How I left Moscow for the countryside

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

For the fourth year I have been living in the village of Dubki, Kirzhachsky District, Vladimir Region. I left, as I understand now, for good. I left Moscow 75 kilometers away and I only regret that I did not leave earlier. Now I live for real, free. I live happily! My family is still wandering between a Moscow apartment and a village, moving gradually.

Children go to school, and the living conditions are not fully created: the house is being completed. I come to the city in winter for 1-2 days a month and I can compare the real living conditions in the metropolis and in the wild. I am sure that there are townspeople who think about leaving, but do not dare to change their usual way of life due to ambiguity and uncertainty. I also had such doubts, and I think this is a reasonable approach of every sane person to such an important matter as changing the way of life.

There is a lot of time in the village for reflection, comparison and analysis. Some time ago, I was compiling my family tree and found out: our entire family, the last 9 (nine) generations, lived in Moscow. There are practically no peasant roots. Why, then, do I like it so much in the village, why does it pull me to the ground? Here's what I decided.

Because: there is no tedious and useless struggle for a parking space under the window and senseless standing in traffic jams. There is no need to think about the rent and its constant increase for various new ventures; on water consumption and installation of meters and their further maintenance and inspections. Noise near the house, the honking of cars, the howl of alarms, drunken quarrels and the screams of neighbors are not disturbing: this simply does not exist. There is no need to drive through the whole city to work - the working day begins outside the house. Ladders and elevators are absent, as unnecessary (in my old age I can go to the garden in a wheelchair, anything can happen …). I am not afraid of terrorists - there is no metro here, and public transport is not particularly needed. I have never heard anything about rural homosexuals and other molesters. I have no way to flood my neighbors and owe them all of a sudden. I have forgotten what it is like to have the flu or acute respiratory infections (but children, catching viruses and bacteria at school, get sick regularly. For now). There is no fear of building a house somehow not in the right way and not arranging a redevelopment or something like that. My shoes and the paws of my dog in the village did not touch salt and reagents, and the ground on my street was not saturated with rubbish. In my country yard there are no broken bottles and cans of alcohol and all sorts of water. Also missing is an Asian wiper. There is no fear of being left without interesting work - there is just a lot of work and all to heart. There is no fear of being robbed by drunkards or drug addicts at the entrance - there are no entrances, no drug addicts, and drunks in the villages are not so greedy as to rise to robbery. There are no herds of guest workers - if you rarely see an Asian, then he, as a rule, with a shovel. And one more thing: no need to walk the dog. Dogs and cats walk on their own. And their number is not limited.

And that is: there are solved housing problems - a manor, a house, a family nest. Each house has its own room, there is a common kitchen, living room. There will be grandchildren - there is plenty of space! There is clean air, sun, a garden, a vegetable garden, clean water from a well, a well, a septic tank, natural gas, three-phase electricity with a low rural tariff of 2.9 rubles per kW. In case of a shutdown (it happens sometimes) there is a generator. There is a sauna with a stove and wood. There is a concrete pool 10x5 meters. There is a garage (dreamed for more than 20 years!), A workshop, a cellar. There are 80 hectares of land near the village and many plans for its use. There is a UAZ, a Gazelle, a boat, an MTZ tractor. There is a river 2 kilometers from the house, meadows, forest. For the second year I have been trying to keep bees: I bought four hives. And then they noticed - the bees in the village do not fly at all. There are a lot of plans: a cowshed, a stable, a poultry house, a greenhouse, a fish tank. There is a TV in the house, but we watch it five times less often than in Moscow. Yes, and in Moscow - not often. Phones are accepted normally, there is a computer, fiber-optic Internet, a 3G phone for communication with the world.

I work in construction and earn more than Moscow. Along the way, I am selling land plots for construction in the Shchelkovo direction. Over the course of several years, I have had enough of paperwork and expanded my business. I started hiring workers and what turned out to be? There are almost no men who know how to work in the village: they all got a job as a guard in Moscow: a day / three - 18 thousand rubles a month. There is enough for booze and cigarettes, and the rest of these viewers are not interested. After several months of work in the guard, the man turns into a brute-like idiot, incapable of creative work. Therefore, there are so many seasonal workers in the village from Ukraine, Tajikistan and other corners of the empire. There are not enough workers, especially qualified ones. A hired crane operator earns at least 60-70 thousand a month, and with his own crane - more than 150,000 rubles. There are not enough electricians, bricklayers, plumbers. No milkmaids !!! The shepherd receives 25 thousand !!! A locksmith in a car service in a piecework area is not less than 40,000 rubles, a driver - from 30,000 rubles. For Moscow, the money is small, but for the Vladimir region it is quite enough. You live in Moscow to work, but in the countryside it's the other way around.

I buy products that are not my own on the market: I know the sellers by their names and I am sure of the quality of eggs, cottage cheese, milk. In summer I fish in the river or in the pond. We collect mushrooms with our father-in-law in the fall. In the garden there are potatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, herbs, radishes, beets, zucchini, peas. Currants, strawberries (I have a personal Strawberry Field). The wife is constantly planting more and more flowers: the estate is large - more than a hectare. I plant different conifers: more than 10 species already and have successfully planted grapes. Children (11 and 16 years old) have their own interests: paintball, football, bows and arrows, bicycles - mopeds, bonfires, hiking in the forest, climbing trees, sawing something in the workshop, sculpting, drawing. Their comrades constantly come to visit them: there is enough space and work for everyone. When children come to the village, for the first time (!) They see the May beetle and how the turnip grows; for the first time they try fresh milk and strawberries from the garden. They collect blueberries and raspberries, St. John's wort and mint. For the first time, the boys take up real weapons, for the first time try to ride a truck, mow with a scythe, chop wood with an ax and fix a bicycle.

I live well. And what's important - it's getting better and better. I live freely. I do what I like. I enjoy my work. People live in the houses I have built, and it pleases me. I also note a deep sleep, and my wife notes an increase in appetite and everything else - I suppose you understand me. Living in the village I understood why the villagers get up at dawn: they get enough sleep in just 6-7 hours. Living in Moscow I was constantly busy with something, running like crazy, with a weekly and two mobile phones … But only now, at 40, I understand: a real full life - life outside the city - a human being. Are you ready to bet? Write. Do you want to leave the metropolis, jump out of the cage with labyrinths, like me? - I will help with what I can.

Sergey Alekseevich, Dubki village, Kirzhachsky district, Vladimir region.