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Hello from east texas! My family and I are planning on making the BIG move from here to Olympia Washington at the end of the summer. We are a very close knit family and our little family is what is most important to us right now. With that being said, here is a bit of info about us. When I say family, I mean me, my husband, our 11 year old daughter, my mother in law and my father in law. My husband and I are both in our mid 30's and his parents are in their mid 50's. For the past 10 years or so we have been plagued by family drama. Not in our little family, but everyone on the outside. Without going to much detail, we are ready for a breath of fresh air and relief from this heat and stress. Here are a few questions we need to ask before we come up for a visit in a few weeks!
1. How cold does it really get up there? Specifically in Olympia and Tumwater.
2. My in laws have both complained that they cough in cold/humid weather and also in cold/dry weather. Would they expect to be miserable (healthwise) during the winter? What about allergies?
3. My family is pretty nuts about being "apocalypse preppers", they originally ruled out Washington because of its proximity to Yellowstone. Is anyone else scared ****less up there or is it really nothing to worry about? Has anyone heard of people moving away because of this?
4. My husband HATES all things Twilight, I love it, but he doesn't, will there be a lot of events and what nots happening in Olympia this November because of the movie? I know its not Forks, but since its kinda close, I just want to be sure that there will be no arguments once we are up there lol.
5. My husband has a BA in early education, are there many teaching jobs available there?
6. My father in law also wants to know about bears, will bears be walking into our backyard?
7. How are the schools up there? My daughter will be in the 6th grade this year and she is not looking forward to moving again.
8. How is the driving situation? In Texas, everyone is rude, talking or texting on cell phones or doing God knows what. Needless to say, driving here is atrocious!
9. What about home rentals? We would need at least 3 bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths. We didn't want to go over $900 unless we were buying. Also, is there any owner financing companies there?
10. My husband and his dad love treasure hunting and they want to "pan" for gold. Is this a viable option around Olympia?
11. The biggest concern my husband has is about the churches. How many are there and are the shoving their beliefs down your throat every chance they get? Please do not be offended, we're cool with religion. I believe, he doesn't, but we both believe to each his own. Where we are coming from is not just in the bible belt, but we are the belt buckle. Every street corner has a church and every strip mall has 2! All 3 of our news stations are biased and extremely religious affiliated. So, if we go up there, will we be bombarded by people knowing on the door asking us if we have found Jesus...because I just don't want to saying that I didn't even know Jesus was lost. It gets less funny every time
Anyway, please feel free to answer all the questions or just some of them. Give me even more details about anything I didn't ask about. All comments and questions are welcome! Thanks
So your husband wants to be a teacher but you like to prep for the apocalypse and almost ruled out Washington due to its proximity to Yellowstone? Not sure how to respond to that, it's just - why Washington? It's misty and rainy nine months of the year with a lot of overcast skies. A lot. Have you been here for a week or two in January? Or November? There are many sources for Olympia weather but here's one Climate Olympia - Washington - Climate graph.
Twilight? Seriously?! No one gives a crap about Twilight, it's not even filmed here. We're not particularly religious in Western Washington but you have so many unusual concerns that churches would seem to be the least of them.
For me personally, I have always wanted to live near the coast of Washington. I am fair skinned, I don't like to tan and I especially hate the heat. Cold, wet, and cloudy is my ideal weather! I know the concerns of my family are odd, but thats my family lol they are an odd bunch, I guess that's why we all mesh so well together. As for the weather, I just wanted to see if the locals could shed some real light on things since reading weather reports is so flat and unpersonable.
Twilight lol oh dear, many an argument has popped up over this and to understand this you would have to understand my husband. He is a very stubborn man child. I have told him that it's not filmed there and that we are not even close to Forks where they have the Twilight tours and tourist crap like that. I think once we visit, he will understand.
And yep, prepping for the apocalypse. The family is constantly discussing conspiracy theories and the like, sigh. I have told them to compare the area up there to that down here where we are. Up there, depending on where we decide to move to, you can practically hunt, fish and have a readily available supply of freshwater in your backyard. As opposed to here, where you have nothing.
Honestly, I think his biggest concern is religion. I still don't understand why though. I have done some research through city-data and the congregations up there are under half of what is here and he likes that. Oh I should also mention that here, we live in a DRY county which means we have to leave the county to buy alcohol. Not that we are drinkers, but it is all the churches here that keep it dry while all the surrounding counties are wet.
1. On the thermometer, it doesn't get that cold. But it gets cold, wet and dark, which makes it feel bone-chillingly cold at times.
2. Cold and humid? That's us from October through Mid-May
3. Yellowstone isn't a worry, but you'd be living close to volcanoes and in an earthquake zone. And you'll be close to a major military installation that would be a target for any nuclear strike.
4. There's one more Twilight movie coming out. After that there's nothing to worry about. There won't be anything major for it in Olympia.
5. There are teaching jobs and jobs with education in government. But he'll be competing for those jobs with people who have master's degrees.
6. No bears in Olympia. Not the animal kind, any way.
7. Schools are okay.
8. Driving - you'll have self-important gummint workers and aggressive, testosterone-laden pick-up drivers, and the occasional VW bus driven by a confused greenie from Evergreen. And lots of tourists driving past on I-5.
9. Don't know about rentals.
10. Best gold panning in the area is the North Cascades and the Okanogan and the Selkirks.
Well, I can tell you people will give you a wide berth if you tell them you're from East Texas and prepping for the apocalypse. That combination is a stereotype in itself.
And Yellowstone? If Yellowstone blows, it blows but odds are the effects will be Eastward. Google any Yellowstone volcano eruption map YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO GETTING READY TO BLOW ITS CORK and you are at greater risk where you are right now than Washington state. If you're prepping for the end of the world, your family should know how to Google.
But your family might want to reconsider Washington due to Mt. Rainier. That absolutely could blow and the effects would be local. And we are in a serious earthquake zone with potential tsunami effects - again very local. You might want to consider northern Montana as that would be out of the tornado zone and out of the earthquake/tsunami zone plus no risk of Twilight mania.
The weather is exactly what you've heard and if your family coughs in wet weather, you will have to know they will cough nine months of the year. It's cloudy for extended periods and coming from a very sunny climate where it is summer right now, cloudy may sound great but unless you're used to it, you or other members of your family may have a hard time adjusting. We hear it all the time and you don't want to have to pay for two moves.
Twilight only effects Forks, which has a population of about 3000 people. It's little more than a gas station and a couple of shops and again, no one here cares about Twilight other than to warn people not to sell their belongings and move to Forks because it's in the middle of nowhere. People have actually done that which is more a proof of their lack of education than anything else.
BTW - you don't actually Pan for gold. You'll never get anything in this day and age due to environmental regulations. You're only allowed to pan in the water, and not the banks. Unfortunately to get to the gold, you need to dig down to the bed rock. In rivers this is a pain because it's mostly rocks.
But, you can get a gold dredge setup which works great. Moderator cut: see note The dredge sucks the rocks off the bottom, sorts the gold out and deposits the rocks back. The nice thing about this is that it actually increases habitat for spawning fish.
If you work an historic area, you'll have a chance to find Mercury too. This is actually a good thing as you'll be helping to clean up the environment! Win all around!
Either way, you will not get rich. You'll likely be able to break even and be able to pay for the trip though, and few things are better then spending hot summer days up to your waist in cool river water followed by drinking around a campfire and gazing on the stars.
Last edited by David Aguilar; 08-07-2012 at 08:15 AM..
Reason: would be more appropriate in the "Classified Ads" forum
Hamellr, thank you too...I will keep you in mind when the time comes. My father in law was talking about getting a dredge already!
Seacove, although you seem slightly irritated by my posts lol I still greatly appreciate the input. Trust me, they confuse and irritate the hell out of me too with all the stupid questions. As for the cloudy and gloomy weather, my husband and I are all for it. He, along with our daughter, get migraines from sunlight and I know they would be happy without the sun. I am not even going to mention Mt. Rainier to them. I am not the prepper type, they are, but they don't go overboard with it (all bark, no bite) so it won't be too bad. We actually thought about Montana but I said hell no because if I am having to uproot and move, I am moving to a coastal area. So, since they said no to New England, the east coast and the gulf coast...Washington was our last option hehe. But anyway, thank you again for the reply. It has been extremely helpful. When we make it up there, I owe you a bag of homemade beef jerky or a canned jar of whatever veggie you want
I'm sure your family is not the only one prepping for the apocalypse but they aren't common and you will encounter those that will likely raise an eyebrow. And if they are afraid of Yellowstone, I can't imagine they don't know about Mt. Rainier or the risk of earthquakes. Good luck, hope it works out.
I am from Texas as well and hope to be moving to Olympia next year. I am so tired of this heat, religious nonsense, and my boring job, lol.
Religion in Olympia is the same nonsense as religion in Texas, and the jobs are just as boring.
Olympia is cooler though.
And has more trees.
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Moving to Olympia Soon!
and almost ruled out Washington due to its proximity to Yellowstone? 
Not sure how to respond to that, it's just - why Washington? It's misty and rainy nine months of the year with a lot of overcast skies. A lot. Have you been here for a week or two in January? Or November? There are many sources for Olympia weather but here's one 
