Top 5 Reasons To Live In The Country

Living in the country, with the wide open spaces is probably one of the best things in life. I'm so thankful to have grown up with farmers and country folk. This is not to say I didn't go through a phase where all I wanted to do was leave the country. But every time I came back to visit, there was something that would draw me in. A familiarity that gave comfort. Here are my top 5 reasons to live in the country in no such order:

1. Humility. Country life brings humility. Your country home may be small or large in stature, old or new, either way it's not so much of a comparison game when living in the country. Country folk who live in 115 year old homes might long for want a new home but since they can't have that Holywood home they make the best of what they do have.  Our home was built in 1912. It has many small rooms and hardwood floors throughout. We have outdoor wood stove that heats the home in the winter time. Cutting wood every weekend in the fall builds character.

2.  Freedom. Freedom to sing in your front yard with no one listening to you! Be who you are on your land. We have gardens, fields, a 4-wheeling track, a silo to echo in and a barn for the cats. 

3.  Folks. Do people still use that word 'folks'? That's how I would refer to the people that live in the country. Country folk. Friendly, happy and neighborly. Country folk like to stop by on Sundays or any random day without letting you know they're coming. Last year, I was injured badly cutting grass with my John Deere Lawn tractor, it was my farmer neighbor who came over and sped me to the emergency room. He was in his barn. He was available. We share equipment with neighbors. We do life with neighbors, even though they live more than a stones throw away.

4. Slow life. People drive slow, walk slow, sometimes even talk slow. The high energy people are content to work hard all day long. Moving back to the midwest from the west coast was a culture shock for me. Being used to driving 80mph on a 16 lane highway, I was terribly irritated with 60mph on a country road, terribly irritated. But then I slowly became 'one of them' and drove slower. I learned that we can enjoy the land and people around us better if we would just be forced to slow ourselves down. Are we still in a hurry to do things? Yes, all the time. But farm life, is a process and it is a slow life. Hard work is slow and takes time. 

5.  Air. Yes air quality tends to be better but really just the freshness the air. The crisp, cool autumn mornings have a damp, wet freshness to them. In early spring when the birds have returned and they're perching in the tall naked trees abundant in song is a sweet time to open the windows and breath in the cleanness of the air. Early June the farmers cut their first crop of alfalfa off the fields the fresh cut crop sails throughout the land. Winter snowfalls actually has a smell, did you know that? But generally it's so cold, the second you stick your nose out the door your nose freezes and the smell is gone. But you can FEEL the air! As much as I loved the smell of driving down to the coast breathing in that salty oceanic air, there is something just as wonderful as country air.