[HN Gopher] Dispatches from the farm upstate
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Dispatches from the farm upstate
Author : walterbell
Score : 50 points
Date : 2024-08-04 17:55 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (lcamtuf.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (lcamtuf.substack.com)
| Temporary_31337 wrote:
| Interesting that this is a place that is 10 minutes drive from a
| nearby town and yet requires all year round maintenance. At least
| in Alaska the government gives citizens tax incentives for simply
| living there but looks like owning a rural property in US
| nowadays is very far from homesteading of yesteryear- you have to
| pay taxes and pretty much need some additional source of income
| just to get by.
| maxerickson wrote:
| In areas with higher population density, land values are driven
| by recreation and are thousands of dollars an acre. Not
| expensive compared to urban land, but a far cry from working
| the land to earn it.
| Temporary_31337 wrote:
| I agree with both of you, of course, but this means that in
| order to just break even you have to do something like
| tourism or similar just to cover your own costs of taxes and
| plowing.
| jeffbee wrote:
| > thousands of dollars an acre
|
| Did you mean per square foot?
| michaelt wrote:
| To me it sounds like the "all year round maintenance" is mostly
| because they've got a lot of land.
|
| You've got to get the snow off your driveway no matter where
| you live. If you buy a property with half mile of driveway,
| you're going to have to shift a lot of snow.
|
| You've got to maintain the trees on your property, no matter
| where you live. If you buy 20,000 trees you're going to have to
| maintain a lot of trees. And so on.
| motohagiography wrote:
| such a pleasure to read. I've followed lcamtuf's work since the
| 90s and also now live rurally. this week's project was figuring
| out how to fell a large dead tree without being killed by its
| upper limbs breaking from the pressure release, and working on
| some home sigint tools for doing rural property security, but
| mostly to justify upgrading the rtl-sdr to an ettus. country life
| isn't for everyone, but you see the impacts of tech, economics,
| and cultural change more clearly in the country because they're
| more stark against the backdrop of natural rhythms and things
| that change at the pace of seasons.
| jcims wrote:
| Same and actually had the pleasure of working with lcamtuf
| briefly about ten years ago.
|
| >Country life isn't for everyone, but you see the impacts of
| tech, economics, and cultural change more clearly in the
| country because they're more stark against the backdrop of
| natural rhythms and things that change at the pace of seasons.
|
| Couldn't agree more. Aside from a few short stints I've lived
| in rural locations my entire life and one of the things that
| encouraged me about the major shift to remote work is that the
| folks that are shaping so many of these factors also have a
| better opportunity to experience it first hand.
|
| >working on some home sigint tools for doing rural property
| security, but mostly to justify upgrading the rtl-sdr to an
| ettus
|
| Never did upgrade to the ettus but spent lots of time ogling
| their products. My 'project I'll never do but it's fun to think
| about' lately has been figuring out a way to watch the behavior
| of the uplink beam from my starlink with some kind of mesh of
| detectors/receivers. Seems very doable but the dopamine of
| finding a viable way will probably be enough for me to let go
| of it haha.
| asynchronous wrote:
| On display here is the race towards trying to buy land somewhere
| before a Californian manages to bail from Silicon Valley and buy
| it before you. Wish the best to all the young folks enduring this
| competition currently.
| reducesuffering wrote:
| Housing and land prices in metros are crazy and much building
| should be done. But, rural land like his are abundant. Even a
| couple hours from Silicon Valley is a house on acres for $300k.
| doe_eyes wrote:
| Plus, rural land usually can't be developed into high-density
| housing. Conservation issues aside, there's no water and
| sewer, no fire service, no adequate roads, etc.
|
| New housing is created either by densifying urban lots, or by
| gradually annexing areas that are immediately adjacent.
| m0llusk wrote:
| This when young the city was fun but when older than mattered
| less thing does not match with my own experience at all. Having
| an extended family and running a service business I have known
| quite a few people getting old and aging into their final years.
| Having people around and things to do can be critical for
| maintaining quality of life. It is really common for older people
| in rural locations to become isolated an unable to access the
| things that once brought joy to their lives. Seems like a
| potentially interesting contrast to call out.
| jeffbee wrote:
| Yeah I also find this odd. Especially at my age with children
| at home, why would I take them away from all the opportunities
| a city offers? When they are very young and not social you
| might want them to have a place to just crawl around and taste
| dirt, but as soon as they are social you need people around,
| and in later childhood the opportunities in sports, music,
| dance, and other arts call for at least a fairly large town. I
| can imagine myself leaving the city after my kids are
| independent but even so, dispersed living seems to offer little
| except manual labor. I'd want a town of a least a few thousand
| so I stand a chance of meeting some new friends of my own age.
|
| A humorous book on the topic of the fact that rural life is
| mostly just a lot of work, see "Against The Country".
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