What's REALLY going on around here?! (Knoxville, Clarksville: house, organic, living in)

[happyappy]

Jguillot,

We moved here from the Great Northwest. Except for about 3 years in Oregon and about the same length of time in Colorado, I lived in the Seattle, WA area since I got out of the service in 1970. It’s beautiful and I always thought that it would be difficult to find a more beautiful environment, but I was wrong.

The I5 corridor has many problems and it will only get much worse before the citizens of California, Oregon, and Washington wise up and change their ways of unfettered growth and government/corporate cronyism—oops, politics again.

I was speaking recently with a subcontractor I do business with in Pennsylvania and gave him the rundown on our move to Tennessee. When I told him we were close to both Nashville and Knoxville, supposedly 88 miles from each, he commented that that wasn’t “close.” So I gave him something to compare it to.

For almost 6 years I worked for a company in Kent, WA, one of the bazillion suburbs of Seattle. I lived in a “rural” area (meaning there were a few trees left standing) that was 17 miles from work. Every week, five days per week and a great many times on weekends (I was a general manager unable to grasp the concept of delegation of responsibilities), I traveled that 17 miles. Now, think about this: it took me as long to drive that 17 miles as it takes to drive to Nashville from our new home—and that’s when traffic was moving smoothly! And the drive home always took longer (still a mystery as to why). And when traffic was snarled because of an accident or rain (imagine, rain in Seattle), it took much longer to drive home. And to give you an idea of how much longer, think about this: many times it took as long to drive home as driving from Nashville to Knoxville!

And people wonder why I sometimes seem to be missing an oar.

I hope you aren’t having to put up with that stuff I put up with because, if you are, you need to get outa there before people start watching you and conspire to . . . . . . Never mind.

[happyappy]

Hiknapster,

You wrote: "Okay, Shadowwalker, we get it. You are unhappy. Some of us moved here and still love it. If you are not, then you should find where you are happy. Don't rain on this happy person's parade."

No worries! No amount of rain, metaphorical or literal, can halt my parades. I’ve paraded in too much rain too many times in my life and those experiences have rendered the rain as insignificant.

[hiknapster]

Thanks, sweetie!

You continue being perplexed by this happiness "conspiracy."

[phyll]

Happy Yappy good luck in your new home!I am trying to get down to TN to have all those conspiracies too!I wish MORE of that was here where I am, seems like some folks here cant wait to give snotty looks or answers.Sometimes if you just smile at them they think your weird. I love to smile at people.I read somewhere, maybe your one smile made someone feel better for the day....anyway , I babbled , GOOD LUCK!!!! Love your post

[jguillot]

Originally Posted by happyappy

Jguillot,

We moved here from the Great Northwest. Except for about 3 years in Oregon and about the same length of time in Colorado, I lived in the Seattle, WA area since I got out of the service in 1970. It’s beautiful and I always thought that it would be difficult to find a more beautiful environment, but I was wrong.

The I5 corridor has many problems and it will only get much worse before the citizens of California, Oregon, and Washington wise up and change their ways of unfettered growth and government/corporate cronyism—oops, politics again.

I was speaking recently with a subcontractor I do business with in Pennsylvania and gave him the rundown on our move to Tennessee. When I told him we were close to both Nashville and Knoxville, supposedly 88 miles from each, he commented that that wasn’t “close.” So I gave him something to compare it to.

For almost 6 years I worked for a company in Kent, WA, one of the bazillion suburbs of Seattle. I lived in a “rural” area (meaning there were a few trees left standing) that was 17 miles from work. Every week, five days per week and a great many times on weekends (I was a general manager unable to grasp the concept of delegation of responsibilities), I traveled that 17 miles. Now, think about this: it took me as long to drive that 17 miles as it takes to drive to Nashville from our new home—and that’s when traffic was moving smoothly! And the drive home always took longer (still a mystery as to why). And when traffic was snarled because of an accident or rain (imagine, rain in Seattle), it took much longer to drive home. And to give you an idea of how much longer, think about this: many times it took as long to drive home as driving from Nashville to Knoxville!

And people wonder why I sometimes seem to be missing an oar.

I hope you aren’t having to put up with that stuff I put up with because, if you are, you need to get outa there before people start watching you and conspire to . . . . . . Never mind.

Hi happyappy,

I'm still living in the Sacramento metro area. Just as yours was, my drive home from work takes longer than my drive to work. On a day without accidents on the freeway or rain, it takes me about 45 minutes to drive 16 miles. The commute seems to get worse every year. I pray that I can make it here another 7 years until I'm able to retire in Tennessee. I've never considered myself to be a Californian and never will. I want out of this state so badly that I dream about moving every day.

You are so fortunate to now be living in Tennessee. I hope to be able to purchase property in Tennessee during our trip there in August. When my wife and I retire, we will build our retirement home on our property. We talk about this often. My wife told me yesterday that she wants a greenhouse on our property. She loves plants and flowers. She also wants to do quite a bit of landscaping. We've got a house plan picked out. I can look at it and just envision what it might look like when it is completed. I'm starting to dream again.

Is is fairly easy to find 2 to 5 acre lots in the Monterey area? How long does it take you to drive from Monterey to Cookeville for shopping or dining out?

Thanks for sharing your experience and best wishes to you and your family.

[hschoolingfam]

happyyappy-
We'll be moving to the Monterey area hopefully as soon as our house in FL sells. Loved your post!
Where do you do your grocery shopping? Is there a
supermarket in Monterey or smaller markets?

[happyappy]

Jguillot,

We were interested in 5-acre minimum properties and there were plenty of them available in this area, so I feel confident in assuming there are probably many 2 to 5 acre places around as well. There sure are lots of trees around here! People seem to value them enough to build around them; it’s a great area.

From what we’ve gathered, ANYTHING will grow here if one plants it. My wife has such a green thumb, I’m convinced she could make dead weeds grow. We’ve only been here 3 weeks and she’s managed to get her potted plants to recover from the trip out here and grow several inches already.

We’ve seen quite a few large garden plots as well as numerous greenhouses on various properties in and around Monterey. Somewhere in our research we found out that the growing season is very long in this area. Seems to me that community-supported agriculture operations (CSAs) would thrive in this area of Tennessee. We’ve discussed starting on a small scale and building a CSA using strictly organic methods when we lived in Washington State. This area would be even better because of the extended growing season and fertile soil.

The trip from Monterey to Cookeville takes about 10 minutes on I40, a very high quality surface in comparison to anything in Washington or Oregon that I’ve driven on. A phenomenon that we noticed on our trip out here is that, after we got east of Kansas City, there are at least as many trucks on the freeways as cars! However, they drive much differently out here; they’re considerate in that they always signal their intentions, they don’t cut back into the right-hand lane unless there are at least 2 full truck/trailer lengths of space, and they don’t hog the left-hand lane so that traffic is held up. They move around a lot keeping up their speed and it takes a little getting used to having so many of them around, but all in all it’s nice to be able to travel freely on a freeway!

Although we’re newbies out here, from what we’ve observed thus far, they know how to do things right with roads and building so that natural beauty is preserved. No doubt there are areas we haven’t seen yet that don’t fit that mold, but we’re quite happy about our little niche that, so far, extends from Monterey to Nashville. And soon we’ll explore east towards Knoxville.

Keep dreaming of that new place out here! If you’re like me, you’ve found out over the years that having visions of goals make them a lot more attainable.

[happyappy]

Hschoolingfam,

We do most of our grocery shopping in Cookeville at the Krogers store, open 24/7. We do so because there is a fairly large section of organic/natural foods and also because of the variety available of practically everything.

The stores in Monterey are small and don’t have much variety, but the people are sure nice. As we get to know them better, we’ll probably ask them if they could bring in certain things that we use regularly. We would prefer to support local businesses even if we have to pay a little more. After all, as self-employed people our time is worth money not to mention the gas and wear on the car driving to Cookeville.

But we do love Cookeville! We’ll likely find lots of excuses to keep going to Cookeville—my favorite store, Lowe’s, is there!

[JMT]

Originally Posted by happyappy

Hschoolingfam,

We do most of our grocery shopping in Cookeville at the Krogers store, open 24/7. We do so because there is a fairly large section of organic/natural foods and also because of the variety available of practically everything.

The stores in Monterey are small and don’t have much variety, but the people are sure nice. As we get to know them better, we’ll probably ask them if they could bring in certain things that we use regularly. We would prefer to support local businesses even if we have to pay a little more. After all, as self-employed people our time is worth money not to mention the gas and wear on the car driving to Cookeville.

But we do love Cookeville! We’ll likely find lots of excuses to keep going to Cookeville—my favorite store, Lowe’s, is there!

Hey happyappy, have you checked out MMKM Family Produce? It's an organic produce store just outside of Cookeville on Burgess Falls Road. Take Exit 286 off I-40 and head south a few miles. I like Kroger, too, but in case you wanted to support a local mom & pop store you might want to check out MMKM Family Produce. It's run by a family from New Jersey who retired to Cookeville a few years ago, leaving the rat race of NJ behind, and now they grow organic veggies in their 13-acre garden and run their family-run store.

I also have a feeling that once you go to the general store in Muddy Pond you'll end up buying a lot of your food there, like Amish butter and cheese (which is GOOOOOD).

I love reading your posts! It brightens my day to see that you're loving life on the Plateau, which is where I hope to end up someday.

[cncguy2000]

Kroger does have a NICE Beer aisle! :{)