Northern California

I live in Northern CA on 40 acres in Nevada County which is in the Sierra Nevada foothills. We are above the fog of the Sacramento Valley but below the major snow of the Sierra. It is beautiful, the weather is great, and the people are nice. BUT we are trying to build a house and are finding the regulations are so stringent you can't do anything without paying the county or some engineer a huge fee...it will cost us almost $30,000 just to put in a septic system for a 3 bed 2 bath house...and our taxes are out of this world! (Not to mention the income tax) So we are thinking of moving out of CA maybe to Nevada, Washington, Utah or Oregon...

The California Flag Salute

I am a California child I love this Golden State
its mountains high its valleys wide
its people good and great
I love the dear old pioneers that made us what we are
And gave to us this golden State
Our Nation's Brightest Star

Thank you Westbrook!!
That about sums it up.

Kris

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I know all the rules, but the rules do not know me ... Eddie Vedder

I've lived in 49 places in my life all over the U.S., and honestly, California, as a whole SUCKS!

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Just feed me chocolate.

I don't think that you've lived anywhere long enough to Know whether or not someplace is good or not, unless you're about 150yrs old.

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Freedom isn't Free

OK, I’ll bite. I know I’ll live to regret it but here goes …..
Jerneeon, can you tell us, exactly what it is about California that you dislike so much?

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I know all the rules, but the rules do not know me ... Eddie Vedder

It is WAY too expensive to live there and that is EVERYWHERE in the state. Very smoggy in the south. I couldn't breathe the last few times I was there. The traffic is hideous in a lot of areas. Quite frightening to drive through it. I grant you that the northern part of the state is beautiful, but it's still very costly to live there. The attitude of Californians when they move somewhere is to change it immediately to be as much like California as possible so they bring it with them, like a disease, and spread it everywhere. Oregon has turned into California which is why I'm moving to Montana... Sorry, I just don't agree with you that California has that much to offer...

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Just feed me chocolate.

Jerneeon, I gotta agree with you. I lived in 8 different counties in Northern California, being pushed out by the growth of city folk and their ways, or the inability to make wage enough to pay land payments. I didn't actually move out of state until I was in my early thirties. I hadn't realized the mental hold the state of California had me. Once I was out, it was a giant relief for me.

I lived a year in Oregon, just so I could say I was from Oregon when I got to Montana. I lived in Western Montana, Southern Kansas, Northern Oklahoma, back to Montana, then to Western Washington and eventually way out to wetsern edge of the state. At no time have I had the urge to go back to California. I am free of the opressive control of that state and that attitude they have of being better than everybody else.

Forget Western Montana, Californians took it over years ago. All it took was one mild winter and they didn't go home! I am pretty safe from them where I live now. They leave on the first good rain.

Hahahahaha! Laura, I rarely mention that I used to live in California either. Where are you in Washington? I used to live in Walla Walla and in College Place. And in what part of Montana did you live?

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Just feed me chocolate.

I live out by LaPush on the Pacific Ocean. I can see Mt. Olympus, when it's not raining, and hear the ocean at the same time. When I was in Montana, I lived 10 miles out of Missoula on the Clark Fork River. Last I heard, my place was only 3 miles out of town. When I left 10 years ago, the water level in the well was dropping about 5 feet per year.

I liked Kansas and Oklahoma, the people were so very nice, but I missed the ocean and mountains. I much prefer earthquakes to tornadoes, too.

All things considered, I experience more freedom and less government instrusion here in CA than most places I've lived.

Other than a few building codes, how does CA exert any more control than WA or any other state?

I have no complaints about California. Life is what you make of it.
The thing is, if you have a few acres and just don’t pay much attention to what goes on around you, you can be happy anywhere.

And yes, I’m moving to Western Montana myself.
The snow will probably scare me a might, it's just a different way of life, I'll adjust.

Kris

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I know all the rules, but the rules do not know me ... Eddie Vedder

I think it was the "If you don't participate in our volunteer spray program (spray 24D around my shallow well and creekbed) we will put a lein on your property and screw up the title" about did it for me.

Of course, fighting with the ag department about illegal use of pesticides only made them mad so they turned my address in as suspected pot grower. This brought helicopters into my place daily for 6 weeks, riding the gulch like a roller coaster, dropping well below the trees, hovering level with my second story window and looking in. Scattering the deer, agitating the bears and sending my lilttle daughter into screaming fits of terror.

Yup, that about did it for me.

Well, gosh, folks, I thought this was a HOMESTEADING forum. If it is homesteading you want then there are MANY very good places to live in Northern CA. For you Sity Slickers, yup, you gotta pay the squeeze.

Near as I can tell Oregonians and Wazoos pay somewhere near 10% property taxes each year which sounds mighty painful to me. Here in the People's Republic the political vermin are restricted to 1%. Sure the price goes up when you sell, but there are also alternatives you can use to keep your taxes lower than otherwise. Try negotiating with the seller!!!!

Sixty inches of snow over six months + of the year are a big discouragement. The worst I've seen snow where I am was 30 inches that lasted from Christmas to early April. BUT, most years we see rain and often not even a frost until March or April. My climate is a Western Garden Zone 7 and first rate for growing fruit and vegetables and minor tricks permit year round veggies. Try that in Montana and outside of the Snake basin in Idyhoe in the absence of MAJOR tricks.

For those who DO homestead, life on the land here is not all that dear. If you have to have all the amenities like Sity Slickers the costs can go quite high. But live on your place and be as self-reliant as many homesteaders strive to be and the situation is not that bad.

I chose my location very carefully after reviewing the local County Plan and discovered "my" valley was NOT on that plan. Life here is pretty easy and I certainly don't need any great income to live a satisfying live. Remember this place lacks commercial power though I have developed my own power system. I will admit I have frequently enjoyed driving down my hill to discover the neighbor sweating bullets whether his power would come back on before his freezer goods turned to stink.

So the answer is you, not the place. If you want to homestead and want to pay the effort required for self reliance there are many places in N CA that are great.

The best place I have seen for few to no bugs is the Humboldt Coast behind the Redwood Curtain. The climate is cool, summers with a high overcast "fog" that keeps it cool, but humid. Winters are rain and wind, but I have seen snow down to the water, but rarely. Spring and summer are glorious. More restriction on what you plant, but not a great deal...harder to grow tomatoes and melons because of the lack of heat, but there are ways. I've worked spring, summer, and fall on the Humboldt Coast and there are FEW bugs to bite and make your life miserable. It is the most bug free place I know of.

And lastly, the real part of California that "sucks" is especially Excremento with all the far left socialist morons who want to steal your money and make you their slave while permitting the gays to molest your kids. Politics here is bad news...even with our new "Republican" governator who is less than interested in our liberty and well being in spite of his public comments. For those who live on a homestead well away from that nonsense, life can be very good indeed.

Think Claire Wolfe and Living the Outlaw Life.

bearkiller

I think the main attraction of WA to Californians (at least those who are at the higher end of middle class-- 'way too poor to be rich, but too well-off enough to qualify for any aid) is the lack of an income tax. If you're poor, you can live anywhere you want.

Oregon (we have relatives there and visit regularly) has no sales tax, but a high income tax and rather high property taxes--and for some reason seems to attract mainly the retired and welfare crowd. Is it true that OR does not tax any retirement income? I heard that somewhere and that would certainly explain all the retirees.

California does have its good points. I like that it is at the forefront when it comes to health issues like smoking in restaurants. Now, if they could get the smoking companies to foot the health insurance bills for smokers, I think it would be great to allow some restaurants only for smokers. I don't have any problem with adults smoking per se.

"Near as I can tell Oregonians and Wazoos pay somewhere near 10% property taxes each year which sounds mighty painful to me. Here in the People's Republic the political vermin are restricted to 1%. Sure the price goes up when you sell, but there are also alternatives you can use to keep your taxes lower than otherwise. Try negotiating with the seller!!!!"

Bearkiller, I guarantee that if the price is significantly lower than "market value", even in CA they are going to question the sale, and will adjust the assessment accordingly. I realize people play that game with cars down there (some states go by blue book or similar value that they won't let you quibble over). Nothing funnier than watching Judge Joe Brown laughing at some car buyer saying before God and the TV audience "well blue book on this car is $$$$ but we said it was only worth $$ to avoid the taxes" and JJB saying, "well, now it's worth only what said you paid for it, minus depreciation on that." But no seller is going to give up any extra value on a property so some buyer they don't know from boo can pay less in taxes.

Snow? Who is worried about a little bit of snow? I've lived in weather that is -70 degrees in Nebraska with snow drifts well over 8 to 10 feet. I hardly think a little snow is going to scare me. California still sucks.

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Just feed me chocolate.

Wow! This is an eye opener. I'd never been west of Colorado until we flew to CA two years ago on our way to Hawaii. I didn't much care for the Airport in LA but the mountains took my breath away. Of course, I liked southern Hawaii (island) better. Like California though, it's extremely expensive, guess you get what you pay for!!

I have question for those of you who live in CA. How do you afford it? I've heard about the cost of Real Estate, gasoline, living etc. Where do you work to be able to afford to live there, I mean in what kind of job? You can't live very comfortably in Oklahoma making $8 and hour, I can't imagine trying to live in CA making a wage like that. I take my hat off to those of you who live there still, you are true pioneers.
Are the jobs there being sent overseas? Many of the manufacturing plants here are closing down and sending work to China and such. Alot of people moved here during the oil boom, but once that went bust they left (not that I mind

Okay, some more California horror stories....

In the 70's, some people started a small intentional community subdivision focused on GREEN living, using recycled lumber to build, composting toilets instead of septic systems, alternative power sources, etc. By 1980, the county came in and condemned each and every property in the community for not being "code." It was code violation to use recycled lumber and windows instead of new, composting toilets were a code violation, even using alternative power sources instead of hooking up to available grid was deemed unacceptable by the county code enforcers. These people were having to spend big bucks on lawyers and county imposed fines. I don't know how it turned out, but I do know many gave up and moved to other states. These were nice homes, not a hippy shantytown.

My dad was driving down the highway when the pickup in front of him lost its fiberglass fishing boat. The boat bounced off the shoulder and onto a boulder putting a humongous hole in the boat. The owner and my dad both stopped. The guy didn't want the busted boat, so instead of loading back into his pickup, he sold it to my dad for $10 and loaded into dad's pickup.

My dad spent many hours patching the holes and cracks in the boat. When he went to license it, DMV claimed he couldn't buy a boat for $10 (you can when it has a big hole in it and it needs to get off the side of the road, here's the receipt) DMV decided to tax him for his labor, asking how many hours he spent in restoring the boat and make him pay fees on the value of the restored boat. Yes, he appealed, he took time off work to fight this, lost one entire fishing season, but won in the end. DMV in California STILL tries to tax the labor put into vehicle restoration. They get away with it unless the victim knows to fight and wishes to put the time into the process.

As soon as my dad retired, he moved to his little homestead in Nevada. What he found out, his savings, investments and pensions were stuck in California and couldn't be transferred to another state without paying the state of California big, hefty tax and fees. He left it and has to pay CA income tax every time he withdraws. It is the better alternative than losing a big chunk of principal if he were to move it to Nevada.

All of my family has left California because of various government BS and loss of quality of life. I still have friends there who think it is normal to be run over by beaurocracy and pay bribes for the permission to live in that state. I see in them the same mental block I had about getting out of there, like leaving will bring personal TEOTWAWKI. They don't understand this TEOTWAWKI is a good thing, they will taste freedom that they never knew existed.

Wow, Laura, you have more horror stories in your family alone than I've ever heard in one family. I am SO glad I got out when I did!! My family all left, too. Almost all of have returned briefly, only to leave again. Some live in Nevada, some in Oregon. Where in Nevada does your dad live? My parents live in Fallon.

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Just feed me chocolate.

The green community incident didn't involve my family, but I kept very close tabs on what was going on. These things affect us all. The problem for my family and me is we never never rolled over and gave up our rights to the state or counties, we stood up to preserve our rights. That's what happens when you study and believe in the US Constitution and study state constitutions and charters. Public schools don't teach these things anymore. It creates too many troublemakers.

The thing with California residents, many don't even know they are getting screwed. They are so brainwashed from infancy into the nanny state and follow like sheep. they are the ultimate in "the government needs to do something" crowd. I've had some California homesteading friends visit me and they don't understand how I can cut a tree on my property without a permit and an environmental impact statement signed by a public paycheck. (What if something bad happens?) or build a nice little barn with recycled timbers and recycled corrigated steel without a licensed architect's signature. (what if something bad happens?) The concept of personal responsibility has gotten rather vague in their thinking. I guess if the county issues a permit and you pay an architect or someone for their signature, you can blame and sue them if something goes awry.

My parents are out by Lake Topaz. Beautiful views of mountains from their place and a good fishing lake, too. Personally, I don't care for the desert and the afternoon sandstorms. I like my warm rain and epiphites.