A View From the Hills

SMART SKILLS: FIVE WILL SET YOU FREE

KNOWING HOW TO USE AN AX IS WILL ONLY GET YOU SO FAR.

You've driven back to the city for the last time. This is it... you've made up your mind.. you're moving to Vermont. What should you bring with you besides your skis and your golf clubs?

1. Financial Planning Skills: If you've never run a household budget before, now would be a very good time to learn that skill. Everything in Vermont costs more or less than you've come to expect and keeping tabs on your household expenses will keep you out of trouble. If you're carrying personal debt, clear it. Carrying personal debt limits your options, something you don't need right now. Plan on paying cash for what you need until you're established and can support credit card debt.
   
   
2. Organizational Skills: While there are local convenience stores, farmer's markets, and lumber mills which you should frequent, shopping in Vermont is often chore of inconvenience. Shopping malls are the exception, not the rule, and an entire day can be wasted slogging over the mountains to the nearest Home Depot for a forgotten part. You either learn where your local hardware and lumber stores are, and use them... or you spend a lot of time driving to the city.
   
   
3. Computer Skills: Yes, Vermont has libraries (good ones), and post offices too. But researching on the Internet is often faster and offers a broader depth of information than your local library... although you can use the library computer to do your research. Email is fast, cheap, and an effective form of communication. And online shopping brings the familiar to Vermont with you. If ethnic foods are a staple in your diet, for example, online resources can supply the ethnic foods you grew up with, but can't find in Vermont.
   
   
4. Social Skills: You're moving into a new community and you'll be making new friends. Meeting new people and expanding your social network can be a new experience for some people. And if you don't get out and meet new people, you'll be lonely and homesick for where you came from. So dust off those social skills and get ready to get involved in your local church, join a club, or take a class in a subject that interests you.
   
   
5. Self-sufficiency Skills: You knew we'd get the ax in here, didn't you? But realistically, moving to a rural area requires a certain level of skill in everything from minor plumbing repairs to automotive savvy. A plethora of rural carpenters, plumbers, and auto mechanics lie a phone call away... but call them at midnight on a Sunday and you'll pay dearly for their services. Better to know how to turn the overflowing toilet off, or how to jump start the car on your own.

Rural living doesn't mean isolation any more. But it does require a set of skills and certain adjustments. Planning your move in advance, and taking a few courses to brush up on your computer or mechanical skills will make your transition to Vermont an event you'll look back on with fond enthusiasm.