Could you manage a really quiet life? Just you and your partner and maybe your kids living in a bungalow out?

Question

in the countryside? No TV, No radio, No newspapers, A small village about a mile away, No need to work, an income of around £500 a week, No bills except utilities. You can have a CD player if you want and maybe a piano but no PC games or the like. Nothing to do all day except to laze around and maybe a bit of gardening for your vegtables, Maybe take up painting or writing?.....Would this appeal to you and could you handle it?

Answer 1

What no pub?????

I'd like the idea of maybe being by myself in that situation to write a novel or something, but the thought of living in that environment with my partner and my son makes me think one thing "Murder"

Answer 2

I do.  Across the road the corn stands over 2m tall, it hides the cow sheds that belong to the dairy farmer.  Peace and quiet is relative, comes late August there will be tractors from sunrise to sundown.  There are also the gas cannons, they make noise at timed intervals so the bids don't eat all the wheat.

You can keep the CD player, I'll settle for a radio.  We don't have cable or sattelite and get only the two free channels that are on tv.  The DVD player is temperamental to say the least and the video don't work since we moved as we lost the manual and can't seem to tune it in.

Gardening to me is mainly weeding and a little vegetable growing.  Ground elder is all year round, stinging nettle forests are too, bindweed is coming through at the moment.  I don't believe in chemicals.

We own a PC and a laptop.  The internet connection is my mother's on her wi-fi.  I use it maybe 2 hours a week.

If I had £500 a week spare I could sort the drive out so there would be no 3-inch puddles after the rain.  I could buy a ride-on lawnmower and save myself at least 3 hours per lawn mowing session.

The nearest shop is about 4km away but I can buy milk, butter, cheese and ice-cream with the dairy farmer across the road.  My neighbour sells eggs for 12 eurocents a piece.  We have a bus service that needs booking 2 hours before travel at the latest.  The nearest regular bus stop is 45 minutes walk.

The nearest playground for my 5-year old is 14 km away.  Her school is a 20-minute drive.

I can watch birds galore as I eat my breakfast, stand in the garden at any time of day and not hear buzzing traffic in the background.

In summer I collect kindling in the lanes at the rate of one carrier bag a week, beech and oak are the best but there is an awfull lot of poplar.

I love it.  Wouldn't swap it for the world ...

Answer 3

As much as I'd like to believe I could, I don't think I could handle it.

Answer 4

I could, but the kids couldn't.  I finally became an "empty nester" and I am proud of it.  I breed dogs, garden and don't talk on the phone all that much.  My husbands' hobby is G scale trains.  I love my quiet time fishing and boating.

I could do it, if you pay me.  How much is 500 a week, anyway.

Texas Native, small town.

Answer 5

maybe maybe not,

when im older,

i like a busy life

i would have to experience it first, then decide.

Answer 6

That's perfect. I can live with that close by the ocean and mountain. No out sider aloud. As a matter of fact is what I'm fighting for.

Answer 7

would love to live like this with no money worrys, how do i join lol

Answer 8

YES YES YES!

An empahtic YES!

That is my dear heaven. Without doubt. Absolutely YES!

Answer 9

No.

I would go stir crazy.

Answer 10

no.

I'm a movie fan, so without TV and DVD I'd go nuts after some time (but I only need the DVD connected to the TV :-D).

for the rest - yes, I could do without newspapers, PC or PC games or any kind of play station. don't have this even now.

But I'm afraid we'd all starve if my gardening abilities were to provide us with food ;-)

Answer 11

No, I don't want to be a hermit! I am not a social butterfly either, but I do enjoy occasional company. I like TV, and computers. I like shopping malls (although I am on a tight budget...and can only window shop)

I enjoy going to work. I like to "laze around" while on vacation, but then having a job makes me enjoy those lazy Saturdays even more.

I think the boredom and isolation would drive me nuts. And if you think teens would like to be isolated with mom and dad...yeah, that would drive me completely insane.

I don't know much about the English countryside. I guess that is someplace I would like to visit...but if it is like some places in rural United States. Some little hick town with one highway far away from anything but cattle and rows of corn.  It is beautiful, and a nice place to visit but wouldn't want to live there..I like country folk, but I am a sincere city gal.

Answer 12

Sounds ideal but not very realistic, especially for some one like me who likes a balance.

Answer 13

I wish I could. Maybe for a few years but I'd feel isolated and probably bored after a while.

Answer 14

You' ve put absurd limits on what you could have, so no.  I'd like to live in the country but I'd like to be free to spend my £500 on whatever

Answer 15

Yup.  Really.  That's what I want.

Answer 16

First of all, thanks for sharing this idyllic vision of a life, that you have don so kindly! Next, I proceed to express my wonder as what could have made to question that this most people would not be affirm their approval.

I think after one has worked somewhat hard to earn himself, or herself, the right to have children, to buy a bungalow, to appreciate countryside in the vicinity of a small villages where everyone would know every one else, to arrange for a regular monthly income of £500 in hard cash, to get rid of newspaper, radio, television, video games and bills, to learn to play piano, and a mind calm and free from worry, remorse or guilt of the past, good enough to allow lazing around doing nothing aside a bit of gardening, painting or writing, hen one should have no qualms whatsoever in saying yes to this offer from oneself.

I think this does appeal to me, and I think I will be able to manage this, given the fact that I would have managed going through all that I had to in order to get there. Besides, I do not think that the thought is all too fanciful, as sometimes, dreaming is the sign that one is realistically good too, that good dreams woven with the good thread of reality. I work hard and keep my dreams alive.

Answer 17

Like most things, i could probably get used to it after a while, at first i would be a bit lost without certain things, but hey, its family that matters most, isn't it?

Answer 18

To me that would be sheer bliss!  I hate tv!  Can I have my books Thats all I would request?  My kids have left home too do I need to tell them I have moved?!

Answer 19

As long as I had a computer and internet access, for most of the time, yes.

Otherwise only if I was looking for an early death from sheer boredom.

Answer 20

The quiet life is not a problem- I am almost a hermit now. The problem I have with you scenario is that I would not want that life in the English countryside. If you asked me to live on a tropical island somwhere, with just books, guitar, the sea, and enough to eat/ clothe myself, I would snap your hand off- but it needs to be near the sea. I would go stir crazy without the warm sea nearby.

Answer 21

uh totally except for the part with no video games N TV......everything else is fine! cause we fall asleep watching TV (only time we really ever watch tv) and we BOTH are huge video gamers so we need a TV for that LOL but other than that sounds fantastic! oh and some 4-wheelers...i dont mind not having tonzz of friends just me and my husband but so long as we can go do whatever

Answer 22

That sounds like the most boring lifestyle ever. Wheres the fun, excitement? If i had to live that life forever i'd kill myself.

Answer 23

Easily. Although, for the sake of the children's own social responsibility, I wouldn't take things to that extreme. If just me and my partner, as socially aware etc., then sure, no problem. In fact I would relish it, after all, it is how I spend my holiday's .. away from the madness of the global economy and all that entails.

As for losing the technology side of life. I'd still like a word-processor to write .. as for anything else, I don't think I'd need it.