Rural Living 101

Lessons for newcomers to the country

by James D. Ritchie

Over the past several years, a growing swarm of ex-urbanites has landed in the rural Midwest, seeking bigger, greener property, quieter neighborhoods or better schools. And they bring with them questions on everything from what to do about ticks and chiggers to how to get potholes repaired in the gravel roads that front their newly acquired homesteads.

Nearly 2 years ago, Chuck Horvath migrated from concrete to the country. Horvath had lived for 50 years in Long Beach, Calif., working there as a Navy fire-control technician and then as an aerospace engineer, before he bought 40 acres in rural Vernon County, Mo.

“My son had relocated part of his business to Nevada [Missouri] and when I visited this area, I liked it and decided to move here,” he said. “Part of the appeal of this property was a large, fish-stocked pond on the place.”

Horvath is just one of many urban dwellers who have fled the city to re-locate in southwestern Missouri. For a long time, Wayne Prewitt, University of Missouri extension ag business specialist, has observed the urban-to-rural tide and wished there were an outreach program geared specifically for newcomers to the countryside. So, last fall, Prewitt huddled with extension colleagues Pat Miller (agronomist) and Al Decker (livestock specialist) to design a class for people who move to the country with little or no rural experience or background. They titled the short-course, appropriately enough, “Rural Living 101.”

“We couched this as a rural living seminar, not a training session on crops production or cattle management,” said Prewitt. “We took a broad-stroke, basic approach to getting along in the country rather than focus on crops and livestock production and management. If we had, we would not have had this group of students.”

Rather than corn and cows, the course stressed such topics as taking stock of resources on the property, local government and taxes (Vernon County is one of 21 Missouri counties with a township form of government), fencing laws and trespass (including Missouri’s purple-paint law), animal liability, hunting leases and pond management. To help teach some subjects, Prewitt enlisted the help of Scott Sudcamp of the Missouri Conservation Department and Tammy Beach, county clerk of Vernon County.

When the course was announced, former Californian Chuck Horvath was the first enrollee. “It was well worthwhile,” he said. “I got a lot of good information from the sessions on property rights and fencing laws, and I was especially interested in what was taught on pond maintenance and fish management.”

Dale and Marilyn Johnson, who also moved from California to 22 acres near Fort Scott, Kan., came across the state line to attend the class.

Sarah Peters moved to southwestern Missouri from the opposite direction. Peters had worked in wildlife management for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources before buying her spread in St. Clair County, Mo., in 2001.

“Staying in Ohio was not an option with me,” she said. “Ohio has rural areas, but wherever you are in the state, you’re not far from a big town or city and a four-lane highway. I had lived in several cities in Ohio and never found a place I wanted to stay. Now, I’ve found a place I never want to leave.

“As a wildlife manager for the Ohio DNR, I spent a lot of time out of doors,” Peters added. “I knew how to grow things and I knew my way around in rural areas. Still, there were challenges to moving to rural Missouri.”

Among them were differences in soils and climate. Ohio has largely glacial-till soils; St. Clair County has weathered sandstone soils with a lot of rocks. Winters in Missouri are as cold as in much of Ohio, although with less snow. Summers are hotter and drier. Peters became acutely aware of these changes when she began transforming her 78 acres to native warm-season grasses and a savanna-like mix of mature trees and grass.

“Quail are coming back, and at least three wild turkey hens nested this past year in the native grass pasture,” she observed. “After ground-nesting birds have hatched, I can lease the warm-season pasture to a neighboring cowman for summer graze.”

In the 6 years or so since she moved to the countryside, Peters has taken an active role in the community. She’s active in a local church, secured a seat on the St. Clair County Extension Council, and now is a board member of the Collins (Mo.) volunteer fire department.

“These are good ways to get to know the community and the people,” she said. “Native residents here are friendly; you can get to know them easily. Most are very frank and straightforward and I appreciate that.”

Although she has lived in rural Missouri longer than most of her Rural Living 101 classmates, Peters still found the course helpful.

“The information on political subdivisions and organizations was very useful, as were the sessions on fencing laws, leases, hunting leases,” she said. “The course was well worthwhile to me and I think we should do more of this kind of thing. In fact, in another class, they might devote one whole session to the care and feeding of septic tanks.”

Much of the course did focus on practical, everyday aspects of country living—things long-time rural residents often take for granted—which proved to be the most valuable information students took away from the class.

“That’s important to rural newcomers,” believes Peters. “It’s not so much that you’re without any services or conveniences in the country, but you can’t just walk down to the corner drugs store when you need an aspirin. The corner drug store may be 8 or 10 miles away.

“If there’s a fire in the city, you call and the big red truck shows up in a matter of minutes,” she continued. “Out here, I’m more than 6 miles from the fire station and the fire-fighting crew is made up of volunteers who work at something else. When you live in a rural area, you have to take more initiative for your own welfare and safety.”

Sarah Peters may get her wish for more classes like the Rural Living 101 course. Wayne Prewitt and his colleagues are putting the finishing touches on a similar course to be presented this winter in St. Clair County, Mo.

“We are expanding the course to more sessions, so we can cover such topics as household water supply, sewage disposal, alternate home heating, emergency electrical generators—nothing highly technical but subjects that are very practical and useful for country newcomers,” said Prewitt. “This was one of the more enjoyable courses I have held since I’ve been in extension,” he added. “The people were eager to learn—and they didn’t have a lot of things to un-learn. And we have a need to educate realtors, bankers, lawyers and local government officials on these same topics, because they all deal with newcomer residents sooner or later.”

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