A tuck.

FaRmers use these pretty regularly, as do some of us in the more uRban settings. FaRmers also remembers that Tucks have Rs.

Airbag venting area.

Some Tucks have these too, and the sound you get right after one deploys ranges from, "AUGH!" To, "Arrrr!" They keep you safe when they don't kill you in the face.

The lone metal cell tree.

Some people call these towers, others are reasonably sure that they grow from areas of high iron concentration. Some of us are from places without 'em, where signal is mixed and matched with the hydrogen background.

Now leaving the uRban for the Rural.

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with R.

Trees. Can has nature?

From a season known largely as fall, or, "The time before we get bloody cold," This is on the way to Rural.

Fields

This is where things are grown. Admittedly, things are grown all manner of other places, including basement hydroponic labs, the grout one hasn't cleaned in one's shower for a while, and the digestive flora of one's own GI, but fields are considered traditional for food crops. They're also fun to roll around in, especially if one is a horse. Alas, no horses were photographed on this voyage.

Rain.

Leading to slippery roads, driver idiocy - people in the land of Rur are either far superior drivers, or utterly unaware of their fellow drivers. In this area, however, there appears to be some sort of rule about never being able to travel without being placed at risk by one's fellow travelers. Watching a Yarus attemting to Lilipute a semi: Always good for a, "Let's see if we can get out of the crash pattern."

A golf course.

Because on your way to Rur, you find all manner of, "Civilized," Games. Some of them are even non-fatal.

Much more like it.

It is for scenes similar to this that the term, "Leaf-Peeper," Was developed. From this field came hay, which is for the Coos. We'll get to them in a bit.

Construction.

Hazard when traveling to Rur - or to other places.

Hazard 2.

A slippery when wet sign. One can mitigate this problem with proper shocks, tires, and not whicking all over the road like a besotted monkey.

Where you've come from is important, too.

Also, when traveling to Rur, keeping an eye on one's six is ideal for those moments when the hill-diving trucks misjudge speed. Alternatively, one can hill-dive a VW Jetta too, which makes the trip ever so much more entertaining. Method: Place car in forth or fifth gear, depending upon speed. Hold clutch in. If a long dive, it's often easier to simply toss the car in neutral and go.

How the Rur is powered.

These towers, in addition to being popular wildlife hangouts and excellent examples of the right-hand rules, serve to keep the lights on in those parts of Rur with electrical service.

Urban -> Rural.

In this picture, you see how the average Urban viewer addresses life.

Rural view

Whereas in this picture, one sees that a Rural view takes the time to focus. Rumor has it that some Urban viewers, especially those who are on SF0 (and to whom no offense is desired), actually pay attention. Around here, however, we're still aghast to watch people j-walk into oncoming traffic, often while disabled with iPods, cell phones, and other biped-distracting devices. Some of these also read while driving. My poor brain fell out when I first saw that one.

Signal ahead.

Yes, some places require a traffic signal that there will be a traffic signal.

Rural proper.

It is here that one can attain milk. Raw, unpasteurized, delicious. It may not do everything the raw-milk zealots claim, but it sure is tasty. To be clear, while this is a picture of a *road* in rural proper, it is not a picture of a cow, or a dairy farm. We're still on our way there. But: Fresh Milk. Rural. Groking, yes?

Farm.

In the land of Rur, one finds farms. This is a picture of a farm from over some of the farmer's fields, leading up the dirt road. His name is Adam, and he rocks our world. He sells raw milk to all comers in the town of Slippery Rock, PA, very near to where the SCA holds Pennsic. He gave permission to reference him and his farm, which is pretty darn cool, and the vac hopes if you're within comfy driving distance, you visit him and trade some green stuff for some white stuff. Cheese, milk: Good white stuff.

Silo.

For silage. Good for cows, good for winter storage. More details about the farm can be found at: http://www.deanfarms.com/ They're good folks, the facilities are clean, and the vac has some of their milk in its coffee right now. Om-nom-nom!

Clean metal.

In seeking to grok Rural, one might do very well to examine the inner operations of a *working* farm. If the cows, farmers, and hired hands are happy? You've found the ideal Rural. Dean Farms is just that, and as you can see here, their cheese tank is freshly scrubbed. Rural tends to be cleaner than Urban by a long shot, though again, exceptions exist.

Milk crates, a motorbike, and cleaning

A farm is a lot of work - you'll see people moving more or less non-stop from dawn to dusk and beyond. Most of the work, even with modern machinery, is heavy physical labor, and it takes a lot of eduction to keep the cows well, the crops and grazing properly rotated and healthy, and to ensure that one meets one's state's regulations. Growing up, the vac got raw milk self-serve on the honor system out of a 2000 gallon self-stirring tank. These days, it thought the honor system broken - and then discovered that when cash got left home, and we'd been customers of Dean farms for a while - Rural gets to know people fast, and trusts them only slowly - we were told, "Don't worry - just pay next week." A mom and pop store in the Urban might do this once in a while, but in the Rural setting, much of the honor system is still intact. The vac is *still* surprised by this.

Not actually Rural.

If you're playing with farms online? That's not Rural. (Image from Evony.com) It can still be fun, but happily modern rural doesn't launch thousand-strong hosts upon other farms terribly often. Armies: Bad for farming.

A calf.

On large industrial farms, calves are taken away from their mothers, often at birth, so that all the milk goes to humans. On a rural farm, while the calves are often penned separately, they're sometimes allowed to nurse naturally for half the mother's capacity. This makes for healthier calves, as well as for happier farms. Big Ag tends not to qualify as Rural, for Rural is spirit as well as location. Part of that spirit is being in harmony with one's land, surroundings, and supporting architecture, both structure and domesticated.

Another calf.

This one is brown. Contrary to some rumors, brown cows are not responsible for chocolate milk.

A barn

Common to farms, used for containing cows, farm equipment, hay, and similar. A clean and organized barn with happy animals is the core of Rural life.

Looking in at the cows.

These cows, though you can barely see 'em, are about to be milked.

A... thing...

The vac forgot to ask what this was, but it clearly stores something. Grok of Rural whatever this particular thing is: Not so much. Rural or Urban, the grok is not so much the pieces but the spirit. Both live better when that spirit is sound.

Old pup.

Most farms have cats and dogs. This particular dog is nigh archaic, quite friendly, and the general greeter. Rural tends more towards greeters than guards, but tends its own just as seriously as anywhere else - and perhaps more so, where the animals are concerned.

Calf pens.

A decent rural farm will esure that its animals are cared for, even when they're separated from their mothers. Calf pends keep the cold and rain off the wee ones, and serve as well to keep predators out when needed. These pens aren't predator proof, but the location here isn't predator prone.

Common rural signage.

On our way back home, realizing that breakfast was forgotten, we see one of the more common Rural signs: Narrow bridge. A proper Rural driver uses care crossing these, and in many places will take turns with other drivers. An exception to the common courtesy in Rural life, logging trucks on these narrow bridges consider themselves owners of all they survey, including anything they can eat. This may include small cars, deer, photogenic children, and their drivers.

The Farm Sign

Pasture Maid Creamery, LLC. A good place for delicious milk. Rural people and their associates promote their goods by word of mouth as much as by any other means - particularly in small towns. If you're in a Rural environment and know of good traders? Speak well of them, for they rely upon your word as well as their own.

A common occurance in cross roads

Often, a rural area won't bother to fix some things the locals don't deem to have been needed in the first place.

Yep, that's a bridge that's just flat gone.

Some of the locals have put some political stuff on it - quite common amongst the more outspoken indigenous youth - and this picture is uploaded full size so that material can be read.

Where a bridge was.

Now a divide.

A slug on a mushroom.

Out here, things are deliberate, often appearing slow from the outside. Be not deceived - the Rural does what it does efficiently and well more often than not.

Stop...

Stop, look, listen. This is the way of the Rural life.