Originally Posted by
Kestrel
OP here. We live in what's called a "forest reserve". 100+ year old trees with limited logging, replant requirements and no hunting/wildlife refuge. There are 220 - 20 acre lots with dirt and gravel roads with little or no road signs. It's fairly easy to find the reserve gate, but then we have miles of dirt road to the house.
For the most part, we love it here. No worries about funky development or neighbor problems - we're too far apart. There are fairly strict rules about set-backs, so we don't generally see our neighbors. We have daily visits from deer, bunnies, and tons of birds. Occasional raccoons, eagles, hawks, and we've seen elk, black bear, and even tracks from a cougar (though we didn't get to see the cougar). There are negative things, too - we have to be very careful with our trash or we can attract raccoon/opossum attention, we have to be very careful with pets. A recent severe wind and snowstorm knocked out power for five days and two huge trees across our access road that we had to go out in the storm and chainsaw/haul out of the road. We are without power perhaps twenty or thirty days a year, as we are "end of the line" when power is out. We have electric, landline phone and crappy internet, but no gas, water, cell phone coverage, sewer, or mail delivery. Oh, no school bus either - just to the gate.
For us, we're happy here, though there are disadvantages being so far from "civilization".