[FutureFormerCalifornian]

Originally Posted by Blue Skies

As a Californian who soon hopes to move to Oklahoma, I want to say how impressed I am with how your State has handled this law.

MANY of us in So. Cal. know first hand how out of control immigration affects us financially.

We left Stockton 11 months ago and haven't looked back. We LOVE Okiehoma! It's so NICE to be able to transact my daily life without running into inept employees with the blank stare of no speekie de english.

Really, the biggest difference I notice is (besides my neighbors being nice rather than gang bangers) is as the weather cools off, the choice of produce sucks serious ass. I do miss the bounty of produce @ the CA farmer's markets and there's no Trader Joes. Guess there's only so many ways for Okies to package gravy and squeeze cheeze (separate food groups here!!!). That and the weather at times are my only complaints.

Good luck if you come! We bought a house west of OKC for less than our rent was. Life is good, yall.

Wonder what Xmas will be like in a state where one doesn't have to pussyfoot around the various religions with the generic "Happy Holiday" mentality for fear of *offending* someone?

I think we like Oklahoma because it reminds us of the San Joaquin Valley of the 70s and 80s when we came of age. Xmas pagents in SCHOOL. Pimple faced teens working @ fast food restaurants because the Mexicans haven't taken all those jobs away from the youth where we now live. Friendly strangers. When my car stalled (corroded battery connection @ the gas station on SW 89th street), rather than yell at me for blocking the pump, a stranger dug a hammer out of the back of his truck so I could whack the cable a hair to break the corrosion (it um, wasn't working with the heel of my shoe....) and within 2 minutes, I was out of his way cuz my car started! Our neighbor is a sweetheart who has helped us several times because as apartment dwellers, we had no clue about yards and lawn mowing, LOL.

[montanamom]

People, politicians, and those entrusted to uphold the law who claim that it just "costs too much" or that it's "just too hard" to enforce our nation's immigration laws need to look into how much is it costing us NOT to enforce our nation's immigration laws. For God's sakes, it is costing us over a billion dollars A DAY to fight a war in Iraq in the name of "Homeland Security", but they keep telling us it's too "costly" or "hard" to enforce the actual security of our country here at home? OH REALLY??!!

I'm glad to know that the majority of Oklahomans' have good common sense. I applaud Oklahoma for taking a tough and difficult stance on this issue.

[Jess5]

Originally Posted by FutureFormerCalifornian

We left Stockton 11 months ago and haven't looked back. We LOVE Okiehoma! It's so NICE to be able to transact my daily life without running into inept employees with the blank stare of no speekie de english.

Really, the biggest difference I notice is (besides my neighbors being nice rather than gang bangers) is as the weather cools off, the choice of produce sucks serious ass. I do miss the bounty of produce @ the CA farmer's markets and there's no Trader Joes. Guess there's only so many ways for Okies to package gravy and squeeze cheeze (separate food groups here!!!). That and the weather at times are my only complaints.

Good luck if you come! We bought a house west of OKC for less than our rent was. Life is good, yall.

Wonder what Xmas will be like in a state where one doesn't have to pussyfoot around the various religions with the generic "Happy Holiday" mentality for fear of *offending* someone?

I think we like Oklahoma because it reminds us of the San Joaquin Valley of the 70s and 80s when we came of age. Xmas pagents in SCHOOL. Pimple faced teens working @ fast food restaurants because the Mexicans haven't taken all those jobs away from the youth where we now live. Friendly strangers. When my car stalled (corroded battery connection @ the gas station on SW 89th street), rather than yell at me for blocking the pump, a stranger dug a hammer out of the back of his truck so I could whack the cable a hair to break the corrosion (it um, wasn't working with the heel of my shoe....) and within 2 minutes, I was out of his way cuz my car started! Our neighbor is a sweetheart who has helped us several times because as apartment dwellers, we had no clue about yards and lawn mowing, LOL.

Welcome, and glad you love it. I live west of OKC also. We did have to stop calling all things at school "Christmas party", "Christmas Play", etc and start calling them things like "Winter Holidays Party", etc.. I've read where some people prefer Eskimo Joes (Stillwater) over Trader Joes. You may want to check it out.

[peggydavis]

It is bad what's happened in states like California and Arizona. Glad you like it here, Former Californian!

The produce in grocery stores is generally terrible here. I usually just use frozen vegetables and fruit unless I can get homegrown. I bought a cooking pumpkin from a farmer today and plan to cook it for Thanksgiving.

[Mattie Jo]

I lived in the San Joaquin Valley back in the early 90s. Hated it. But I did love their cheap oranges, 10 lbs for $4.

I think the vegetables are good here, but the fruit sucks. It even sucked in CA where you end up buying under ripe fruit that seldom ripes or fruit that is mushy inside. I put in some fruit trees and hope they produce next year.

Perhaps the Valley was nice in the 70s. I imagine it was even better in the 30s.

[peggydavis]

Peaches will bear about 1 year out of 3. The fellow who farmed our land before us put in a big peach orchard. He was from North Carolina, but he didn't realize how many things can go wrong with a peach crop. Right now the pears are perfect. You can see the pears just lying on the ground in places. I made some pear butter, and it was so good. I am going to get some more pears and make more this weekend.

[Mattie Jo]

The apricots get one crop every 3 years too. I suppose the necterines do too. But we have two apple trees and so I will probably be making a lot of apple pies, etc. This winter, according to the Farmer's Almanac, is suppose to be warmer. Maybe that means we will get fruit. Of course I don't really know what that means.

[Synopsis]

Originally Posted by jessaka

The apricots get one crop every 3 years too. I suppose the necterines do too. But we have two apple trees and so I will probably be making a lot of apple pies, etc. This winter, according to the Farmer's Almanac, is suppose to be warmer. Maybe that means we will get fruit. Of course I don't really know what that means.

I'll DM you with my address for the apple pies jessaka. Sorry but I'm running short on cash, can you pay the postage as well?

[Mattie Jo]

LOL. Synopsis. I can become the pie lady. I will pay the postage by mailing you the recipe. Oops it is under Oklahoma Recipes.

Like FutureFormer, I miss Trader Joe's. But then I mostly bought daily products there and Reasoner's has organic dairy products. If you can find an Amish CheeseHouse near you you will be very happy. They have one in Muskogee and Chouteau, and so they should have one in OKC. Their butter tastes wonderful and is $2.00 a pound. I go and get 10 lbs at a time and freeze all but what I need to last me a few weeks. It is better than even organic butter that you buy at the health food stores or Reasoner's. I also get their homemade jams because they are not made with corn syrup but used fruit that has ripened first. They have other goodies too. And if you still miss Trader Joe's just start getting mail order catalogs. As for fresh veggies, like I said, I don't know. I spent a winter here and don't remember compaining.

I like Christmas here because I get to go to the church bazaars and buy all kinds of goodies. Homemade fudge that isn't made with marshmallows is so wonderful. I wouldn't dare make it at home. I ate maybe a pound in two days after buying it at a church bazaar.

[peggydavis]

I used to have a couple of apple trees and they had loads of apples every year. They were a yellow apple that was good for cooking. My neighbor had chickens who would help my horses eat all the fallen apples so I think that helped with insect problems for the apples. Jessaka, do you have any chickens? You sound like a person who would like fresh free range eggs. We are moving our chickens down here from Edmond soon. They also help you with your bug problems.

To stay on topic, raising your own fruit and eggs somehow helps with the problem of illegal immigration.