Something Happening Here: Head for the Hills, Mountains, and Other Remote Areas!

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Why Moving to a Remote Rural Area is a Great Idea

Though considerations of life in a rural and remote area must be made before the move is made, and though these considerations might make a few people queasy about doing this move, moving permanently to these areas is still a great idea! Here's why:

If you are even thinking about the possibility of making a move to a remote area, then clearly you are fed up with living in a non-rural, high population-density area, which includes cities, even small ones, and suburbs, AS WELL AS "small towns," which, while not as population intensive, is still too many people for your liking, not to mention that these same people always want to know your business. Therefore, it can also be assumed you want to move to a location where people tend to mind their own business and will be allowed to do so as most folks in these areas think the same way you do. Second, you might simply want more land to work with, and you are part of some nebulous "back to the land" person for whatever reason (but make sure you know some of the issues you will have to deal with. Third, you might be someone who want to "escape the rat race." What you have to realize is that while you are escaping one way of life you are forcing yourself to adopt a new way of life which assumes hard mental labor and very hard, often back breaking, physical labor, WITHOUT many of the conveniences you have taken for granted. Fourth, you are someone who might feel uncomfortable living in an environment that is often out of your control, and having your five or ten or 100 acre plot is your last chance to assert some kind of control over your environment. Be aware though that while humanity at large won't have much control over your environment, are you prepared for your inherent lack of control over nature? If you are not prepared to do the work necessary when your driveway washes out, when your creek comes to the bottom of your house's foundation, when you are overrrun with grasshoppers in your garden, when your dog keeps coming home smelling like a skunk, when bears prowl your garbage every night, when mountain lions get your livestock and horses, and when you miscalculated about underground water on your land (that is, you don't have any after all!), then maybe a rural remote area isn't for you after all.

But if you CAN handle this work, mentally, emotionally, and physically--and don't assume "old folks" can't...I knew an 80-something-year-old guy who chopped wood every morning, hauled gravel to fix his driveway, and raised goats...yes, I'll admit he was in super shape for an 80 year old!--then you just might be a candidate for SUCCESSFUL rural remote living!

There is another kind of person who tends to choose to live in these kinds of areas: people who want as little government control over them as possible. You have heard the stories of "militia groups" and "paranoid" types who "barracade" themselves and their families behind some kind of "fortress" which also serves as a "training ground" for "nazi-like" "domestic terrorist" groups. If you read anything about the Okie City bombing you know that Timothy McVeigh often visited one of these places, known as "Elohim City" in Oklahoma. You may also remember the 1997 "Republic of Texas standoff" in a rural semi-remote subdivision outside of Fort Davis, Texas (in Big Bend Country) called the DMR. And of course you remember "The Freemen" smack dab in the remote "Missouri Breaks" area of Montana. It has been well-known over the past 15 years or so that nothern Idaho, from the Kooskia-Lewiston area all the way up to Ruby Ridge, 5 miles or so from Canada, is "militia country." I bring up this issue because if you have seriously checked out places likely to be considered "rural remote" (defined by me as places where population is "acres per person" instead of "persons per acre"), you will have undoubtedly heard of or actually spoken to these kinds of individuals. If you are concerned about this, there is probably not a whole lot you can do except stay out of their way, because, yes, rural remote areas DO APPEAL to these types of people. Also, be aware of two other kinds of people. One is religious cult groupings: almost always, religious cults will buy large chucks of land in rural areas and set up their societies on them. Most of the people who form these groups come from areas way outside the area they choose, and generally do not trust "the locals." The other type of person who chooses to live in remote areas are folks who "must" get out of general society for their own good and also for the good of general society: war veterans stricken with "post traumatic stress disorder." Out here where I live there are several Vietnam vets who live their quiet lives in perfect peace, except within themselves. Finally, you need to be aware that there could be dangerous, psychopathic people in the area you are investigating. However, I believe that for the most part the "mountain men who capture women for sex and slave labor" bit is definitely "urban legend" and not likely to actually exist in the long term. Eventually, these situations get "found out." Well, now that I have brought up an issue which tends to be on every mind that considers this move, it is time to move on.

Most people who live rural remote are the "last of the breed" of "rugged individualists" who are do-it-yourself-ers who are not afraid to stop being lazy and are not afraid to get their hands dirty, and, as I said before, want more control over their lives. Due to lack of people--especially the kind of person who tends to go along with "the herd"--as well as abundance of land, often fresh clean water, food and food growing resources, clean air, wildlife (for the hunting/fishing or just to watch), and, yes, lack of government "snooping," the people I speak of would not AND PROBABLY COULD NOT live anywhere else except under the greatest of stress. Me, for instance...after years of living out here away from people, financial stress caused me to seek and get a teaching job in El Paso. Well, it only lasted eight months. Neither me nor my spouse could stand it any longer. We accepted the challenge: can we, having lived in a rural area for more than ten years, move back to the city successfully? No, we couldn't, I am very pleased to report!

If you are of the same or like mind, then perhaps rural living is the answer to your lifestyle!

And, before I forget, let me recapitulate some of the more pressing issues you will have to deal with. Are you ready to:

either get satellite TV or give it up? Can you afford it?

put up with neighbors who are either very nosey or are very likely to want to shoot you if you bother them?

have some neighbors who are most likely Republican?

have some neighbors who most likely still support the War in Iraq and who think nuking Iran might be a good idea?

learn how to change your oil, change your brake pads, change your transmission fluid/brake fluid/power steering fluid/windshield wipers and rotate your tires, not to mention change a tire in case of a flat EVEN IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE A WOMAN? Can you do it WHEN PREGNANT like I had to?

And speaking of being pregnant, are you prepared to have your child AT HOME like I did?

learn basic fist aid, such as taking care of snake bites, scorpion stings, bee stings, spider bites, tripping over a rock, overturning an ATV, falling off your porch and breaking a limb, poison ivy/oak, falling off a horse, dehydration, and other interesting problems you won't find in a city or suburb?

have neighbors with "trashy looking trailers" or "dumpy looking wooden cabins" or other conditions that one would never find in a nicely ordered suburb?

pay through the nose for dumping your garbage at an "approved" dump site, thanks to all those "concerned environmentalists" out there?

change your tires at least once a year because of bad road conditions, spending roughly $500 annually for tires?

teach yourself how to maintain your house without a local specialist nearby?

deal with having to sign "CC & R's," that is, covenants and restrictions that you MUST live by in order to keep you from losing your land? In fact, it is likely that you will no longer find land that doesn't have some sort of "encumbrance" like CC&R's attached to it, and, if you do, make sure the land isn't owned by the Feds!

fight for your land against those who would use "eminent domain" against it, such as "the Sierra Club" and "the Nature Conservancy", those well-healed rich people's "environmental" groups that want your land so they can sell it off to the government or some rich Hollywood celebrity. If you are buying land out west, be prepared to deal with these critters!

chop your own wood in the fall, winter, and maybe even spring?

walk half a mile for kindling in the fall, winter, and maybe even spring?

become part of your local volunteer fire department?

deal with often short-sighted, power-hungry individuals in your community who, having most likely come from a place similar to where you came from, are trying to convert your rural or remote community into a city or suburb?

deal with an individual who likes to shoot his guns at all hours, using the pretext of "I'm shooting skunks"?

stop being so darned lazy, because lazy people can't live this way?

defend your new-found freedom

put up with all this and more?

And don't forget to consult the FAQs!

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