Dear Auntie Linda,. Joe and I have been married four years and have a newborn son.  We live outside a Midwest city.  Joe has been working for a chemical company and I am a stay at home mom and artist.  Our lives are good.  Uncle Jake, called last week to ask Joe to take over his 800 acre farm twenty-eight miles outside town, so he can retire.  Joe will inherit the farm upon Uncle Jake’s death.  Joe worked for Uncle Jake summers and holidays all through high school and college and has always looked forward to having the farm one day.  I know this is a wonderful opportunity, but I’ve never lived in the country and am worried about leaving my family, friends, and the comfortable life we have built. I am worried about schools and social opportunities for my son. What if we move way out in the country and I hate rural living?  City Girl

Dear City Girl, Twenty-eight miles isn’t that far.  A half-hour automobile ride gets you back to town.  Inheriting a farm sounds like a wonderful opportunity, especially since Joe knows what he is getting into.  If you give farm life a try, you may find you like it.  Since you are a stay at home mother and artist, you can work as well there as in the city. Growing up on a farm can enhance your children’s lives in many ways.  Certainly, they will have more time with parents.  A great deal of a child’s education is parental input.  There are advantages to rural life.  Life is what you make.  Auntie Linda

Dear Auntie Linda,  I got a call from my sister last week confessing that she had “borrowed” my information for a loan.  We have sequential drivers license and social security numbers since got them together on the same day.  She was able to convince a friend to accept my forged signature on an affadvit at her credit union as co-signer on a loan.  Since I am co-signer, they are coming after me for payment.  She pulled this same trick on my mother many years ago, getting my mother deep in debt.  I have no intention of paying this loan.  How do you deal with this kind of betrayal from family?  Rotten Sister

Dear Rotten, You are right not to get sucked in.  Your sister made this mess; it is hers to deal with.  Just distance yourself and don’t give her a second chance.  If you see her at family gatherings, just keep it casual.  Auntie Linda

Dear Auntie Linda,  I am a nineteen year-old-single mother of a two-month-old boy.  My husband was killed in a combine accident before the baby was born.  My baby and my in-laws are all I have.  I need to start college so we don’t remain dependent on my husband’s parents. We still live with them on a farm in Wisconsin, forty-four miles from the nearest college town.  Commuting is out of the question in winter.  I can get financial aid and scholarships to live campus housing with my son and put him in day-care, but my in-laws are insisting it would be best to leave the baby with them during the week and spend weekends and holidays with him, since the farm will be his one day.  I could commute many days when the weather was good.  Torn

Dear Torn, You do have difficult choices to consider.  While he is still an infant and you are getting into the routine of college life, it might be less overwhelming if he stayed with his grandparents and you lived in campus housing, but he might very quickly become “their child” and you’d find yourself feeling like an outsider.  Should you decide to do that, I’d stay as involved as possible, commuting mid-week as well as weekends in good weather, and taking him with me full-time, as soon as it was feasible.  It’s wonderful you have good family.  I know that little guy will need to stay close to them.  Auntie Linda

Dear Auntie Linda, We don’t have a leash law in our rural neighborhood.  My neighbor’s dogs make a beeline to poop in my flower beds.  i am tired of cleaning it up. I have complained, but it makes no difference.  What do I do, now?  Pooped on

Dear Pooped,  I guess, fight poop with poop.  Since you are having to clean it up anyway, I guess just put it back in their yard.  I wouldn’t put it on the step.  That could get nasty pretty fast.  Auntie Linda

Dear Auntie Linda,  I am getting married next month.  My parents are divorced and remarried.  They each say they won’t come to the wedding or help on expenses if the other comes.  What do I do?  Can’t Choose

Dear Can’t, First of all, better make sure you can afford the wedding.  You will be just as married, no matter how simple.  Secondly, don’t choose.  Just tell both parties, “hope you can make it!”