Englishman considering Redding, CA

[CraftCrazedWoman]

Hi Yestermorrow,

I should amend my original post (for spelling, at least) plus my comments about growing up in Poway.

When I was a kid, Poway was the "last refuge" for those looking for a nice, inexpensive home plus some amount of open space for kids to play and to learn more about living with Nature.

We walked all over the town, using dirt backroads that are now 4 lane thruways. We had so many open fields to explore, I don't think that in all 17 years living there, Iwas able to see them all up close. We had birds, animals, reptiles all over, the birds making nests high up in the poplar trees my mother had planted, one for each kid, plus one each for her & Dad. That equalled 7 trees, and they grew fast!

We would leave out strands of wool embroidery thread, carefully separated by hand first, to keep the birds for getting tangled up in the tread. Separate strands of lightweight wool will tear apart quite easily. We had an annual hummingbird nest atop the light fixture on the back patio cover my father had built - slab and cover both made by him. It was even and smooth as glass, with a beautiful wooden frame and best of all, was covered with coregated tin! Imagine listening to a rainstorm beating down on corregated metal while you are drifting off to sleep!

So far, Redding reminds me a lot of Poway in those day, but with far more shopping and medical options than we had then. Back "in the day" we had to drive about 30 miles to the town of Escondido (a semi-ghetto even then) to do anything other than grocery shopping.

But the open spaces were sacred to me; the boulders, the little streams, the places where I knew I could find animal footprints in the powdery dust. It meant so much to me.

My first move from that suburban/rural place set me down smack-dab in the middle of Alameda, Ca, then over to Oakland! Quite a change, especially for someone whose front door lock had been broken before she was born, but the "crime rate" created no reason to bother fixing it. We simpled closed the door when we left and never had a problem.

Redding is so much like Poway, but greener, with more seasons, (San Diego has two - warn and hot) and I had hoped to find people such as those in Poway when we moved to Ramona. Sadly, it was not to be, and having family here in Redding made the move that much easier. Now my son intends to enter Shasta College in the Spring, then, hopefully, move on to Berkely for his BA, then to apply at Boalt Hall (Berkeley) Law School, to obtain his JD, and to specialize in Constitutional Law.

It's being here that's caused him to get interested in law school, and to especially want to go to Berkeley, since he can be in the City weekdays, and come home to the country on weekends occasionall.

It's great to hear that someone else is as enchanted with redding as I am. Being used to hothothot summers, as Poway usually hit 100 from June to the middle of Cotober, and Ramona hit 110 in July and stayed right around there until Novermber, if not December, with the fire season running from August to February, as the Santa Ana winds often rolled in then.

As long as I can live here and not worry about being rousted from my bed in the middle of the night to be evacuated (with no real evacuation plan) I will be happy. And, if I can take a walk and see regular row houses, then an old field with a fallen barb wire fence and a rusted-out piece of farm equipment, then a stream or two or even a pond, I will remain happy.

This is a beautiful place, no traffic, mountains, the ocean close enough for me, and even San Francisco is within reach - that being a favorite city of mine.

So thanks for your upbeat post! I hope to continue living here in pure joy for the rest of my life.

CCW

[dalbert]

The Bay area advocate failed to mention the commuting... you could live in Red Bluff and get to Redding (<30 miles) in the time it would take you to get 10 miles on Bay area highways. It's small, safe and very family friendly, good schools and you can pick up a house easily in the 100-200K range. We're not very high tech but their is a mobile computer service that does well here; you could set something up like that with the leftovers. Also, Chico is only 45 min away. Yes, it's hot in the summer but it's only about 6-8 weeks and the rest of the year is fine. You can see slide shows of the area at Welcome to the Slide Shows! (http://redbluffca.us/attractions - broken link) and see some owner financed proerties at Owner Financed Properties - Tehama & Shasta Counties. Good luck!