Miss my old neighbor

[cowman]

I used to have a neighbor that was a really good guy. We always neighbored back and forth helping each other out and borrowing each others stuff. If I was away he did my chores and viceversa.
He packed it in last year and moved out to the coast. I really miss him not just because of the help but because we also were good freinds all our lives. As the rural population, depopulates, and is being replaced by the suburbanite who will we have to help us out and share a common goal with? I hate the way this rural life is dying.

[rookie]

I know what you mean... I am 34 and wonder what things may look like in a few more years.

[cakadu]

With any luck the people that come "next door" will be those we can learn something from. It would be awful to see all the existing farms being turned into acreages, taking away that neighbor helping neighbor feeling.

Being on the other side though, we have lived here over 10 years and are still considered the "new people". I wonder when that changes?

[carebear300]

Will relate my personal little story to discussion for what it is worth. I have been farming here for the last 32 years and my family has farmed here since 1905, but it took till two years ago for a close neighbour to accept me as a friend and neighbour, before that he thought for sure I would go broke or quit and wouldn't be around. He passed away last year and I do miss him a bunch. I have two other neighbours that have packed it in and are moving to alberta, they have jobs out in the oil patch. I will miss them big time but really wonder if I shouldn't be maybe following them out west. They gross as much in a month as I net in a whole year. I am all together to stubborn actually still like it right where I am.

[countryguy]

I couldn't blame people from Alberta for packing it in and moving elsewhere.Why wouldn't they?They can sell what they have in Alberta,buy an equal amount in another province and still have a small fortune left over.That's what I'd be doing if I was in those shoes!

Carebear,your neighbors headed to the oilpatch is exactly what I am strongly considering right now.Last week we returned from a 2 week trip to Alberta and while there absolutely fell in love with Red Deer.I am not one for cities but that is one I could live in.

Our farm is at a place right now that either we take on another round of big debt or level off and call it quits in the next couple years.The more I think about it the more unsure I get about the farm.I could sell out,buy a nice place there for cash and start making the big bucks with no worries.Seems to be the logical thing to do.I am torn.

Do your neighbors have any regrets?

[carebear300]

Yes they do have regrets, already they miss all the good things that we all love about farming. The thing that keeps them going is that they don't miss all the money problems that they had farming. Refinancing, restructuring of debt and trying to get their bills paid up to date. They claim that they have so much more energy everyday because they aren't so stressed out over finances but they would be back giving it a whirl again likely if they could see their way clear that there was a future in agriculture for them again.

[cowman]

Countryguy: Yea, Red Deer is rockin and rollin! I think we are up to about 75,000 now and expanding like crazy! Red Deer is pretty well the major service center for the oil patch and there are lots and lots of service type companies. The Petro chemical plants just north and east of the city are pretty awesome and the jobs there pay very well. Any kind of trade will get you a job in that 100K range or better! West of the city there is a virtual goldmine going on right now with the developement of a large methane gas field, soon to be followed by methane fields in the east to the river. Maybe more gas in these methane beds than all the gas we've ever had in conventional fields!
The RD Municipal airport is scheduled to grow into an international airport over the next ten years rivalling Calgary and Edmonton.
However it isn't all rosy! Drugs and crime are becoming real problems especially in the downtown area. Crack and Crystal meth seem to be the drugs of choice and organized crime is firmly established.

[dalek]

Sounds good cowman. A guy I played football in university with is in Red Deer, running the family electrical business last I heard.

[cakadu]

Seems to me that one of the challenges of progress is the balance between what we do want to see versus what we don't want to see or have in our midst.

As far as the drugs and such go around Red Deer, they were always there, it may just be more newsworthy now. The drugs of choice today seem to be much more harmful than before - kids just don't realize what they are doing. We were all invincible in our youth, remember?

Another of the challenges is to have enough foresight to predict with some accuracy what some of the consequeces might be. Everything we do has unforeseen consequences - with any luck the planners around Red Deer are astute enough to consider some of them. Once some of these changes are made, they are irreversible.