City Mouse To Country Mouse Advice Sought

[E4 No More]

Like the title says I'm looking for general advice/warnings. I'm looking at moving from the city environment to the country environment. I'm looking at property between 6 to 10 acres that's within an hour to the southeast my wife's work which is Gibson Guitars in Nashville. Generally speaking, what do I need to consider here? I'm harboring no desires to become a farmer although I wouldn't mind leasing some of the land for farming. I'm no hunter, but I'm not opposed to having a secondary source for meat should the need arise. Examples might be garden tractor vs large zero turn. ISP service is necessary, so there appears to be DSL vs WISP. Then there's things that I might have no clue about, so fire away.

[MP5_Rizzo]

41 minutes ago, SWJewellTN said:

Like the title says I'm looking for general advice/warnings. I'm looking at moving from the city environment to the country environment. I'm looking at property between 6 to 10 acres that's within an hour to the southeast my wife's work which is Gibson Guitars in Nashville. Generally speaking, what do I need to consider here? I'm harboring no desires to become a farmer although I wouldn't mind leasing some of the land for farming. I'm no hunter, but I'm not opposed to having a secondary source for meat should the need arise. Examples might be garden tractor vs large zero turn. ISP service is necessary, so there appears to be DSL vs WISP. Then there's things that I might have no clue about, so fire away.

My first thought is, has your wife ever had a 1 hour (one way) commute to work?  One hour that you drive on weekends or evening may turn into a 1.5 (more or less) during early and late rush hours.  Commuting seems like a great trade off to get out of the city life for some initially but after time they really regret it.

[E4 No More]

21 minutes ago, MP5_Rizzo said:

My first thought is, has your wife ever had a 1 hour (one way) commute to work?  One hour that you drive on weekends or evening may turn into a 1.5 (more or less) during early and late rush hours.  Commuting seems like a great trade off to get out of the city life for some initially but after time they really regret it.

Yes, it actually takes us an hour to travel the 14.3 miles from our house in Lake Forrest to her work taking Murfreesboro Road on most days. It takes about 10 to 12 minutes just to get to the Interstate if we went that route. We actually look at real drive time. For instance, we are leaving from her work today to go look at some land and see what the real drive time is. 

 

EDIT: She's also looking for work in Murfreesboro because where's she's at now doesn't pay per fair market value. I work by the airport, but I can put in for full time remote.

Edited April 10, 2017 by SWJewellTN

[A.J. Holst]

I'd start from the final destination

Look at a map

Figure which compass point(s) had the most apoeal

Approximate how far out within 45 minutes plus 15 from the primary road to your homestead you can get.

Take a few weekend site seeing trips.

It's your wife's current employer, how long term? Anybody been recruiting her? Just some other considerations.

[Murgatroy]

I drive an hour one way everyday. I make really good money, but I often question my sanity on the commute.

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[Murgatroy]

Now that I am home I will elaborate on my above statement.

 

I live an hour away from work. Less depending on traffic and cruise velocity. Not much less.

 

Until recently I paid for my own fuel, in my own car, that I performed maintenance on. It is rated at 30MPG EPA HWY, but real world stop and go rush hour traffic drops that to about 22. I was going through a tank of gas a week. That is $30 depending a week in fuel. If you get one week of vacation a year, that is $1530 in fuel. For work. Not counting errands or pleasure driving. Most tires are rated at 40-60k, that is two years of driving. So add another $250 ($500/2) to your yearly total. We are at $1780. Oil changes will be more frequent now too, lets just ballpark that to get to an even $2000 for the year.

That means that in real world parlance, she is taking about a dollar an hour pay cut to commute an hour each way, using my rough numbers. Which are based on 5 years experience.

 

That is not taking into account weather, or traffic, or unforeseen events that can turn an hour drive into a two hour drive, or worse. Snow, rain, dark of night, all of these are factors to consider.

 

Two hours less a day or home time, down time, etc. For me, I work 10-12 hours a day. Add two hours to that. I am essentially at work for 12-14 hours a day. Leaving time to come home, eat, Triple S and sleep. That is it. Every day.

 

Now, I am making it out to be rough, not to be mean, but to be realistic. You say your wife is unhappy where she is, this will compound this ten fold. I love my job and I make mad money doing it. My wife and I just recently broke into upper middle class.

 

My suggestion is for your wife to search the job markets at the fringes of town, and then you shop from there. For instance, while I drive an hour to get to downtown Louisville for work (which is a misnomer now as I drive from job to job) my wife works on the outskirts of the city proper. She drives 20 minutes one way. Quite a different commute. 

[analog_kidd]

I always tell people, if at all possible, try not to live West of where you work. Otherwise, you will be driving into the sun twice a day.

5 or 6 acres is nice if it's not all cleared. Trust me, mowing that much land every week gets old. You will need to dedicate an entire afternoon to it. Do you have a riding mower? You'll need one, or a small tractor.

Pay close attention to your potential neighbors, and the neighborhood. You meet all kinds of people out in the country. Try to see if they are your kind of people. Are you really willing to not see neighbors every day? That was a big thing for my stay at home wife who didn't want to be a recluse.

Think about what you want to get out of life by living in the country, and then make sure the properties you look at support those things. Is there a place for a garden? Can you shoot there? Is there a good place to shoot with a backstop? Is there a place for a barn, or a chicken coop.

Check out the availability of Internet. Having to use a satellite dish for internet sucks. Be sure to check your cell signal when you visit a place. We ended up having to change providers because Verizon's signal was so poor here.

How close is a store, gas station, hospital. As you get older, the last one may be pretty important. Where is the closest fire station, or ambulance.

Overall, living in the country is amazing, if that is what you like. The peace and quiet is awesome. You'll see and hear wild life. You can see the stars at night. Good luck in your search.

[Sunfish]

Taxes are something else you might want to consider. A lot of pretty places out there turn into a lot of work and in winter can be hard to get in and out of.

[peejman]

I'll 2nd what @Murgatroy and @analog_kidd are getting at.

I spent 7 months living 37 miles northwest of my job. 45 mins to get there at o'dark thirty and 60-90mins to get home. Into the sun both ways.  My car got 37 mpg, so that helped with the fuel expense but it still got old real fast. 

[nightrunner]

I did the opposite. Lived in the country all my life but moved to the city because of work. I took a good paying job, but working 10-12 hours a day and took 1 hr one way to drive to work and back. It was literally eat sleep work repeat. 6 days a week. 

City isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but still want to move back to outside the city limits but hopefully only 30-45min away now.

[TNWNGR]

You've already been provided good advice pertaining to a one hour to work daily commute which is actually two or more hours of driving per day. When you factor in bad weather driving and the narrower rural roads once off the interstate it becomes interesting at times. From personal experience if you find ten or less acres of rural property for sale its generally not the most ideal of farmland so I wouldn't count on finding a farmer who'll use it. Not saying they won't cut it for hay if times or bad but its just not enough land for them to bother with.

I used to live on a fifteen acre property and was constantly dealing with trespassers, feral dogs and stray cattle. Deer would eat up every garden or fruit orchard you planted. It's also very unusual to find that amount of rural acreage where DSL is located so a cellular WISP will be a far better option to a satellite receiver. Do your homework on who provides the best cellular service/reception in the area that interests you.

Now as to the Z-Turn vs. Tractor. It depends on what your doing with your property and how much you intend to cut. If your only cutting your yard and relatively even fields then a Z-Turn is faster and easier on you. If you plan to maintain any fields by bush hogging them then you should consider around a thirty horse power tractor as your lower end option and something closer to the forty HP range as preferred. Used tractors are more of a hit or miss deal then a lot of used cars so be careful  

[E4 No More]

4 hours ago, TNWNGR said:

You've already been provided good advice pertaining to a one hour to work daily commute which is actually two or more hours of driving per day. When you factor in bad weather driving and the narrower rural roads once off the interstate it becomes interesting at times. From personal experience if you find ten or less acres of rural property for sale its generally not the most ideal of farmland so I wouldn't count on finding a farmer who'll use it. Not saying they won't cut it for hay if times or bad but its just not enough land for them to bother with.

I used to live on a fifteen acre property and was constantly dealing with trespassers, feral dogs and stray cattle. Deer would eat up every garden or fruit orchard you planted. It's also very unusual to find that amount of rural acreage where DSL is located so a cellular WISP will be a far better option to a satellite receiver. Do your homework on who provides the best cellular service/reception in the area that interests you.

Now as to the Z-Turn vs. Tractor. It depends on what your doing with your property and how much you intend to cut. If your only cutting your yard and relatively even fields then a Z-Turn is faster and easier on you. If you plan to maintain any fields by bush hogging them then you should consider around a thirty horse power tractor as your lower end option and something closer to the forty HP range as preferred. Used tractors are more of a hit or miss deal then a lot of used cars so be careful  

We looked at some other land yesterday, and it turned out to be a 1.25 hour drive during rush hour.  

The land that I'm back to considering is a 50 minute drive during normal rush hour traffic. It's 5.6 acres with a creek and a wooded hillside on the back making about 2-3 acres unusable - other than for a good backstop for shooting my pistols. Where the house would be is an old hay field that is gently sloped from the street to the creek. The nice thing is that I've already confirmed that it has cable service for ISP, so working from home will be no problem for me. Gardens, I don't know about. My wife is more gimpy than I am so I doubt we'd have that - although she wants some fruit trees on the land.

So given the size and description would you recommend a Z-turn or a tractor?

[E4 No More]

Thanks for all the replies so far!

[jgradyc]

You need to check out the rush hour traffic both ways. I drive from Nashville to Brentwood at 8:30am 2-3 times a week on I-65. Southbound traffic is okay, but northbound backup sometimes goes past Harding all the way to Concord Road. It could take an hour to get from Concord Road to Nashville some days on I-65.

On the zero turn versus tractor, if you have a field with ruts, the zero turn is going to have problems scalping the field.  You might just try driving your car over the field a few times. If the car is constantly rocking, it's going to be worse on a zero turn.

Also, in the summer when it gets dry, all that chaff is going to come up to you... same with a tractor with a belly mower. I have 4 acres to mow and use an old Kubota tractor with a 72" rear mount 3-blade finishing mower. That puts the chaff behind me.  I had no allergies when I moved to Tennessee 20 years ago, but it became a problem for me about two years ago so I wear a surgical mask when mowing. Trimming around trees and bushes will be more of a hassle with a tractor, so it's a trade off. 

Placement of the house will make a difference in heating/cooling.

EDIT: Oh, and no matter how long the commute, it will be longer when it rains. Nashville drivers forget how to drive in the rain. And snow... forget about it. 

Edited April 11, 2017 by jgradyc

[E4 No More]

1 hour ago, jgradyc said:

EDIT: Oh, and no matter how long the commute, it will be longer when it rains. Nashville drivers forget how to drive in the rain. And snow... forget about it. 

Heck, they can't drive in the sunshine either!

[10-Ring]

An hour to the Southeast of Gipson would put you somewhere around Laverne unless your wife works an odd shift.

[TNWNGR]

5 hours ago, SWJewellTN said:

We looked at some other land yesterday, and it turned out to be a 1.25 hour drive during rush hour.  

The land that I'm back to considering is a 50 minute drive during normal rush hour traffic. It's 5.6 acres with a creek and a wooded hillside on the back making about 2-3 acres unusable - other than for a good backstop for shooting my pistols. Where the house would be is an old hay field that is gently sloped from the street to the creek. The nice thing is that I've already confirmed that it has cable service for ISP, so working from home will be no problem for me. Gardens, I don't know about. My wife is more gimpy than I am so I doubt we'd have that - although she wants some fruit trees on the land.

So given the size and description would you recommend a Z-turn or a tractor?

If its only 2 to 3 acres I'd walk the fields and see how smooth they were as well as how much work it'd be to clear up any ruts. But if the ground was right I'd go with a big commercial Z-Turn. I'd be tempted to have someone work it over with a good garden tiller behind a tractor and reseed it if necessary too.

[bud]

.

Edited May 30, 2017 by bud

[Ronald_55]

No sure abut your budget, but I ran into this site a while back. If has several listings and some have GPS coordinates or addresses. It ranges from 600+ acres down to 3/4 of an acre.

 

http://m.landwatch.com/tennessee/davidson-county/land-for-sale/?id=25038859

 

I am too far away to try and figure out good options. Sounds like the local guys have good advise.

 

 

[analog_kidd]

We have a little over 5 acres that we keep about 2 mowed all the time, 2 on a slope that we mow a few times a year, and one that God takes care of. We have a zero-turn mower and it works generally well. I cuss every time I have to mow the sloped field. The front wheels are free turning, and not used for steering in any way, shape or form. All of the steering is done by positively accelerating the left or right rear wheels. When you get going down the hill, and get close to the bottom, if you have any speed at all, you won't be able to make the turn. I have run my mower into the fence at the bottom of the hill so many times because I couldn't stop or turn quick enough. 

For that reason alone I wish I had a tractor style mower. I keep talking about buying a small, one-family tractor with a mower and tiller attachment. The previous owners had one.

For now, the zero-turn does mostly what I need, as long as I know it's limitations. 

We also bought one of those small lawn carts to pull behind it. It is so nice to use that to haul dropped sticks & branches, or potting soil, or whatever.

The other thing that has been incredibly useful (and fun) is a used ATV. The very back of the property, down the long, steep hill, is the shooting range / camp ground. Using the ATV to haul gear and butts up and down that hill has been a life-saver. Although the mower and cart combination worked well for carrying gear too, just not people.

[E4 No More]

11 hours ago, TNWNGR said:

If its only 2 to 3 acres I'd walk the fields and see how smooth they were as well as how much work it'd be to clear up any ruts. But if the ground was right I'd go with a big commercial Z-Turn. I'd be tempted to have someone work it over with a good garden tiller behind a tractor and reseed it if necessary too.

We'll be putting in the contract that they have to brush hog the land and remove some old hay-harvesting equipment first. There's a lot of overgrowth that includes small thorn trees and blackberry bushes by the creek -although I don't want all of the bushes removed. I like blackberries.  

[E4 No More]

14 hours ago, 10-Ring said:

An hour to the Southeast of Gipson would put you somewhere around Laverne unless your wife works an odd shift.

Yes, quite a bit of time is taken just to get out of/into Lavergne. She comes and goes via Murfreesboro Road.

[E4 No More]

11 hours ago, bud said:

Now that's funny, given @SWJewellTN 's present location! 

Commuting between Rutherford county and Downtown twice a day everyday at rush hour would literally drive me to an early grave.

Maybe look around the Cane Ridge/Burkitt Road/old hickory Blvd area. You can find the 10 acres there, but would have Davidson Co. Property taxes. Bad thing is, Mayor Barry is trying to creep the Urban Services District out there which may effect shooting on the property.

One of the driving reasons for me to move is to be able to shoot on my own land. I've always wanted to be able to go out my back door and plop down with my rifle and shoot all I want. Also, Davidson County land prices are crap.

[E4 No More]

10 hours ago, Ronald_55 said:

No sure abut your budget, but I ran into this site a while back. If has several listings and some have GPS coordinates or addresses. It ranges from 600+ acres down to 3/4 of an acre.

 

http://m.landwatch.com/tennessee/davidson-county/land-for-sale/?id=25038859

 

I am too far away to try and figure out good options. Sounds like the local guys have good advise.

 

 

Yes, I use that site.

[Bill4282]

don't to forget to factor in the cost of digging a well, installing a pump and plumbing, installing a septic system and permits needed for everything. monthly/quarterly service fees. if building, cost of electrical poles and wires from last pole nearest to you. just think of what you get from "city" services that you'll need to have and where from. if using gas, cost of propane vs natural. factor in cost of running gas line to your new house. if you just want hunting and shooting land, consider a lease and stay at your home. just thoughts to consider.

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