Rural Freedom

Conservative working-class life can be kind of fun. 🔫 🔥 🛻 🐮 🤠👨🏻‍🌾

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I am not a conservative. If anything I’m libertarian leaning, but I also see the benefit of a state that helps people, especially through the kind of public services that are largely indivisible and free for all to use without discrimination such as public parks, plazas, mass transit and libraries. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think the conservative style of living is fun and has a lot of benefits.

I often think liberals are too intellectual, too concerned about others to have a little fun and relax. At the same time, many on the left lack the inhibition to be respectful of those with traditional values. Now I’m no bible humper or anti-environmentalist, but I think it’s fun to live a life of owning guns, having bonfires, riding quads and snowmobiles, hunting, fishing and farming. A life where you don’t spend your whole life fretting about other people’s problems, where your not worried about saving the planet or country, your just looking to have a little fun.

Conservatives are often seen as dour, but I think many on the left have adopted dour politics as a central tenant of their identity. And while it’s certainly important to control pollution and address racism, especially in our urban areas that are densely packed and impacts of pollution and racist policing tactics can be acute, people should be left alone and not looked down because they live a life different then the imaginary liberal ideal. It’s good to care, but you shouldn’t be so dour in your mannerisms and outlook on life.

How Much Land Do I Need Eventually?

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Driving out to the Green Mountain National Forest via Sand Lake, there was a sign advertising 6 to 10 acre house sites. My parents have 8 acres where they live in Westerlo, and I think the town requires a least 3 acres for new home sites, to protect the rural character of the land, even if it ultimately is just promoting sprawl and McMansions with abandoned, farm fields reverting back to woods.

When I eventually move out to the country, I want to own enough land to be back from the road, have privacy, be able to shoot guns, have bonfires, heat wood, burn trash and debris, and listen to music as loud as I want to. I’m not into burning junk tires or super amplified music, but I do like have my freedom to do what I want with my land, and nobody knowing or caring. If I want to butcher a deer or hog in my backyard, so be it. I guess you could figure out far you have to be from the road to be screened, how far smoke travels, how loud your guns are. Obviously, you have to respect local laws on when you burn and how far you have to be from other people’s homes and barns to be shooting. But we all knows that sometimes smoke and noise travels farther then you would like, and that’s why it’s important to have the right kind of neighbors.

Mountains Fade Into Fog

No matter how remote you live, there are always neighbors down the way. Many country folk don’t give a fuck about how other people live their life, to them it’s live and let live. Which is good. But it only takes one person to call the cops when they smell the wrong kind of smoke, or are bothered by noise of shooting or music. Rednecks are usually good neighbors while the nosy, moved out of the city in the fancy McMansion is the worse. But you never know, so having distance is important. And sometimes a reasonable person can get annoyed or change. Good people sometimes move out and bad people move in.

Livestock and wood are another consideration. Livestock can require quite a bit of land for forage and you often don’t want them penned up right next to your house, because especially cows can be quite noisy at night and hogs smell like hogs. Wood heat can require a good supply of firewood, especially with those outdoor wood boilers – but even fireplaces can burn through a lot in a cold winter. All considerations on how much land I would need to save up to buy. But those are easy to calculate – in contrast having decent neighbors who don’t make a fuss about nothing is far more important then having a lot of land.

My buddies’ $150k house he bought in Summit 🏘 🐷 🤠

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It’s super nice, with a view of the mountains and nine acres of land. I am jealous because the parcel I grew up on was only 4.9 acres and the neighbors were a lot closer it seems. It also makes me kind of happy to think things like this still exist in the world, because $150,000 isn’t a lot of money in these inflationary times, and I could if I decided to sell of some stock go out and buy something similar, if I so wanted today.

To be sure it’s more of a large hunting cabin then a house, and it’s electrically heated and not far from the road. But it shows what kind of deals once can get if you out there and looking — he apparently snapped it up from the man that was selling the first day it went on the market. Plus Schoharie County has been bleeding population ever since Summit Shock Correctional closed — nearly one out ten people have left the county since then. But it’s a reminder of what’s out there if you are looking.

It really gives me hope that there is a tomorrow, and some day I will be able to afford my own land, preferably with cash and no borrowing costs. And that the only choice need not be suburbia with neighbors right next door, looking down on your redneckery. Seems like there is a bright future ahead, and if I want to leave way out in the sticks, there are eventually very affordable options out there if you know what your looking for. And if you keep it simple, and it’s paid with cash, rural living can be affordable and possible.

How Much Land Would I Need to Own.

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When I own a land, how much land do I think I’ll want to own? I think I would want to own enough land to:

– Be able to hunt and shoot firearms at a backyard range, which would mean at least 500 feet from the nearest other house.

– Be able to ride four wheelers on my land, have some fun in the mud without making too much of a mess.

– Have enough land to hobby farm, such as pigs, goats, and other smaller livestock, which means they’ll need pasture and a bit of distance from the house.

– Be able to compost food, leaves, and other waste.

– Be able to burn trash and have bonfires, without causing a nuisance or smelling my neighbors burning their trash.

– Be able to listen to music as loud as I want to, hang lights outdoors, drink beer, and have a good time with buddies.

– Have junk cars and other equipment I’m working on, or saving for scrap use on my land without bothering others.

– Be far enough back from the road so I don’t have to see others or have others piering onto my land.

Obviously, none of that doesn’t require that much land if you have the right kind of neighbors and the right kind of state and local government that leaves people alone, but having more land often comes with having better neighbors that mind their business while you mind your own.

My parents have a little under five acres — surrounded on one side by city reservoir property — but I think I’d rather have closer to 50 with much less house and barns, as my focus would be the wilderness not having a fancy home or barnyard. Obviously, this is an expensive goal, but living farther out means you can get more with less money.

Rural Means Free

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There are many state lands away from big cities that are relatively unrestricted in their use. They are so free only because they are largely unknown by the public and the lack of use means they can be used extensively without serious environmental damage.

The wear and tear by a few pickup trucks, quads, and horses seem minimal compared to the damage we see in far more restricted urban areas. I am inspired by Rural America and how little us humans have destroyed it compared to the big cities.

People can pollute more per capita and do far more damage then would be permissible if more people where out here. A truck can tear up a muddy trail pretty badly, but many people walking on one trail can do far more damage as witnessed in the Northern Catskills. People who live out here can have dirty diesel tractors, big gas-guzzling pickup trucks, and burn trash without significantly compromising their clean air or their quality of life. We could only wish that to be the case in the big city.

Looking at the Lake

My biggest fear is what will happen when the cities expand further and further out into the country. What will happen with a new class of people coming out to enjoy the land? More people will ultimately mean more rules, less, freedom, and certainly no camping or four wheeling. The area won’t be as beautiful as farmsteads and forests get replaced by McMansions enjoying the mountains. What once was empty roads is increasingly becoming houses.

You just have to fear what it will mean when people come out here and settle the land. Outsiders will start demanding that we change, and that we start following their orders. Rural America might ultimately be the Pine Bush of the future a seriously compromised area that only is preserved for historical memories of the great beauty. Life in Rural America is nice now, but how will it be when country ain’t country no more.

Things I would want when I own my own land… 🚜 🦌

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I spend too much downtime flipping through the Land and Farm website, which markets hunting camps, farm land, off-grid properties, and other rural lands. It’s kind of a fun hobby to have as it doesn’t cost anything but the unlimited mobile bandwidth I currently have and is a good reminder that the money I save and invest today will have benefits tomorrow. I have some thoughts what the land would like and ads I’m most interested in. I’m not buying this week or next, but it lets me know what’s out there and what I could reasonably afford eventually.

  • Generally the properties I’ve been looking at have been priced between $200k – $250k. I picked that amount as I think based on what I’ve saved and what I project to save, that gives me the ability to buy with cash plus have money to make repairs and address my significantly lower income when I move to rural area where fewer good-paying jobs are available.
  • I am interested in properties that are roughly 50 acres give and take, with the value of land being roughly 2/3rd of the value of property. I am most interested in properties that have small cabins, shed-to-homes or even mobile trailers on them, because it means the majority of my investment goes into the land, not the home or barn itself, which for me is far less important.
  • I would probably want to live at least 15-20 minutes outside of a small town, maybe 30-40 minutes from a bigger city, just so I don’t have to deal with suburban houses being built nearby and increasing codes and regulation as time goes by of my land and hobby farm operation.
  • I am attracted particularly to land that needs work — land where invasive species have taken over, the soil degraded, run-off or a certain amount of dumping and debris exists on it and needs to clean up. These aspects will help reduce the cost of land, but also provide an enjoyable project to work on restoring the land using goats, pigs, fire and heavy equipment to clean and restore the land.
  • I like the idea of either having diverse habitats on the land or rebuilding them. For example, areas that are mature forest for timber production, some that are brushy lands, some that are meadows for grazing animals. Maybe a wetland and small pond. This will bring in wildlife for hunting and trapping, and provide for interesting wildlife and bird observation.
  • I want to have buffer from neighboring residential properties. I like the idea of having livestock, a gun-range in my backyard, and being able to burn trash and debris. But I don’t want to smell my neighbor’s pig pen and horny buck goat or smoldering burn barrel for endless hours while I’m trying to enjoy some fresh air outside.
  • I don’t want to have to worry about keeping the noise down, or being too close to neighbors to shoot my guns whenever I want.
  • I really like the idea of being off-grid — for the simplicity and self-reliance nature of it. I like if I have a problem with my electric supply, I can fix a fuse or replace a broken component. I don’t want to have to worry about my power going out. I want to keep the system simple enough that I can repair it myself. I want simple plumbing, so if I have issues I can fix them myself, and safely process and dispose of wastes on site, in ways that aren’t polluting the environment but returning them back to nature.

That craving for the hills I get some times … 😍

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I am a country boy at heart. I might live in the city, work downtown and take the bus every day but that’s not where my heart is.

Seeing those mountains in the distance, the forested hills and the little farms and homesteads carved out of the mountains just touches something inside me. The rundown trailers, the old tractors, the pigs, goats and cattle. The rusting away junk cars, the burn barrels and the brush / debris pile some day soon to be burned.

A lot of people call them ignorant hicks and hillbillies. But I don’t know, I think anybody who can scrape together a living either partially or entirety off the land is pretty damn smart and educated, even if it’s not through traditional channels.

They call it rural poverty. A lack of material stuff. Although I don’t think one can really call homesteading cheap when you look at the cost of machinery and feed. And many of rural people live a life much richer than city folk.

Hills Outside Petersburgh