Rose Cottage Ltd

When I first started the Rose Cottage Ltd web site in 2006 I wanted to share some of my thoughts about country/rural living. My efforts were not to say that living country versus living city was better – just that living outside city or even suburban areas could be a great choice for some.

This past weekend I got a shot of one of the downsides of really rural living so for those trying to make a decision to move permanently to the country – here goes.

When I bought my 7 acres about 50 miles outside Raleigh, North Carolina I knew that one edge of the property bordered a fenced and pastured field. There were no animals to be seen in the pasture for awhile after I moved in but in the last 7 years I’ve had the pleasant company of an aging horse – who really WAS put out to pasture!

Paint died peacefully of old age, laying out on a sunny bank in this pasture, 2 years ago this December. I still miss him.

Since then, the pasture has been occupied by groups of cows – sometimes of the female variety and sometimes bulls – big ones. They cause no problem to me, on this side of the fence. They sometimes meander down to see what I’m doing out in the yard but I feel we all peacefully co-exist in our environments.

The unfortunate part of this story is that this 14-acre pasture is a grazing ground for the cows which means it needs to have good grass for them to munch which means it gets fertilized a couple times a year. This is not a pleasant time for our little country community.

Before the local poultry house closed, my neighbor used to get chicken “leavings” from them which he then spread across a huge portion of this pasture as fertilizer. If you’ve never experienced this aroma – good for you. It is pretty nasty. The smell would hang around my property – which is downhill from his property in the normal breeze direction – for a week.

This year and in fact this past Saturday, the neighbor spread some sort of standard fertilizer product across the field. I’ve had a borderline headache ever since. And there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.

The 4-legged neighbors enjoying the day…

I’m not happy about this fertilizer or the headache. Think of walking through the outside portion of Lowe’s Home Improvement on a warm day – where the stacks of mulch and fertilizer are kept – you may get some idea of what aroma is hanging in the air here right now.

But, he is entitled to fertilize the field – as long as he applies the stuff no closer than 20 feet of the property line. The fact that the wind moves what he’s spraying is not something considered. I’m not happy about that either since it means my property, and my 4-acre lake, get “air-fertilized” whether I like it or not.

While this seems pretty bad right now, I still have to compare it to my last trip to a large city. The noise, the banks of cars more-or-less idling 4 rows deep on cramped city streets and constantly belching exhaust…

I had more than a borderline headache there.

So, knowing that this fertilizing process takes place only twice a year max, I’ll take a couple sinus tablets and wait for the aroma to settle. And still be glad I live in the country.

NOTE: I believe his spreading of this fertilizer would have a much worse impact had I moved out here in hopes of running a certified Organic Farming business. The USDA has some pretty tight requirements for organic farming and for products to be labeled “Organic” – which they should.

If you are contemplating certified organic farming and are looking for rural property, make sure you check out neighboring properties first – particularly farms or pastures. Just FYI…