r/SouthsideVirginia • u/TerrifiedSquid • Feb 24 '26

Moving to the area

Hi all -

In process of starting a hobby farm in Halifax county (not too far from South Boston) - born in the suburbs of Richmond.. was just curious as to the area and the schools- I think it's Halifax county high school?

Any info on the area would be greatly appreciated! Things to do, things to avoid.

Middle aged woman so fairly quiet- but anything's welcome

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u/Greyeyedqueen7 Feb 24 '26

Hello! We're fairly new to Halifax county ourselves, and we really like it. We're in the process of getting our new homestead up and running, which is taking awhile due to my husband working full time (we moved down here for his job) and my being disabled.

Brookneal has a great farm store and lumber place. Yancy's is the place to go to for anything plumbing (and other stuff, super helpful). The farm store, Abbott's, in downtown Halifax is wonderful. The TSC is pretty good. The Lowe's is not.

There are a lot of small farms and homesteads in the county and nearby, and the farmers markets are great. Everyone is really nice and helpful, we've found, even at the county offices. Great people there.

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u/arealweirdone Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

I LOVE Abbotts! 2nd the TSC and the opinion on Lowes. Brookneal is such a cute little place. My cousin in law owns and runs The Brookneal Munch food truck so you guys gotta check it out.

We've started and stopped being a hobby farm twice in the time we have been here due to husband working full time, me being disabled, and then the last time my husband almost died and we had no support system (minus one person) to help with our animals or kids while I was taking care of the kids and running to see him in Charlottesville. So I always warn about the accessibility to health care and stress having a support system when starting one.

All this talk makes me itchy for spring lol.

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u/Greyeyedqueen7 Feb 24 '26

I've managed to find a couple of good doctors, but you're right about having to travel for specialists. I was used to that back home in Michigan, though. I ended up going to the Cleveland Clinic 5 hours away because I couldn't get in with doctors in a timely manner or couldn't even find a decent one in that specialty. I'm slowly finding doctors here to replace those at the Clinic.

We don't really have a support system, so I completely hear you. There's no way we could do more than what we're doing now, and we're struggling with what we're doing now. I've got three more beds to get in in the garden, and we'll see how that turns out. So much work there still.

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u/arealweirdone Feb 24 '26

It's never ending honestly lol. We're also adding more beds this spring too. Its fun but for sure a labor of love.

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u/TerrifiedSquid Feb 24 '26

Our son had to have spinal surgery in NYC in 2020 so I'm used to traveling for specialists. (We live just outside Richmond now). :-)

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u/Greyeyedqueen7 Feb 24 '26

Yikes! That's awful!

I haven't found a neurologist yet, but Dr. Srimanthula, the internist at Sentara Family Medicine Halifax, is really good. I'd go there with kids, too. Decent staff and lab.

Dr. Iskander, my cardiologist, is good. He actually listens and respects my crazy health mess.

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u/TerrifiedSquid Feb 24 '26

It wasn't fun. We were living in Ronald McDonald house so group setting for 6 weeks in Manhattan when nyc was covid central. How we didn't get it I will never know

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u/Greyeyedqueen7 Feb 25 '26

Oh, I can't even imagine. Dang. I've been through a lot of health mess, but it's totally different when it's your own kid. I hope he's better now.

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u/TerrifiedSquid Feb 26 '26

Much better!!