1. I live in a village, which is really a small collection of houses gathered around two intersections. Once upon a time there was a sign as you came into "town" that stated the population was 500. It was handmade so I have no idea how accurate it was, but it was probably pretty close.
2. I have neighbours, lots of great nighbours, "close" by. Our properties all vary in size, but we have lots of room in between the houses. Imagine a new survey and then remove every second (or sometimes third) house.
3. From my house you don't have to walk too far before you hit the first farmer's field -- in any direction -- but we're a mere 10 minutes away from "civilization".
4. Every lot out here is different, most have wells. Ours does not and city water pipes do not come out this far. What we do have is a cistern or a holding tank that is buried in the ground right underneath the office. It holds X amount of water and once that is gone, it's gone. Then we have to order a delivery of water from the water truck. Ideally you notice you're low before you run out and order it, but I can't say we've never run the thing completely dry because we have many times. We don't drink the water from our tap so we do have the down spouts on one side of the house run into the cistern to collect rain water. And everything we do is about conserving water to help a load last as long as possible. We were water conservationists well before it became cool to be one.
5. Way back in the day this was a bustling little town. The house beside us was the mill/funeral parlour. The house across the corner was a hotel. The house I looked at last weekend was the doctor's office. There used to be a store where The Mommy Project's house is now. Papa, himself, grew up in the house right next door to that and generations of Mike's family have lived in various houses in the village.
It is a great place to live, especially now that we have high speed internet, right MP.
8 comments:
I love that there's so much history to it!
Wow. I knew you and MP lived out there and were doing it Little House on the Prairie style, but I didn't know there was such history in the homes.
Ummm... Would it be too much to ask for a photo blog entry with the various house pictures and some history on them?
I was reading your list and thinking, "yup, yup" - we live near a similar area, and our setting could be similar until we got to the cistern. We have a well. We also are 7 minutes from a 150,000 person city, but we are out near farm fields, etc., and if you drive 5 mins. in the other direction you're at a "village" similar to yours.
It sounds like the sense of community would be really strong, though.
How interesting!! Now I understand the water truck!
Wow, now I always thought I;d like to live in the country, but that seems like a little bit too much country for this city girl. Love the history though. That is way cool.
hmm Belgium doesn't have such remote areas at all. I'm not sure if I'd feel comfortable.
Isn't ordering water a nuisance? Is it expensive? It does make you much more aware of usage which is a good thing!
Leah - Tons! Mike's Dad knows much more about it than I do.
WW - Not too much at all. I think it will be a fun little project to tackle. I'll bend Papa's ear about it. He's got some great pictures I'm going to borrow.
Jen - It's a very nice little community, but as with anything you get out what you put in. I'm more involved now that I have kids. They make it hard not to be. And who knew I'd find such great friends right at my front door.
Betsy - Yep the water truck is a pretty standard sight around here.
Julie - you can get way more country than me.
Goofball - Like anything ordering water can be a nuisance if you aren't staying on top of it. If you don't realize until it's empty and you have laundry/showers/dishes to do and it's a Sunday. You'll pay extra for Sunday delivery. Then yeah big nuisance. I don't think it's outrageously expensive. If we lived in the city we'd have a city water bill to pay. Mike would like to live in a spot where we had no close neighbours, but I don't think I'd be comfortable. Here is good.
Yes. The high speed has increased the value of living in the country exponentially!
{did I spell that correctly? It looks weird. K. Must. Get. Coffee).
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