Getting Off Topic

You did the right thing by moving this discussion, but some of the best discussions take place off a hijacked thread.

You and Joyce should be careful about what you wish for regarding moving to a farm. It is true that the solitude allows you to sidestep the effort of trying to listen, hear, and understand speech. I spend a lot of time alone on my "farm". But as Julie O points out that doesn't help our situation much and at times is counter productive. We need to remain connected to people and advocate for ourselves and make our disability known. Going to a "farm" or moving to a "farm" is why people take vacations. We need them. But isolating ourselves has an element of isolation. I have stopped going to movies, most parties and social gatherings, restaurants, etc because I can't understand people. That isn't healthy and I know it. As always, finding the balance is the key.

My comments are not intended to be critical of you two - I live in a way similar to the way you are talking about. The reality is that there are always some disadvantages. We all dream about a better life (the grass is always greener........) but we live in a real world.

Ah...but I have all the critters walking and flying past my window PLUS internet. Once we went through the hell of a couple of months of getting it to work, it has worked really well...no interruptions. Surprising, because when we lived in the city, we had frequent 'net and phone interruptions with Century Link. We had one time this past winter when we had no power (no 'net, no phone, and, worst of all, no water), but it was a really short outage. A couple of weeks ago, they replaced several poles along our road, so we had no power most of the day...but we knew a couple weeks in advance that would be the case. Because it was a Wed. when I ordinarily drive two hours each way to load bread donated by Dave's in the metro area, I switched my pickup day to Tues. in order to be home so that my spouse, who has elected not to do anything to be mobile, wouldn't be alone, isolated, without any way to get help...or force flush the john. I still have a couple of big containers of water on the front deck, which I'm gradually using to water newly-planted flowers in front. Much easier to use the stored water than drag 100' of hose around! However, the large flower beds out near the road require buckets of water dipped out of the creek as even 200' of hose doesn't reach all the way to the end of the largest bed.

There are disadvantages to living on acreage, like lots of "stuff" (not planted grass) to mow, lots of walking to do things, but there are advantages. One of the greatest is that, once I've mowed the acre or so around the house, from the road our place looks lovely. Of course, upon closer inspection, it's not an even green carpet, but from a distance it looks great. People who walk along our road often comment on what a beautiful place it is...but they don't spend two days every week trudging along behind the mower, or hours bent over weeding. Right now, I'm working on cutting the downed limbs that fell on the mowed area during the past winter, which was unusually windy. I piled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of limbs and limb tips near the woodpile. Shoot, one fair-sized tree fell right on the woodpile! Once I finish cutting the limbs that fell on areas we mow and the paths I've created, I'll start pulling limbs out of the wooded areas. The hundreds of acres next to our place has second growth alder on the lower slopes near the creek, so there are lots of chunks of firewood just waiting to be harvested.

The back of the place is all old-growth spruce, uphill and then back down to a little tributary creek that bubbles out of the ground in a miniature waterfall, then disappears under the roots of a huge tree only to reappear several feet away. It's a private little glen that I love to visit. We need to talk to the Parks Dir. in the nearby small town to ensure that this place will become a small nature park after we're gone...much better than allowing it to be sold, all the trees cut and replaced with dozens of houses and roads.

@arrowshooter
You are right and, while I don’t live on a farm, I want to sometimes go screaming into the night lol. Have only gone to closed caption movies with my hearing loss club but not too often. Going to restaurants with family is always on but, with friends, the fewer the better. I’m out in the world all the time and don’t mind the daily challenges....been doing it too long. It’s true that you need to do that. It’s also true that other social engagements depend on how adventurous I feel at the time. Like you said ...balance is the key. The Pandemic made isolation easier for those who prefer to be alone. There’s too much stuff going on around me all the time (which is a good thing actually) but sometimes technological frustrations make me want to throw my hands up in the air.
That being said , I just saw one of my grandson’s HS graduation this morning...the school live streamed it and using my Live Transcribe app, I was able to understand all the speakers. We celebrated with him personally last week. How cool is that! But goats are still cute.

FLMary
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@imallers When we go you can have half and I'll take the other half but we will share lol Keep smiling Of course we will have to fight the goats they will want there share also .

@joyces

You are a frontierswoman!

FL Mary

No surprise, as one set of ggrandparents on Mom's side arrived in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in 1845, via covered wagon. He died a couple of years later, leaving her with children from 0-20. A fellow 40 miles away had lost his wife when she died in childbirth and had several kids to raise, so he got on his horse, rode to my ggrandmother's homestead and proposed that they get married, as neither of them could prove up their homesteads while being a single parent to several kids. They had no children together, but raised the melded kids and stayed together for over 40 years, dying in their 80s. He served twice in Oregon's Territorial Legislature. Mom's other ggrandparents did come until almost ten years later, still via covered wagon. Dad's parents emigrated to eastern Washington even later (early 1860s), my grandfather becoming a rancher, county judge, school superintendent, and manager of the local store. When Dad and I found this place in 1962, it was like a step back in time. When I'm cleaning spruce tips off the roof over the office, I can see a bit of ocean...we're just a quarter-mile away, but sheltered by all the trees and having no neighbors. Still, dozens of people walk along our road every day, as our little valley is sheltered from onshore winds that can make walking on the beach pretty uncomfortable. So, the best of all worlds. Every window in our house presents a largely green panorama.