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My husband and I are probably buying in Watkins Glen - can you tell me how this area is in relation to jobs (are there usually jobs in the schools for custodians) also, how is the area geared toward organic gardening/herbal medicine/alternative medicine. Are there many flea markets - antique shops etc?
Are the people friendly? I am originally from North Jersey and am now in S. Jersey and just want more land & bigger house.
Our growing season is short, as it is in NJ. We do have a nice natural food store and a very large co op in Ithaca, which is less than 20 miles from WG. I like a lot of local products like soaps, honey, yogurt, eggs and cheese and we have small but nice farmer's markets from May- October.
The people? I hear a lot of people say they could be friendlier, but that may depend on where you come from.
Can't speak specifically for custodial jobs in the Schuyler county schools, but if you go to the Cornell University website and get to job openings, there are almost always custodial jobs available (it's the biggest employer around for several counties). It's a bit of a commute, but thousands work there and live in less expensive counties already.
I can't speak for Watkins Glen specifically, but I'm pretty familiar with Ithaca, a forward-thinking community extremely friendly toward all things alternative. There's the aforementioned co-op, a really good weekly farmer's market, and a Wegman's supermarket that has organic food. Moosewood Restaurant, the first nationally known veg restaurant, is on the Commons. Ithaca is home to a massage school, and, as far as I know, plenty of alternative health practitioners.
I do know that two of the most alternative OB-GYNs in town recently stopped delivering babies because of insurance costs, but there are several midwives in town (don't know whether that's important to you, but thought I'd mention it).
Caveat: I do not live in Ithaca, but I go there almost every month or two and spend time with family. I really like the area, and if I knew my kids were going to be living there permanently, DH and I would move to the area.
To echo the other posters, I would also recommend Ithaca. Do web searches about WG and Ithaca. Get as much info as possible. Get job opportunities via the web, as well as the Cornell U site that Ex-Ithacan suggested. If you enjoy the prospect of living and working in a community that is very active in enriching its citizens' lives through many social activities and having a thriving. lively downtown in a progressive-thinking samll city near some very beautiful hill country with waterfalls and world-class vineyards, you couldn't do better than consider the Ithaca/Watkins Glen region...
PS--Carver's Wife mentioned that the growing season in Watkins Glen is short, just as it is in New Jersey. She said that both are short seasons. Well, New Jersey, especially South Jersey where you presently live has a much longer growing season than Ithaca's , just so you are aware. New Jesey has the longest growing season of any northeastern state. The Finger Lakes has a somewhat milder winter season than most of upstate New York, but it is still much colder than Jersey. In Jersey, your growing season starts in April and ends in November, for crops at least. In the Finger Lakes, the growing season starts in late May and ends in mid to late September in most years. Keep this in mind if you do or plan to grow vegetables and flower gardens.
What's the general consensus on winter weather in Ithaca? I'm familiar with Connecticut and Seattle winters. I've heard it's dreary...but in comparison to what? sub zero temps and no sunshine? Is the windchill bad like in NE Connecticut? Weeks without sun like in Seattle? If it's wine country I'd assume the sun to be out?
Well, the wine country is unique. The Finger lakes have steep slopes, and these slopes are sheltered from the winds, and have a more moderated temperature (ex. on the hilltops, a high and low this week was 78 and 53. The equivalent slopes were 74 and 56). another differnece is that Cayuga Lake is so deep and holds such a large volume of water that it produces its own precipitation. This makes for very curious weather (I'll explain in a minute), but the hillsides get more precip. These moderated temps and high precip amounts allow vineyards to thrive along the sheltered slopes.
The lake can cause an inch of snow in the city and a foot of snow at Cornell, hardly three miles away up on East Hill. It's perfectly normal to be cloudy in the city and sunny on the hill, or vice versa. It's funny to think that you could drive ten minutes and go from overcast to sunny skies, but it's perfectly possible in Ithaca.
In general though, winters are dreary. A typical week might have one sunny day, two days of partly/mostly cloudy skies, and the other four days will be generally overcast and light snow. An average January high will range from 28-35, and an average low from 17-23. Wind chills often can deal a blow as well, especially if you're in the hills. Cold snaps and warm spells will occur, so you'll see 2-4 days of subzero temps, and a week later you might have temps in the 40s. It's strange, I s'pose.
We just returned from a house hunting trip in that area not too long ago and we found the people extremely nice. WG is our first choice as far as towns go. Ithaca is great but the property taxes are staggering. The towns to the south of there were a huge disappointment - Elmira, Corning, Horseheads, Painted Post. It's a shame really, because it's so much cheaper to live there, and there are some beautiful houses, but there are a lot of people who seemingly have nothing to do and nowhere to go in those towns. Ithaca and Elmira are a little over a half hour's drive apart, yet it's like night and day between the two.
We are due to come back up to NY the end of this month - I saw a nice home in Millport but hear that is not a good area - can anyone tell me anything about it?
I am not looking to pay $4000 a year in property taxes and some of upstate Ny has high taxes -
We are looking at some acreage from maybe 2+ acres as I have farm animals.
Thanxs
I found the people in Watkins Glen to be extremely nice.
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