is hardship to my soul.

I could.
 
Randy, I'm already in a place like that and it has definite disadvantages.
Good hospital 100mi/ local one flys you out as soon a stabilized 6000 per trip/
NH Case MF 100 mi
JD 60mi
Sale Barns 140 mi nearest good Barn 275mi
My pick north central Kansas, not many people but services are fairly close.
Bill
 
Don't know about the 50 mile part, except that does sound good on occasion, but I would like to be far enough out that I could look around me and not see any other lights, etc at night.
 
Some people claim they would like it, but most couldn't handle it. Growing up, I'd go all summer with only making it to town a couple times. Luckily I had a couple sisters and a brother close to the same age, because that was my social interaction. Now, I can usually only make it a couple days without seeing somebody, or needing something from town. A lot of people move to the country because they want space, and then drive to town multiple times a day to work, have dinner, shop, socialize, etc... Doesn't add up to me, but I don't know.
David
 
There is a village a mile behind my grove, only the coop grain elevator, gas station, supper club bar, and an antique tractor jockey with a few houses. Trees and hill pretty much put it out of view.

Town is 5 miles away, and that is about perfect in my mind.

I'd not to be more than 10 miles from a hospital, civilization, etc. But, this is still a small town of 15,000 people, I'd not want to be too close to a big town. Don't need thsat kind of trffic and mess. This little town is getting a Menards built this summer, to open next spring. I'm kinda excited....

I'm about 30 miles from a bigger town of 45,000 people, and that is good, nice to visit once in a while. Wouldn't really want to live closer tho.

You'll always have neighbors, somehow, mine are about 1/4 mile and more away, and it's nice to see their yard lights in a snow storm, as the lights disappear you can gauge how bad the snow or fog is.

--->Paul
 
Nope, I don't mind being out in the country but I don't want to live 50 miles from town and 2 miles from nowhere. I could see being 10 miles or so out from the nearest people though.

Rick
 
Where in Colo. do you hail from, Bill? Those 6000,-are cheap!! .... here a flight from Mangum to OKC hospitals runs you upwards of 14000,- ....
...got room for one more in your country?? I' am looking to move, even if it is for the "cheap" rife only....LOL
A content Ralph in sw Oklahoma.
 
You just cannot imagine the tax burden on sparsly populated areas. Someone has to pay the bills and we really get hammered.

We are taxed on everything except the air and they are probably working on changing that little 'feature' soon.

Allan
 
I just returned from a trip west. Part of trip went through NE Arizona. No way would I want to live there. It's miles and miles of sand and sagebrush. Green grass is only a dream. Now Durango, Colorado was a quite nice area. Of course there were people close by there.
 
That's just it. I could have vacationed there for a week just fine,but the thought of taking my stuff and living there didn't appeal to me. The honest truth is,it was my old tractors that turned me off to it first. I'm kinda proud of them,but if I lived there,who'd even know I had them?
Didn't take long to figure out too,that if something happened medically,it could be a long long time before anybody ever discovered your bleached bones.
 
I personally would in a heartbeat.

I wouldn't call myself anti-social, I'll happily talk up a storm with anybody about anything - but what I like the most in life is privacy and to be left alone in peace and quiet.

I enjoy having neighbors visit, but it's always at the expense of my already limited free time.

As long as there was some land I could work, a pond I could fish, and night sky I could look at - I'd pretty much be all set.

My wife is very similar, but she wouldn't want to be quite THAT remote.

Of course, with kids - you need a nearby school, hospital, dentist, etc. So they'd have to age a little. So, not even an option right now.
 
The Beauty of living here in the Finger Lakes. You can be remote on your road but be in a sizable town within fifteen minutes. It's getting a little pricey here if you want say 10 acres to go with it but that is where I would go into the Southern Tier such as Steuben or Allegany Counties. Sizable towns such as Bath and Hornell and interstate highways such as 86 and 390 fairly handy. It would be easy for a trip back to Michigan to visit your relatives but not so close they are going to be readily on your doorstep.
 
I live about 5 miles from the nearest town and about 30 from St. Louis. People from St. Louis think I live at the end of the earth. They think I'm crazy that I would like to live even farther away from St. Lou. Yeah, I would do it in a heart beat.
 
Being a 50-mile Baptist, being 50 miles away from civilization might be a stretch.

Good news is that living on the farm I'm only 9 miles from the Dairy Queen, 12 miles from Tractor Supply and John Deere/Ag Power, and 1 mile from the church.

Bad news is that I'm 135 miles away from Nancy.

Enjoy the peace and quiet out here; especially at night when the moon is out and the sky is filled with stars and/or fireflies.

Light breeze carries the smell of fresh-cut hay stacked in the hay barn through all the open windows of the house.

Hummingbirds provide evening entertainment while sitting on the patio in the evening.

Unplugged the telephone and don't watch television.

Got wireless internet for social networking on YT.

Get all my news, weather, and sports here on YT.

Go into town every Friday just to remind myself of the many reasons I retired to the country.

Saw the mail carrier this morning for the first time since I moved here last August.

Slowly but surely working towards <a href="http://youtu.be/idpU4UT8vc0">my dream of ideal retirement</a> here on the farm.
 
I get taxed on the rain that falls on my place. It's called a "surface water management fee". First time I noticed it in my tax bill, we had only about 1800 sq ft of our 5.6 acres covered with impermeable surface, and that was the footprint of our house and garage. On top of that, we had a pretty healthy forest on about 3.5 acres, which is about as good as it gets for surface water management. We've since cut about a third of our trees, and added another 1000 sq ft of building, but still...
 
I guess! The place I'd like to get away from here is a mile from a town of 850. Been here all my life,can't see town from here even though it's only a mile away. When the leaves are off I can see the light on the hospital radio tower,but that's about it. There's still too many people I don't know and too much traffic.

Boy,15,000 and a Menards,I'd be suicidal living around that many people! Someplace like Ben Davis Mo,or Pall Mall,Possum Trot or Forbus Tennessee,that's more what I'm looking for. Someplace where I can go to kick tires,swat flies and discuss the state of the union now and then.
 
But what will you do if the other 2 folks living there die? I guess you can always talk to the mirror or your hand...nanu nanu....LOL
PS: I hear ya, though.....!
 
I would do it in a heartbeat, but I grew up a long ways from people, and have spent a fair amount of time in the bush up here in Alaska. In my experience, the closest I have ever been to my neighbors is when they are 25 miles away. The medical thing does not bother me, but part of that is that most everyone we knew growing up were pilots (my grandpa, Dad and uncle all fly, now me) and owned planes, so little need for medevac. I was in the ozarks for the first time this winter, there is no way I could get far enough from people in Missouri, place was claustrophobic to a born and bred Alaskan hillbilly!

Biggest reason though, that I will most likely not be that far from people, is that I have chosen to farm for a living, and no matter what kind of produce it may be, whether hay, veggies, cattle, or whatever, you have to have a market. That, and I am too attached to my church. But one of my good friends at church has a homestead 80 miles from the closest road so I can get away every now and then.
 
A mile between neighbors would be nice. I have 6 houses not directly across from mine but across from my south field. They are all ok but the neighbor north is a a$$, turned me in for dust, loud tractors, mooing cows. He had his place surveyed when he first moved in. Survey said the fence was 6" on his side and he wanted it moved. After much discussion about it's not going to get moved I told him my Great grand father put in the fence close to, if not more than 100yrs ago, it's grandfathered in and is the legal line. He backed down and said that is what the surveyors told him. He has held a shotgun on kids tubing down the creek and other kids riding atv's not even on his land. If he was to have a heartattack or get foreclosed on and move, I throw a party.
 
MCOHIO just described my place. I like not seeing neighbors or them being able to see me. I live in the Foothills of The Blue Ridge, in N/W SC. My wife drives about 35 miles to the hospital she works at, oneway. She thinks having the privacy is worth the expense. Places like mine are getting more scarse because of the developers buying up 2500-5500 acre tracts to build gated golfing communities. Smaller tracts are selling from $9,000-12,000 per acre.
 
We lived in the Ozarks for several years , Never again! Good weather and climate but other things were terriable . Will not discuss on here. Very satisified and happy in OK. now.
 
BING0!! Same here!

We live down in the So. Tier about 15 miles west of Binghamton. I can see the PA line from my front window.

I'm originally from a small place in Catt. County and would go back there or to Allegany County if my wife and I were younger.

Folks who hqve never been west of the Hudson River are amazed at how rural it is out that way.
 
for a vacation house absolutely. for every day my wife would get a case of shopping jitters and drive me crazy. I live 13 miles from the big city (about 18000, in a town of about 90) to me that is just about right.
 
I guess I was lucky, Got 260 acres that are surounded on three sides by a wildlife refuge. Neareast neighbor is over 2 miles but only 7 miles to a small town and only 78 miles to Nashville Tn. Like the remote, no lights at night feel but nothing like the wide open spaces out west. Ate breakfast some where down south of Farmington New Mexico and the Mcdonalds had a sign the nearest MD,s if 70 + miles. Now that is remote.
 
I should clarify that while there are quite a number of places that sit out of view of the neighbors I can see mine. I think the OP is probably looking at some area that is milder than where he is at in Michigan. The climate here is pretty similar to where he is now. But still the Finger Lakes and the Southern Tier are very nice areas plus the towns and cities offer a lot to do if a person wants to venture out. I don't live in Steuben County but so many places look very inviting there. I could be happy in quite a few places west of I - 81.
 
i don't think i'd want to be 50 miles from my neighbors but the in the last 10 years i've been in the Army i've lived in subdivisions or on post housing and I can tell you that I am "closer" to my farm neighbors 1000 acres apart than I am with the neighbors I share walls and fences with at my duty station.

-Paul
 
I've heard a lot of stories,depending on where I went down there. Everything from folks being too clanish and not wanting any outsiders,to it taking three weeks to get anything done that most folks would expect to get done today. So I won't ask any questions.
Neighbors moved down there after we bought their place by the way. They said it wasn't the locals who were A holes,it was the folks that ain't from around there.
 
I live within 1 mile from Napa, Oreilly's, CarQuest and two independents. I live within 2 miles of 2 major grocery chains, 3 barber shops, 3 gas stations. Within 4 miles of 2 Home Depots and a Menards, about 5 licquor stores, WalMart, Target, 2 welding supply outfits.
Within 5 miles of 2 Big steel yards, 3 specialty steel yards, 3 scrap yards, 2 bearing houses, a clutch and Ujoint shop, 10 tire stores, a Northern Tool store, Pioneer Rim and Wheel, Sam's Club two specialized lumber centers, a Cat Dealer, Cummins dealer, Mack, KW, Pete, Dorsey, Freuhof, Timte, fuel and lube oil dealers and a garbage transfer station.
About 15 miles from two Fleet Farms.
About 20 miles from about 300 resturaunts of every type and kind imaginable, the Mall of America plus 4 other big malls and an international aiport, Amtrack and two bus depots.
25 miles from a CaseIH, CNH and JD Dealer, 3 Ag tire dealers, about 8 golf courses and at least 125 movie screens.
And if I go 50 miles out it would encompass the entire Twin City metro area and include a dozen museums, 200 lakes, 20 boat dealers, 20 live theaters, two orchestra halls, probably 20 sporting goods stores and gun dealers including Cabelas, 30 libraries, half a dozen strip joints, pro football, baseball, hockey and basketball teams and probably 40 radio and half a dozen tv stations and 500 machine shops, welding shops, engine rebuilders and body shops.
And that's just the stuff the guys are interested in.
No, I wouldn't want to live 50 miles away from everything. My friends stop by 4,5,6 days a week and they just wouldn't drive that far.
 
Yeah, I could do it. I probably would miss not having a Lowe’s or Tractor Supply within a reasonable distance, though. I grew up out in the country on a couple hundred acres, and there was only one neighbor within a mile radius. We went into town only once a week, on Saturday. Wouldn’t trade my growing up years. I’ve come full-circle; since I retired I rarely go into town. My only socializing is at my church, and with the guys in my quartet.<

Now I kinda have the best of both worlds: my little 12 acres is only a mile past the limits of a mid-size city, and just ten minutes from Lowe’s and Walmart. My place is at the very end of a no-outlet road, and I’m surrounded by woods. Back of my property faces a 300-acre open field. Nearest neighbors are two hundred yards away. If I really want to get away, wife has a travel trailer on 40 acres in one of the most rural areas of north central Louisiana. This place reminds of how quiet it can be away from town; how dark, and how many stars are in the sky.
 
It's a nice idea but it may get old after a few weeks. Ozarks have far too many hillbillies for me, that, and I'm not moving south of the border. Right now the closest real town(1000) that's worth going to is 12 miles away. Nearest city (21000) is 25 miles away. Has a HD ,Wal-mart, Canadian Tire etc. It's nice to have all that stuff but I hate being there. Way too many people and cars. Sometimes the western provinces look pretty appealing (as long as I had a source of income), but could lose it"s appeal in a hurry if I was hurt and 50 miles from the hospital, etc.
 
6 miles out of a town of 18,000 has walmart napa JD dealer etc, yet im also only about 30 minutes outside of a city of a million +. within a roughly 2 mile radius have 6 neighbours, yet still quiet enough to enjoy
could handle being 15-20 miles out of a smaller community, perhaps an hour out of a bigger centre.
 
Being out in the boonies has its good points, like privacy and self-reliance. But if you are like most people today, you end up spending lots of money on vehicle fuel and a lot of time driving back and forth to town for various reasons.

I know people who live off the electrical grid, and they get by, usually by running generators to supplement windmills and/or solar panels. Doing so they have invested a LOT of money and end up having to work on their systems fairly often. It would be pretty hard to ever convince me to live somewhere that I couldn"t get electrical power.

I like my computer and phones. I like the fact that if I needed to take my wife to the Emergency Room, we could probably be there in less than a half hour. Or if I decide that I want a hamburger, it takes about the same time to go get one at McDonalds or some other restaurant.

I have lived in the city, and was really bothered by the constant noise. And the traffic. And the constant worry that someone was going to mess with my car parked on the street. And the crowds.

So I moved back to the country, but not too far out. I can see my neighbors" houses, but seldom hear them. I have a good relationship with all my neighbors, and could count on them in an emergency, but for the most part, we leave each other alone. No one can build anything closer than it is now, without my permission, because I own all the land between us. I am concerned with the huge increase in taxes in my area, mostly because people have built expensive homes fairly nearby, but so far it is manageable. My place is not fancy, but it is also almost paid for!

Nope, I would not want to move to a remote area. I guess I wouldn"t want to move at all...and I hope I can stay here until I die. This is just fine for me!
 
In a Heart Beat. My wife and I will be doing it in a few years. Planning is the answer to having a store next door. Neighbors you cannot see but relate to you and your ideas is the real ticket. Jim
 
I'm 35. Live on a dirt road, neighbors (most relatives) are at least .5 miles away. I live in North Florida, where we usually hold the record for heat and humidity statewide. That being said, it's great here 5 months out of the year. The summers are brutal, probably like the winters most of you experience. Here's my retirement plan: I want a farm somewhere where I can grow alfalfa in South Dakota. Spend my summers there and come back here in the winter!
 
(quoted from post at 08:30:52 05/03/12) You just cannot imagine the tax burden on sparsly populated areas. Someone has to pay the bills and we really get hammered.

We are taxed on everything except the air and they are probably working on changing that little 'feature' soon.

Allan
Click to expand...

Around here we see that the sparsely populated areas have lower taxes. I live in what used to be rural, but over a 15 year span the population tripled with yuppies moving in that need all the services. Our tax rate is $24.66/1,000. what is yours?
 
When I used to live and work in Chicago, had a friend that was an elevator repair guy for one of the two large elevator companies. He was the oldest guy, so his company just figured that he should be the guy that works on the oldest elevators. Yes, he worked on the newest ones too, but when it came to the real oldie moldies, they were his. So, he was the guy that worked on this one "steam powered" elevator on the north side of the Loop. As a telephone repair guy, I had been in this one building that had a steam powered elevator and told him about it. That was one of his, he described it to a "T". So he's telling me about the guy that invented it and made them, and now the guy is worth mega $$$ and had his own island that he lived on. Talk about few if any neighbors. He had none. But, when my buddy had problems with his steam elevators, that's who he called, the guy on the island for tech support, and they would talk endlessly, mostly because the guy was glad to have someone to talk to.

Be careful with that "I want to live in Montana where my nearest neighbor is 50 miles away" stuff, because bears don't make good conversationists, and they get moody, very moody, and they do not take "No" for an answer.

I like my privacy, but I like people too, especially hot chicks that tend not to live in log cabins in the middle of a forest.

Mark
 
So you understand that when I say "remote", referring to the area north and west of Dubach, I'm not kidding. Very close to where Karl Malone grew up.

Wife and daughter are Tech grads. I worked in Ruston at the Daily Leader many years ago.
 
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