Some of you may have been wondering where I’ve been over the past two weeks. So a week ago last Saturday, we moved into our home in the country. This week, we’ve been at our denominational leadership gathering. Both events have had me a bit over a barrel. It didn’t take us long to figure several things out about being in the country. So here’s a list of 10 lessons we learned our first week.***There are links in this post. Some of the links may be affiliate links. My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. All of these are the items that I have bought for my own family. If you click on a link, your price will remain the same. If you make a purchase, we may make a small commission that aids in the cost of the running of this website.***
Lesson #1 – The Internet Sucks
Lesson #2- Don’t Wait to Mow Your Grass 
Lesson #3 – People Are Friendlier than You Realize.
Lesson #4 – There’s ALWAYS More Work to Do 
Since we’ve purchased this property, we’ve removed moldy straw from the chicken barn, started removing it from the ‘big barn’, added fish to the pond, finally got the lawn mowed. We’ve had the septic pumped. We’ve installed two clotheslines, and the list just continues on.
The problem is that since we’ve moved in, we’ve just scratched the surface of how much more there is to do. There are repairs that need to be affected on each of the buildings that we own. We need to upgrade the house’s electrical grid, fix our dryer, clear out the outbuildings, plant trees, tend the garden, put up our own food, and the list goes on. The next-door neighbors that helped us out with the mowing, told us that they tackled one project at a time, but that it took YEARS – and that doesn’t surprise me. Their acreage looks immaculate, but they’ve also lived on it for 20+ years. They’ve even told us that there is always more work to do.
Lesson #5 – Your Work Doesn’t End When the Sun Goes Down.
I’ve written about how much I appreciate a company that I do business with called Azure Standard. They are a whole food and homesteading co-op that delivers to most areas across the country. We’ve been purchasing from Azure for about 12 years now. Well this month, I purchased plant starts. I didn’t think that we would be able to start our own seedlings, so we purchased a few for our inaugural garden on the farm.
Well, our order came in on Wednesday. The problem is that Thursday, we had a ladies book study (We’re reading through Beautiful, Messy Friendship). Friday, we had grocery shopping to do with my Mom. And the plants would be struggling by Saturday. So Wednesday afternoon, my daughter decided to do all the planting. And she did, but come 10pm Wednesday evening, the plants were in, but they all had to be watered. It was 10 pm, our hoses wouldn’t stretch from the spigot to the garden area, and carrying 5-gallon buckets of water felt daunting. It would have been so easy just to quit and hope for rain – really soon. But we didn’t. All six of us ended up outside watering the garden from 10-10:30 at night just because……the work doesn’t end when the sun goes down.
Lesson #6 – Just Because You Put in Enough Outlets Doesn’t Mean You Have Enough Electricity
We did have the house inspected, but we had a lot of work done between the inspection and moving in. One thing that we had done was adding a bunch of outlets – as the living areas had very few. We also had 3 ceiling fans installed.
Well, when we moved in and started running the washing machine in the evening, all of our lights started to flicker anytime the washer started pulling extra electricity. It also does that when the furnace or the dishwasher runs. We’re going to have someone come out and look into upgrading our electrical system to our home.
Lesson #7 – Clotheslines Only Work on Sunny Days 
When we moved in, we installed our washer and dryer. Our BRAND NEW dryer. When I went to use it the first time, it didn’t seem to want to heat. I tried it again. It refused to heat. We ended up calling in a repairman – who of course couldn’t come before we leave on vacation. So we ended up installing and using our new clotheslines, but of course – clotheslines only work on sunny days. It’s been interesting trying to dry a load of clothes on a rainy day.
Lesson #8 – Hot Water Heaters – It’s NOT Just About Capacity
Did you know that you’re supposed to drain your hot water heater each year? If you don’t, you’ll lose capacity as gunk and sludge will fill up the bottom of your water heater? Well when that happens, you end up having less water that you can draw from. So a family of six MIGHT get one and a half to two hot showers before the hot water is gone and everyone else gets COLD showers on a Sunday morning!
Uhuh. Ask me how I know.
Lesson #9 – It’s Never as Easy as You Think It’s Going to Be. . .
Whether it’s our internet, our garden, our dryer, our clothesline – which I found at a 45-degree angle when I returned one day this week, or even trash pickup, very few things go as easy as they should. It’s hard work in the country, but at the same time, when you finally get it to work, it is VERY satisfying.
Lesson #10 – . . . But it’s satisfying.
What About You?
If you don’t live in the country, what about this list surprised you? If you do live in the country- what would you add to this list? I’d love to hear! Leave your answers below so that we can all be better prepared!
1. get used to making lists, nothing is worse than forgetting to get something at the store which is now 30 miles away instead of 5.
2. buy the good stuff, the cheap stuff won’t hold up and that 30 mile trip adds up.
3. have a second and third plan. face it rural folks are last on the list when it comes to power outages or disaster relief.
4. help when you can, my neighbors have helped me and I have helped them.
5. learn to be ahead of the game, have those plans in place and check on them just to be sure. I built my diesel generator but only had short bolts to mount it, I meant to get longer ones later but forgot (duh hey on me) luckily I still had my 2 power inverters so problem avoided. first thing after the outage I went to the parts store and bought longer bolts, washers, and lock nuts. problem solved now. it is so nice to switch to generator power during an outage and watch the tv shows or netflix.
good luck to everyone
We’re moving to the country fairly soon and I’m concerned about internet too. Working from home has it’s advantages but it’s harder when the internet is spotty. Also, we’ll be buying a riding mower and sticking my teen on there. It’ll get her outside and help when she starts learning how to drive LOL.
It’s GREAT to hear how your first few weeks in the country are going. 🙂 What has surprised me about your list echoes what has surprised me about moving into the ranks of the “prepared.” There is a paradigm shift that takes place. Our “go to the store and buy it” mentality of the past few generations has spoiled us rotten and made us think that this is how it has always been. But it’s NOT! And we also think this is how it should be. But it’s NOT! We have benefitted from the culture of convenience because of the economic prosperity in our post-WW2 society. It has absolved us of the need to plan ahead, to provide for ourselves, or to expect to think through and solve problems on our own rather than expect someone else to just supply the answer or fix. …………. Congratulations on the big move! Keep us posted!
(This is part 2 of my comment. It was too long to be posted all at once!)
Your experiences in the country are proving the point — convenience is not an entitlement, and sometimes, it’s not even good for us. When we work to solve problems, big or small, there is an immense satisfaction to it that is good for our souls. When your children helped to water the garden at 10:00 at night, they learned another lesson about the value of the food on your table. When we have lots of things on our property that need constant upkeep (whether it’s a farm with acreage or a home in the suburbs), then we learn the value of using our time wisely rather than blowing it on TV, video games, or our phone apps. ……….. It’s a bit scary to move toward self-sufficiency… but to not do so means we’d live under the FALSE belief that life will percolate along as it always has. I know too many people who think it will do just that. If 2020 wasn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what it will take! ……… Anyway, keep us informed how you’re doing! It’s great to read about your adventures.
around here you can add – SNOW >>> the country newbies find out quikly any previous suburban experience gets quikly negated – it’s just not anyway the same