Traveling Suggestions

[zoel_222]

I decided a while back that I do not want to end up living in this area. :doh: I'm in Oregon right between Salem and Portland, about 40 and 50 minutes to each. I love the summers here, but I hate the other 7 months during the year with the rain and mud and mediocre temperatures. I can't stand it. In a couple of years, hopefully sooner rather than later I want to explore around the country to find that perfect place. I'm planning on going to different places and renting for a little while to get a feel for the place so when I'm ready I can buy my own property. Of course I'll bring the ponies along with me through the journey.

I'd love to give Nevada, California, Wyoming, Colorado and Montana a try. Possibly Eastern Oregon (which I hear is a lot different than Western Oregon) and Idaho. Canada is also not out of the question. I'm a born and raised Alaskan so I'm practically Canadian. :happydance: I always loved traveling to the Yukon. That's where I got Chica. I don't like big cities, but I don't like being in a completely secluded country area either. Right now I live in a small 5000 pop. town (3000 of which is prison population ;)) which has like two streets, one grocery store, and the rest is fields and orchards. I love that part. I'm only 10 or 15 minutes from a 33,000 pop. medium sized city that has lots of fun stuff to do. I don't want to live in the larger cities like Portland.

For weather I like everything to be dry lol. I love the Oregon summers which are fairly hot (80-95) and really dry. I also love cold winters! I hate having warm winters like we do here which is usually just like 40-50 degrees. But as long as it doesn't rain a lot I don't care how cold or warm it gets. I like it when everything is frozen and the ground is dry. I also love the snow. I ride in 10 degree weather as long as it's not windy or an ice storm.

I've always been sort of a west coast girl. I haven't done much east coast traveling besides Florida. I have a lot of family in Wisconsin and Illinois so I've been there quite a bit, but haven't been out of the the suburbs and downtown Chicago area so I don't really know a whole lot else about it.

Above all, locations must be horse friendly. :) When I finally do buy a place of my own I don't want less than 5 acres. I have 12 right now so I've been spoiled and can't go smaller haha :D.

Also, I really want to avoid high property taxes (duh). :doh: Right now my parent's house is a farm status (we have a filbert farm/small egg business) so we only pay like $500 a year. I don't expect to find something that good, but I still want to avoid the really high stuff.

Does anyone have any good areas they'd like to suggest? I hope this isn't too tall of an order :D

[mare]

As far as Wyoming... property taxes are low and there is no state income tax. Cody is very horse oriented, the Sheridan area is, too. Our two mid-sized cities, Casper and Cheyenne, have more wind. Too much for many people to tolerate. Cody land prices are really high. Lander is one of the least windy areas of the U.S., but it and Riverton (10 miles north) are pretty small, and it's far to larger towns. But they're fun places, too.

It gets cold here, but we always seem to get breaks in the weather. Might be in the single digits in the morning and the 40s in the afternoon. Because it's so dry, the cold isn't bone-chilling and the snow evaporates even below 32 degrees. Precipitation, including rain and snow, is around 10" for the year for most of the state. It does get over 100 in the summer usually, but not day after day and the nights cool off well.

If I had to live somewhere else, I might consider northern AZ or NM for similar climate and population density.

Good luck and have fun exploring locations.

[Tiz]

Here's useful old saying. Don't understand it to mean that you shouldn't go exploring though.

Bloom where you're planted, because no matter where you go, there you are!

[Fork]

I moved out for the first time in September. I must say, I love where I am now much more than where I'm originally from! I live 5 hours from my parents house now, and I've driven up and down a couple of times.

The temperatures here are colder than what I'm used to, but it's a different kind of cold. It's -13C/8F outside right now, but it feels more like -21C/-6F. The cold is extremely dry and comfortable because there's no moisture in the air, but it does get a little chilly when the mercury hits a balmy -40C/-40F. In the summer, the weather rarely hits over 85. I live in a fantastic city. Everyone here is very community oriented. Crime is relatively low. No one is ever in a rush because the city is situated 4 hours north of any major hub. Traffic jams are nonexistent. Gas is a few cents more, but nothing outrageous. I think the population is somewhere around 60,000.

It's very sunny out most days. :) Boarding stables are kind of few and far between, but you get a lot for your money. I pay $250 for a stall with feed and turn in during extreme weather.

Rentals vary, but you can usually get an all-inclusive room for $325 to $550 or a one-bedroom apartment from $550 to $700. Housing is cheap compared to the rest of Ontario. A 1500 sq. ft. house is around the $150,000 to $200,000 range. I once saw a lakefront property with a barn, acreage and a nice house for $300,000. Average house price is $320,000 for the province, or something like that. http://www.realtor.ca/map.aspx?&vs=VEResidential&beds=0-0&baths=0-0&minp=0&maxp=0&area=north+bay&trt=2#acr:false;ac:false;baths:0-0;beds:0-0;fp:false;gar:false;pmin:0;pmax:0;rmin:0;rmax:0;o penh:false;pool:false;stories:0-0;buildingstyle:;buildingtypeid:;viewtypeid:;water front:false;forsale:true;forrent:false;orderBy:A;s ortBy:1;LisStartDate:;mapZ:12;page:1;mapC:46.30663 00749779,%20-79.45992976427078;curView:0; For a better look at prices. :)

ETA: These prices are in Canadian $, which is almost on par with the American dollar right now.

[palomino]

Eastern Oregon is SO nice- I would like to move to Bend, its snowy in the winter, wet in spring, dry and warm in summer, and mild in fall!! Its about perfect and its HORSEY!! Property galore, and lots of stuff to do from what I hear.

[zoel_222]

Mare, hah maybe Wyoming isn't for me after all.

Tiz, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying :huh:

Fork, that sounds really nice. You're lucky to live there.

Palomino, I am definitely considering Eastern Oregon. That would be nice because I could still be relatively close to my parents (who is apparently heart broken I'm not living at home forever :rolleyes:), but it would be a better climate for me and my horses. Plus I think the show circuit for Dressage is a lot better over there. And then me and Halfpassinghaffie could show together. :D I don't mind a little rain. I actually like rain, I just don't like rain for weeks on end that leaves mud up to your knees.

I'm from Juneau, Alaska where we have the most overcast days of any town in the entire USA. It rained for months straight. On average we'd only get 2 or 3 weeks of sunny days (broken up of course) a year. But it was never muddy. I liked it there, but not enough to live there again. It's completely secluded. The only way out is to take a boat or plane. It's a tight woven family-like community which is nice, but it's also a political battlefield that can get really intense at times. You're either extremely liberal or extremely conservative, neither of which I am, so I didn't enjoy the drama. Living expenses are also REALLY high and it's not at all horse country. Before hay prices sky rocketed I was paying $25 for one small 2 string bale. There's also only one equine vet who travels all over that part of the state so if you have an emergency and she's gone you're pretty much screwed.

[Fork]

I'm from Juneau, Alaska where we have the most overcast days of any town in the entire USA. It rained for months straight. On average we'd only get 2 or 3 weeks of sunny days (broken up of course) a year. But it was never muddy. I liked it there, but not enough to live there again. It's completely secluded. The only way out is to take a boat or plane. It's a tight woven family-like community which is nice, but it's also a political battlefield that can get really intense at times. You're either extremely liberal or extremely conservative, neither of which I am, so I didn't enjoy the drama. Living expenses are also REALLY high and it's not at all horse country. Before hay prices sky rocketed I was paying $25 for one small 2 string bale. There's also only one equine vet who travels all over that part of the state so if you have an emergency and she's gone you're pretty much screwed.Were you born out there? Wow! Thats's nuts. How did you decide to move to Oregon, of all places?

I've never actually been to the Pacific Ocean. I begged my mom to go this July. Fingers crossed. :D

[zoel_222]

I was born there, yes. My parents were from Wisconsin and moved up to Juneau in the 80s (separately, they didn't meet till they got there). We moved in 2007 when I was 15 because my parents couldn't take the political drama anymore. We were getting sued on a weekly basis by our neighbor (on no legal grounds) for having horses. We had to get a restraining order from him because he kept harassing us. He even kidnapped one of my pet chickens and killed it. It just became a very unpleasant place to be. I guess Juneau used to be a very laid back easy going town, but all the yuppies from "the lower 48" moved in and it really changed. Juneau also has a lot of drug problems and my parents didn't want me to get caught up in that. My dad's sister's family who he's very close lives in Beaverton, OR, and he always wanted to move closer to her. So we did. We bought this property with all the acreage and moved here. At the time we had Chica, Whitney and Hopi and we took a ferry to Prince Rupert and hauled them through Canada all the way down to Oregon.

I love the pacific ocean. Yes, it's cold but I love the waves and the wind. :D

[Fork]

I was born there, yes. My parents were from Wisconsin and moved up to Juneau in the 80s (separately, they didn't meet till they got there). We moved in 2007 when I was 15 because my parents couldn't take the political drama anymore. We were getting sued on a weekly basis by our neighbor (on no legal grounds) for having horses. We had to get a restraining order from him because he kept harassing us. He even kidnapped one of my pet chickens and killed it. It just became a very unpleasant place to be. I guess Juneau used to be a very laid back easy going town, but all the yuppies from "the lower 48" moved in and it really changed. Juneau also has a lot of drug problems and my parents didn't want me to get caught up in that. My dad's sister's family who he's very close lives in Beaverton, OR, and he always wanted to move closer to her. So we did. We bought this property with all the acreage and moved here. At the time we had Chica, Whitney and Hopi and we took a ferry to Prince Rupert and hauled them through Canada all the way down to Oregon.

I love the pacific ocean. Yes, it's cold but I love the waves and the wind. :DWow! I had no idea Juneau had so many crime and drug problems but I guess it would make sense. Northern Canada and natives in general are caught up in so many issues like alcoholism, suicide, drugs, poverty. :( That's awful. I bet Oregon is a much safer place to grow up though you're probably tired of the area. I've been all through the upper 48 except for Washington. In Canada, I've been everywhere except for PEI and British Columbia. :mad:

Are you going to college soon?

[zoel_222]

Juneau actually doesn't have a lot of crime. There's like never any murders or robberies or anything. It's a pretty safe place. There's just nothing to do so everybody does drugs, lol. Pretty much everyone smokes pot, adults included, and heroin, meth and oxycodone are also a big problem. My brother had a huge struggle with drugs and alcohol for many years and went to rehab when I was in middle school. He left shortly after we moved and traveled all over the US for about a year living out of his truck. He lived pretty much in every state in the west coast area and now he's settled in Florida and has a year lease on his apartment. It sounds like you've been a lot of places, too. If I didn't have horses I'd be outa here right now, doing the same thing he did.

Oregon actually has just as much drug problems and way more crime, especially in Sheridan. Sheridan is freakin scary. The school systems also are really bad here. If I ever have kids I'd definitely not raise them here. I think the only reason it would be considered a better place to grow up is because you're not isolated so you're not forced into it. You can just drive out of town or out of state whenever you want.

I'm not sure about college anymore. I was planning to take a short course to get vet tech certified at the end of this year, but I'm not sure if I want to do that now. It's going to be expensive and I don't need to be certified to have that kind of career. I don't know what I want to do. :(