quote:

Originally posted by rtquig:
It smells here because of the farm down the road. Can't the town close down the farm? We didn't spend all that money on a big house in the country to smell manure!

I do have a complaint about that. When I left my hometown, it was apples and chickens. Now it's vineyards and cattle farms. The smells of rotting grapes and cow farts is so much worse than what I was used to. I know I'll get used to it, though.

Try chicken manure.

It's not too bad once plowed in, but it's pretty ripe beforehand. If you have water and chicken manure, though, you can grow cotton on concrete.

Just got back from lower Alabama and the folks. Spring work has started.

I know what you are talking about. I loved small town life in the rural Midwest having grown up in a crime ridden metro area. I retired LEO friend of mine has 200 acres in the country and said it was five years before he heard a siren. He does not miss city life one bit. His driveway winds through a forest for about a half mile before you see the house. Has a fantastic gun range with berms he built himself.

"No, I don't think you can sue the state or county because a coyote ate your cat".

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Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

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Originally posted by henryaz:

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Originally posted by YooperSigs:
One thing the Yoop has going for it: Our winters keep out the riffraff.

The AZ desert does a good job of that, too.
 

Last time I was in Tucson, it didn't seem to be the case. Lights all the way up to Phoenix, as far as the eye can see.

Well, we do have to endure the "winter visitors", but they are now scattering. On my last trip to town (Friday) I saw no fewer than 6 motor homes with toads, and also fifth wheels, on the move north. 90 degrees is too hot for them. A reliable indicator is when the vultures return to Yarnell, it is a sign for the snowbirds to leave.
 

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Originally posted by vthoky:

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Originally posted by rduckwor:

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What's a "dirt tank"?

A hole in the ground that fills up with water and waters the cattle.

Thank you.

Where I grew up we called them ponds. I moved to Texas in the late nineties to attend college. A friend was telling me about fishing the tanks at his grandpa's place. Now i had it in my mind's eye this guy standing at a metal tank fishing. Sometime later he is talking about fishing with his grandfather, and I decided I needed some clarification. That day I learned a tank in Texas ain't nothing but a pond.

Honestly, I thought of metal devices too. I'm more familiar with ponds than dirt tanks.
I swear, I think I learn something here at SF every week.

Henryaz: I spent some time in Congress. Bustling metropolis!
A couple of years ago, some Floridians bought land on the Sands Plains south of Marquette. They brought a travel trailer to live in while they built a house. A Florida travel trailer. Access to the property was by unplowed two track. When January rolled around, one of the Sunshine Staters made it out to the traveled road and said they needed help, as they had not been able to get out to get food and propane.
We rescued them with a Sno-Cat.
When we asked them if they had researched conditions before they came up, they said "we know that it snowed a little".
Last time I went by, the trailer was still there. Abandoned.

On the plus side, you occasionally can pick up s nice place in the sticks for dirt cheap once these amateurs realize they can't hack it.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
Honestly, I thought of metal devices too. I'm more familiar with ponds than dirt tanks.
I swear, I think I learn something here at SF every week.

The origin is Spanish, from tanque. It's a regional term and I didn't think of that.

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Originally posted by hudr:
What!? No giga giga fiber optic internet access?
What do you mean "the power is out?!"
Ugh! All these bugs!
It's just too dark out here!
A DIRT road? But my Escapade will get filthy!
Ahhh!!! A snake/skunk/raccoon/opossum/Chupacabra!
Where's the Starbucks?

And the list goes on.

Why don't these folks just stay where they are?
And definitely leave their politics back there. Wherever "there" happens to be...

Honestly!

We have a home in town and another home with acreage in the country, on a dirt road that seldom gets maintenance, power goes out on occasion, (almost no bugs thankfully), plenty of firewood, dark at night, and no internet. If it weren't for the wife I'd have just the one in the country. In fact I'm spending more and more of my time there with or without her.

Thankfully no townies have moved near by that I'm aware of.

In rural TN, the "dirt tanks" were called "cow ponds". Me & the neighbor kid would fish 'em when we didn't have enough time to go down to the lake.

Ah, memories.

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Originally posted by YooperSigs:...A couple of years ago, some Floridians ... they said "we know that it snowed a little"..

Could not have been True Floridians, to us any snow would be a blizzard!! I would be running my Snow cat in a flurries!

FYI, my first snow I saw was in Texas when I was 26, it had just stopped snowing when I got to this one stop and I thought it was white sand!

I am with you there OP.
I bought a property out in the country 30 years ago. I did put up a pole barn. I have been shooting out there since then. About 10 years ago someone bought right next to me(was farm ground). The guy builds a house and then sells it. New guy moves in and complains about me shooting there.(8miles from city). He said the friends he invites over for cookouts do not come because they are afraid of guns. I told him he should live in town and it is not my fault his friends are paranoid and have senseless fears.

Next time that Chupacabra shows up, snap a pic or two, if it's no trouble.

I feel your pain. Kalifornians invading. I have to write a check for extra $600 this month due to these fuckers invading. GTFO, go back to Kalifornia. You move next to me with your Kalifornia bullshit I'll make you sorry you ever made that decision. The traffic here is completely out of hand now. Backups and bumper to bumper, on the weekend. Higher cost for everything, taxes going way up. I'm sick of it, go back to Kalifornia.

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Originally posted by Orguss:

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Originally posted by rtquig:
It smells here because of the farm down the road. Can't the town close down the farm? We didn't spend all that money on a big house in the country to smell manure!

I do have a complaint about that. When I left my hometown, it was apples and chickens. Now it's vineyards and cattle farms. The smells of rotting grapes and cow farts is so much worse than what I was used to. I know I'll get used to it, though.

When my brother built his house and small farm 30 years ago we had to cut a road into the woods to clear the land. There wasn't a house within a mile of him. Now the woods are gone and the MicMansions surround him. He has had people stop in and ask when he will get rid of the animals so they don't have to smell the manure. Apparently they can't read the no trespassing signs.

Ahhhh, nothing like sitting out on the deck in the summer and smelling the farmer's "dairy air."

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Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Henryaz: I spent some time in Congress.

Why in the world?
 

If my health were better, I would move out of town. I just can't physically maintain the kind of land I'd love to live on. Still, I've spent most of my adult life as a Deputy Sheriff, so I spend my time in the country. The city folks will never "get it" about life in the sticks. People move out to the middle of nowhere to get away from the amenities and interference that are a given when you live in town.

I get great pleasure telling newly arrived city folks that I WILL NOT ask their neighbors to stop shooting, as there is no law restricting their ability to do so, nor curfew when they can do so just as long as they have a safe back stop as determined by myself. It really pisses them off, and I grin from ear to ear as a result.