What is living in the country like?

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I live in the suburbs but I hate it. There are too many street thugs here. I have also been to the big city and I hate it even more. The city has even more street thugs and parts of it smell bad.

What is living in the country like?

I live in rural France surrounded by fields and woodland. It is very pretty to look at. Generally very quiet. The only odour is if the farmer spreads a load of dung on his land, but that smell passes after a day or two. I love the open space and lack of people. On the downside there is no public transport, so without a car we would be cut off from civilization. The nearest small village (with one small shop) is 5 miles away and the nearest town with a supermarket is 12 miles away. Another problem is a lack of fast internet; I'm stuck with crappy dial-up which often doesn't even reach 56k (20k is more usual) due to the bad condition of the telephone lines.

I keep a few free range chickens which keep me amused and supplied with eggs. We have a small orchard with plums, apples and pears. Way too much lawn to mow. Lots of flower beds and I keep a huge vegetable garden which provides most of our veg.

So living in a rural location has positive and negative aspects. It wouldn't suit someone who likes to be around people.

I live in a rural area thats also a suburb of london, I love it, walking the nature paths and going to country parks etc. If anything Id like to move further into the countryside. My sisters ex (father to my neice) lives in this gorgeous secluded cottage in tunbridge wells, kent. its so quiet and tucked away, you cant hear anything except cows mooing in the fields next to his house and bird song. He only pays a peppercorn rent too as his step father owns the place. If I ever win the lottery or come into any money thats where ill move to and spend the rest of my days.

Cant stand cities, too many people and too much noise.

For me, it's heavenly. My dream is to become a hobbit or a hermit and live in the woods with some animals away from people. I grew up in the country, I've done "city living" and it's so not for me. Currently I'm living in an apartment in a small town (roughly 500-600 people), so it's not THAT bad, but I much prefer the country. The freedom to go bush stomping, or go throw rocks at the water, fishing, hunting, hiking, canoeing, swimming, skating, snowmobiling, etc., etc. I don't believe there is anything quite as good as living in the country.

There are some people, however, who can't function outside of the city. I don't understand those people - the ones who go to the mall to relax. The ones who willingly go into a crowded restaurant just for a cup of coffee.

I currently live in a suburb/rural mixed area with plenty of surrounding country land. It's usually quite nice out here, and the people are evenly spread out. Generally, it's pretty quiet around here (except for the occasional plane, but that because I live near a privately owned airport, as well as trains around 3 AM due to the fact that the rail road is a ten minute walk away).

How rural?

I enjoy where I am. 5 acres surrounded by State Park. I can literally walk around my property naked and not worry about anyone seeing. I can hit tons of trails on horseback right "across the street" (my little easement of a dirt road). It's peaceful and quiet. Except when the coyotes get going - then we have to go outside at 2 a.m. and yell at them to go away. We target practice in the back yard. Shooting stars are pretty much a nightly sky show.
Cons - There's no pizza delivery. Can't run to the corner store to pick up a snack. I have to drive 1/2 hour to get to the local "town" which is a little no-where tourist trap "gold mining" town. I drive 1 1/2 hours one way to get to work. Basically, everything that's anything is 1 1/2 hours away. If you're on a dirt road, you may have to maintain it. Sounds like not a big deal, but mine just got washed out and there's a 2 ft deep gulley I have to drive around.

I live on 20 remote Ozark acres,I can't see another house,in the summer no other lights but the stars.Lots of work,yard maintenance ,garden to weed and you can't let your chickens run loose because something will eat them.It's quiet,except for Deer season.If you have a health problem it's an hour to the hospital,they air-evac serious situations such as heart attack,etc..
The roads can be really bad ,rocky and they wash out sometimes.Don't expect t.v.unless you get satellite ,we had two channels before,no cell service in some places.Surprisingly I do have fast Internet.There can be lots of ticks and chiggers depending where you are.We also have coyotes,fox,black bear,bob cat,and now mountain lions.They have caught several pictures of them on game cameras.Power can go out regularly in bad weather.Animals will eat your garden if they can get in it,raccoons will love to eat all your fruit.Lots of snakes,(but I like them)It can take the police a long time to get to your house if you need them.Everything closes at 9:00,you will drive an hour for gas if you wait too late.It's not for everyone,I have lived here for over 20 years,I wouldn't dream of being somewhere else.But it would be best to rent a place and decide if you like rural life,some people don't after awhile and then they have their money sunk in a place they are miserable in.

Very dark at night. Quiet. Cooler in summer without all the concrete soaking up and radiating heat. Sometimes it's colder or warmer in winter, for the same reason, and depending on how sunny it's been, etc. Lots more wildlife and different wildlife. I have seen birds out here I never saw in town. I've had deer and foxes in my yard. Lots more ticks. It's so peaceful. I don't have to worry about seeing people if I don't want to. Way cheaper to live in the country, too, at least in this part of the country. You use more gas though.

I daydream about moving out to the country someday. To be away from people and their stupidity would be wonderful.

I'd also like to live in the country and if I had the money to do so at this time, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I live in more of a suburban area now, just outside of a city, but grew up in a very rural area, out in the middle of Amish Country. There are pros and cos, but for me, the pros won. Beautiful views, breathing room, a reasonable cost of living, actually being able to see the stars at night, tons of cheap, organic and locally-grown produce, etc.

Where I live now, I have a good variety, though. When people think of Lancaster County, they think of the Amish country and we are surrounded by that, which I love, but the actual city of Lancaster has an active art scene, museums, several colleges and universities, etc. We are also in an area where Philly, Baltimore and NYC are all close enough to make easy day-trips on the weekend.

So, I feel here I can have my figurative cake and eat it too, in a sense. I'm not sure how well I'd fair if I truly lived out in the middle of nowhere, though. It might make me a little claustrophobic or bored after a while.

Would much rather live in the suburbs than country. A lot more to do in the suburbs than country living. Also if you live in Washington there is so much less crime than most other parts of the us.

I live in a rural area, yet still close to several urban areas. It's a decent trade-off. I get the peace and quietness of the country, on a large property with absolutely nobody else around, but I'm still close enough to the cities to go there whenever needed. Although, it would be nice to be able to walk some places rather than have to drive everywhere for everything.

My community covers about 50 square miles and has a population of approximately 70 people. My nearest neighbor, the local pastor, is a mile away by road. The nearest "as the crow flies" is half a mile away across a pasture, but two and a half miles by road.

With few exceptions, I've known my neighbors since we were kids. Or their parents. Or their grand parents.

Without a car or other motor vehicle, it would be quite tough. The nearest grocery store is twenty mile away. For that matter, the nearest store of any kind is twenty miles away. So without a car, you would either have to depend on a neighbor to give you a ride to town, hitch hike (not much traffic around here), bicycle (if you aren't used to it, a forty mile round trip could be quite tough, especially in the winter), or depend on UPS or FedEx to deliver what you need. I guess you could ride a horse to town and back, but that would present its own problems with what to do with the horse while you go inside a store.

I live in a small town, that is about 2 minutes from the country. If it weren't for the university in this town (which I go to), it would probably be MUCH smaller. I don't know how many people live here, but I am coming from a town that was full of suburbs, just outside the provincial capital, with hardly any nature left in it at all. Here (about an hour and a half drive from my home), the town is so much smaller. We are surrounded by country side, and you can definitely tell if you look at a sort of close up satellite image of the area. There are farms, rolling hills, forests, and country side all around. There are benefits to city life, but I LOOOOOVE the quietude of the country.