What You Need to Know Before Moving to a Country Town

So you have decided to swap the city for a country town, and the fresh air and the open space are genuinely as good as everybody says they are. What nobody really tells you is the practical stuff, the handful of things that work differently out here and that you only find out about the first time you need them. So this is that list, written by somebody who serves the people who have just moved in.

1. People will talk to you, and it is not small talk

In the city you can walk past the same faces for years and never say a word, and out here that does not happen, because people smile and wave and will start a conversation for no reason at all. It can be a bit startling at first if you are used to head down living, and then after a few months you notice you have started doing it too.

It also runs both ways. Turn up to the odd local thing, put your hand up at a working bee, and you will find you know more of the town in six months than you knew of your old street in six years.

2. The shops work differently, and mostly in your favour

You are not going to find a giant shed on the ring road, and that changes what a shop is for. When you come into H you are not hunting down aisle 47 on your own, because somebody will ask what you are actually trying to do and tell you which of the four options on the shelf is the one for your job. That is the whole difference, and it saves you the second trip more often than it saves you money.

The other thing worth knowing is our delivery. It is $5 into Strathalbyn and $10 for the whole regional run, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is what makes buying the long awkward stuff locally actually work.

3. You will end up doing more of it yourself

Not because you have to, but because the fence is right there and the tradie is booked out until the week after next. Fixing a gate, patching a bit of fence, getting a veggie patch in, all of it stops being a hobby and turns into just what you do on a Saturday.

You do not have to already know how. I did not, and hardware is my second career, so most of what I know came from having a go, getting it wrong, and asking Elroy, our shop manager, who I call Guru for good reason. That is the offer really. Come in and ask, and we will talk you through it before you buy anything.

4. The garden becomes a bigger part of your life than you expected

There is more ground, and ground wants doing something with. Most people start with a veggie patch or a bit of lawn and it goes from there, and the thing that catches people out is that what grew in their last garden does not necessarily suit the soil here.

Start with the soil rather than the plants. Get some compost and mulch into it, put a tough lawn seed down rather than whatever was on special, and you will spend a lot less time fighting it later.

5. The pace is slower, and that includes the tradie

Things happen when they happen. A tradie might not rock up right on the hour, an order might come in on the next run rather than tomorrow, and the useful move is to plan a bit further ahead rather than to get wound up about it.

What you get back for it is the part people move here for. You start noticing the sunset on the paddocks and the crickets going on the back step, which is a fair trade for waiting an extra day on a delivery.

6. The weather stops being background

You will find yourself watching the forecast the way farmers do, glad of rain and keeping half an eye on the fire danger rating over summer. It is not a downside. It just means you are paying attention to where you live.

7. The gas bottle, which nobody warns you about

This is the one that catches nearly every new arrival. Out here the barbecue and often the hot water run on bottled gas, and it is never a question of whether you will run out, only when. Sort out a spare bottle before you need one, because running out on a Sunday afternoon is a completely avoidable problem.

We do Swap-and-Go on 4kg and 9kg bottles, refills on anything 9kg and under, and we deliver. If you want to work out what size suits you before you come in, have a yak to Cassie, our gas helper, and she will walk you through it.

8. Every town has its quirks and you should lean into them

There will be a tractor at the pub and there will be an annual event about something oddly specific. Go to it. The quirks are the town having a personality, and they turn into the stories you tell people when you go back to visit.

Shop related products

• Brunnings Tough Lawn Seed 1kg. Bred for a hiding, which is what a country lawn gets.
• Brunnings Garden Compost with Seaweed 25L. Start with the soil and the rest gets easier.
• Easy Wetta Garden Mulch 50L. Keeps the water in the ground over summer instead of in the air.
• Brunnings Glyphosphate 360 Weed Killer Concentrate 1L. For the driveway and the fence line, where nothing is meant to grow.

Did you know we also stock knapsack sprayers up to 12 litres, mattocks with a cutter end and lucerne mulch by the bale in store. They are not all on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.

The garden centre is at garden products, the gas side of things is on our LPG and industrial gas page, and the delivery days and prices are on the local delivery page.

More from the blog

• The skills worth learning when you first own a home
• How to organise a new home so it stays organised

I am still learning half of this myself and I have lived here for years, so do not feel like you are meant to arrive knowing it.

Cheers,
Candeece

Stay Connected

Follow our Facebook Page: Strathalbyn H Hardware on Facebook