Welcome to the Country Things You Need to Know When Moving to Rural Virginia

ROAD MAP FOR RURAL VIRGINIA By the time you finish reading Welcome to the Country you'll know, likely, a fair bit more than you do now about the cultural traditions, unwritten codes of behavior, laws, and farming practices in rural Virginia-with particular attention to the ten-county Central Virginia heartland that straddles the Blue Ridge Mountains. This region of often exponential growth is comprised of Albemarle, Nelson, Louisa, Orange, Fluvanna, Madison, Greene, Augusta, Rockingham, and Rockbridge counties. If you're a newcomer to this ten-county region-or, indeed, to any predominantly rural region in Virginia-this book will help you adapt to your surroundings and live harmoniously with your neighbors. If you're a native, reading this book will offer you a crisper understanding of and more up-to-date information about the place you have long called home. Consider this book a cultural road map to life along some of Virginia's most intriguing back roads. It's a guide to the established customs of the countryside: what people do to earn a living here; how people who own property get along with others; and why farmers and farm land must never become marginalized. Our primary goal is simple: to promote mutual respect and enhanced communication between newcomers and natives. We think that mutual respect and more open lines of communication are made possible by opportunities to learn and to expand our vision. With lessons drawn from numerous interviews, extensive travel in Virginia, and our own combined experience as members of a rural culture, we hope that Welcome to the Country will provide such an opportunity. We believe that-working alongside one another-those who are new to rural Virginia and those who have been here a long while can share a community and landscape-and together achieve great things.