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Patchouli

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...on why your state, geographical region, country, or however you want to classify it, is the best place for you to live. I know the region I am wanting to live in but I want to know why people choose to live where they live.
Is it family, culture, climate, geography, laws, jobs, cost of living or real estate, or ease of being self-sufficient?
What are the main reasons you chose to live where you are or where you want to be?
 
Huh, not so easy to answer. No family within six hours of us, so it's not that.

We had a place in mid south TN for 8 years. I hated it, tornado threats constant and the people there did not know the meaning of southern hospitality. We now live in SE AL for: reasonable costs ie land, home, taxes. We also chose it for proximity of serious health care. The people here were a surprising bonus. Striking up a conversation at the gas pump is normal here. We are not as isolated as we both would prefer but the health care subject has played a large part in our lives for the past two years.
 
I live on the farm that my family has had for several generations. We are in SW Pennsylvania. We are in the country but not remote. I kind of call it the best of both worlds as far as being close to and removed from other people and infrastructure. I’m not saying this is the best place to live but for me it’s home. We can live comfortably now and if things ever revert to a more primitive way of life we’ll be fine then too.
 
I grew up not far from where I live now. I moved away to the "big city" but decided after 6-7 years that a smaller city surrounded by rural areas gave me the right balance between the availability of services, convenience and culture and access to hunting/camping, limited crime and a lower cost of living. Now with a large family, a comfortable home, two well established careers, a strong church home and a deeply rooted connection to the community; we aren't going anywhere anytime soon. It helps that my area is generally very conservative.
 
My little piece of SE Washington is free of any substantial natural risks, cost of living is reasonable, I can be as isolated as I want or as surrounded by friends as I care to, I am close to my grandkids.
I have enough room for growing food and since I built the shop and the garage I have a place for my hobbies. I volunteer for a local nonprofit and I feel good about living here with my wife. My brother has spent the last few winters with us but now that he has got some money in savings he will be moving back up to the cabin full time.
 
Currently not there, but hope to move back soon... North Carolina. Lived most of my life in New England, Upstate NY, NE PA, Maine, Vermont… I love New England, pretty, but… Cold.. It is a young man’s place being a Yankee!


NC has decent weather, gets cold but not enough to freeze the ground. Out of tornado’s way and Raleigh area is far enough inland to avoid the hurricanes... for the most part. 30 minute drive from downtown and you are remote enough yet close enough if need be. Big city amenities, hospitals, shopping and all, with country living.


I could garden year round. Want carrots or root crops in the winter? Go out to the garden and dig them up. With a tunnel, greens about year round also. Good fishing. Close enough to the coast for day trips where I was. Enough hard wood trees to pull firewood from, and only a few months that you need to use it anyway. Gets a mite hot for some I recon. But with a ceiling fan bearable without AC, I like it warm anyway. Lots of sun for solar. Land prices were still good if you picked the right area too. And the local folks... If you got far enough away from the Damn Yankee transplants, great folks there. Yeah.. I’m a damn yankee but I didn’t try to change where I was to like where I left from. Kind of like Californian’s. I fit riiiight in as they are there.



I have looked into further south for when I move back. Florida: hurricanes and water issues eventually. South Carolina maybe, but I’d have to be far enough inland from storms. No, Raleigh area is just about right for me. North to NE of it anyway.
 
I live in the White Mountains in Arizona. I love AZ but this summer we bought the house here (7500 feet) so we would be in a cooler spot for my wife. The coldest we had so far this winter is 0*. Today the high was 55*. Lots of elk and other animals. Very low taxes. We have our own well with very good water. Lots of surface water (lakes and creeks) in the area. In Arizona you can carry a gun any way you want without first getting permission from the government. Something I like.
 
After having seen most of North America, Western Europe, Southeast Asia and a good chunk of Africa, we found what(to us) is the most beautiful place in the world. Located smack dab in the middle of millions of acres of wilderness, hour and a half to nearest city, outdoor and prepped friendly community, in a river valley ( but not the flood plain) where two rivers join, 50+ lakes within an hour, hunting, fishing, shorter and warmer winters than we are used to, reasonable cost of living. Our little one acre piece of heaven sits on the edge of a town of 2000 people with a good hospital and nice old folks home.

Now on the negative we are on the edge of a volcanic area albeit a fault that hasn5 blown in a very long time. There is only one highway to serve the valley. Forest fires are a risk. Only one power line through valley. We are 5 hour drive from one son, 10 hours from the other and 7 hours to my mom.

Still the good Lord willing and the creek not rising we are good here until they have to put us in that nice seniors home or the ground.
 
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I grew up and still live 500 miles north of the Ozarks. It is nice here, unlimited black dirt from horizon to horizon, have always lived in a river valley in 3 different towns, although there are a lot of towns and cities not in the river valley. Love the hills in the river valley as well as the Loess Hills which are just to the west, but hate the miles and miles of corn and beans outside the river valley. Now we're dealing with roundup and now dicambia poisoning. Not personally- see it in people all the time though. Very nice and rural area to live in, low crime, but there are, for all practical purposes, too many people in town and nowhere enough people in the country.

My wife and I would like to relocate to the Ozarks and buy 5+ acres that's half woods and half open or something that we can improve to that point. There's a lot more people in the country down there and I felt like people down there are much friendlier, as well as being in the "bible belt", we would have a better chance of finding like minded people.

Not to mention that the climate down there is not as extreme as it is here.... they get the cold that I currently get but it doesn't last anywhere near as long and it's not unusual to have 40+ in the middle of winter, while here it's below freezing for months on end. Then you can add in the fact that everything down there is cleaner due to less roundup and nowhere near as much agriculture as there is here. From an earth change standpoint the Ozarks are supposed to be one of the most stable regions on earth, here up north, was a glacier field and if the earth gets much colder they'll have glaciers again.
 
I grew up in the Texas Hill country and moved to SE Oklahoma after a short attempt at college. I came to Okla with a school teacher friend. I was working in health care as a office nurse and one of the pts ended up being my future MIL. Our part of Okla is rural half wah between OKC and Dallas. We live just outside a town of approx 30,000. I'm in the country but 6 miles from any convenince needed. My hubs is Chickasaw Indian and gets his health care free at a state of the art hospital with great docs. He is retired from Michelin so I get my health care from his health plan.
We have a nice home and pretty" farmlett". Unless our health gets so that we can't take care of it, we'r planted!
 
Desert of Arizona. Best 2nd. Amendment state in the Republic. Very reasonable cost of living. 90 minute drive in any direction ( great speed limits 75 mph. + the 8 mph the LEO's ignore) and I can be into a fair sized city, if needed. No natural disasters to worry about, floods, tornado's, earthquakes or major forest fires. No white fluffy stuff to worry about or deal with. Great temperatures, winter 40 to 75 and summer 80 to 120. Lots of open land and few crowds to worry about. The only real danger is the possible influx from Komifornia but I will follow Redbeards three S's .Shoot, shovel and shutup, it they get too thick around here. :LOL::eyeballs:
 
I grew up in Central FL on the Gulf Coast. We choose to live in SW MS for several reasons. Cost of living, taxes, we're in a small town of 2000 on an acre with a 20X30 ft concrete block outbuilding so we have options there and room to plant a garden leftover. One can pretty much do what you want on your property. Nice weather here for the most part and for growing. People are friendly.

On the negative side, don't plan on going to a movie unless you're up for the 40 mile round trip drive, or a Denny's or Red Lobster or most chain restaurants. LOL
 
I grew up in Central FL on the Gulf Coast. We choose to live in SW MS for several reasons. Cost of living, taxes, we're in a small town of 2000 on an acre with a 20X30 ft concrete block outbuilding so we have options there and room to plant a garden leftover. One can pretty much do what you want on your property. Nice weather here for the most part and for growing. People are friendly.

On the negative side, don't plan on going to a movie unless you're up for the 40 mile round trip drive, or a Denny's or Red Lobster or most chain restaurants. LOL
. 40 mile round trip? Wow, it’s nice to be close. we are 1 1/2 hour drive each way. Mind you there isn’t anything worth watching at movie theatres and we don’t do chain restaurants often.
 
. 40 mile round trip? Wow, it’s nice to be close. we are 1 1/2 hour drive each way. Mind you there isn’t anything worth watching at movie theatres and we don’t do chain restaurants often.

No way we would drive 40 miles for a movie (and definitely not at night)! I would love to have a Denny's though!
 
I live less than an hour from where I grew up. Lived here for most of my life. We have 4 seasons and can garden 8-9 months of the year. I can be in the mountians in less than an hour. Other than an occasional tornado or flash flood from heavy rains, we have no major natural disaster woes.
If I ever had to leave this area I would head to either WY, MT, ID, or AK. But no plans for that.
 
Many good points. I've had just about everything except volcanoes where we live. The earthquakes were most likely caused by fracking. I really don't want to stay here but I appreciate it when I can get an occasional warm weather day in the winter. The cost of housing in the area is increasing and the availability is decreasing. Swimming in July is no relief, pool water is too hot.
We went to eastern Tennessee a couple of years ago, up into the mountains, very beautiful area. I want to garden and I can't do it here, I've tried. Some do it well, I do not.
Denny's makes me sick.
NH had a job offer in Mississippi and I would have lived there, wasn't to be.
But of all the places I've been in the U.S., I still think people are the nicest here in Texas. Granted, I can't assume that rudeness in another state was necessarily from a native of that state.
Crud, it's almost next year!
Happy New Year, everyone. More later.:fun fun:
 
I live in East Texas. Year round gardening. Strong agriculture. Cheap cost of living. Good job market. Healthcare plentiful. Universities, colleges & junior colleges are plentiful & good quality. Lakes & woods are plentiful. Varied activities like zoo, planetarium, museums, tiger refuge, indoor & outdoor water parks, state park, ballets, plays, big name concerts, etc. The people are awesome. Conservative, independent spirit of Texas is alive & well here. Wild hog population high enough to dispose of any undesirables.
 
Desert of Arizona. Best 2nd. Amendment state in the Republic. Very reasonable cost of living. 90 minute drive in any direction ( great speed limits 75 mph. + the 8 mph the LEO's ignore) and I can be into a fair sized city, if needed. No natural disasters to worry about, floods, tornado's, earthquakes or major forest fires. No white fluffy stuff to worry about or deal with. Great temperatures, winter 40 to 75 and summer 80 to 120. Lots of open land and few crowds to worry about. The only real danger is the possible influx from Komifornia but I will follow Redbeards three S's .Shoot, shovel and shutup, it they get too thick around here. :LOL::eyeballs:
Three S's are very useful....

Born breed New Hampshire. I live on my own farm 15 minutes from the farm i was born on. Love it here. No poisonous critters, winter also kills off the parasites for the animals. The only real bad weather we have is winter but i ride snowmobiles and im a snowmaker so im not effected much. I can survive here year round with or without modern conveniences. Im in the white mountains so i feel safe because i know about every inch of them. Our area is easy to defend against ground troops and we have some great caves to hide in as well. Plenty of food running around the forest. I also really like the fact that if the shtf happened come winter only a handful of people would stay. New Englanders are not known to be friendly and we keep to ourselves for the most part but mess with one of us and you will have an army at your door, i like that.
 
I like N.Florida because the growing season here is 8 mon.s or 10 if you have a greenhouse, July and August and most of Sept. is just too hot though.
We have 4 seasons which are all mild. Favorite is Spring and Fall.
 
I like N.Florida because the growing season here is 8 mon.s or 10 if you have a greenhouse, July and August and most of Sept. is just too hot though.
We have 4 seasons which are all mild. Favorite is Spring and Fall.
Spring, fall, hurricane and tourist?
 
Spring, fall, hurricane and tourist?


Hurricanes are not bad here we are not close to the ocean but close enough for a day at the beach. We lose power for up to a couple weeks sometime,but mostly not much damage.
Most tourist we don't see unless we go to the caves where divers from all over the world come to cave dive. Hubby is not from here he is Carolina man, but about 35 yr.ago his cousin died diving in one of these caves. Now and then divers go in but don't make it back out.
We are close to the worlds largest concentration of natural springs. But if the bottling companies [ especially Nestles a foreign Corporation and CocoCola ] keep it up they will destroy it. 70% of the water they take go to other nations, the rest is because people choose to use bottled water instead of using thermas or personal water bottle.
 
Move to Arkansas living about 50 miles from my paternal ancestral home. People are very friendly. Being from California I had hoped to be tolerated until folks got to know us. Well we were welcomed with open arms. The place we have had been on the market for a very long time and the person we bought from was desperate to sale. Even though we paid cash we paid his full asking price. The place is worth every penny we paid and folks were impressed that we didn't take advantage of him. Another plus is that people knew my family and they have long memories. A man stopped my wife while she was walking our dogs and told her what a good godly woman my grandmother was. She passed 35 years ago. We later found that we are surrounded by extended family for miles in every direction. Although we have a BOL we have everything we need here plenty of pasture, 3 wells, nice wood lot, 2 acre pond full of fish and a church less than half a mile from us. There are several preppers here. While I practice OPSEC I was found out by the pastor who is also a house inspector. During the inspection he over heard me tell my wife about some modifications that I wanted done. Later he complemented me on my situational awareness said he would do the same thing also recommended a contractor who did the job for a reasonable price. So I have a loose network of like minded people. Lastly we love it here and it is not California.
 

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