Rural Living

We found some little pawprints in the dust of the driveway.

My wife and I are getting ready to buy an acre of land (blue box) on the edge town (population 8,700) and are trying to decide how to lay out the place. We have a double wide that is 28'x72', and the acre is only 100' wide. Being that we are in New Mexico I would rather not place the long side facing South. There owner to the north is highly unlikely to sell any of the land to increase the width. The owner of the easement and everything south and West may sell, but it would cut into the easement, so i unsure how likely that would be. So i am planning on the likelyhood of this being all the property we will have.

Not super rural. Midwest US. I live a few minutes from a small town (~500 population) and about 20 min from a larger city. I grew up in this town and finally have a place of my own here. This is where I have my coffee most mornings. We are on just over 2 acres. Surrounded by fields. It is just rural enough where it is so quiet at night and the skies are dark. The river is my happy place!

I'm on 11 acres, 2.5 of which are landscaped living area. The rest is regenerating Aussie bush. 5 chickens and 2 roosters, two border collies and a Shepherd/blue heeler cross, 1 belted Galloway steer, 1 equestrian horse. Visited regularly by kangaroos and wallabies, bandicoots and echidnas, dingoes and wombats. Neighbours are all friendly and look out for each other, near enough to be familiar, far enough to be private. We grow passionfruit, mangoes, oranges, mandarins, tumeric, kale, spinach, potatoes, lemons, capsicum, chilies, asian and leafy greens, macadamia nuts, chestnuts, blueberries, bananas, dragonfruit, peaches, tomatoes, celery, avocados, pineapples, asparagus, limes, olives.

Taken at the start of winter on dusk. A very typical Australian landscape.

Let this community be a place where we can all discuss rural life. I hail from a small town in Australia and live on a modest farm. I also grew up on a farm, but spent much of my life living in massive cities. Moving back to the country feels like coming home. Let us all know about your life, tips, pros, cons, anything you'd like to discuss about rural life.