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So, I am thinking to move out of New York and into a "Live Free or Die State". I want to grow my own vegetables and fruit shrubs without neighbors complaining to any town boards (that will mow them down) And I want to put solar panels on my home without consequences.
I'm also thinking (just dreaming) of having a goat or two.
No, I am not going to have cows or a windmill. I want a town, preferably not too far from a hospital and library. Any suggestions?
I've never heard of anyone complaining about gardening or fruit trees. Mack's Apples in Londonderry used to spray poison by air...and that got a flak from neighbors, especially the horse farm where animals suddenly died.
Solar power - good luck. I wish you the best. IMO, everyone should have it. Just about any town near any hospital should work for you.
I've never heard of anyone complaining about gardening or fruit trees.
Got time for a story?
Every summer we rent a vacation house for a week. A different place each time- Cape Cod, Lake Champlain, etc. Also been vacationing in NH all my life.
Last summer we (family of four with two little kids) rented a place in the Catskills of NY. The town we were staying in had an awesome (considering the size of the tiny town) public pool. Upon entering the life guard told us to read the rather long list of pool rules posted at the entrance. I gave it a glance, yeah...yeah...no food...no this..no that..xyz is pohibited...whatever... I've seen pool rules before. We settle in on the grass and my kid pops out a small container of Goldfish crackers. The life guard immediately came over and gave us a stern warning. Ok, so they take the rules seriously I guess. We go in the pool. I want to get out. There's a handicap ramp with a clear sign saying for disabled use only next to me and a regular ladder waaaay over on the other side. Knowing they take the rules seriously, and I'm not disabled, I decide not take the ramp and just pull myself out from the side of the pool. I got a whistle and another stern warning from the lifeguard. You can only use a ladder or the ramp to get out of the pool. Wow. Ok. My daughter wants to take a leap off the diving board. She stands timidly at the end of the board while I make my way to her landing site to assist when she hits the water. I get a whistle from a different lifeguard. "Has she taken the test"? he asks. Test? "She has to swim across the pool unassisted before using the diving board". The rules are the rules so I tell my kid she has to swim across this huge pool before she can jump. She has no interest in long distance swimming on this day. She just wants to jump in. She gave the test a try but failed.
The next day we go to a state park with a pond and hiking trails. Just about every vertical surface has a sign prohibiting this or prohibiting that. Kinda ugly really. A coworker visited this same beach and told a story of almost being kicked out for tossing a football. The regular lifeguard took a break but warned them there is another lifeguard across the pond with a scope. If the football comes out, they're out.
This strict rules thing was pretty pervasive and really dampened my impression of NY, especially upstate. I've never come across such a feeling on vacation in my life.
So, could I imagine rules against growing fruit and veggies in NY? Yes. Could I imagine the town mowing them down? Yes.
BTW: We're renting in N.Conway this year! Keepin' it local.
Wow, Avlis! We have to go to Long Island more often than I would like and I knew there were a lot of silly rules there. I didn't realize they stretched all the way across the state. Glad we moved to NH rather than upstate NY.
RVC, pretty much every little town in NH has a library so your best bet is to plot out a map of hospitals and move out from there. I've seen a lot of opinions that solar won't work in NH, but I have passed an impressive number of panels on my drives around the state. I went to seminar (that turned out to be more of a sales pitch) in Andover awhile back and was told that NH gets as much sun as California on average. Of course you will have to determine if any benefits you receive outweigh the costs, but I have also run across a number of videos where people have rigged up their own systems dramatically reducing start up costs.
I dont know why, but I see a lot more solar in Mass than NH. Especially on the roofs of businesses. I'm guessing Mass gives a decent rebate or credit.
Yes, MA has much better incentives for PV Solar than NH, and also slighty better insolation, plus fewer issues with snow cover.
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I am thinking to move out of New York and into a "Live Free or Die State". I want to grow my own vegetables and fruit shrubs without neighbors complaining to any town boards (that will mow them down) And I want to put solar panels on my home without consequences. I'm also thinking (just dreaming) of having a goat or two.
There are actual farms for sale in New Hampshire where people expect you to have livestock; much of the state is semi-rural. If you stay out of the cities, instead looking outside the "compact area" in a smaller town, you should be able to find everything you want, except proximity to a hospital (figure 30+ minutes away). Most towns are proud of their (small) library and town center.
I was looking at houses in Mont Vernon and Amherst; some have a restrictive covenant on the deed prohibiting raising chickens or goats, but this is the exception, not the rule and is just something the developer added, not a town zoning policy.
I dont know why, but I see a lot more solar in Mass than NH. Especially on the roofs of businesses. I'm guessing Mass gives a decent rebate or credit.
Solarize MA has been a hugely successful program.
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