Anyone else just up and "QUIT" & move to the country?

There are a lot of people who would gladly throw in the towel and go off and live somewhere quiet and peaceful - but because of family responsiblities they can't do it - but that's part of life - we do things that we don't like to because of commitments we have - I think when you make a decision to get away from it all you need to think of your family first - if there is just you or you and your spouse then it is a lot easier to do that - because if they don't work out you only have yourselves to work it out - if you can - one thing too - the older you get the more need of good medical facilities you are going to need - and these are mostly in populated areas -

We're almost smack dab in the middle between Weston and Glenville. Gilmer and Lewis county line splits our property.. Where are you?

We spent a lot of weekends on the motorcycle in WV getting away from DC. We just decided it was time to go back to the country and grow chickens as my wife keeps saying... We loved the quietness, slowness, and beauty of WV.

Before we moved to DC, we were living in Illinois on a 100 acre hog farm and were commuting to the city... My wife has always been a country girl, and this was the first place she's ever moved away from home in IL...

BTW, I'm a military brat, so I think I've gotten my living everywhere and seeing everything out of me... I always loved the countryside the most and was happiest when living in he woods. I miss being in Germany and being able to walk out the back housing gate, and be in this hollows and meadows and woods.. .Looked a whole lot like WV where we were.. Just bigger older trees...

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Thanks.. My wife is all over me to get the other few hundred we've taken lately posted.. I'm sure we'll make the most of it no matter what happens.. Thankfully so far we've always had a way of landing on our feet...

The Internet is actually the biggest thing I think we're both worried about. Everything else we want to do we have figured ways around, but you just cant plow down a mountainside to get a clear shot at the sky... We could care less about the TV. Don't see much time for it..

We will need to know a lot and order a lot. We've been on satellite before and HATED it. I hate to think of having to build a tall tower to put the dish on for a type of service I despise..

I used to have 3 acres that was bad overgrown and a money pit of a house. Kept a garden going, worked on the house all the time, the lot during the summer... It took a lot out of me 20 years ago... I'm gonna have to get used to realizing I'm getting older..

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

It's only me and her.. My brother is stationed here at the moment, but he's moving the same time we are... All her family is back in Illinois, so actually she's moving closer...

If I can't fix it with superglue, or a tourniquet, there is a band-aid station about 15 miles up the road. If they can't deal with it, they got a chopper pad. I've been pretty healthy, but I'm pretty accident prone... I do kinda worry about my wife finding a good doctor. I'm betting we'll have to drive to a different city... She's mostly healthy but longevity doesn't run in her family like it does mine..

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Do everything you can to figure a way to take a "job" with you. If you do IT, you may be able to figure out a way to be a consultant from a remote location. It has worked for me to go the consultant route (medical writing). Same kind of work as I had in the corporate office, but less hours and a better pay rate.

IT is a very very VERY last resort. I want back outdoors to work.. .

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Between raliegh and greenbrier, but far far out in the boonies. The only cell service we get back here is Verizon. Other places on the mountain can get att and us cellular. In town, there's sprint, virgin mobile and then suddenlink.

It takes about 45 minutes to drive our 3 mile dirt road 4wd only and not drivable all the time.

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Nobody told me there'd be days like these, strange days indeed......john lennon

We get no cell. About 2 miles up the road where the FD has their towers on top of a hill I can get roaming if I park there and wait for my phone to find a bar or so of signal.

We're in the sticks no doubt... 5 miles of dirt back road to get to the nearest gas convenience. It's also the hunting station, so that's cool I sort of have one near ..

We're about a mile and a half down a dirt road.. most times small car is OK, but it's getting pretty bad now.. county upkept... I hear there's times even big trucks can't get through the flooded spots.. not often though. It's a 4 wheel road if it snows..

It's been interesting going places and getting all the looks of "who's that?" We've met a lot of people though, and they're all curious for sure, but very friendly and inviting. An auction I stopped at was interesting. Glad I knew a couple people there. I got to meet a lot of others though, and it was interesting to see who was buying what and for how much... Gives you a lot of insight to the area and people.

We've been making it a point to meet as many people as we can that we'd normally happen on. We know all the neighbors within a mile or so of the house.. All great friendly people... We try and get out and spend for the house at the local places since we'll be calling it home. Nice to know the merchants and them know us.. We try and stop at the local eats, and we know the owners of the pawnshops, and have spent money with them... I think the biggest help will be getting there and know people you can find out a lot about your area from..

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

One of you could quit on schedule and move on ahead to find work while the other stays behind and keeps working. This may mean temporary accommodation for the worker but this would not be putting all your eggs in one basket. If you have not found work in 2 or 3 months then you may need to rethink or replan. Getting to know people is a great way to make contacts when looking for work.

We thought about doing that, but it's going to take both of us a long time to get the actual move done. We wouldn't be able to get that kind of time off a new job..

Plus, we can't afford to pay all the bills at this time on only one of our pay. Once we both quit we'll have a month's worth of bills for this place we put money back for already. We'll pay those and have everything disconnected and such, and we'll be fine with very little. Almost debt free other than the mortgage. OH, and other than a huge gas bill for the truck pulling the trailer back and forth over the mountains too many times..

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Any move is hard and only you will know the logistics involved.

We did it this way and it was hard but it really made things easier for us in the long run. We had my 80 year old Mom to consider as well and wanted to be able to move her right from her place to our new place. My income was enough to keep the old place running while my husband got established in his new job and found our place and started to set it up. But the sooner the better is always right!

Simi- I know you posted you have LOTS of bamboo in WV. Have you identified what kind? I think you should check into doing something with bamboo. Maybe come spring driving newly harvested bamboo shoots to a farmer market in Northern VA. Maybe marketing mature shoots to a zoo for panda food. maybe there is a Dacron factory near that needs raw materials?
Friend of mine told me her dad, a plumber, retired early and moved to the mountains of NC planning to open another plumbing business. He discovered nobody would call him since he was a competitor to the good old boys whose families had been in the area for a century or so.

I did. I resigned as an English Prof in Dec. 2004 and moved to my first place July 2005 Would do it over again and again.

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Tiny Forest ~ my tiny blog

The "take a job with you" is good advice. Where we are there is very little disposable income...all my projects come from either NY, central Jersey/ohio or Phiily. Ahobby is great, so long as it doesn't become a "job".
Been messing around with knife making and gun smithing...the former hands on, the latter reading and researching (fed regs put it out of my comfort zone, but good to learn).
IF you go into small engine repairs, locate the BEST (not always closest) scrap yard / recycle center...you'd be amazed what you can find for dirt money. Friend picked up a cub cadet mower for $25 (belt broke, guy just dumped it) 20 miles away while dropping off copper for scrap. Put $25 more into it for a belt and sold it for 200. Granted, won't get rich off it, but adds to the kitty. Think outside the box...as you and your wife are already doing.
Might not be easy, but it is doable.
Hey, when you making jerky again...? Now, there is a possible niche market...just sayin'

Matt

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I am planning to do exactly what you want to do…”Quit” and move to the country!...except I don’t have a house on my land, I will have to build. Next year I’m selling my place in California and move to the Missouri Ozarks. I’m lucky my condo is paid off and I should have enough to build a house on my 17 Acres in the middle of nowhere. I will be debt free and should be able to take some time off to build and not need a job for about a year or more. Eventually though, I hope I can find employment in one of the towns close by, or as a last resort commute to Springfield (50 miles one way). I will buy a travel trailer here and put all my crap inside and the truck…I will live in that during the construction phase. I’m already 45, and if I don’t do it soon I will be too old to do it! It would not be the first time I took a chance and started all over again…and if I don’t do it I will regret it for the rest of my life! Heck, if my parents came half way across the world with two kids while in their fifties and were able to succeed, why wouldn’t I (or you or anybody)? If you are a hard worker and have common sense, I see no reason you wouldn’t succeed once you get over the initial fear. Look at the millions of emigrants that leave everything behind and come to a new country, and they make it! All you are doing is just moving to another state…if you ask me, you are already ahead of the game: you speak the language, have a work history, have your own place and some money in the bank to boot! Try to look at the glass as being half full rather than half empty. You have to think positive and know that you will make it! I’m not saying it will be easy, but you will make it alright…yes Sir, no doubt about it

yep. Did that. WORST MISTAKE I EVER MADE. Came down to Howell Co Mo from Buchannan Co Mo.
That was even worse than being married 3 times.

I've brought up to my wife about starting a business, that if I did, it would need to be something no one else around there is doing.. .I don't want to go stepping on toes and upset anyone, plus as you said, they wouldn't flock to me over their friend...

No idea what kind of bamboo it is, but it's the kind that's a real pain and spreads everywhere really fast.. It's also a smaller diameter stock. I wish it was a lot bigger around. I could do more with it..

I'd hate to sell any of it.. People ask me for runners all the time and I let them take some, but I tell them not to come back mad at me because it's overrun their property.

I've been trying to figure out what I could make from it.. or how I could sell it or a product made with it...

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Life is an adventure, go for it. Whether you retire or just throw in the towel, it's all in the planning. I retire in 17 months and 2 days and we're already in the planning stages.
You said your wife is looking for a state job. I presently work for the State of West Virginia as a Program Manager in the Charleston area. I advise her to take as many tests as she might qualify for, however, the state is presently in a hiring freeze until June 30, 2014. If she hasn't already done it, she needs to go to www.wv.gov and get her online application ready.
If you have any questions about state jobs, I will be happy to help. Drop me a PM.
Steve

We've talked about how it must have been years ago when there was the immigrant rush, or the people that hit the wagon trains and moved west..

Yeah, we got it easy comparatively... I'm really not too worried, but it is kinda scary since the area we're moving to is pretty far out for commuting... and especially since the area is fairly well depressed and not a lot of job opportunities within 30 miles or so..

__________________
Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Thank you.. very good info to know. No, she hasn't taken any tests yet, but she was planning to get one taken soon... We didn't know there was a freeze.. Sounds like once it's lifted, it will be right about at the right time she'll be looking, so hopefully that means there may be a fair amount of jobs offered up.

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Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit