The "get away" feeling

[BJE80]

I know there are pro's and con's to living on your hunting land but there is somethign speical about when you leave your normal life at home to drive to your hunting land/cabin. I am heading up to the cabin this weekend for the first time since November tonight with a couple of buddies and it is like Xmas morning for me. It always has that vacation feel for sure. I probably won't do any work. Might shoot my new muzzle loader for the first time. Other than that, good drinks, good food and good friends.

You just can't get that feeling when you live on your land.

 

[West Branch]

Unless you are semi retired like Stu I would guess :D.

I get the same feeling as you BJE. Good to get away from work, even if I end up working the whole weekend. Sometimes I'll even drive tractor making hay and it doesn't feel like work.

 

[wiscwhip]

I had it very good when I was a kid living on our land. Get off the school bus and heading to the tree stand or creek for wood ducks/mallards 10 minutes later. You really can't beat that! Feeling like I'm vacationing...yeah sure, I suppose. Kinda like putting on fancy clothes and "feeling" like a movie star. Actually being a 5 minute walk away from my hunting areas...priceless! I live in the city now and I am at least 30-35 minutes from anywhere I could go to hunt, my primary deer hunting area is an hour away...sucks...I'd love to live on my own land again.

 

[shawnv]

I think it "depends". Where I live is unique and special so I am grateful that I live where I do right now as nothing is ever guaranteed to last. As soon as I am done doing the chores, it feels the same as when I go somewhere on vacation. I go away on vacation for different experiences, not to get away so much.

 

[BJE80]

Really?

Yes. The way I see it anyway. If you live there it is your everyday life. Not a vacation.

Unless you are semi retired like Stu I would guess :D.

I get the same feeling as you BJE. Good to get away from work, even if I end up working the whole weekend. Sometimes I'll even drive tractor making hay and it doesn't feel like work.

It is just to get away from home and have a place to go away from it all.

I had it very good when I was a kid living on our land. Get off the school bus and heading to the tree stand or creek for wood ducks/mallards 10 minutes later. You really can't beat that! Feeling like I'm vacationing...yeah sure, I suppose. Kinda like putting on fancy clothes and "feeling" like a movie star. Actually being a 5 minute walk away from my hunting areas...priceless! I live in the city now and I am at least 30-35 minutes from anywhere I could go to hunt, my primary deer hunting area is an hour away...sucks...I'd love to live on my own land again.

Living on your land or close to your land sure has its benefits for sure. Someday, I may even live on my land when I retire.

 

[BJE80]

Just a bit of advice....before you (or anyone) decides to retire to a new place and new way of living....do it on a temporary basis for a couple of months first. My folks retired to their land....and my mother hated it. Dad was happy....Mom was not. I told them back then that spending a few months there before deciding to completely relocate would be a good idea. Nope....gotta do it their way. :rolleyes: Not a good way to spend your retirement

Good idea I am only 38 so we have few years to think about it. :)

 

[gwm]

I have friends that live in town and own 250 acres about 15 minutes outside of town. They have a big shed on the property and have 1/4 of it finished for living space. They love it that way. They're close to everything that involves everyday life but yet its quick and easy to get to their land. Their kids are now grown with kids of their own and they still like the set-up they have.

I live in the same town and it takes me 12 minutes to get from my driveway to my land. I'm also looking at building a shed with living quarters for the "get-away" on weekends. Living in town certainly has it's perks when getting to work and especially with taking kids someplace every night of the week.

 

[BJE80]

I have friends that live in town and own 250 acres about 15 minutes outside of town. They have a big shed on the property and have 1/4 of it finished for living space. They love it that way. They're close to everything that involves everyday life but yet its quick and easy to get to their land. Their kids are now grown with kids of their own and they still like the set-up they have.

I live in the same town and it takes me 12 minutes to get from my driveway to my land. I'm also looking at building a shed with living quarters for the "get-away" on weekends. Living in town certainly has it's perks when getting to work and especially with taking kids someplace every night of the week.

That is where we are at in life. 2 boys (4 & 7) and we live in a city with ~30,000 people. Nice for getting the kids places. The view kinda sucks however.

 

[West Branch]

I had it very good when I was a kid living on our land. Get off the school bus and heading to the tree stand or creek for wood ducks/mallards 10 minutes later. You really can't beat that! Feeling like I'm vacationing...yeah sure, I suppose. Kinda like putting on fancy clothes and "feeling" like a movie star. Actually being a 5 minute walk away from my hunting areas...priceless! I live in the city now and I am at least 30-35 minutes from anywhere I could go to hunt, my primary deer hunting area is an hour away...sucks...I'd love to live on my own land again.

I grew up the same way but I am now just over 3 hours away. My parents and brothers still live in the area, and we get a long, so it makes it easier to go up there. I would give up the vacation feeling I get now to live up there and my wife has said she would be interested too! Not a good area for jobs for my wife and I though.

 

[OkieKubota]

We live on a 10 acre parcel in the country and everyday after work driving home feels like Vacation to me. Most evenings I don't go in until after dark and am doing tree plantings, hinge cuts, moving cedars, tractor work, etc...

I have a 1300 acre deer lease I can go to anytime and I usually go down once every couple of months in the off season and a few times during season to hunt but knowing I will never be able to live there makes it just a place to go hunt... Can't really do much chainsaw work there unless what I am cutting is already dead and not doing any tree plantings because every year could be our last down there...

We have 80 Acres with some outstanding deer and deer hunting about 35 minutes north of where we live. I enjoy going up there but everytime I drive up to the property I feel apprehension as to whether my game cams, treestands are still there and whether or not someone has cut the fence or destroyed the gate since I am an absentee landowner. (None of these things have ever happened BTW) but I will feel much better when we actually begin living full time on the property this spring. Just something about anytime I have time off I know I can step outside and do the habitat work I want to do or I can simply just relax on the porch and marveling at the beauty of the place 365 days of the year instead of 10 days of the year...

 

[wiscwhip]

Just a bit of advice....before you (or anyone) decides to retire to a new place and new way of living....do it on a temporary basis for a couple of months first. My folks retired to their land....and my mother hated it. Dad was happy....Mom was not. I told them back then that spending a few months there before deciding to completely relocate would be a good idea. Nope....gotta do it their way. :rolleyes: Not a good way to spend your retirement

This is a very similar situation to what my parents are experiencing right now stu. They packed up and moved to WY to be near my brother and his boys, which was great, except they both kind of hate it out there. They say it's great being a 15 minute drive from the mountains, but it sucks only having a couple small grocery stores, a family owned drug store and a Pamida, the nearest Wal-Mart/Shopko/Walgreen's type stores are almost an hour away. I told them the same thing as well, try it for a few months before you commit, nope and now they are having second thoughts.

 

[scott44]

To be honest I don't know how all you guys juggle the habitat projects and not live on your property, I can see if it was a short distance but hours away. Congrats to your determination! I like the fact that I can go out after work and get something done before dark or watch how something is coming along. Yes it would be nice to take a vacation once and awhile but my back 40 is my vacation most of the time. I've thought of buying land somewhere else when I retire but that's about as far as its gone.

 

[wiscwhip]

^^^Its a big change whip. I know first hand from moving from suburban Dane County where I was within a 5-10 minute drive to literally hundreds of good restaurants and every type of retail store you could imagine.... to a very rural area where you gotta explore to find a place to get a halfway decent burger and the nearest big box store is an hour away. There are trade offs either way you go...that's why its important IMHO to try it out on a temporary basis at first.

I know where your coming from stu, and I am just the opposite. When I moved from mom and dad's place into New Lisbon, only 6 miles away, I thought it sucked. And now having moved an hour away to a city of 55,000 people, it sucks worse. I hated driving from Kenosha/Lake Geneva up to Mauston every weekend when I was a young child, "Are we there yet? Are We there yet? Are We there yet?", I was so happy when we decided to move up there permanently when I was 11. Sure the amenities you get in or very near town are great, but it doesn't make up for the daily serenity you get from taking a walk out on your "back 40" just by stepping out the door. Some folks can't handle having to drive to "get the goods", I can't stand not "living in the woods"!;)

 

[BJE80]

So you guys that live on your land do you lose the hunting camp feeling as well?

 

[scott44]

So you guys that live on your land do you lose the hunting camp feeling as well?

I guess I do but I've never really had the hunting camp feeling, growing up we always hunted my grand parents land and it was 10mi away. I've visited some good hunting camps and had fun but our house is our hunting camp now so I guess you don;t miss what you've never had.

 

[wiscwhip]

Our place was "hunting camp" all the time!

 

[BJE80]

Missing the hunting camp feeling where you are still sleeping in your own bed would be one of the things I would miss if I lived on the land

 

[wiscwhip]

^^^Yup and once you "live it", that feeling doesn't even matter anymore, and if you are like me and make a move from the woods to the city, you will always long to be back in the woods.

 

[BJE80]

My wife wants to live in the country again as well. It is too easy with the kids right now to live where we do. Someday.... Someday. I do hate where I live. Fully admitted.

 

[OkieKubota]

Our situation is a little different than some in that I have grown up in a good deer hunting area. The 10 acres my wife and I currently own and are living on is a part of the 55 acres my parents raised us on and family still owns all of the rest of that. I am 20 minutes from work and town which has all the amenities... when we move to our 80 I will be 20 minutes fromm work and town just in the other direction. My wife will be 15 minutes CLOSER to her job so we will still be working at the same jobs and the same town is still our "gettin" place...

If we lived many hours away as some of you do all of this would be much harder but since I REALLY HATE TO DRIVE long distances even 1 time a year we would have to relocate to good deer hunting property if we were in that situation and perhaps even start completely over as many of you would... We sometimes visit my wifes sister in her subdivision and I would literally just die if I had to live like that...