[nagdu] Living in the country and NFB convention

Fri Jul 3 15:45:04 UTC 2015

I also live in the country and remote. It is a real challenge as it is 4 
miles to closest town. I have struggled with this for almost 15 years 
(you would think I would have learned). The hassle about getting 
groceries, medical and everything a small town has to offer is 
overwhelming....but, there is something to say about living this life 
style you just can't trade. Right now there are a cow and 2 calf moose 
sitting in the yard. My Guide dog has learned to just watch them. He is 
curious but will not start barking or chasing them as he would loose. He 
just suits on the deck and watches them.

My travel is getting the mail down a dirt road. He was also trained to 
do country roads. but that has its short comings (no shoulders) as being 
on the left is correct, he won't walk in the ditches and we end up 
pretty far right on the left hand side of the road. Now here is where it 
gets real bad and I don't know how to change this. We have remote 
property where we spend a lot of time. There are no roads just bear 
trails and one walking trail we have to use. The trails are only one 
foot wide at the most. The guide takes the trail which is pretty clear 
and I get thrown off to the side to walk through the brush. I keep 
thinking 5 years of fighting this my trail would have gotten wider, but 
the bear trail is so used, that it becomes primary.

Bottom line, is I hate being so isolated especially in the winter, but 
hanging out in the woods with moose in the front yard, eagles in the 
tress ( there are no little dogs around here anymore!) The guide dog can 
run through the woods and swamps no worries about fences. It is a trade 
off. I end up trading neighbors for rides to town for doing projects at 
their houses. It works....not convenient, but it works.

Sergeant and bryan

On 7/3/2015 5:17 AM, Tracy Carcione via nagdu wrote:
> I would love to live in the country, but it does seem to require driving. If
> there are blind people doing it without driving, I'd love to hear about it.
> My sister and I still own my folks' old house in the country.  It's
> wonderfully quiet, but there's absolutely no way to walk anywhere.
> I think maybe the next best thing could be a small town with stuff within
> walking distance, but not as noisy as city living. But I may be stuck with
> city living, just so I can get around. Until that driverless car is
> perfected.
> Tracy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dan Weiner via
> nagdu
> Sent: Friday, July 03, 2015 5:00 AM
> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
> Cc: Dan Weiner
> Subject: [nagdu] Living in the country and NFB convention
>
> Debbie.
> First of all I wanted to tell youI totally understood the points you were
> making about summer jobs for blind folks in the other post, but I just
> didn't want to send a post saying "I agree totally"--smile.
> I, personally  can think of nothing worse for my mobility and independence
> prospects than living in the country.
> Yes, I love animals and nature, don't get me wrong, they facinate me, but as
> far as being a self-reliant person I'll take the city or at least the
> suburbs.
> I know people who live in the country who have to drive seventeen miles to
> the nearest grocery store. So, if you are blind, or in any other way or for
> whatever reason dependent on someone driving you, what do you do if you
> can't get a ride...if you are blind and live in the country, I don't
> criticize you by any means, but you'd really better feel secure about your
> network of friends and family.
> Look, even in the city or in my case the sort of half city half suburb area
> you have to worry about how to get places--lol.
> And of course I'm making all these comments based on being unexperienced at
> living in the country, I never did it, just visited, so maybe there are some
> tricks that I don't know about. I mean, I loved visiting farms and the
> country,(animals of all kinds facinate me),  but I don't think I'd choose to
> live there for the reasons stated above.
>
> Having been in situations in my life where I felt very dependent on rides
> and so on I'm very sensitive to where I live and would be very careful about
> moving somewhere I couldn't at least do somethin, even if it 's something
> little, myself.
>
> And now on a completely different subject, who's going ot my home arrea
> Orlando for convention? I'm still trying to figure out how much walking I
> can do after my silly ankle surgery but I'm pretty sure I'm going to make an
> appearance and it might be fun to meet up, anyone intereted you can
> certainly write here or write me privately at :
>
> dcwein at dcwein.cnc.net
>
>
> Yours most cordially,
>
> Dan W. who shouldn't be up this early and Parker who says:  oh good you're
> up, it's breakfast time"--lol
>
>   
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Debby Phillips
> via nagdu
> Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2015 11:09 PM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users;
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Debby Phillips
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Sidewalk-less walking?
>
> I'm really glad that there are people who like living in the country.  For
> me it was dreadful.  First of all, we were 14 miles from a small town of
> about 5'000 people.  The only way to get to town was for my husband to drive
> me.  We had about a half mile lane, which was nice to walk down, but it got
> pretty boring.  The main road that goes past that house is the county
> highway.  There are lots of big trucks that go up and down that road.  The
> other problem with it is that there were shoulders on the left side of the
> road, but then they would drop off and be on the right side of the road,
> with an edge that just dropped off.  Plus there were curves and trucks and
> cars would come around the curves quite fast.  So for me, it was total
> isolation.  I love living in Spokane, it's a nice sized town, not huge like
> Seattle but there's stuff to do, public transportation and paratransit.  And
> sidewalks! Lol.
>
> When we first moved there, we had a Lab pet.  Jake was awesome.
> I will never know how he knew to do some of the things he did.  I was afraid
> of the cows, even though they were on the other side of the fence.  Jake
> would walk next to Cleo who was guiding me, but he would always put himself
> between me and the cows.  And one winter day, we had very steep steps.  I
> was afraid to go down them because they were very icy.  I did not say a word
> to Jake.
> I was thinking about how nice it would be if Jake would come up and be on my
> other side.  But I did not audibly call to him.  He came up on my right
> side, allowed me to hang on to his fur, and walked down the steep icy steps
> with me.  When we got to the bottom, off he ran, tail wagging.  How in the
> world he knew to do that, and to keep between me and the cows I'll never
> know.  The how he knew to come up and let me hang on to his fur to walk down
> those steps is beyond me.  I really wonder if dogs sometimes can have some
> kind of ESP or "sixth sense" or something? I know not
> every dog has it, but Jake sure had something.    Debby and Nova
>
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