Tell me about Iowa please....

We moved to NE corner of Iowa 2 years ago from No California and love it here, wouldn't go back. My daughter and family live near Ames, she commutes to downtown Des Moines to work. It is flat around there, and not as pretty nor culturally the same as this part of Iowa where we are. Taxes are low, we have endless water in our well, and we can build multiple residences on our land, we have a farmette surrounded by fields of corn and soy, dairy and hogs, and they aren't GMO, either. Our nieghbors are all decent people. Schools are good and homeschooling is allowed and the school district will help you at it. You want to stay away from towns where the zoning is stricter and they have planning offices, but that is the fact of life when you are close to the cities. Prices are higher for land and homes in the commute zone around Des Moines, tho. Most roads in Iowa are gravel and well maintained by the county, only main roads are paved..

I don't like Minnesota where I grew up, I found it culturally stifling, but NE Iowa has been my dream location for many years. The winters aren't that bad, they are tolerable and they can even be fun. The food culture here sucks, but we cook California-style foods when we want to.

__________________
"Success is preparation and opportunity meeting." - Andrea Smith, music director for XM 82, 2008.

Old Turkomen proverb: "When we have rice to eat, life is good." From: "The World Is A Carpet"

People who move to iowa are usually impressed with how friendly the people are here.You always have some bad apples tho.Here in north central iowa water is no problem.We all have a year round deep well on our places.Southern iowa have some rural water systems for your water.We do not irrigate here because we get enough rain.The local school districts work with home schoolers.Kids can participate in public school programs along with home schooling.Our area home schoolers have an organization and they meet monthly.I'm a fourth generation iowan so I don't know any better than to like it here.The desmoines area is not my cup of tea because I am down right rural.Some of the previous replies here are acurate.Come on over.

[QUOTE=IowaLez;4366009]We moved to NE corner of Iowa 2 years ago from No California and love it here, wouldn't go back. My daughter and family live near Ames, she commutes to downtown Des Moines to work. It is flat around there, and not as pretty nor culturally the same as this part of Iowa where we are. Taxes are low, we have endless water in our well, and we can build multiple residences on our land, we have a farmette surrounded by fields of corn and soy, dairy and hogs, and they aren't GMO, either. Our nieghbors are all decent people. Schools are good and homeschooling is allowed and the school district will help you at it. You want to stay away from towns where the zoning is stricter and they have planning offices, but that is the fact of life when you are close to the cities. Prices are higher for land and homes in the commute zone around Des Moines, tho. Most roads in Iowa are gravel and well maintained by the county, only main roads are paved..

I agree with this! I live in NW Iowa and love it, but this is a lot different than the Des Moines area.

you can compare cities to get an idea of difference at weather.com. I don't know where you are so I just picked a city in western colorado (grand junction). here is a link to the results:

http://www.weather.com/weather/wxcli...A0231&clocid2=

substitute grand junction for wherever you are in the chart.

iowa is one of the places I am looking at land and des moines is close in weather to where I am from in indiana. gets around 40 inches of rain a year, is in zone 5a. water shouldn't be a problem at all. I would think it would be warmer than what you are used to but more humid. but man, compared to anyplace in texas des moines will seem like heaven

small rural acreages just don't seem very plentiful there at all and I've been looking all over the midwest.

use the link below to choose what area around des moines you want to look at on realtor.com. I've found this link better than entering a city then expanding results up to the 20 miles they set:

http://www.realtor.com/desmoines/nbregion.asp?st=ia

So, we got snow here last night, roads are ugly, slicker than snot..... Is that similar to what I would expect out in Iowa?? How long does snow stay on the ground?

Thanks for the info on homeschooling, I looked at the laws and looks a lot like Colorado, but the schools here will not help you at all.

Sounds good so far, we are not interested in row crops, just hay and pasture, so I will look south and east first, and thanks for the reminder about the sun on the commute. I forget about things like that since I'm not the one having to drive it!

Tilly

Right now there is no snow on the ground. We had a lot of snow this winter (my SIL lives just south of Des Moines and they had close to the same amount, but it is all gone. We may get another small snow storm, but I doubt it and if we do, the snow should melt right away. This time of year it is typically in the 40-50s and it will begin to warm up a lot over the next few months. As someone stated earlier, it is humid in the summers.
My kids go to a public school and I am pleased with their education. Furthermore, homeschooling is very accepted. There have been a lot of budget cuts for education, but I think that is happening to a lot of the states.

You will have much better luck finding small properties by going to local realtors' websites and avoiding the big, USA-wide generalist ones like realty.com. It took us 3 years to find the right place. You can often find farm houses that have been separated from the big land parcels around them, you can often negotiate how much land goes with the house. Look for depressed areas for lower prices and more opportunities, since your hubby won't depend on local work.

Snow stays on the ground for varying amounts of time each year. Our first Winter we had little snow on the ground for 6 weeks only, which meant a crappy snowmobiling season. This year we had tons of snow from Dec 6th until March 1st, and they groom the snowmobile trails here and keep them real nice when it's like that. We have a 4 wd vehicle for rough driving conditions, but my daughter gets around in a 2 wd minivan for her commute and paved town roads.

__________________
"Success is preparation and opportunity meeting." - Andrea Smith, music director for XM 82, 2008.

Old Turkomen proverb: "When we have rice to eat, life is good." From: "The World Is A Carpet"

OK, My sister wants me to ask everyone about tornadoes......she found a site that said tornadoes are common and you can't get insurance because of them.

So, what type of natural disasters are common out there? We grew up in the PNW, so wildfires and drought are not new to us, been in snow country for 15 years, so that is no big deal, just wondering if I need to be prepared for something different.

Tilly

I live about an hour and a half West of Des Moines but formerly lived in Des Moines and Ames. Typical farm ground, or good pasture land, costs anywhere from $4-6K per acre with some going above $7K. You can carry a lot more animals per acre here in IA than in CO or some other Western states.
You should be able to find a nice place within an hour of Des Moines for $250K. Tornados are common in all midwestern states and insurance for any "normal" structure is not an issue and actually fairly cheap compared to some other states I have been in. People are typicaly friendly and helpful to any newcomers with god attitudes and good ethics. Deer hutning is incredible in Western, Southern, and NE IA. Des Moines area has some good bucks but hard to find places to hunt without $$$. Pheasant, duck hunting is good in most of IA. Bow hunters will gain access to hunting ground easier than gun hunters in all the areas I have been. Hope that helps!

I've been looking at property listings, a lot say the have new septic systems installed. Is there a problem with the septics perc rates or just need to be replaced more often than normal?

Places with creeks often say 'good place for pond'. Do you have to have water rights to mess with the streams on your property?

Tilly

All sales of existing homes in IA need to have a new septic installed or septic system signed of by county agent prior to sale.
As far as ----ing a stream/etc. I do not know the laws or regulations of altering a natural waterway. I know every place I have seen one created seemed to the work of beavers so shouldn't be an issue legaly.

You would need to check on legality of ----ing the stream, but water rights are not the touchy subject they are in your area. Ground water is mostly plentiful and rainfall is much more abundant. Like mark twain said whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting.

Wells are highly regulated out here. If I wanted to put one in, is there a lot of legal mumbo jumbo or can I just drill? I really don't want to be at the mercy of someone else for my water like we are out here...

Tilly

I used to live in Grinnell Iowa, in the northeastern part. The topsoil was 8 ft deep, the terrain rolling, some open, some woods, lots of creeks, rain, lakes, deep yr - round wells. lots of Century farms (100 yrs or more in same family). Lots of churches, 32/4000 population in the 1980's there. Very cold in winter- to -40 w/out the wind chill, but sunny when not snowing. Loved it! Had the best large garden of my life there. From March to October. Unbelievable soil! ldc

Well, I'm sold! Now if we can just get the company to think Hubby is the right man for the job.....He will apply on Monday, we'll keep ya posted, and please send any more info you can think of.

Thanks
Tilly

haven't read all posts, but i used to live in iowa. that fact that i no longer do should speak for some of my feelings. we lived in the country, but with such good farm ground, there were ppl everywhere, a farm every quarter mile. and dont' dare think you'll ride a horse on it either! seems a bit more snobby than here in s.d. there was more money to be earned however, and the price of land is crazy-high. schools are good. some nice attactions to go see, fun to do kinda stuff. but that humidity, oh good grief, it was horrible. i miss seeing home, but don't feel like moving back there anytime soon.

But you will get to tell jokes about Missouri:

Did you know that if you take the 2 southern most tiers of counties in Iowa and add them to Missouri that you will raise the IQ of both states?

A couple of men were out trapping and one of the foxes in their trap only had one front leg. First man: "That must be a Missouri fox." Other man: "How can you tell?" First man: "He chewed off the wrong leg!"

__________________
Sarah,

If there are no dogs Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
-Will Rogers

Funny thing is, my mom's family left Missouri in the 40s, my dad's family (Ankeny) left Iowa in the 50s. If Grandma and Grandpa were still around I wouldn't have to bug you folks about all of this. Dad always teased mom about being from Missouri. They ALL think it a bit strange that we are wanting to go back.....my sister thinks it will be cool to be an Ankeny living near Ankeny....we'll see about that.

Tilly

Funny. We tell jokes about IA down here in God's country (MO).

As in, "Do you know what IOWA stands for?"

Srsly, though, Tilly, if 2A rights are important to you, and if you have issues with illegal search and seizure, you may want to look into how IA handles the Constitution.

__________________
Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

er, what DOES iowa stand for?

there is a county on the missouri/iowa line that has 450 sq miles and less than 4000 people. my kind of county