Big City to Rural Living: Considerations?

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Kriegsspiel
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Re: Big City to Rural Living: Considerations?

Post by Kriegsspiel » Mon Jan 25, 2021 6:11 am

tomfoolery wrote:
Sun Jan 24, 2021 11:15 pm

This one I dislike. Does it mean I can't bbq or use a smoker during dry season? What if I'm super careful? It still means no bbq for potentially a few months?
In some places, like Hal and Maddy said. But AFAIK this isn't a thing in the east. Maybe if there's been a really long drought the DNR could ask people to not cook outside or have fires (I've never heard of this happening, but I guess it could), but that's definitely the exception to the rule.
I don't know how often I will actually want to grill something outside, but I've never in my life owned one, because all of the apartments I've lived in forbade them on patios. So perhaps it's not something I'd use too often, but in my mind it's something I'd use weekly. A friend has a pellet smoker and he says it's the best food he's ever had and he uses it regularly.
I was in the same boat, living in apartments most of my adult life. But now that I'm in a house, I grill all the time in the summer.
Or if not, perhaps I can get around it by creating some form of trap system to collect the smoke so me my neighbors can't smell it? Assuming it's a large property, my neighbors shouldn't be able to see it.
Just don't live out west where wildfires are a constant danger.
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Re: Big City to Rural Living: Considerations?

Post by Maddy » Mon Jan 25, 2021 7:47 am

I wasn't talking about barbeques or smokers. Amazingly, people do quite well out here without that kind of micromanagement. They simply use common sense. If it's dry and embers are flying, it's a problem.

I live in a forested area adjacent to state land. During the summer, people bring campers and tents into a cleared area off a main road and set up makeshift campfires and toilets. Last time I walked through there, I found rolls of toilet paper and human waste, and a rock-lined firepit right under the singed lower branches of a large pine tree. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Law enforcement couldn't care less.

I've got a neighbor who neglects to manage his pasture, and by August, when the grass is hip-high and crunchy-dry, he typically decides it's time to burn it off. His well provides something like 0.5 gal. per minute, which would be totally insufficient to combat an out-of-control grass fire. To top it off, he typically throws his stale gasoline on the fire to dispose of it. Very unnerving.

If you live out here, it comes naturally to use some common sense. If your neighbors have a problem with it, you're probably doing something either obnoxious or unsafe.
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Kriegsspiel
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Re: Big City to Rural Living: Considerations?

Post by Kriegsspiel » Sat Feb 20, 2021 6:33 pm

Kriegsspiel wrote:
Sat Jan 23, 2021 5:27 pm
For some reason, artsy people move to rural Texas (Marfa) to paint and shit as well.
Well, now I know the reason:
In 1971 Donald Judd began buying old buildings and extensive ranch land in the remote desert of Marfa, Texas. The region has what might be described as a subtle beauty. Marfa isn’t close to anything and it’s not on the way to anywhere else either. You have to really want to go there because it isn’t easy. That’s exactly why Judd was drawn to the place. He didn’t select Marfa because it came ready made with hand crafted espresso shops or upscale hotels. He picked one of the least likely locations in the entire country and meticulously cultivated his own art venue out of thin air. Over the last fifty years Marfa has emerged as an international destination and has become rather expensive in spite of its endless supply of surrounding desert scrub land.
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Re: Big City to Rural Living: Considerations?

Post by Mountaineer » Sun Feb 21, 2021 4:44 am

Kriegsspiel wrote:
Sat Feb 20, 2021 6:33 pm
Kriegsspiel wrote:
Sat Jan 23, 2021 5:27 pm
For some reason, artsy people move to rural Texas (Marfa) to paint and shit as well.
Well, now I know the reason:
In 1971 Donald Judd began buying old buildings and extensive ranch land in the remote desert of Marfa, Texas. The region has what might be described as a subtle beauty. Marfa isn’t close to anything and it’s not on the way to anywhere else either. You have to really want to go there because it isn’t easy. That’s exactly why Judd was drawn to the place. He didn’t select Marfa because it came ready made with hand crafted espresso shops or upscale hotels. He picked one of the least likely locations in the entire country and meticulously cultivated his own art venue out of thin air. Over the last fifty years Marfa has emerged as an international destination and has become rather expensive in spite of its endless supply of surrounding desert scrub land.
link
We were in that part of Texas in the early 1970s. I think we were intrigued by some of the locations mentioned in the book Off the Beaten Trail. We went through Marfa and Alpine, toured around Fort Davis when we were exploring Texas just for the heck of it, and then visited Terlingua and Big Bend National Park. Pretty isolated and pretty desolate part of Texas. I don't remember a lot other than the local delicacy in the Fort Davis area was mountain oysters according to some little restaurant we visited, and a Sabre Tooth Tiger exhibit on the way down to Big Bend - quietest place I've ever been. Could hear literally nothing but my own heartbeat. Weird. Sounds like the artsy crew has jazzed up Marfa since then.
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Re: Big City to Rural Living: Considerations?

Post by Kbg » Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:12 am

We lived in different areas of west Texas for about 4 years and for the towns that aren't clearly dying they can be very cool and eclectic in terms of what they offer. One place we particularly liked was a place that had this old 1940s movie theater that was completely restored to its original art deco vibe but with modern sound and screen. Absolutely loved going to movies there.
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