HOW RURAL IS RURAL?

Some pics around home. All of these are minutes away. "Mountains have their own ways Pilgrim... "

Elk....

We live on 60 wooded acres at the top of a mountain in the Arkansas Ozarks. The nearest towns are 2 miles from us. It's so rural we don't get Monday Night football till Wednesday. The only draw back is good metro shopping is an hour away but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Get to shoot off of either deck and there is plenty of wildlife, although I don't hunt much any more.

I feel your pain Flashpoint, I lived in NJ for a while. I was lucky enough to live pretty close to the Pine Barrens to get away to. We live in PA now, on a 2.5 acre lot at the end of a culdesac. AG fields are behind us. I hunt several different Game lands and try to make the best of it. Always dreamed about living back of beyond, but life had other plans. I do however take notice of those days in the game lands where I don't see or hear any human noise.

5+ acres bordering 1300 acres of watershed land. Deer, bear, turkeys, foxes, squirrels, occasional fisher cat. Hunted the hill behind the house until someone built just close enough to say NO. (Just under 500 feet.) So no shooting off the deck anymore. I now have to walk almost 750 feet to start hunting. One and a half hours to my remote camp in the Adirondacks. 350 acres there with a primitive cabin with lots of game. One hour in the other direction gets me to a major city. Less than 5 miles to a good sized town with everything (too much.) Good mix. At the foot of the Adirondack Park (the largest state park in the lower 48) with Miles of hunting land within an hour's drive. Stupid gun laws and high taxes, but if I go 25 miles North I can start walking to Canada without hitting a town.

ADK Bigfoot

snakebit said:

I feel your pain Flashpoint, I lived in NJ for a while. I was lucky enough to live pretty close to the Pine Barrens to get away to. We live in PA now, on a 2.5 acre lot at the end of a culdesac. AG fields are behind us. I hunt several different Game lands and try to make the best of it. Always dreamed about living back of beyond, but life had other plans. I do however take notice of those days in the game lands where I don't see or hear any human noise.

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From NJ to NC and now back to PA. jest could not keep away from the Mountains..they have a grip on my soul....

From metro NYC area to Sussex County NJ, to Vegas for 4 years. Back to NYC metro area to Warren County NJ. To Saylorsburg PA, to PEN Argyl PA . Now to the Pocono Mts. on 2 1/2 acres. 10 acres across the street. out my back yard 5,600 acres of watershed and state game lands! My ashes are going in the woods.

Bald Mountain Man said:

Hmmm, I think I've crossed that bridge while rabbit hunting with a smoke pole.

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Yes! You did. Just spotted this post. How you doin'?

The day one of the local carnivirous miliflori-roses caught and tried to eat one of your beagles.

Omahkapi'si said:

Some pics around home. All of these are minutes away. "Mountains have their own ways Pilgrim... "

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I love it, have Highland Scots blood in me so the mountains and/or hills are the only country my Soul can abide in peace and harmony.
I dont give a damn how hot or cold it gets, how much effort it takes to live well away and off the grid (as I do now) but I'm far healthier and happy in the bosom of nature.
For me Towns are where I get my necessary supplies, as for Cities I stay well away from them all.

sussexmuzllodr said:

From NJ to NC and now back to PA. jest could not keep away from the Mountains..they have a grip on my soul....

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Ditto

Started rebuilding the farm house on 25 acres we own this week. Have taken a deer or passed on a shot, for the last 5 years 50 ft from the back door. We own a hillside, steep in some places but perfect for us. Nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away but any others are out of sight.

Never thought I would own my own place like this. Get into the woods, sit down and realize it is my trees, my dirt, my rocks and no one can make me leave. Feel truly blessed.

Don

WOW. What country I can only dream of I am 17 miles from centre of London on 1/3 of an acre , but I can shoot pigeons and squirrels with a pcp bsa Scorpio. I was 81 22 March no longer will the police allow me to shoot real guns . Got woods across the road on a big hill with occasion deer , if I shoot any with my compound bow , probably get 3-5 in prison. Ha ha. If you want deer, road kill can be common out in the country We are not a gunny country

The land is not "yours." No matter what the deed says, or what taxes you are paying on it. It was there long before you, and will be there long after you are returned to the dirt it is made from.
You are simply its steward, it's caretaker. Take care of it.

Stumpkiller said:

We live on 20 acres in East Bug Nut, NY (about the middle of the state 20 miles above PA).

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Stumpkiller, it sounds idyllic with one exception.......it's still here in NY.

Brokennock said:

The land is not "yours." No matter what the deed says, or what taxes you are paying on it. It was there long before you, and will be there long after you are returned to the dirt it is made from.
You are simply its steward, it's caretaker. Take care of it.

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Sounds like you are speaking as an aboriginal from Oz. Guess I was born in the spring. They are the guardians of the land I recall the king owns the whole of England and we just kind of borrow it. Much of uk is crown lands Well something like that.

But you are right of course

Sunny west of London. We send our love from across the big wide pond

When I was in Nigeria nobody seems to own the bush. Like “ the rains are coming , go into the bush and build a farm, They could not understand there was no bush in uk that was not wormed by anyone r.

JamesA said:

We live on an acre lot. Neighbors on both sides and across the street (front yard). Our back yard overlooks the Treasure Valley and as of yet, it's still agricultural land but I fear not much longer. In fact, our entire tract is all 1 acre lots. It takes me 15 minutes to drive to our club's range. There is good hunting within an hours drive. Not rural but not city either. This is our view from the back yard. That is interstate 84 in the foreground.


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Had a friend that like to say he lived so far out in the sticks, he did get the grand ole oprey till Monday

We live in eastern Ohio applachia. Have 60 wooded acres out on a gravel road about 1 1/2 mile off of a paved road. We live 1/4 off of the gravel road back in the woods.
I have a 200 yard shooting range down on the other road.
Wildlife is a abundant as is peace and tranquility. In these days I would rather be surrounded by animals than most people. Times have changed, when we go to town which is about 20 miles away I can’t wait to get back home to decompress. Times today sure is a mess!!!

Gordoncourtney said:

Sounds like you are speaking as an aboriginal from Oz

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I think it is a common way of thinking amongst native peoples connected to the land.
My perspective may be influenced by that. But, it also comes from a place of being fed up with litter, new and old. It comes as someone who would love to live on/own stewardship of a large chunk of woodlands,,, but I am aware that there is very little land that wasn't "owned" by someone else before,,, and they have left reminders of that.
Much of the area I am in was farmland at one time, some had been somewhat abandoned or unfarmed at some point. Old junk is constantly creeping to the surface, sometimes one can still find evidence of where someone used to dump the waste oil and other chemicals from their tractors and machinery....
Who wants that?
Then add to it our current litter bugs and their styrofoam, plastic, mylar balloons.......


Sorry,,,,, this stuff gets me off on a rant.

Leave it better than you found it.

Out the front door is a very busy roadway. (not that way 38 years ago). Behind the house is 600 acres of private land. (not mine, but I like the buffer. I hunt my "back four" and 3 parcels the next island over -- still very rural and the islanders fiercely keep it that way. Lucky I'm only 17 minutes from my stands in flat, dense woods and open fields.

Brokennock said:

The land is not "yours." No matter what the deed says, or what taxes you are paying on it. It was there long before you, and will be there long after you are returned to the dirt it is made from.
You are simply its steward, it's caretaker. Take care of it.

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Can't agree more, we are just borrowing it for a very short time. Before "whitey" came along my little piece of Texas belonged to the Indians, Spain, Mexico, and the Republic of Texas and the State of Texas. Then came a cattle rancher ,a Mennonite preacher, a Texas Ranger, and then Me. Who's next? But if you really want to get technical and Biblical about it, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills? Earlier I said borrowing it, but actually God is letting us use it briefly.