People living in the countryside moaning about rural life

There is a fight amongst our neighbours and allotment holders when we clean out our chicken compost bins. Mature chicken poo fertilises like nothing else!

We are thinking of copying our friends who have a haybale urinal at the bottom of their garden. When rotted down , again produces excellent fertiliser. It is also thought if you encourage your young male friends to use it it will deter foxes.

At least we no longer have gong farmers ... Kids who went around picking up dog poo for use in the tanning industry , although it would solve the problem of people who bag up dog poo and hang it on a hedge.

You clearly meant 'chemical fertilisers', which are fairly carbon-heavy to make and do not contribute to good soil structure in the way that manures do.

Cows produce shit. Either it is just seen as 'waste' or is seen (and used) as product in its own right, and used to fertilise fields. It doesn't have to be shipped over from, say Norway (like nitrogen fertiliser is - or certainly used to be), but just trailered down the lane. It doesn't cost the farmer a small fortune (suggest you watch the latest series of Clarkson's Farm on that point). Using it removes the need to treat it as waste (which saves more money and carbon). And it's good for the soil. Win, win, win, win.

I've lived rurally or semi-rurally most of my life. I can ID the very different smells of sheep shit, cow shit, pig shit and horse shit. It goes with the territory.

There really is a problem with chemical fertilisers. Google it! This is why large areas are turning into arid dustbowls. Natural fertiliser is essential for soil health.

Yep. Ideal fertiliser. Although my son has been working on an international project on the best ways to collect human urine and utilise it for fertiliser. Everyone pees out enough nitrogen to grow wheat for a loaf of bread every week (or day I can't remember now). I have "donated" to the project.

There's nothing wrong with chemicals, everything is chemical

the escaped sheep in the gardens (actually that is bloody annoying and the farm's fault)
In fairness, it can be. But we've had an issue locally with groups of mountain bikers using the footpaths and cutting the wire by the kissing gates (where there used to be stiles) to get their bikes through.
And some idiots who deliberately cut the wire around a field of cattle.

And as for people being grossed out by slurry and suggesting 'chemicals' instead...!

You mean cow shit that our food is grown in

Laughing at the using slurry is gross. People pay more for organic. It's using artificial chemicals that causes problems.

Umm, because we know something about farming and ecology? We know how your food is produced.

Do you think chemicals don’t smell?

@YourPinkDog did you win the stand off? I hope you did!

Oh my god ! Eugh !

If you’re not ok with it I suggest not eating anything that comes out of the ground as it’s used everywhere. And if you think animal poo is bad, they use human poo too in the fields near me, happy eating!

Because shit is the answer to most land management problems and slurry is very rich. It doesn't damage the delicate eco system of grazing pasture and its free. Fertiliser prices have gone through the roof.

I just can't get over how gross it is. How can people be ok with it ?

Chemicals are killing off all of the good things!!!! If we keep killing off insects etc. we as the human race will die out!!! Which may not be a bad thing in all honesty…

We had people complaining about the farmer not clearing up the cow sh*t in his field that the footpath ran across…

The very worst to me are Americans who move to a foreign country to "immerse themselves in the culture," then spend their time bitching and moaning about that culture, especially in rural areas! "Why are the bedrooms so small?" "Why are the ceilings so low?" "Why are there cows/sheep everywhere???" "Why can't the grocer get (name any brand of American whateveritis) for me?" AND I AM AMERICAN! We tend to be the worst, I think. I am so frequently embarrassed for my countrymen. I'm so sorry, y'all, we really are not ALL like that!

Sooo true!

Definitely a divide where I live between country people who by and large just get on with their lives and newer residents who bring a suburban and petty mindset with them...they need to learn to embrace country life and chill!

That said, I'm absolutely not against newer houses being built in countryside, it's good to bring new blood to villages and liven the community up a bit... it's just that more needs to be done to bring communities together and help these clueless townies integrate!

NoPowerInTheVerse Sadly, Show of Hands are themselves no longer available.

My parents rurally and one of their neighbours is like this. Hates the noise of the country etc.

She Is also a (self proclaimed) ‘eco warrior.’ However she lives in a massive house and drives a Range Rover with a bumper sticker that says ‘Climate Action NOW!!!’ 😏

So, I can see absurdities from both sides, here (in the small village we live on the edge of).

We moved here in 2010 so will forever be regarded as 'incomers' but I think have settled in pretty well, and DH had a semi-rural childhood, so none of it is alien to him. And I'm sensible and not an arse.

But there are LOADS of fecking ignorant noobs (some of whom, given their level of education, you'd really hope would know better) who complain about: the tractors, the sileage, the escaped sheep in the gardens (actually that is bloody annoying and the farm's fault), the smells, and my personal favourite, the querulous enquiry in the village facebook group about why the church bells were always 'going mad' on Wednesday evenings (that's bellringing practice night. She seemed not to understand what that is or why it needed to take place). Same woman bitches about each and every fun activity, event or trail that takes place in the village because it's run by the church or for the benefit of the church. Very few of them are faith-focussed but it just happens that the church here functions as a social hub and heart of the village. I'm an atheist and I think that's really nice. Anyway.

But on the other hand, there are a few born-in-the-villagers who come out with some really stupid, insular things too. Like our neighbours, who would like a better view of the horizon and therefore would like ALL the trees in all the gardens bordering their own to be cut down. Or the woman who, during the first lockdown, was very concerned that Youth were attending illegal gatherings in the layby at the edge of the village and that they would be coming from Outside The Village and therefore bring the Plague in with them... (I assume she wasn't herself attending these parties.) It's a nice village in a prosperous county, about ten miles outside one of the most expensive towns to live in in the UK, and not a remote outpost, but some of the ingrained attitudes are fairly cringeworthy. Not to mention racist on occasion.

The whole Thing of townie incomers upsetting the locals with their absurd expectations is centuries old though. I remember writing an A Level essay about this very theme in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.

I think I’m weird for many reasons but none of the reasons you state. My family is of mixed heritage and with religion I am very much each to their own, I’ve never shot a gun at anything except a clay pigeon and I’m a vegetarian. In fact I don’t know anyone who lives near me that fits your description except one of my neighbours does shoot pheasants to eat occasionally.

Your view of people who live in the countryside is very bitter sounding.

Oh please… no thanks

I actually own all the rabbits around here, according to the townies who have moved in down the road. Because I 'admitted' to having a burrow on my land, then every single rabbit around here is living on my 5 acre field and it is therefore my responsibility to 'deal' with them because they keep eating my neighbours veg patch.