info about Southern Oregon (Medford, Ashland: environment, military, condo)

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by freedom

Please, Ashland only.

Phoenix, Talent, Grants Pass, Merlin, Rogue River. These are all a stones throw away from the liberal Ashland mecca.
Try to build a new home in Ashland. You won't be able too, unless you buy an existing one and tear it down to one wall.

Try to drive anything other than a hybrid in Ashland and feel the welcome from the hippycrites.

Yeah, that is what I was thinking about when I mentioned that "open-minded" depends on which cow you milk. Half of the real hate mongers in Southern Oregon are tree huggers.

In response to a couple other comments:

1. Meth is a problem everywhere. Southern Oregon doesn't have a lock on the problem.

2. It's true, there are no Sheriff patrols in the country. That's not a problem, because everybody owns a gun and looks out for their own security. Seriously. I know for a fact that every one of my neighbors owns at least one gun and knows how to use it. Sometimes we get together for shooting parties, just to keep in practice. Know your neighbors. In an emergency, they will get there a lot faster than the police.

3. Yes, it's boring. Boring as hell. You better be able to generate your own enthusiasm and entertainment, or you will die of it. Because of the rugged topography, you will be lucky to even get TV. If you like music, get together with friends and make some. If you like hunting and fishing, you will have a lot better time here.

4. Nobody lives in town. If you want to live in town, go somewhere else. Roseburg, for instance, has a population of about 21,000, at night. 8-5, M-F, Roseburg has a population of 55,000. Town is where you go to work and buy groceries. Southern Oregon is overwhelmingly rural.

5. Those $50,000 1-ton 4wd trucks with the duallies get put to good use, mostly pulling horse trailers to rodeos, hay trailers to the barn, and livestock trailers to auction. You can't do that with a Subaru. A working truck is a necessity for most rural people.

[Imperial1904]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

In response to a couple other comments:

1. Meth is a problem everywhere. Southern Oregon doesn't have a lock on the problem.

2. I know for a fact that every one of my neighbors owns at least one gun and knows how to use it. Sometimes we get together for shooting parties, just to keep in practice. Know your neighbors. In an emergency, they will get there a lot faster than the police.

5. Those $50,000 1-ton 4wd trucks with the duallies get put to good use, mostly pulling horse trailers to rodeos, hay trailers to the barn, and livestock trailers to auction. You can't do that with a Subaru. A working truck is a necessity for most rural people.

1.) I agree. On the other hand, some cities aren't as bad now as it was when meth first came out.

2.) I'd say you're lucky to have those kind of neighbors.

3.) I wasn't talking about those work trucks. The ones I was referring to are the ones that have a lift and look like monster trucks. Many of these folks live in town. I seriously doubt any of them use their truck as a work truck or for hauling things. You can pretty much tell which ones are work trucks and which ones are for show.

[Alexious]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

5. Those $50,000 1-ton 4wd trucks with the duallies get put to good use, mostly pulling horse trailers to rodeos, hay trailers to the barn, and livestock trailers to auction. You can't do that with a Subaru. A working truck is a necessity for most rural people.

You know, my problem with this line of thinking is the idea that any of this is necessary. There are so few actual ranchers anymore... most of these "rural people" have office jobs and run their little operations as tax write-offs and to have something to talk about. If they didn't have all this ranch work to complain about they really would die from boredom.

[freedom]

Wow, no ranch work in Oregon? Look at some livestock and farming stats for the state of Oregon and you may have a different outlook.

We export a lot of products that come off of this blessed land.

I love my truck, and what it does for me. I can haul the skip loader, the excavator, the dump trailer, the boat, cows, sheep, pigs, produce. It is so effecient pound for pound.

Did you never go to a dude ranch?

[Imperial1904]

Originally Posted by freedom

Wow, no ranch work in Oregon? Look at some livestock and farming stats for the state of Oregon and you may have a different outlook.

We export a lot of products that come off of this blessed land.

I love my truck, and what it does for me. I can haul the skip loader, the excavator, the dump trailer, the boat, cows, sheep, pigs, produce. It is so effecient pound for pound.

Did you never go to a dude ranch?

There's lots of farming. I think the majority of Oregon is nothing but farming.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Imperial1904

There's lots of farming. I think the majority of Oregon is nothing but farming.

There is very little farming in Southern Oregon, though the area around Medford is famous for its pears and some areas take advantage of the long, hot growing season to raise melons. Fresh, vine ripened canteloupe, WOW! You will never see a supermarket the same again.

For most of Southern Oregon, mining, manufacturing and livestock are the basis for the economy. The Siskiyous are rich in specialty minerals like molybdenum, chromium or nickel. Lumber is still a huge industry. Private timber holdings in Southern Oregon are almost as large as federal holdings. Most people with more than a few acres run cattle. Either they raise range finished cattle for private sale, or they sell stockers, which are 3/4 range-grown cattle that are shipped to a feed lot for finishing. Sheep used to be big, but the coyotes have expanded their range into Southern Oregon and will decimate a sheep herd.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Imperial1904

3.) I wasn't talking about those work trucks. The ones I was referring to are the ones that have a lift and look like monster trucks. Many of these folks live in town. I seriously doubt any of them use their truck as a work truck or for hauling things. You can pretty much tell which ones are work trucks and which ones are for show.

Many of the jacked trucks with big tires you see are high clearance vehicles designed to get into the woods on deeply rutted logging roads. If you want to get a job doing fire watch in the summer, for instance, the ads will specify that you have to own a high clearance vehicle.

There is still a lot of work in the woods.

[karlsch]

Originally Posted by Imperial1904

There's lots of farming. I think the majority of Oregon is nothing but farming.

You should travel a little bit-go to Eastern Oregon-you will find a lot of ranching.

[Alexious]

Originally Posted by freedom

Wow, no ranch work in Oregon? Look at some livestock and farming stats for the state of Oregon and you may have a different outlook.

I realize I was painting with a broad brush so to speak. Yes, there are ranchers with legitimate uses for a 1-ton truck that can haul 10k pounds. I know of a few. I apologize if I made it sound like they don't exist.

My point is that when you see all the gigantic SUVs and trucks turning into Safeway, you know that many of them will spend their entire lives on nothing but pavement and their largest loads will be a few 2 x 4's for building a deck. It just irritates me to no end watching these people waste resources so they can get the ego boost of driving a large vehicle. I mean an Explorer isn't big enough? Really? You just HAD to have the Excursion?

I finally got my wife to trade in her 14 mpg pickup for an all-wheel drive car. She has more fun driving, is in a vehicle with much better crash test ratings and we're saving quite a bit of money at the pump.

Finally, I would also like to apologize for hijacking this thread and turning it into rant about how wasteful we all are. If anyone actually remembers the original topic, feel free...

[furyu]

Originally Posted by Imperial1904

The many times I've been to Medford, I have not seen any methheads and I don't hear much about it on the news.

I know it's a problem in Southern Oregon, but I don't think it's as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Maybe because of the size of Medford, people think it's out of control.

You know, I thought that too, that it wasn't or couldn't be as bad as everyone makes it out to be. But evidently it is. Medford's Mail Tribune runs a weekly statistics report about meth use, number of people arrested on meth charges, etc. The NBC-channel in Medford has had a long running program on the meth problem in the area, airing every Saturday evening. I think the news coverage is fairly extensive. You have to wonder why these local media pay this much attention to this social problem if it is in fact inconsequential.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'out of control' but it's a problem, in Medford, in Oregon, and elsewhere through out the country. How great a problem, of course, is subject to debate. But as far as drugs go, meth is cheap, easy to come by (or make) and initially at least, is a 'fabulous' high. Perfect trappings for quick addiction. It affects all of us with increased crime rates and cost of social services. Now, with the loss of Oregon's federal timber funds to the tune of $250 million, many if not most of those services will be cut anyway. (Okay, we got a one year extension, but most communities are going to use this year's funding quite judiciously, as they should.)

Here in Brookings, I frequently see people who I assume are meth-heads. In some cases I may be wrong, of course: not everyone who is super-skinny, missing teeth with a really bad complexion uses meth. But many do, and those who do have those physical attributes.

On a different subject, I feel the need to comment on Larry Caldwell's silly remark about tree huggers. I consider myself a tree hugger (literally... ever try it?), an environmentalist, nonreligious but 'spiritual,' liberal and yes, open minded. I grew up in NYC when being a 'hippy' was 'far out' and 'cool.' Now, I live in a fairly conservative town and most of my neighbors are conversative, right leaning, and church-going Christians, all of which I am not. For the most part, we all get along just fine. My next door neighbor is 'all of the above' PLUS enjoys 'canned hunting'; you know, where you go off to someone's electric-wire enclosed acreage and shoot at aged, decrepit, injured or otherwise debilitated animals and come home feeling totally macho about it. He's also a Republican and "was" a GWB supporter (although he's been very quiet about that lately... hmmm, wonder why?). We get along great despite our differences. If ever we speak about these differences, it's in a good natured, humourous or 'kidding' manner. That's how neighbors are, or at least supposed to be. Live and let live.

People who are really unbiased, nonbigoted, and thus generous in spirit, don't go around making comments that label a whole swath of people as this, that or the other. Such generalities are just plain silly, and demean the person stating/writing them more than their intended target.