there is a lot of expense and down right work keeping a property up. a lot of it is machinery and tools, but then just plain old physical labor.
if you are a person that wants vacations, and take off some place, big acreage can be ugly.
you are a weekend warrior and it never really stops, every weekend something needs to be replaced, fixed, etc... etc....
you can quickly get lost in wanting say some awesome garden look, and plants, and flowers all over the place, and it can over whelm you. KISS (keep it simply stupid) it is no longer about look here, but rather, what needs to be done (prep work) to make things easier and faster and still get it done. ""cutting tree limbs so ya do not knock yourself off tractor or tear something off tractor while mowing"", cutting a tree out, redo fence lines, and areas to make it easier mowing, redo drives (dirt / gravel) for easier plowing / dealing with snow, pull all the bushes, and mow down the flowers. keep things picked up and cleaned up.. (tree branches, fallen trees, etc...) keep things mowed as well to deal with keeping rodents at bay, erosion issues, etc..., having an actual shed that is not a "storage shed' but a usable shed for regular maintance of the various machines and tools that are needed for regular maintenance around the farm.
the faster and easier regular maintenance stuff is... more free time i have to do what i might want to do vs. being a slave to the farm.
the difference between city and country... what means taking 1/2 hour to deal with stuff outside in city = 1+ hour at country. larger machines, more prep work, oil changes, gas or diesel, checking stuff making sure it is good to go, longer time doing what ever, driveways, mowing, going to get something at a store can turn out to be 1/2 day wasted.
knowing how to drive an actual truck or sports utilty vehicle in the mud and snow. 2wd, 4wd, i don't care. simply knowing how to drive in various conditions and keep on going, and keeping you safe and others safe as well while on the road.
city folks = tow truck, country folks, keep on going. or they stay till someone with a vehicle comes back home to go out.
dealing with stray's (dogs, cats, etc...)
your more likely to have a neighbor that likes to shoot his guns. or drive 4 wheels / atv on some sort of track near you out in the country.
generator of some sort more likely a requirement. power outages may be down for some time.
internet out in the country stinks. satilete about only cheaper way to get high speed, but ya still pay out the rear for it.
females! and them getting use to dealing with a septic tank and septic field, and not putting female stuff down the toilet, and men condoms....
working around a well. only able to do wash some much laundry at a given time, more limited to only being able to use a single source of water at a time (if ya have multi kids... lots of showers / baths.... and working between well, washing dishes, laundry... and you could be in the hurt)
lots of folks say well water is good, but if you have a ugly well, well water does go bad, and then it may come back... each and every year.
hard water wells... replacing faucets, shower heads, valves, etc... toliets, dealing with stains from hard water on sinks, showers, and like.
telephone (land line) can easily go out or staticky, and cell phone reception can be non existence, it may be good one moment, then a breeze picks up and gone the next.
cattle getting out, it may not happen that often, but when they do. say good by to flower beds, and say hello to hoof prints all over the yard.
and if it is night time, they can be worse that deer in the head lights. more so black cows... been there done that.
living out in country, at least for me, for what ever reason, i am like a deer magnet. if i drive at night time. new set of brakes min per year. not to mention, other animals running out in front of me. if it was not for anti lock breaks, i would need new tires every few months from locking up brakes and putting a flat spot on tires.
*ughs* fires... a lot of folks around here like burning out ditches and other areas off... part of the mowing thing. is keeping paths opened up, for fire brakes, and keeping stuff down so nothing can go up in an instant if a fire gets out of hand.
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a lot of things end up getting done by a single person, working machinery and tools. and if your are not with it... can be life threatening deadly. all it takes is one little mishap.
