Indoors or outdoors? The woods or the pavement?

As I get reacquainted with TFP, I spend a great deal of time reading old threads and blogs, and I've noticed an outward expression for the love of outdoors coupled with some folks who miss it as their lives have taken them more and more indoors. However, I don't really notice a lot of people here proclaiming their passion for the pavement and the neon, but I know you're out there.

And then there are the ones representing the "middle child," who are in the purgatory of suburbia - not really innies or outties.

Grancey and I finished our dream home two and half years ago, and we've been living in the wilderness ever since. The nearest residence is more than a mile away, and when we lock our gate at night, we are totally alone. One of the oddest reactions I get from people upon learning that I live in the wilderness is when they name all the wild animals they've seen in their little suburban neighborhood. I can't figure out if it's some kind of bonding thing, and maybe they're expressing a longing for my locale. Or, perhaps it's a "one upsmanship" kind of thing, where they think they're topping me in some way.

"Last week, we saw a coyote across the street, and two weeks ago, there was a hawk in our yard."

Really? Wow. I'm stunned. You saw "A" coyote. Hmmm. I see at least six or seven coyotes every night, and some nights I shoot at them from my deck because they started coming up on my porch and leaving the heads of fawns scattered around my home. But you saw "A" coyote, wow!

If they listed every single animal they've seen, encountered, or even heard about in their neighborhood for the past month, it would still be way less than what I see every single day of the year.

Every. Single. Day.

Now don't get me wrong - I lovelovelove to talk about wild animals, but I'm just never sure how I'm supposed to respond. This is a photo I took recently -



You just know it's going to be an interesting day when you encounter a puddle of blood on your morning walk.

 

I love the city. I grew up partly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which I hated, and partly in Los Angeles, California, which I loved. I felt terribly trapped by the Midwestern smallness of Minneapolis, and I yearned for the opportunities of somewhere more cosmopolitan. I fell in love with Los Angeles because my grandparents lived there, and I adored visiting the city more than I loved visiting them; I was delighted when life took me to live there (though the grandparents were gone by then).

I love human culture, art and society, different ethnicities and languages coming together, different architectures...all the aspects of city life. I don't care as much for suburbia, which is where I find myself living now (the Northwest Surburbs of Chicago), though I can take it. I have never liked rural life: I loathed summer camp, and cordially disliked attempts when I was a child to get me to hike or camp out. I like nature, but I tend to like it best when tamed. I used to very much enjoy visiting the Huntington Gardens, in Pasadena, and I liked the royal parks in London a lot. But actual wild lands or farm lands, though I appreciate them aesthetically if I'm driving through them, do nothing for me as destinations or residences.

My idea of good times around where I live tends to involve museums, bookstores, restaurants, concerts, movies, theater, and wine bars. Also, as an observant Jew, I tend to need a Jewish community. And we don't usually gather in the sticks.

 

I grew up in the suburbs of Toronto. When I was young I lived in a very tough part of town called, Mornelle Court. My Mom and I moved from there to the Malvern area of Scarborough. When I was there, grade 8 to 13, it was a suburb like any other. Just after I moved away for University, it turned rather ugly. I never liked living in the suburbs and longed for the times when I would go camping in "the wilderness" or when I was able to take public transit into the city. The Rush song, Subdivisions spoke volumes to me.

At University, I lived in the small city of Ottawa and loved it. I vowed that if I had a choice, I would never live in the suburbs again. I wanted to either live downtown, or in a very rural setting. In the end, I lived the urban life and loved it! I loved being able to walk to the shops. To take the streetcar or cycle to work. The only reason we owned a car was that my wife taught equestrian riding north of the city. I barely drove it as I was happy to jet about on my Vespa.

Now that I live in Singapore, I don't own a car. I can walk, cycle, taxi or public transit anywhere I need to be. I live in an odd mix of urban/suburban. The suburbs here are still quite densely populated. I live in a quiet part of town, but am steps from the subway and any number of great restaurants and shops. The one thing that is missing, is access to the rural. In Canada, we could go to our cottage. We do not have that here. Instead, to get remotely rural, I have to take a couple hour flight to Bali or drive an hour or so into Malaysia.

 

Maybe people are just trying to find common ground for conversation. I'm waiting for the rest of the story about the puddle of blood on your morning walk. Fawn heads left on your porch? EEEW!
Pavement and neon - I do miss having a paved driveway. Haven't had one for over 20 years, and I dislike getting my shoes muddy before climbing into my truck. It isn't wilderness here, that's about a mile away in any direction. I prefer a place like this with services such as garbage, cable, fast internet. Neon I can do without.

Did you ever get the problem solved with the neighbor cows busting through the fence?

 

I grew up on a dairy farm in north central IN. Now I live just outside of a small city in northwest IN of approx 35K.. Not really a suburb of Chicago, but pretty damned close, I can be in the Loop in about an hour (non rush hour). While I live on the fringe of the city, it is so densely populated in this area that being on the fringe doesn't mean that much. There are housing developments all over in unincorporated areas. Ironic that now I see more wildlife than I did growing up. Growing up in the middle of farmland, meant there was no cover for animals except for woods. Fence rows were removed just to gain a few more feet of tillable ground. Every acre that could be planted or used as pasture was. And since it was a dairy farm, the pastures were used for that purpose. Also we had a couple of dogs that lived outside. Wildlife kept the hell away. The only wildlife I saw on a daily basis was barn cats. And they were most assuredly wild.

Now I live close to wooded areas with plenty of water. Consequently there is ample of cover for wildlife. I feed the birds which also attracts wildlife as well as everything above them in the food chain. Hawks are plentiful. We have had a family of foxes in the area for the last two years. Coyotes are in the area, but seldom seen. Deer are always somewhere around. Usually at some point during the winter they will begin regular daily visits to the bird feeders in the back yard. On Valentines Day a few years ago I ate lunch while watching 8 deer snack on birdfeed no more than 20 feet away. The backyard is somewhat protected so they do feel safe. It is normally full of activity with squirrels, the occasional rabbit, chipmunks and all sorts of birds.

I miss living in a more rural setting though for its peace and quiet more than anything. While I live in a quiet area, it is all relative. A four lane highway is two miles away, three major two lane roads are much closer, train tracks are also a couple of miles away. My house lies under the landing pattern for planes inbound to Midway from the east. While not terribly bothersome (and whose absence was quite noticeable following 9-11) it all adds up to create a constant, although low level din, one I'd rather not have.

 

I suspect that I could uphold my end of a wildlife conversation. The local mountain lion doesn't get seen often; but she does leave us presents from time to time. I've had to dive on Molly several times to prevent her from going after Momma Bear. Coyotes and foxes are a daily sight and I have a bobcat that lives in my wood pile. Molly can't catch him and they seem to coexist just fine.

My wife and I grew up in suburban Chicago and always dreamed of a log cabin in the mountains. In 1999, we moved here. I suspect my wife will be carried out of here horizontally, I don't see her leaving by choice.

 

View: http://youtu.be/Ieg6iME8muU




I suppose, technically, I'm a suburbanite. I grew up in the Detroit city limits, but in our neighborhood we had a lot of trees and parks and small critters flitting about. There was very little difference between our area and the "real" suburbs to the north and east, except we had more small family run stores within walking or biking distance.

Where we live now (only about 6 miles north of the Detroit border), I feel like we're straddling a line between small town quaintness and suburban sprawl. This town is an enclave of cool, unique shops within a 5-10 minute walk. Drive for 5 minutes in any direction, however, and just about all you find are franchised businesses, big box stores and shopping malls.

Despite all of its problems, Detroit still has a lot to offer in terms of culture and entertainment. I consider myself more urban than rural.

 

I love all the great, juicy descriptions of our various environments this thread has attracted. I knew about Charlatan's, Snowy's, and Craven's situations from previous blogs and posts, but it has been enlightening to have those descriptions rolled into one post for each. Levite, your descriptions of Minneapolis made me miss it terribly, as I lived near there for a time.

This sentence caught my eye, because most people are very shocked to learn that a) there are Jews in Alabama, and b) they hunt, fish, and farm just like everybody else. As it turns out, Jews make pretty effective rednecks. It seems to be almost a comedic travesty to picture a Jew with a pot belly, a pick-up truck, a nickname like "Buck," and a Southern accent, but seriously - what else should you expect in Alabama?

 

To be fair, I said "not usually," not "never." I know there are Jews in rural, isolated areas. I've met some, and found them delightful, with some quirky local customs. But they definitely are a minority of our people.

Still, it is always refreshing to find the few who are outside the norm, whether they be the Jews of rural Alabama and Louisiana, or the Jews of Ireland and Scotland, or the Azerbaijani and Khazaki Jews. Or from any of the other unexpected, out of the way corners we somehow end up.

But personally, I don't know how those folks do it. I need the diversity offered by a major cosmopolitan city-- not just in terms of culture, food, and educational opportunities, but as a Jew, in terms of the complex interactions and multifaceted and expansive opportunities of a large and diverse Jewish community.

 

This song always gives me a chuckle.

View: http://youtu.be/QQM00K24qG8

 

. I grew up right next to NAS Oceana in what would only be called "suburbia" by someone that hadn't seen me bring a snapping turtle home in the back of my dad's pickup. You could see the horses grazing through the windows in the local Farmer's Market, and you knew the mennonite dairy had fresh stuff because they could tell you which cow it came from and when. I really miss my garden, and my parks, and my trees, and so on... one of the reasons my family lives in our current apt complex originally was the number of animals living here. You could walk down to the in-complex lake and feed fish, a flock of ducks, turtles, and watch the herons & cranes do their thing while occasionally eyeing one of the hawks that lived nearby.

At the same time I'm basically Mr. Technology... the guy that actually uses voice commands in public, would wear an eyetap or google glass without a second thought, and occasionally has enough wires and cords coming off him that people are convinced I'm what's being recharged instead of my laptop, tablet, or phone. I also don't particularly care for insects or vermin, and can't coexist with spiders. What I really think we need to do is find a way to start better integrating nature into our society, one of the things I like about living in florida is the amount of green that's just all over the place, you pretty much have to go into the heart of a city to get away from it and even then there's going to be lakes and parks around.