Where?
 

Hello. I am excited to find a group of folks do who seem to be interested (loosely!) in the same types of things I am interested in. I am in the process of looking for land to move my family to. I'm sure everyone has an opinion about this, and I think you could really help me: why do you like where you are? Why did you choose this region, type of farm/home? What would you do again, what do you wish you had done differently? I know stuff you can learn from books - "good water supply, south-facing exposure if you want to have solar, research restrictions, easements..." etc. There is a lot of experience here on this site, please share. I'm excited but not in a hurry. Thanks!

i totally love Michigan, no hurricanes, no earthquakes, very very few tornados, no desserts, plenty of growing season, lots of gree, lakes everywhere, plenty to see and do, winters are snowy but not as much as some states and our lowest temp ever was -38 but seldom goes below -20 and cold temps like that only last a week or two.

We aren't as buggy as other states, and few things that are venomous. Most things here won't eat you, but you can eat them.

Land is cheap right now but not for long as prices have begun to rise.

go North of M115 and crime drops off to the bare minimum, people are generally still friendly in the north part.

schools are good, shopping is decent and prices aren't sky high

Couldn't have said it any better.

I have been all over the country and a good portion of the world. I like where I now live because I get along with the people and it feels like home. I like most of the laws here and am comfortable with the growing season. Some of the schools are excellent but some are not. Land prices run from low (less than 1k to high over 10,000 per acre) in this state.

I also live in the Great Lakes region and I love it. I have lived all over the country and there is no place like it. The rural areas are amazing. I will be honest and say that I had to leave to realize that I took the area for granted. If I was to move again, then it would be to another town in the same region.

I will say that I visited the rural areas on the Michigan/Ohio border right off the lake recently and the experience was surprisingly intoxicating. I didn't think I would like the flat land but it was so open! And the sky! So much of it! You could see farmland for miles.

I've spent a lot of time in southern Mo (before Branson was Branson) and loved it. I'm looking for land there, in addition to other places. My husband thinks Vermont is the ticket - among other reasons - my teenager would be close to so many educational and cultural opportunities in the NE. from what I can tell on the internet, the area seems clean (maybe not so much in sw Mo).

Well I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay in MD (great fishing/seafood) and then moved to the mountains of WV (some of the best orchards) before getting married and moving to my husbands hometown here in north-central OH (great soil for gardening). I love gardening and cooking, so that move worked out well for me. Living here for over 40 years means I know the area well and familiarity is a bonus in your old age. My children and grandchildren settled here too, and family is everything to me--probably the biggest reason I'll stay here. I do day-dream about other places though, especially warmer ones.

I love it where I live although it is getting more populated and the taxes have gone up! PA is lovely .

Are you SURE you want to move to the NE?? Check out the thread on Moving West http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/gen...ving-west.html

I'm sure my area would scare you to death being from Fl...and you might freeze your fanny the first couple of years, but believe me, you get used it being colder and the summers are fabulous- warm enough to go to the beach, but not so warm that you think you're going to die anytime to step outside the door.

I love Michigan. I have lived in IA, MO, and TN and I like MI the best. Four seasons, winter isn't as bad as you'd think here - not nearly like Ia. Not as many bugs as Mo, not as hot or humid as TN. I like the summers especially. They are shorter than TN summers ( thank goodness)but long enough to grow a wide variety of crops. The growing season is pretty intense. I live in the SW corner- orchards and row crops rule here. Land isn't as cheap as TN or Mo, but doesn't have the hard clay, acidic soil or rocks either. We're close to a lot of larger cities - Chicago, South Bend, Grand Rapids - but we live near a town of only 600. The schools are great even for our size of town. The people are fantastic. We're farm folks and so are plenty of others. I get the winter off from the garden so I can spend my time knitting and spinning.

Dh's job brought us here.

I wish I'd chosen the 150x150 plot for the garden and put the chickens in the middle. I wish we'd bought more land but I'm glad I have what I have. I should have planted more fruit trees when I planted the first ones, rather than a few each year. I'd put that electric line to the greenhouse and chicken coop while the trench for the water line was dug. The greenhouse would be larger. I wish we'd reseeded the pasture when we first arrived.

Maine is cold & windy no jobs go to michigan

It's hard to move from FL and go very far north. I moved to middle TN 13 years ago after living in S FL for 16 years and I thought I was gonna freeze to death for a few years lol. Now it seems reasonable and we do have warm days intermittently throughout the winter. It was in the 50's yesterday for example.

We want to build a greenhouse, with that we could easily grow food year round. As it is we are able to keep some things alive unprotected through the winter, like collards, carrots, mustard, brussels sprouts, etc.

I personally wouldn't want to move too far north because I love gardening for as many months as possible. I'd actually love to move a little more south. I grew up in the mid Ga and Al area and I think it'd be nice to live down there again.

Also I have issues with depression if it's dark and cold for too long - something else to consider.

I've lived in the South-West Deserts. I've lived a mile high in Colorado. I've lived in Florida. I have traveled all over.

I love, love, love, love, LOVE Texas.

We have five seasons here. Deer, duck, dove, pheasant and football.

Ummm, err...sorry. I get carried away. We do, however, have 5 full growing seasons here in South-East Texas. The only difference in the seasons is WHAT you grow. With this warm spell, people are getting ready to harvest their greens before they bolt. :)

You can still hunt here to stock your freezer. Yeah, you can hunt in most states...but most states don't have a plethora of wildlife. Here, if you have deer tags and go out an hunt, chances are you will fill all of them. (And you'll probably have three or four tags) What are your chances of bagging four deer on public lands in New Jersey? I mean, really.

We have some of everything. You can grow nearly anything you want here. Plenty of fishing in the rivers, lakes, and ocean. Lots of hunting. And folks are friendly and helpful. Cost of living is fairly reasonable too.

Of course, it is a bit less humid than Florida. We get plenty of humidity here, put you don't take your underwear out of the drawer and have to wring them out before you put them on. :D

I live in Tennessee. I like where I live because I enjoy being away from neighbors. I can't stand having people living right next to us. We would have no privacy. The guy who lives down the county road, Hannibal Lecter, tells me that if anyone else moves to this area, he will just go crazy. I don't wish for lots of people to move here, as isolation is what draws us here.

Western Canada. Wild and untamed. A place where when TSHTF, one would be able to truly live with no intruders. Moose, elk, deer, hundreds of thousands of clean rivers and lakes. Millions and millions of acres of forests and untapped area. No risk of nuclear attack in most of the area. Areas that have not yet been surveyed due to terrain. Areas which have never seen a human being. An area the size of 6 or 8 Texases, with less than 10 million people. Most of whom live in the large cities. Need I say more???

;)

But come to think of it, we are out of room...lol

Hey! Before we moved to Fla my folks went to school at Texas A&M. I LOVED College Station! How's the environment in East Texas? It sure was a great place to grow up. It felt like we had our own country!

I'm not seeing any Oregonians posting, I think it's because they're afraid more people will move here! Oregon has incredible geographical diversity. It really doesn't rain all year in most of the state. Southern Oregon has 4 seasons, but winter is short, nothing like Minnesota or Maine. Great growing season, nights in the 40-50's highs 80-90 in the summer. We're in the Cascades, still good land to be found affordably out here. Although a lot of the land is National Forest and BLM, but that makes for good neighbors. In the valleys, land is gobbled up by the Californians and expensive. Much of rural Oregon is still very affordable. I live and work in small towns where everyone still has gardens, cans, lives on elk and venison. Portland, Eugene and Ashland are very liberal, the rest of the state conservative.

I was born in Oregon and will die in Oregon. I go with Tom McCalls' thought. Come spend your money and go back home....James

Welcome, hope you find a place. If I win the lottery I wil sell you mine.

If you want four seasons, southern Missouri is awesome.

i suggest you also check out property taxes..i understand in Vermont they are like $6,000 a year..we pay about $1,000 a year in the county we are in in Michigan, but some other counties are much higher.

We have 20 ac in NE TX, near the town of Bonham.
Bought for 40K, prolly not too much more expensive by now, we bought in'02.
Don't live there but go now & then. It is considerably less hot in the summer than the suburb of Dallas where we live. And for the winter? Was 75 the other day, 40 this am when I walked my mile w/dog & neighbor.
You couldn't ask for better rural neighbors up there either.

For farming or homesteading I'd take anywhere within the Midwest and it's border states. That's just the best farm land. Other places can be okay also but whatever land you find may also have half of it in steep hills, swamp, thick forest, sand, permafrost, rock or desert which can be more difficult to grow food in.

I grew up in Maine so I might be a little biased about Vermont. My dad used to say that all Vermonters thought they were better than everybody else. It is a beautiful state, but I can't imagine there is any affordable land left, even in the North. Burlington has become quite a trendy place to live. And I think the posting above about taxes is correct, super high. Don't mean to offend any Vermonters on here, I'm sure there are wonderful people who live there as well!

I was also born in Oregon, and most of the folks I knew growing up there are now dead and gone! Doesnt seem all that healthy to me. :eek: I left there many years ago and have always said that Oregon is a mighty fine place to be from.... as far from as I can get! Oregon has multiple climates for sure... its either too wet or too dry, depending on which side of the cascades you live, and on the east side its either too hot (110 in the shade and there aint no shade) in the summer, or its 30 below with the wind howling at yer heals all winter. Heres a pic of my old homeplace on the eastern side of the mountains we took on our trip this past Christmas.

The Appalachians are smaller...but it is so green! That is something I didn't like about out West. There isn't thick brush in the mountains.

Have you considered Illinois? Land is expensive and comes with plenty of ticks, chiggers, and mosquitoes. Taxes and fees are continually going up so you never have to worry about having too much extra cash in your pocket. You also don't have to worry about some gun nut carrying a concealed weapon if you go to rob a bank. We can also boast of the worst credit rating of all the states.

Southeast Georgia here. I'm here because I was born and raised here. I love it because this little patch of ground has been in the family for near on 100 years now, and Lord willing it'll stay that way as long as I'm still suckin' air. Haven't done enough to the place to know what I'd do different yet.

This area is very rural and I love it that way. Property taxes on the place run about $350 a year. Its partly inside city limits, but there are no city taxes and even though it is partly in the city, I can still hunt on it as there are no houses close enough to worry about. For perspective, we are the third largest city in the 7th largest county in the state and we have a population of about 550. Being on the city council helps and our city police chief, who is also a state game warden, has assured me that any hunting or target shooting I do is OK.

We do have some blistering summers, but we make up for it with really mild winters. And of all the species of animals and insects we have, about 5 don't bite. We make up for the bad with good folks who treat you like family, will look after your place and let you know when anybody they don't know is there and can cook like nowhere else on earth!