| Richmond's
'horse-friendly' spirit invited Logan transplant to
put down roots
By Kate Richards
December 10, 2004 | RICHMOND -- When
Farol Nelson told her husband a year ago that she wanted
to move somewhere more rural, he said if she found a
place he would go.
After living in their home in Logan for 20 years and
raising three children there, the two moved to Richmond.
Nelson said entering the empty-nest stage was an ideal
time to move.
"I said, honey, it's time to make a change," Nelson
said. "I've got three horses and I needed space."
Nelson has had the horses, whom she calls "the guys,"
for 20 years, and had been renting pasture space. Land
in Logan was too expensive, but the two acres the couple
now owns in Richmond was affordable.
The easy riding access is one of the things Nelson
said she loves most about living in Richmond. Her property
is on the east side of Richmond up against the foothills
and the city is horse-friendly.
"Everybody rides around the streets," she said. "You
can ride to L.D.'s."
No one else in the family rides horses, but they all
enjoy exploring the foothills. "Everybody likes to hike,"
she said.
Nelson said she loves the rural community, but it
would have been difficult to raise a family there. She
is a professor at Utah State University and her husband
teaches middle school in Providence. "We'd have been
on the road all the time," she said.
But she and her husband don't mind the commute now.
Environmentally conscious, they carpool and try to ride
the bus as often as possible. It's longer than the three-minute
walk to campus from their old house on Canyon Road,
but Nelson said it's worth it.
Though she is a relative newcomer in a small-town
atmosphere, Nelson said she never felt like one. Her
mother grew up in Smithfield and she has connections
all over the north end of the valley. She said when
she meets new people and they find out about her family's
roots, they tell her she's just a local.
Nelson is on the library board and said that has been
a great way to get a bead on the community and get to
know people. She said she thinks Richmond has more of
its own identity than some of the other towns outside
of Logan -- its own character. She said she enjoys the
liberal faction in the city.
"There's a little enclave of us Democrats," she said.
And unlike some people who think they want to live
in the country but don't appreciate the less picturesque
aspects, Nelson doesn't mind the rural smells. She lives
below a dairy farm, but the other small-town qualities
make it worth it.
"I like the quietness," she said. There is no cable
TV or computer at the house, just Nelson, her husband
and their two dogs. And Nelson's garden.
Gardening in Richmond was an adjustment, she said.
The dirt is more clay-like and rocky and the ground
freezes earlier in the year than in Logan, but she has
the hang of it now.
"I have not regretted the move," she said. "I love
the community."
NW MK |
