Ready For The Countryside Life? You Need These Skills
Living the countryside side is the dream of a peaceful and relaxed lifestyle that many busy urban-dwellers share. Finally, a day where your family can wake up without hearing the sounds of traffic in the street! Imagine how it would feel to wake up with the sun rather than the honk of cars!
But more than quiet mornings, a healthy countryside lifestyle can bring many other advantages to your family. Indeed, children who grow up on a farm are more likely to learn about responsibility. Taking care of animals and plants — if you choose to turn an old farm into your forever homestead – teaches your family about essential daily tasks that support life and food for everyone. Additionally, the absence of urban pressure encourages children to grow stress-free. They have less sense of stress as the presence of nature can soothe tensions rapidly.
However, if you’re going to move to the countryside, you need to make sure you’re equipped to handle the challenges of a remote lifestyle. Indeed, when things don’t go as planned, you can’t find your local specialist on an app. It might be several days before you can get a hold of an expert. Therefore, you need to know how to troubleshoot your everyday problems.
You need to be confident handling animals
The most difficult thing you’ll have to do when you live in the countryside is to tackle health issues for your pets and livestock. Indeed, finding a vet who’s available immediately can be tricky. Rural areas are likely to have only sporadic services. Therefore, you might find yourself having to diagnose your farm animals’ ailments in the first place, such as identifying knuckling in dogs or joint complaints in your cows. Being an attentive owner in the countryside is crucial. The quicker you can figure out what’s wrong with your animals – pets or cattle – the sooner you can receive the support you need from your vet.
You need to know how to start your car
You know that nightmare situation when your car refuses to start, and you have to call an Uber to get to work? In rural areas, you’ve got no chance of finding an Uber in your location. Therefore, if you’ve got somewhere to go, you need to know how to troubleshoot some of the most common car problems on the spot. A dead battery, for instance, is a common occurrence in winter. More often than not, jump-starting the battery can get your vehicle going until you’re ready to replace the unit – if necessary. Similarly, you may bypass your ignition switch if it’s developed a fault to start the engine until you can make it to the closest garage for repair.
You have to understand how to store food
Living on a farm means you get to grow your own food. However, a lot of people who leave their urban lifestyle to embrace the pleasures of rural life don’t understand how to preserve and store their homegrown vegetables effectively. If you’re going to harvest your food, you need to make sure it doesn’t rot before you get to eat it. In other words, you have to learn how to freeze, dry, pickle, and store your crops.
The rural lifestyle is not without challenges. You need to become a farm life MacGyver if you’re going to make the most of your remote home. From fixing animals to repairing vehicles, you need to embrace problem-solving in everyday situations.
9 Comments
Mary Gardner
My grandparents lived on a farm and I spent every minute that I could with them when I was growing up. They knew how to do nearly everything themselves and when I look back on that it amazes me and I wish I had paid so much more attention and learned more than I did. It is a wonderful place to live but the work is hard and never ending so it is a big decision to make if you have never lived out in the country.
Kate Sarsfield
Living in the middle of nowhere can get lonely so if you’re the type who needs the company of others then forget about it! And you do end up talking to the trees!!!
Crystal K
We just had an insanely productive plum tree, so I tried my hand at making jelly for the first time. We’re stocked with plum jelly for the year! Too bad I’m the only one who likes it!
Rosie
I enjoy reading stories about other people doing it. At one time we had a few animals, woodstove and a truck. It sure keeps you busy!
Diane Brimmer
There are really got some great things about living in the country. Growing your own produce and meat can be very rewarding. Nothing better than looking at all those canned goods and knowing what is really in it. I love seeing the canned goods on the shelf! The chickens are great for the eggs and enventually the meat as well. Makes great homemade noodles and Chicken. You learn a lot about yourself on the farm. You learn new talents you thought you never had. It can also be lonely too, unless you find some good friendly folks near by.
Kate Sarsfield
I don’t live on a farm but anyone who lives ‘out in the sticks’ will tell you that you do need to be self-reliant & handy with a toolbox!
Tamra Phelps
Lol, it kind of does sound like you need to be McGuyver. I have a lot of relatives who live on farms, so I can vouch for your info. They have to be self-sufficient.
Rosie
It is a lifestyle you really need to want to do, if you are a couple, or a family, it is probably the easiest. You need to find out many things from neighbors. I think there are people who buy a farm and have no idea what they are doing and don’t realize how much there is to know, for the animals, etc. If I was young, I’d be tempted to do it, but now that I’m older, I’d lean towards the suburbs with a good job with retirement benefits, etc.!!!