4 ms·

My grandparents and great grandparents all lived on 4+ acre properties in rural Louisiana. Not quite cottages, but a similar concept. They had 1100 - 1300sq fo

My grandparents and great grandparents all lived on 4+ acre properties in rural Louisiana. Not quite cottages, but a similar concept. They had 1100 - 1300sq foot homes but lived along the river and you could get to all of their houses without ever leaving River Road. They lived about 1 hour from the nearest city and were about halfway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and had a gigantic community social group. They knew everyone in town and my folks knew everyone in their town through them. Hell, I know a lot of people in their hometown through them. My parents own a 1600 sq foot house but live on a quarter acre lot and my dad has always regretted not purchasing an additional lot back when he purchased the land to build their house. They live in a suburb of New Orleans. They knew the neighbors and some of the people in the community who were from their hometowns. I live in a 2400 sq foot house on a 1/5th of an acre lot and I am within a short drive from all the amenities of city life near Dallas. Can't say I know a whole lot of my neighbors. Everyone keeps to themselves. Any time before second day shipping, if you had asked me if I wanted to live out on the land like my grandparents, I'd have looked at you like you had 3 heads. Now though? I'd take it in a heartbeat. They had a garden that was over an acre. Trees filled with figs and oranges and pecans. A trellis built with railroad ties that was covered with grapes and blackberries and chayote depending on the time of the year. They always had enough root vegetables, cabbage, etc. to last through the winter months. No HOA to worry about, no zoning ordinances to mess with, you just live your life on your property.

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago
Most of the people on this site have plenty of resources to buy into a lifestyle like the one you are describing. But for some reason they don't. To me, it seems likely that there are some serious drawbacks to that lifestyle that you're leaving our, which if further probed would change the equation.
- codezero 5y ago
  If I were to guess, it's the choice of community HNers want to engage with on a regular basis. It's not other people who live in the country, it's other nerds who live in the country, which once you leave a city starts to have very low density!
  - beerandt 5y ago
    I don't remember nerds being the ones worried about what's socially popular and fitting in.
    - codezero 5y ago
      Socializing with people/a community is different from socializing with in-groups vying for popularity.
      - beerandt 5y ago
        No- it's really not, but that's irrelevant. Sacrificing your personal interests and goals because you want to be in a place with people where you fit-in is the very definition of popularity, regardless of your social rank within the group. That's not necessarily bad, but it's not nerdy.
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
        codezero 5y ago
        At this point I think we are talking about different things. I’m not sure I disagree with you and I’m not sure if I agree but mostly because it seems like we are prioritizing different things in this thread. So that said, anything to do with social rank will be hard for me to follow, so best to just leave it :) Wanting to fit in to me is about feeling a general comfort with your surroundings, not having social status. And by fit in, I mean not being ostracized for being yourself, a thing that happens to me in a lot of places, I don’t want to be popular, I just don’t want to be denied service or have my property vandalized. Also, by socialize with people like yourself, I mean going to a user group for some tech you like, etc, these are fewer and far between in rural areas. So even accessing such a community in person becomes a hurdle. This is something folks may take for granted. Or maybe not, I don’t know any more :)
- asdff 5y ago
  That lifestyle does take a lot of experience your average knowledge worker just doesn't have. People back then knew how to farm their land, they knew went to till and when to harvest, what to plant when and where. They were handy, they were carpenters, but also plumbers, roofers, painters, tailors, mechanics, menders of all things. Skills acquired by being a young child and holding the tools for an adult doing the task, engaging in a de facto apprenticeship for all facets of life since they could first learn to walk on their own and follow dad or mom around their chores. You couldn't learn all this even in a year of ownership of land like that. Its the product of lived experience. Years of dealing with one catastrophe to the next and having no one but yourself and a few local friends or family members to help fix the situation through experience and physical labor. This is why when most rich people decide to take up farming on some land they've bought, they hire an actual farmer to actually do the farming.
  - kaybe 5y ago
    Youtube-sensei has massively improved the situation though, especially if you're not playing around with dangerous stuff.

asdfasgasdgasdg 5y ago

Most of the people on this site have plenty of resources to buy into a lifestyle like the one you are describing. But for some reason they don't. To me, it seems likely that there are some serious drawbacks to that lifestyle that you're leaving our, which if further probed would change the equation.

codezero 5y ago
If I were to guess, it's the choice of community HNers want to engage with on a regular basis. It's not other people who live in the country, it's other nerds who live in the country, which once you leave a city starts to have very low density!
- beerandt 5y ago
  I don't remember nerds being the ones worried about what's socially popular and fitting in.
  - codezero 5y ago
    Socializing with people/a community is different from socializing with in-groups vying for popularity.
    - beerandt 5y ago
      No- it's really not, but that's irrelevant. Sacrificing your personal interests and goals because you want to be in a place with people where you fit-in is the very definition of popularity, regardless of your social rank within the group. That's not necessarily bad, but it's not nerdy.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - codezero 5y ago
        At this point I think we are talking about different things. I’m not sure I disagree with you and I’m not sure if I agree but mostly because it seems like we are prioritizing different things in this thread. So that said, anything to do with social rank will be hard for me to follow, so best to just leave it :) Wanting to fit in to me is about feeling a general comfort with your surroundings, not having social status. And by fit in, I mean not being ostracized for being yourself, a thing that happens to me in a lot of places, I don’t want to be popular, I just don’t want to be denied service or have my property vandalized. Also, by socialize with people like yourself, I mean going to a user group for some tech you like, etc, these are fewer and far between in rural areas. So even accessing such a community in person becomes a hurdle. This is something folks may take for granted. Or maybe not, I don’t know any more :)
asdff 5y ago
That lifestyle does take a lot of experience your average knowledge worker just doesn't have. People back then knew how to farm their land, they knew went to till and when to harvest, what to plant when and where. They were handy, they were carpenters, but also plumbers, roofers, painters, tailors, mechanics, menders of all things. Skills acquired by being a young child and holding the tools for an adult doing the task, engaging in a de facto apprenticeship for all facets of life since they could first learn to walk on their own and follow dad or mom around their chores. You couldn't learn all this even in a year of ownership of land like that. Its the product of lived experience. Years of dealing with one catastrophe to the next and having no one but yourself and a few local friends or family members to help fix the situation through experience and physical labor. This is why when most rich people decide to take up farming on some land they've bought, they hire an actual farmer to actually do the farming.
- kaybe 5y ago
  Youtube-sensei has massively improved the situation though, especially if you're not playing around with dangerous stuff.