Why do you live where you live?

MossRoad · Dec 11, 2001

I understand the nothing in common thread. If its not there, its not there. Columbus is a nice town. I really like the architecture. Even the new bridge on 65 is cool. And southern Indiana is nice with of all the hills and forests. Except that its never cold enough down there /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

 MossRoad

bgott · Dec 11, 2001

That's one of the many reasons I'm single. I like my privacy and if I go visit someone most of the time I get a room. If they come visit me they always get a room. I've also found that most of the time if they don't have enough money for a room they turn out to be free loading PITAs. I got tired of my ex's family showing up and me having to spend two days overhauling their car to get rid of them.

Alan L. · Dec 12, 2001

Gee I hope our brides aren't reading this....

I love my in-laws, but the only problem is they are in 3 locations from Houston to our area in North Texas to Missouri. Divorce (theirs - not mine) causes this.

I was born and grew up in a small town (800 people - 1200 now) in North Texas. Went to first grade through high school (11 in my graduating class). My wife moved to town from Dallas as a freshman in high school and we got married while I was in college. After college (1976) we moved back to my home town and built a home in 1980. Live there and raised our 2 children until we sold it last December and moved onto our 24 acres 6 miles west of town, in the middle of nowhere. The Mrs. saw surveyors across the street in a vacant pasture in town and that was it - she was itching to get out of town. We rushed and drilled a water well, dug a tank (pond), a road, put in a septic, and built a 40' by 60' metal shop building. We built 880 square feet of living quarters inside the building.

We've been here a year the 15th and it has been GREAT!!! The extreme quiet, bright stars, and fresh air are just awesome. Sunsets are beautiful, and we see about 3 or 4 cars an hour go by on our rock county road.

In this part of Texas it gets HOT in the summer and wet, windy, nasty cold in the winter, with little snow. Hardly any spring or fall in between. No mountains or beaches near.

But most family is close by, as are friends I went to the first grade with. I couldn't move.

Alan L., TX
South of Bugtussle
North of Mustang
On the banks of Buck Creek

raptor · Dec 12, 2001

MossRaod

I'm currently hunting with a female Harris Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctis) for cotton tail rabbits. I enjoy watching the true falcons hunt, but have hunting territory better suited for hawks. Thanks for asking.

Terry

TerryinMD · Dec 12, 2001

Hmmm... where do I begin.

I was born in Grove City, Pa and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa. For the first 27 years of my life, I lived in Pgh except for the time in the service. I went to school in Pgh and got my first real job there.

After about three years at the first job, I got bored and started looking around. Since I worked with Control Data Computers, I thought it would be cool to work for them. So, I got lucky and landed a job with CDC and that started my gypsy lifestyle.

Here's a synopsis - Minneapolis, MN for training; Rochester, NY - University of Rochester lab support; back to Pgh, PA for a couple of years; moved to New Hope, Yardley, Newtown, PA - support Princeton University lab; Minneapolis, MN - operating system development; Pittsburgh, PA - put out system fires wherever needed; Got married on Saturday - moved to Los Alamos, NM on Monday - provide networking and system support; Fredericksburg, VA - first child, networking/system support for Naval Weapons Center; Atlanta, GA - second child, provide pre/post sales support to various customers; North Potomac and finally Sharpsburg, MD - pre/post sales support. Now all of this was with CDC.

Left CDC, moved over to total Goverment contracting with SAIC to support the US Army - provided engineering tteam lead support - telecommunications design (data and voice); Lockheed-Martin - site security monitoring for DISA; Lockheed-Martin - network monitoring and design for EPA; UUNET/WorldCom - project management (configuration management, project management, and requirements management).

As you see, I've bounced around a lot. After getting married and having two children my wife suggested (key word here) that we should stay in the Sharpsburg, MD area. If we had to live in any of the other places, it would be New Mexico. The reason we left there was that we missed being so far from Western PA (36 hrs of driving!!).

Washington County, MD is a wonderful place to live and raise your children. The school system is pretty good - not perfect (are any?). The people we've met and associate with are just great. We live in a rural area surrounded by farms. The minimum acreage is one acre, but in most cases the lots are 3 acres and above.

We built on our property because the original 1.5 acres we wished to build on could not get a clear title. So, we had to drop back a punt. The women we rented from owned the 3 acres and offered them to us. So, we investigated being the general contractor for the house and getting a construction load and , well, the rest is history.

By far, it was one of the best decisions we ever made. Our children can walk around and we do not have to worry about them. Everyone looks out for each other. People in unfamilar cars are stopped by all and asked their business - in a friendly way. If anyone is up to no good, they get the message and quietly leave. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

We have all of the amenties of living in an urban area. Drive 20-30 minutes for any kind of shopping you wish. Drive an hour and we're in the DC area.

Do wish miss anything in the city - no way. We have everything we could want - and even more. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

Terry

Mac624 · Dec 12, 2001

Hi, all

It's hard to understand, I'm from Germany but Ì don't feel like a German, I'm that what we called a Rheinlaender, my people live in my area, since You count the times. Germany is not a country for easy living, like it seems in the states, but
in some areas here You can feel a kind of independence of the Government, You do what You what to on the border to illegality. The Government and his institutions can kiss my a....
But in a special way I love my area, it is home for me, my wife and our kids. But we have another home in Poland, where my wife is from, You can do things there, You'll never think about in Germany, I believe this is our second home. My wife has some acres of land there, and we gonna go farming there as soon as we built up her Farmhouse with help from her family, so I won't have to miss my home here, and we have a home there. And I ask You: Why should we remove to another place?
Bernhard, Derichsweiler,Rheinland, Germany

Molerj · Dec 12, 2001

Not much of a story here. Graduated high school in '76 got hired in the steel mill in '77.
Always lived in a small town, 500 at the most. Married a girl from about 7 miles away that I
I didn't meet until '81. She graduated from the same school 4 yrs. after me. Rented a nice
little house that the fellow was trying to sell for a few yrs. It had nice garage & 5 acres
of land with 10 100' rows of grapes. House sold all of the sudden & we had to move out.
Not wanting to rent in the city we moved back with my parents. One child & a lot of
looking at houses later we found some property about 5 miles away & built our home which
we prompty christened with our second girl. I noticed alot of people had to move away
for jobs. We were fortunate to find jobs close by so that we could stay close to our
relatives. We lost quite a few the last 10 yrs. & we were glad that we could share those
last yrs. with them.

MossRoad · Dec 12, 2001

When I was a kid there was a guy that had redtails. He hunted with them in the industrial park. Lots of bunnies in that landscaping. I was amazed that he could let it go. It would go up and sit on the edge of the factories while he walked through the bushes. The bunnies would come out and the hawks never missed. He'd run up and kill the rabbit if it wasn't already dead. Then he'd get the bird on his arm and kind of toss it in the air. It would circle around and he'd take a dead sparrow out of his pouch and throw it in the air. The hawk would take it and eat it up on the factory while he started through the bushes again. Way too cool.

 MossRoad

bpence · Dec 14, 2001

Interesting how you comment about Germany. We had an exchange student from Germany with us from August 2000 through July 2001. Her mother came over about a week before Mareike was to return home. Her comments about Germany sounded very much like yours. In fact, after only 8 days in the U.S., she didn't want to return to Germany. That was kind of interesting.....we had an exchange student who REALLY didn't want to go back to Germany, and then her mother came and wanted to stay here as well.

I guess the kind of freedom we have in this country.......we take for granted. Although many other countries are "free", maybe they're not as free as we are.

Bob Pence

Mac624 · Dec 14, 2001

Hi bpence,
we got the same freedom like You in the states, sorry, but I won't live overthere, I love my area, it's really beautiful here, but ist is the Government that makes live so hard, more and more taxes and restriction, but I've found my own way to live also my wife, our children and my friends. You can believe me, the Rheinland is my home and my country, but it's sad but through, it belongs to Germany, and I'm not able to change it.
Bernhard, Derichsweiler, Germany

genelp · Dec 14, 2001

My wife and I have lived in the same northern Indiana county all of our lives (Whitley). When we were married we had a discussion of whether to live in the country or our local small town. My wife had always lived in the small town of Columbia City and didn't think she would like the country. She has since changed her mind! The place we live at now has 4 acres and a pond. Our property is surrounded by a hayfield on one side and 3 farms that are mostly wooded and have been in set-aside for years. These farms/woods are connected to a state owned wildlife preserve. Needless to say we have lots of deer, coyote and even the occasional turkey. When friends and family that live in town come to visit we've noticed that they often just stand at the window and look at the view. I wouldn't trade this for city living, even if offered a job paying double what I make now.

Molerj · Dec 18, 2001

Just an update on an earlier post I made to this thread on 12/12. Seventy two yr. young Mom fell & broke her wrist
at home Sunday. With two sisters almost 3 hrs. away don't know what she would have done if we weren't close by. Just another reason I am living where I am.

antiques · Dec 21, 2001

What a great question, Danny Y! We're in Southwestern Michigan, in Weesaw Township (Pop. around 2100), a few miles from the towns of Galien and New Troy, we bought part of a former dairy farm, just under 40 acres, with a small pond, a few acres of woods and Blue Jay Creek as the southern boundary of the property. We "ended up" here after I was hired at a nearby Nuke plant in 1999, and couldn't be happier. I've worked at 10 other Nuke plants and at a couple of other larger and smaller companies around the Country since 1979 (lived in Mass, NH, Arizona, Georgia, and the last 12 years for various periods at each of the three Nuke sites in California. My wife and I grew up in Northeastern Massachusetts, a couple of miles from each other, and have been together since 1963, married in '67. Just a few years ago, we made a list of attributes that an area should have where we could "settle down forever". Never did Michigan cross our minds. When we got here, we could not believe how well the area matched our list! University nearby (ND), large city within an hour and a half (Chicago)- trains, planes and tractors! 4 Seasons! Snow! Quality of life is so high for us; it's quiet here, no traffic, people are great, we're surrounded by mostly farmland, but room for deer, coyotes, raccoons, rabbit, owls, hawks, groundhogs, muskrat, etc., yet only 12 miles to "work", on the shore of Lake Michigan. We both know we're truly blessed to be here, and give thanks every day. And of course, the tractor... never had so much fun since my brother and I did our "construction work" in our old sand box, back in the '40's and 50's! Thanks for the opportunity to hear so much about everyone else, and their dreams and travails too, Danny Y! Bill

MossRoad · Dec 22, 2001

That's a beautilful area. We drive through there often on our way to Lake Michigan. West out of South Bend to New Carlisle, north on Cleveland to Shawnee, left on Shawnee to the lake. An enjoyable drive in all seasons. Especially the wine country off any side road.

 MossRoad

cp1969 · Dec 23, 2001

I live here because my ancestors were kicked out of all the good places.

TerryinMD · Dec 24, 2001

Well, that is certainly an interesting post.

Pray tell - from where were your ancestors booted??

Terry

cp1969 · Dec 24, 2001

It's a line from a John Belushi or Bill Murray movie, I can't remember right now which one.

Joyce · Dec 27, 2001

Danny Y, I live along costal Maine, but a fair distance away from the very touristy areas, with my husband and 7 year old boy.

We found this land getting lost, looking for something else. I grew up in Massachusetts, and would have settled on any of the New England states above Mass. I have to have New England because of the changing seasons, including the spectacular autumn season.

We have these 62 acres, bought off of a local farmer done with farming, because we could afford it. This is a small town of about 800 people. We like the country, but the access to whatever culture we want.

I doubt we will ever move because we are putting so much into this place with planting and building. Also, there is a real good violin/fiddle circle of activity between Bangor and Camden... both my son and I play (he's better than me already /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

If I ever had the chance at 'ideals' in life, sure I'd love a place where the sugar maples are already 100 years old, not like the ones I've been planting for the last 10 years. And there are quaint New England towns that have all those beautiful old homes. None of this do we choose to afford. Rather, we afford what we have, and will build what we want.

I have always thought it a priority in life to make your home and farm (yard...whatever), as beautiful as your energy and tractor will allow. In that regard, you won't be finding yourself looking to vacation elsewhere all the time. I consider our home our vacation spot. The only trouble with this theory, is the part about when do you put down your tools to enjoy it.

I love the indepence of country living, and my new 2910 helps immensily. But that independence (solar power, chain saw and band saw to bring in those beams for our house building, etc.) comes with a price tag. The price is in the time and maintenance. Time to do all the work, and needing the patience to figure out all of the maintenance. (Thank goodness my husband is better at this stuff than me /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.)

RonL · Dec 27, 2001

Joyce
It's New England for me also. You make a good point of when do you put down the tools and enjoy it? The secret I believe is in enjoying the work. I suppose if one were struggling to bring in enough food for the winter and close in a cabin to protect a family from the cold one would look at it differently. But I think there is something innate in humans that makes them take pride in building a domicile and working the land. You can see it even in the city when someone takes pride in fixing a loose screw on the kitchen cabinet.

RonL

RichZ · Dec 28, 2001

Joyce, I agree with your comments, especially about your home being your permanent vacation home. When my wife and I bought our farm, we had to make the decision that we would never go away on vacation again, because with all the critters and farm responsibilities, it's just too complicated to go away. Besides, I actually hate to travel, and we live in our favorite area anyway, so why go anyplace else? Day trips are fine, but I want to be back on my own farm at the end of the day!

Rich
"What a long strange trip it's been."