As the "theme" of my blog is a city girl's perspective on life in the country, I figured I'd better address this issue before too long. When we moved to our house in the country, we moved from the Twin Cities, from an apartment that was touted as being 1000 sq. ft. (my engineer husband measured it and said it was more like 700 sq. ft.). We moved to a house that is over 2500 sq. ft. I say this not to brag (remember the more house, the more cleaning), but to give you a scope of what it was like for us when we moved.
We also now had a yard, a three acre yard, to be exact. We mowed this 3 acre yard for one year, before letting the weeds take over. And yes, I mowed too. It was a job that I enjoyed b/c we used the four-wheeler and a pull behind mower. Now that the weeds have moved in and the cows came home, Paul only mows about an acre. I am released from mowing due to pregnancy and actually wonder if I'll ever be able to do it again, now that we will have more children. Oh, and there was that incident of me mowing over one of the septic system pipes! Yikes!
Now that we have the space, we've also had a garden two years running. The garden is lots of work, in fact, it really needs daily attention, of which it has never gotten. It's also a lot of work bringing the veggies in and washing and storing them. We haven't done any canning yet (again I plead the pregnancy fifth) though I did do pickles both years. They are really easy so that's the only reason I've done them.
So, if you haven't gotten the point yet, life in the country is a lot of work. I am so thankful for all we have and try not to take it for granted, but Paul works a full day and then comes home and has a whole bunch of other chores to do. The boys are learning the benefit of work, though, and I'm very thankful for that as well. We are learning to be more self-sufficient, which we're feeling is more and more essential, what with the way our country is being run.
Despite the additional work, it is nice to open our windows whenever we want and hear crickets, birds, and frogs rather than traffic and neighbors. We only see trees and fields out of all of our windows except three. Those things make life in the country seem so much more relaxing. And hey, did I mention we live on a dirt road?
Downsizing Update: Almost 5 Years Later
3 days ago
2 comments:
Do you guys think living in the country makes up for the long commute? We would love to move out to some land, but N already has a long commute, and doesn't like it at all (neither do I). So we debate pros and cons...
Julie,
That was the sacrifice that Paul was willing to make to move up here. He leaves for work at 5:30 a.m., arrives at 6:30 or so, leaves for home at 3 (barring no additional meetings) and gets home at 4. ususally! He hopes to not work for Honeywell til retirement, but we'll see. We've been able to stay within our gas budget so far, even with the rising prices, but we spend anywhere from $350-450/month in gas! I think that if we did put the kids in public schools, I'd be a lot happier with the ones up here than the ones in the suburbs as well. It just depends on what your willing to give up?
Post a Comment