Rural Life: Growing Old in the Country -by Bonnie Shetler

For over forty years my husband and I have lived along a rural county road in the foothills west of Fort Collins. We were in our thirties when we purchased 17 hillside acres and gathered plans for a modest log cabin to serve as a weekend retreat from the weekday 9-5 grind in town.

For the first few years we spent most weekend nights sleeping in a VW camper parked in a small meadow and our days cutting down beetle infested trees and getting the lay of the land. Eventually, with the help of a few construction-wise family members, we built that cabin. Not too far into the process, after many 45 minute commutes to and from town and a growing sense of how this land nurtured our spirits, we decided to sell our house in Fort Collins and make this our home. Ten years later we could afford to add living space that gave us a more expansive view of our surroundings.  Over time we have become so emotionally rooted up here that it is hard for me to imagine a full time life in town.

We are now in our 70’s with longtime friends and neighbors also in their 70’s and early 80’s. Our shared love of country life and deep appreciation of our interdependence have easily prevailed over political and philosophical differences. Together we have been through fires, floods, high winds, blizzards, and medical emergencies. While we all moved here for peace and privacy, none of us has had to face these challenges alone.

This is a physically demanding lifestyle. Just the trek from our house down to the roadside mailbox and back takes some effort but there are also the ongoing chores of  keeping brush cleared, hillside meadows mowed, fencing fixed, dead trees cut down and split into firewood, a long steep driveway maintained, not to mention managing the equipment to accomplish these things. As each of us living up here grows into our later years it is inevitable that, barring sudden early death, we will eventually need to leave our home for more manageable quarters. 

One of our neighbors, who owns a sizable horse ranch to the south, has just announced he has put his property on the market. He and his wife have been a  beloved part of this community for over thirty years but feel they can no longer meet the physical demands of staying. They are near my age.  Their imminent departure has highlighted the issue that my husband and I have only occasionally visited over the past year. It has now become a routine topic over dinner with neighbors - not if but when it will be time to leave and what would that look like. Even the horse rancher, knowing it is time to start the process, hasn’t a clear view of what comes next.

Bonnie Shetler lives in the foothills west of Fort Collins where she works and volunteers remotely, sometimes writes, often bikes, hikes, reads, and idly considers the vastness of time and space. She and her husband both enjoy exploring and camping in the back country.