Where you live.

No matter where you live on pavement or a dirt road you have to compromise. Living out in the woods where we are means I can have the biggest damn garden I want. But it also means that the grocery store (a good size one) is a 40 min. drive away. It also means that we don't have a fire department or a lot of things people living in the city or suburbia have. This come most apparent when there is a fire. Twenty-five years ago, on the weekend after Thanksgiving we lost our first home in a fire. We, fortunately, weren't home. The path of the fire would have cost us our lives.
Our neighbors scrambled to do what they could. On neighbor grabbed our 2 rabbits out of their hutch and saved them. He and another neighbor managed to save 2 pieces of artwork, a night stand and a couple of drawers with belongings in them. Other than those meager items, the clothes on our backs and in our suitcases, we had nothing. Our dogs survived but out beloved cats did not. We had to start over.
I don't think about the fire as much as I use to. I realize that one thing about dirt road living is if a fire starts chances are you will lose everything. It is not from the lack of a willing volunteer fire department but because of the age and construction of a building or the time it takes to get to a property. But it always hits home when I hear about a fire and a family and their loss.
Bea Fisher over in Grafton lost her home recently. And yesterday the Garrow family in Athens lost theirs. 
What I remember most about that time in our lives is the generosity of friends, family and strangers. A neighbor let us live at his house (a 2nd home, a camp really) right down the road from our property. It had no electricity but it did have a generator. But I admit after a week of  'rough' living I was ready to move. I spent a lot of time shopping after that fire. And don't you believe that anybody can't get tired of shopping. Remember this was a month before Christmas. I had all my presents bought and wrapped, now they had all gone up in smoke. We had a 4 1/2 yr old son (Eli)  and a new born (Eric). The baby might not have minded no presents Christmas morning but Eli sure would have.
The most amazing thing is one day after yet another trip to the store I came back to find about 8-10 garbage bags lined up on the deck of the house we were staying at. They were filled with clothes and stuff. Baby clothes, little boy clothes, clothes for me, Don, blankets. It inspiring. We never knew who made that donation or the many others we received but we have always tried in some small way to pay it forward.
We still live on that same property, on that same dirt road. We built a new home for our family there. We never had second thoughts or doubts that this was the place we wanted to be and that was because of the people that surrounded us with generosity and love.
You can lose a lot of material things in a fire. But the one thing you may find is, you will always have more than you lost if you are surrounded by a good community. And this community whether some will admit it or not is good. They have proved it time and time again and will continue doing so as long as there are dirt roads.