Ready to try rural life; where should we go?

[Anonymous]

Personally, having grown up as a Foreign Service kid, this sounds terrible to me. It was bad enough coming back to the further out suburbs Fairfax, when people would tell me how good my English was good for a foreigner and where one of my teachers once mocked me in front of my whole class and accused me of lying because I said I had been to a country we were discussing in class.

At least in the close in DC suburbs the other kids will get your kids and the schools will understand their background and they probably won't be ostracized and treated like freaks. I mean you are already asking your kids to sacrifice their childhoods in service to our country; why make it harder for them to fit in back home?

[Anonymous]

Lorton or Stafford is as far as you should go. Too much drugs in rural areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, having grown up as a Foreign Service kid, this sounds terrible to me. It was bad enough coming back to the further out suburbs Fairfax, when people would tell me how good my English was good for a foreigner and where one of my teachers once mocked me in front of my whole class and accused me of lying because I said I had been to a country we were discussing in class.

At least in the close in DC suburbs the other kids will get your kids and the schools will understand their background and they probably won't be ostracized and treated like freaks. I mean you are already asking your kids to sacrifice their childhoods in service to our country; why make it harder for them to fit in back home?

Op here. I’m sorry those things happened to you. We ended up in Dufief in north Potomac but if we’d gone the rural route it would have been with my kids blessings. I know how much we are asking of them and their best interests are always in my thoughts. My kids love moving around but when they don’t anymore then we will stop. They’re our first priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You must have no friends.

They move around every couple of years. Of course they have no friends.

OP here, I just have to ask why someone would take the time to write this? I know you don't know me and all, and I won't justify my life to strangers, but for not one person but two to be nasty for no reason, I just don't get it. Is this how you want your children to behave? Is this who you're raising them to be? Try to do better.

PP above is how US provincial urban liberals think. Miserable life, need to attack others to feel superior.

OP, you'll have a blast everywhere you go

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Also note that opioid addiction is a huge issue in many of these counties--are you prepared for needles in the park, people OD'ing in the bathrooms of libraries, etc.?

Yes, the rural town playgrounds and libraries are littered with drug needles and people are OD'ing everywhere. love this forum...

Sounds just like Columbia Heights but without the ‘diverse’ crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Also note that opioid addiction is a huge issue in many of these counties--are you prepared for needles in the park, people OD'ing in the bathrooms of libraries, etc.?

Yes, the rural town playgrounds and libraries are littered with drug needles and people are OD'ing everywhere. love this forum...

Sounds just like Columbia Heights but without the ‘diverse’ crime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have 20 acres in rural western Frederick county (close to the Point of Rocks MARC area). DH and I grew up on very big family farms (5K Acres) on the great plains, so knew what we were getting into when we bought our place. I think there are a lot of things you need to think hard about before you go all "Green Acres," especially if you have never, ever lived rurally before.

We are liberals and DH is retired military, (so I think we may have similar backgrounds as far as moving around) - but in our experience here - politics are not talked about, at least in depth, and DH and I usually avoid it if it does come up in conversations. I know in DC, politics are a fact of life, but in the world outside the beltway, people have other things to think and talk about.

We are active in the community, on some of the local town civic associations, and other social events here. People are friendly, and neighbors help neighbors (so liberal in practice, but vote conservative, whatever). We needed help putting new stall in our barn before winter, and two neighbors showed up with a Bobcat loader last Wednesday night to help DH get it together so one of our mares and her new foal are all set for the winter. That's just how farm life is.

If this is just a "temporary" next stop for you before moving again, I think you need to proceed with extreme caution here. These properties are hard to sell because people aren't really looking to buy them. They are also hard to find, we looked for over two years before finding the property we bought and the house needs a lot of updating - but we were looking for useable farm and pasture land to keep horses, cattle, beekeeping, poultry, and a large garden and orchard. Wooded land is easy to find here - good grazing land for livestock and crop farming is really hard to find here.

Farms are a lot of work. I am up at 4am most mornings making sure animals are checked, fed and watered before I log in for work (I telework most days, take the MARC one day a week) - and animals don't care if it's raining, snowing, cold, or hot, they just know they are hungry and where the heck is the lady with that hay??? After I log off for the day, I am on a horse, or cleaning stalls, feeding, checking fences, meeting with our veterinarian, or any other odds and ends that need done around here - and there is always something, but I LOVE living this way. If you don't love it, don't do it.

Do you have the expendable cash for equipment? A hobby tractor for 20 acres, is a NEED, not a want, costs upwards of 20K and then factor in maintenance and the attachments like a front-end loader, mower deck, back hoe, and possibly a baler. You will not have city service to plow your drive - you will need a tractor to do this for you. If your DH is in the city during the week and a storm hits - are you capable of doing this by yourself??? You will also probably want a Gator (a golf cart on steroids) to get around the place, move hay, yard implements, various other equipment instead of using your car. If you want outbuildings (barn, quonset for tractor/gator), factor that in, they aren't cheap either.

Are you comfortable having a rifle or shotgun in your house and using it? You will need it - we have plenty of critters that are known for killing chickens. We have a "shoot on sight" policy for red foxes and woodchucks out here. They cause too much property destruction to feel warm and fuzzy about them.

If the answer to any of those questions above is "No" then you need to slow the heck down and really think this through. I'm not saying don't do it, but you should go into this lifestyle with your eyes (and your pocketbook) very wide open.

Neighbors helping neighbors is a conservative thing not a liberal thing.

Liberals tend to isolate themselves from their neighbors.

Being neighborly and taking care of those close to you is very common in conservative circles, and far less common in liberal circles.

Look at nearly every community in DC and other liberal areas for examples of this.

[Anonymous]

Op - I have a State Dept background and I also lived in WV panhandle. I do not recommend you make that kind of investment for only two short years. We moved back to the DC ‘burbs and glad we did so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You must have no friends.

They move around every couple of years. Of course they have no friends.

OP here, I just have to ask why someone would take the time to write this? I know you don't know me and all, and I won't justify my life to strangers, but for not one person but two to be nasty for no reason, I just don't get it. Is this how you want your children to behave? Is this who you're raising them to be? Try to do better.

Welcome back to the land of rude as&holes, OP. My wife is Indian, and I've spent substantial time there. They are more civilized than many of the spoiled jerks you encounter here.

[Anonymous]

What about Fredericksburg, VA? Cute town, has a colllege but also areas with feel rural. I echo what someone said earlier. Speaking from experience, it’s incredibly hard for kids to come back from living abroad especially if not living in an urban area. Sending them to an international school would be the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You must have no friends.

They move around every couple of years. Of course they have no friends.

OP here, I just have to ask why someone would take the time to write this? I know you don't know me and all, and I won't justify my life to strangers, but for not one person but two to be nasty for no reason, I just don't get it. Is this how you want your children to behave? Is this who you're raising them to be? Try to do better.

Welcome back to the land of rude as&holes, OP. My wife is Indian, and I've spent substantial time there. They are more civilized than many of the spoiled jerks you encounter here.

OP here and thanks. For all of its reputation, in the four years we spent in Delhi we met the finest, friendliest, most welcoming people I’ve known. Glad to hear of your similar experience.

[Anonymous]

OP- just curious but why would you want to buy in an area that generally has flat appreciation when you plan to only keep it for 2 years? MoCo and MD in general has pretty bad appreciation even in Wootton let alone rural areas further out. You won't make back the transaction costs.

Young kids will of course say living on a farm would be neat. They have no idea what it would be like to live in rural community and be isolated. It seems very selfish for a parent to consider this and think gee its with the kids blessings so it would be fine for them.

I'd caution you to really watch your kids now that the oldest is in middle school. Your family lived in Delhi for 6 years so both kids had a chance to make friends. They'll have made new friends now in Dufief which is a pretty welcoming environment to kids. If you move in another 2 years, it will be hard on your kids as they realize they can't form close friendships because they'll always be moving away. I have several friends in the foreign service and military. It has been hard on the kids. Its important to do everything you can to find places where they can fit in and build some stability not just be part of your adventures.

[Anonymous]

PP the initial post is very old. We’ve since moved to Dufief. We don’t plan to sell - we rent our houses out when we move back overseas. And life isn’t just about the house appreciating - we need to be places where we will be happy regardless of future income potential. Thanks for the good advice though!

[Anonymous]

The word you are looking for is suburban not rural. Rural areas are not close in any way to mass transit. You just mean suburban. Honestly the fact that you think any area not in the city itself is "rural" is laughable. You have clearly never been to a rural area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here! Weird to see this thread. We managed to extend our last posting an extra year so we just got back to USA. We bought a house in Dufief neighborhood of N Potomac Maryland - my husband wasn’t willing to commute from any further out. We love it. Thanks all

Wow thanks for the update! Usually people never update! That seems like a great fit for you.