City Vs. Country Living

Why I LOVE living in the country

Recently on an email list that I’m on, someone posted why he likes living in the country vs. living in a city. That got me thinking why I so love living in the country vs. living in town or a city and, I have lived in both.

If I happened to live in a city or town, would I be able to hear, smell, see or feel the following?

• Worry about what the neighbors would think if they saw me run out to feed the horses in my jammies?
• A flock of geese migrating back south in the middle of the night—wait you are asking what am I doing outside in the middle of the night? I was probably checking the gate that I thought that I did not latch.
• Hearing the wood ducks whistling through the trees on their way to the lake.
• Owls’ sitting in the woods, calling out to each other as the sun is setting. Or sitting on a wire screaming at you in the dark-that is a weird feeling.

• Deer coming up to the feeder in the backyard. Fawns coming up later in the summer
  

• Seeing a fawn tucked in the grass while out for a walk
  

• Watching the moon/sun rise or set through the woods

• Feel the creepy feeling that something is watching you from the woods?
• Worry about shutting the blinds at night so people can’t see in—we live almost 1/8 of a mile off the road and tucked in the woods.
• Feel the bitter sting of sleet hitting your face when you’ve got to go out and feed the horses!

• Watch the woods from my computer room.
• See the wind whipping fresh snow across our driveway, hoping it won’t drift shut!

• Eagles sitting in the alfalfa field across the road or along the river
• Sitting outside in the back of the truck at the end of our driveway looking for meteors in the middle of the night- avoiding or trying to avoid the mosquitoes that want to attack you.
• Seeing Orion peeking through the bedroom window all winter long as he is starting to set on the Western horizon.
• Laying in bed watching the horses wait impatiently for me to get up and feed them.
• Smell the air after a thunderstorm-or smell the air before a big lightning storm?
  
  
• Find a freakish looking Morel Mushroom alongside the road while out riding
  
• enjoy the wildlife in our backyard

• I can just imagine the gasps of the neighbors if they knew I allowed my horses to graze my lawn last summer. Heck the grass was lush, they helped mow and enjoyed the different scenery.

Do I miss hearing traffic, smelling exhaust, having neighbors super close and worry about keeping up appearances and ‘fitting in’? Not a bit!

Do I miss the convenience of being able to drive a few miles down the road to go out to eat or to get groceries compared to the 35 miles that I drive to work? Sometimes.

Even here, on a quiet night, you can hear the semi’s on the highway over 5 miles away and the train going through Nickerson.

So tell me, why you prefer the place that you live in, city or country.