People living in the countryside moaning about rural life

[SuePreemly]

I live in a village. New housing estates have gone in recently. Since then we've had complaints on the local FB page about:

Horse poo on roads
Crow scarers in the field being loud
Slurry smells
Dust during combine season

What on earth do people who move into a rural village surrounded by fields expect?

They're always on about having "consideration for others" on their posts, whilst showing none to the place and people whose work involves it 🥴

Some woman was moaning on Facebook about our village market every Monday and how it should be stopped as people owning cars have to move them on Sunday night if they park in the street. The market has been there since the 1700s.

Also apparently cow shit smells. Who knew!

I had a friend who moved very rurally without thinking it through. Not the things above but stuff like their being no paths between towns and not being able to walk, nothing for the kids to do, impossible to buy milk when the only shop closes and what it would actually be like in the winter. She lasted about 18 months.

Moved north very rurally 20+ years ago.
Mil visited (one & only time) in summer.
It was too cold.
The roads were too windy.
The pheasants were noisy.
The shops were too far away.
There was nothing here.

Thankfully it was only a week before we were once again peacefully enjoying rural life. I love it.

Getting stuck behind tractor on commute.
The cows moo too loudly.
Cows/ sheep in road,
What's the farmers number... there's a sheep loose..?
Why can't I walk my dog in X field..?
Why are people always riding their horses in the road at school run time..?

I could go on. I am semi-rural as in village that's been sucked into the town over time but then miles of countryside- also a touristy area so it can get clogged up by people who don't understand how to drive through lanes.

The area i live in is very rural and a large common land. Newcomers into the area, especially young ones, complain of sheep on the grass verges and in the village.

what they don’t realise is the village is IN the common land and the sheep and cattle have every right to graze.

im sick of the posts!

Oh yep! We get this here (large village/very very small town getting ever larger).
Eurgh! Tiny black beetles everywhere! (Thunderflies)
Noise from a cockerel (who is in a coop 50-100 metres from their house and not let out till 7.30/8 in the morning)
What do you mean, I have to reverse? (Well, the other bloke can't, he's towing a mobile generator or similar which clearly weighs a ton and his truck stalls when he tries)
The roads in the middle are all too narrow. The council should widen them. (No mate, it's a conservation area, you're not pulling it down, and if Farmer Giles can drive a tractor through it, I'm sure you'll learn how to navigate it eventually)
And the strange looks you get when you greet them cheerily out on local footpaths...

Though to be fair, we had a couple of Londoners move in nearby about 3 years ago. They have fitted in, love the shortage of street lights and never complain about any noises or strange items of traffic.

Edited to add one

Did they expect nappies on the cows when you got them in for milking?

My mum had a complaint once that her fields were too lumpy!

The new housing estates are probably the unreasonable bit. Many would not be needed if brownfield sites were re-purposed, short term holiday letting banned in some areas, and second homes reduced substantially in number.

My friend lives on the edge of suburbia, when she moved there nearly 30 years ago it WAS rural, there were fields pretty much all round however 2 or 3 huge housing estates later then covid EVERYONE walked and discovered here road was nice for a walk, the new estates are pricey naice houses in a good catchment. She used to keep about a dozen chicken, and hatched them for the school, and would cull the cockerels from the hatching for the pot gradually. A neighbour on one of the estates complained about the cockerel waking her THREE MONTHS after the final one was culled that year! Nobody else keeps chickens as the new estate gardens are tiny, far too small, and I think a covenant against farm animals, so she knew it was just the neighbour being nasty. She says when the developers come knocking for her land she'll be off the somewhere properly rural again.

Edited to add : and there's a regular poster on FB complains the horse riders should pick up the poo.

We have had people suggesting nappies for horses

We've had that here too. Nappies/someone following with a poo scoop/rider carrying a spade and binbag. This is a small farming village where animals are still herded along the roads. That said, I've seen similar comments on here about horse poo, so I'm not really surprised. Our main moaner about horse poo/wildlfe gardens has a garden full of artificial grass which he hoovers.

It's not really rural around where I live but there is an ex military Airfield near by so there are occasional whinges about aircraft noise on FB plus a mile or so away, there were complaints about a loud bang being heard intermittently one Sunday morning. Apparently it was a bird scarer on one of the huge fields that has always happened.

Also we are right on the coast so obviously seagulls can get noisy ...

You'd think people would check out the areas they are moving to before they actually buy a property. 🙄🙄

Put on the gate of a local stable after a townie moved in next door then started complaining about noise and smells...🤣

Do you live near me?! We've had all of these too.

I’m as townie as they come and am late to work every day during the harvest because I stop to watch. And I think people avoid me in the pub/cafe if I look like I have questions. Apart from the ones that keep bees they always answer my many questions. It’s like Disneyland to me (not in a horrible freak show way).

Townies are annoying in the town too. There is a lovely 200 year old pub with garden in the city I live in. People bought next to it and then complained about the noise from the beer garden. 🙄 The beer garden was subsequently required to close at 8pm. 😡

Ditto people moving to new build next to an entertainment venue and then complaining about the noise.

These are effectively affluent people who are used to getting their own way.

These people aren't called Jones by any chance, first name after the late Queen??

I grew up in a city and it took me a long time to adapt when I moved somewhere rural but it was half the fun to learn just how real the countryside is. Too many city folk have no bloody clue about where their food comes from or how tough it is to live in the country these days. They should all be force fed Show of Hands before being allowed to leave the city boundary in my opinion....

(Other bands are available.)

Some friends are dairy farmers and they had repeated issues with a local man stripping naked and "bathing" in their spreader.

I moved to a rural location from a city and I've been here 20yrs now. You learn the rhythm of the year by what the farmers are doing. Parts of the year there are lots of tractors on the road slowing things down, but they are either sowing or harvesting. Loud combine noise late into the night in July/August along with dust that means you can't put out washing or open windows. Yet you expect it, it is never more than a few days of accommodating their work and you know it is for a good reason. I may well end up eating what they have harvested. I've never found it something to complain about. Over the years you get to know the farmers too and it gives a community feeling.

I'm not that keen 😎

We used to repurpose crow scarers by cutting them open until we had a toilet roll full of powder. We'd wrap it up tight with tape the set it, just like a giant crow scarers on steroids.

My fave was the “suggestion” on the village FB page that the farmer should jet wash the road because his tractor had got mud everywhere and this guy was having to wash his car every day 🤣

I've known people move to a cottage by the cricket pitch and complain about occasional windows being broken (you know that nice view over an open green space with no animals...why do you think it's there?)
The other was a dodgy developer converting offices next to an ancient pub into flats and then getting someone in there to complain about the noise. It was rejected - and it was pointed out he should have enhanced the sound proofing

I am living in a coastal town, with quite a big harbour. The property market took off during the last couple of years, bringing a lot of new folks around, including myself. In the warmer months, seaweed builds up, and during the low tide, it gets a bit smelly, but that's normal. However, I've seen so many complaints about the council not doing their job. Of doing what - clearing seaweed from the exposed sea bed? Then the water company was accused of dumping sewage as surely, seaweed can't smell that bad (it absolutely can, and algae can smell even worse).