wanted: people to tell stories about rural life

[cap]

and how these lives have been changed since 2000. I am writing a blog to collect stories about life in these United States... Something like the WPA Federal Writers Project.

No one is capturing any of the massive dislocations caused by the bush administration and I want to document it in a manner similar to WPA.

If anyone wants to help collect stories (besides telling their own) let me know.

Uploads of pictures, videos, audio are also welcome.

[stellanoir]

1. I live on a farm

we grow blueberries and Christmas trees. The taxes are ever increasing. The services are ever declining. Today we got a several hundred dollar bill to post a law for empolyees we don't even have. It's total bull.

Wish we could just grow hemp. It would be far easier. And far more profitable. But NOOOOOOOOOO. We can't.

Sure, they hate us for our freedoms.

[cap]

2. Blueberries and Xmas trees... how nice...

How did you get started? Did you grow up on a farm? What was farming like when you began?

What do you see the future in farming? How's your family making out? How has changes in globalization and technology affected you?

[stellanoir]

3. well it was kind of a fluke

My dad was an educator and I was a writer. I'm from old maternal Yankee stock. He thought it a fine idea to become a gentleman farmer after years of being a school administrator. He had no clue whatsoever how labor intensive farm labor would be. He's approaching 80.

Yes, I grew up on a farm and all my extended maternal family is involved in horticultural pursuits.

I travelled the world for extensive periods before I became a mom. Then I became reanchored to the homefront.

The situation currently looks a bit bleak. Ever rising taxes for reduced services are crippling us. We don't want to sell the land so we'll hold out as long as we can. We're dealing primarily with local, not global markets and our customers are fairly wealthy in this neighborhood. But these extraneous costs are continually exacting. And they have to do entirely with * starving the states for dough.

In short, it sucks.

[cap]

4. where are you located?

city/state, if you wish to tell... or general geographic region is OK too.

What was your day-to-day life like before 2000 and how has it changed.

[stellanoir]

5. I live in a sleepy seaside berg in south coastal New England

I live in the dinkiest state with the longest name. The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. That's most unbelievably, our true name.

All sorts of people of color wanted us to change the name a couple of years ago but they mistakingly thought that the "plantations" reference indicated that we had slaves when in truth, many of the founders of this state (including Nicholas Brown of Brown University) were slave traders not slave owners.

Big diff. . .as if. . . .

But this state was one of the first known for freedom of religion and though the slave trading is most loathesome, the freedom of religion was most cool.

Well the onerous limitations on the states have increased our taxes exponentially and things are far tougher as they are for anyone trying to make an honest living under this administration.

There are the ever fluctuating weather conditions to consider as well.

As for growing up, I remember when the guys were putting up the snow fences and we had to go out and tell them that JFK had been shot. I remember spending all of my school vacations dealing with potatoes and squashing my fingers repeatedly under the gears of the digger. I remember building castles of bales of hay. Those are all treasured memories. Thanks for asking.

[cap]

6. RI brings back memories, too...

I grew up in Cranston RI. I have a lot of family near Pawtucket/Cumberland RI. You are in rural RI. In the South, near the Ocean? The northeast is a collection of villages... it may seem urbanized, but people really clump together.

So how do you build a castle with bales of hay? What was rural culture like? Heavily Catholic, I assume.

Taxes in NE states are going up because people want their services. What are you cutting back on in order to pay your taxes?

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[theoldgeezer]

8. I have several stories

which are all segments of my life. Which part of my life are you interested in?

If we're going to focus on 2000 to now...

I left my factory trained technician job in 2000 to pursue something less dirty and more to my liking. It was a dead end of sorts, the business wasn't prospering much, my health was being affected by it.

I spent 2 years at the local Community College, taking a bunch of technical courses, and gaining knowledge of a lot of stuff I had never managed to get into before - all along the lines of networking, computer hardware, operating systems, some programming, etc.

I had previously tried starting my own ISP, with the remaining assets of an ISP that had sold out to someone else. I failed at it, I went broke in 1999.

In 2002, I again, had the itch, and after gaining a lot more perspective, seeing the forward advancement of the technologies, decided to again, pursue my dream.

A bit of a background... I live in a very rural area... in a small town of 700 people, and our major "industry" is agriculture. Wheat, fruit, canola, peas, etc, and some small amount of cattle ranching. We used to have quite a bit of logging and a small amount of mining, but all the mills have been closed, and all the woods are federal, meaning they are closed to logging, for the most part.

Lately, wine and grape growing has replaced some of the orchards wheat fields.

Late in 2002, I finally decided I HAD to try this again. From 2002 until 2004, I studied the business, tried to get a job in the IT industry (and other places doing IT work) and could not. Nor could I find any financiing. My credit was destroyed in a bankruptcy in 1997, and re-ruined in my business failure in 1999.

Finally, I cashed out my retirement in early 2004, and began in earnest putting something real in place. I didn't have quite enough, and during that process, I took on a partner that is presently a refugee from the same employer and industry I was in before... But he is an industrial accident case, and is presently being compensated for work-related injury, due to repeated surgeries.

We first deployed in July of 2004, wireless broadband technology, and went through a 6 month test phase, and upon completion of that, we're now subscribing people to our service and seeing moderate growth.

What we do, is offer wireless based broadband to rural areas that are otherwise not served by DSL or Cable services - and do so at rates less than best competitive offerings in the larger cities. We have about 7000 rooftops in a 1000 square mile area which we envision as our market. We focus on residential service. We plan on reaching "average" acceptance rates for rural broadband, meaning about 500 customers in 3 years.


This is part of our area.


another part of it.


My town and it's surrounds.


Winter scenery


spring scenery...

Yes, it's been a tough time. 5 years on one income, and not a steady one at that. My wife travels in order to earn an income for us - working in a dozen far-flung places from LA to Detroit, to Alaska to Hawaii to Missouri, in order for us to make it. We have been down to having consumed every thing in the house and having nothing to eat... Several times. Today, I have a small negative balance in everytyhing but the business account, and it's a week and a half till payday for the wife. One tank of gas in the work truck, and that's it.

But we're going to make it. I love what I do. I get to provide people with a great service, at a great price, and someday, I'll have to make enough to recover my retirement - and I've got only a few years left to do it. I'm not your typical person here. I see regulation, high taxes, and so on, as obstacles to my life.. I need those "business tax breaks" so I can survive and compete against the big telco and cable companies when they come to town or turn on new areas.

So, while this may not be the doom and gloom you're looking for.. There really isn't much "doom and gloom" around here. Although we've been knocked hard by the loss of logging and mining, people are still holding on, dealing with thing as best they can.

[cap]

10. not looking for gloom and doom

and I LOVE your pictures...

[kestrel91316]

14. Ooohhhh, love the pics, and I have a sneakin' suspicion you're

in or near the Palouse (SE WA).......that looks like wheat, and those look like the Blue Mtns.

I used to live in Hermiston, OR and LOVE the Walla Walla, WA area, which are in that neighborhood.

[Sequoia]

9. Rural life is:

1) Walking a quarter mile to the bus stop

2) Neighbors kids are Bubba and Sissy

3) Hearing birds instead of police sirens

4) A wood burning fireplace

5) Living on a dirt road

6) Yelling loud to get your kids to come in before dark

7) Having a veggie garden and harvesting your food

8) Romps in the hay

9) Knowing the facts of life before your city school mates

10) Wooden floors

11) Fresh air

12) All your cows have names

13) Telling your kid, no more pet snakes, lizards, tadpoles or other outside critters.

14) Cornbread and pinto beans with onions and melted cheese on top.

15) Lots of blankets in the winter

[cap]

11. lovely... beautiful memories...

eom

[Kali]

12. This probably isn't what you are looking for

but its pretty indicative of rural life along the border with Mexico right now.

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=oid:75277


If you do want something like this let me know because while I am 60 miles north I have the same stuff happening.

For some reason that link isn't working try this:

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Cover/index

Click on the story "Susie's Letter to Mexico"

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

13. Delete

[passiveprogressive]

15. Rural life in the South

You seem to be missing a lot of testimony about rural life in the South. Luckily, my town is THE staple of Southern rural life...though my family doesn't farm, our house sandwiched in between our field and two others on either side of it, and across the road from us is (surprise!) another field. It's the kind of town that got excited when a quickie-mart moved in; we have no stop lights in town and no gas pumps for upwards of fifteen miles. I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for in the way of changing since 2000, so if you want to contact me via IM or through this message board, feel free.