@whirlibird, I’m with you on no longer living way out in the boondocks. My daughter and I used to live on a gorgeous farm in the mountains of California. Our driveway was a quarter mile long at the end of a 4 mile, windy gravel road.
One late afternoon, my daughter was out feeding the livestock when a car with no license plate showed up. There were 3 men in it claiming to be having car trouble. I hustled out with a gun in the pocket of my hooded sweatshirt and got myself in between them and my daughter. I sent her inside, where she called 911 and brought the dogs from the backyard into the house. At that point, I asked them to leave and they said, no, they were going to come into my house to “make a phone call.”
I showed them the gun and said, “No, you’re going to leave NOW.” They suddenly got their car to work and left in a hurry. The cops rather uselessly showed up more than 45 minutes later.
We lived there for another year but when it was time to move so my daughter could go to trade school, I chose to live in town. Not a huge city – but we’re a part of civilization again.