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Hello everyone. We are choosing a place to settle down. We are now considering between South New Hampshire and Harrisonburg area in VA. We would be thankful for any tips/advice/perspective.
We are going to ask these questions in the Virginia thread as well.
We are a family with 4 small kids, who are homeschooled so local schools do not matter much to us.
We love outdoors activities (fishing, biking, kayaking, etc.).
We would like to have a hobby farm of 10+ acres. Our budget for this is about 300k.
How cold do winters feel and how long are they in southern NH say compared to NYC?
I am a foreign trained (Ukrainian) pediatrician licensed in the US, so another question is about acceptance by local patients?
We recently traveled to southern NH and loved it. However, we felt people were a little cold and reserved compared to our impression of the people in TN and NYC where we have been living for the past 10 years. Will we be able to make friends?
What place in southern NH would be the best for us to choose based on the above?
Thank you very much for your time which is highly appreciated.
Last edited by NYfamily.; 09-14-2016 at 07:23 PM..
I can only address the weather. In NYC one time I was out walking around and saw daffodils in bloom a fewl weeks before they would bloom in southern NH. I would say that the winters are longer on each end, meaning they start earlier and end later. It's probably safe to say that the days are somewhat shorter in winter in NY compared to NYC. It's pitch black at about 4pm. I'm not that familiar with NYC but I noticed one time driving to the south in January that it stayed light a little bit longer around NY/NJ.
The cold is a biting cold and overall, the winters are more severe. There is more ice and snow. The land is also hillier so you have to take that into consideration when driving.
If you are okay with hot, humid summers, then Harrisonburg,VA might be a better fit given your interest in farming and outdoor activities.
Quote:
We recently traveled to southern NH and loved it. However, we felt people were a little cold and reserved compared to our impression of the people in TN and NYC where we have been living for the past 10 years. Will we be able to make friends?
What place in southern NH would be the best for us to choose based on the above?
If you're willing to look somewhat rural, there are a number of areas further away from Manchester, Nashua, etc where you can find +10 acres of land already set up for a hobby farm; New Hampshire's "current use" property tax program encourages small scale farming.
Hello everyone. We are choosing a place to settle down. We are now considering between South New Hampshire and Harrisonburg area in VA. We would be thankful for any tips/advice/perspective.
We are going to ask these questions in the Virginia thread as well.
We are a family with 4 small kids, who are homeschooled so local schools do not matter much to us.
We love outdoors activities (fishing, biking, kayaking, etc.).
We would like to have a hobby farm of 10+ acres. Our budget for this is about 300k.
How cold do winters feel and how long are they in southern NH say compared to NYC?
I am a foreign trained (Ukrainian) pediatrician licensed in the US, so another question is about acceptance by local patients?
We recently traveled to southern NH and loved it. However, we felt people were a little cold and reserved compared to our impression of the people in TN and NYC where we have been living for the past 10 years. Will we be able to make friends?
What place in southern NH would be the best for us to choose based on the above?
Thank you very much for your time which is highly appreciated.
I'd so go with SNH, It's a beautiful area and you shouldn't have any issues there. Harrisonburg although it has a couple things is surrounded by absolutely nothing. Not a whole lot going on there and a lot of stereotypical hillbillies. It's also nowhere near water for kayaking without a descent drive to the James.
I agree that winters here are longer by a month on each end, colder, and snowier compared to NYC. You would do well to spend a week here in late January to see how you liked it, then imagine another 2 months of that.
I would also take a look at NH's medical license application to make sure there aren't any potential snafus because it's different than NY's. As a Ukrainian, you would likely be accepted in any of the southern NH communities. Farther north, the demographics are less diverse.
I don't think the people here are cold, but they are definitely more respectful of other people's privacy than in some other parts of the country. They aren't going to butt into your business unasked. However, once they see you around the area, they'll become more chatty and you'll be able to make friends. One thing to consider is that if you're out in the country on a farm, you have no close neighbors, and if you home-school, you won't be meeting the parents of your kids' classmates. Where and with whom do you expect to socialize?
Personally, I think cold weather is over-rated here. To start, we do have central heating in NH.
Used to live in Minneapolis, back when -20 was not rare, and it was common in January and February to have entire days below zero. People that wanted to be outside dressed for that weather - parka, face cover (scarf or better), warm mittens, insulated boots and such. Nothing unusual, just standard gear for the climate.
People in northern climes celebrate cold weather - ice fishing, snowmobiling, cc ski, downhill ski, ice hockey and so on. Some people even head south for the winter, just like the birds.
Having just moved from Wash DC, I can tell you that their ice storms are worse than heavy snow up north, and ice storms are frequent. I can also tell you that 20 or minus 20, you're still not going to be out on your deck.
To me, it's hard to compare Harrisonburg to NH. HB is in the beautiful Shenandoah valley, near great outdoors opportunities in West Virginia (a HIGHLY under-rated state, IMHO), a college town, but a long way from any major cities like DC. Most of S. NH, even as far west as Keene, is nearer to big cities, primarily Boston.
Then there's cultural differences. After all, central VA is the South. That may be goo or bad depending on your perspective.
Acceptance of a foreign trained physician? Doubt that either area is much different in this regard, and I doubt that many people care.
Meeting people? We find it much easier in a small town in NH than it ever was in DC. I can explain if anyone is puzzled as to why.
Personally, I would avoid Harrisonburg, VA. It is the center of the turkey farming and turkey processing business. When travelling south on I-81 near Harrisonburg, it gives me the creeps to see trucks loaded with turkeys crammed into small crates so tight that they can't move heading for the slaughter line. This goes on day and night.
A pediatrician can find employment just about anywhere. In New Hampshire, I would look into openings at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinic, a large group medical practice. 10+ acre farmettes are more abundant in central NH, but there are many in the southwestern part of the state as well.
There are Russian and Ukrainian professionals in most large urban areas. I suggest establishing contact with one or a few in areas that you are considering to ask how they are getting along with the locals.
The major difference in Winter that I have seen between NYC and Southern NH is that it is a few degrees colder here. It's usually not drastically different, however, those few degrees very often can mean the difference in whether it rains or snows. There are many weather fronts that will dump rain on NYC while we will have snow. The slight difference in temperature also very often means that NYC will thaw a bit, while we really don't. As a result, we usually have snow cover for the entire Winter (there are exceptions, last year we had hardly any snow at all), while NYC may get big dumps of snow, but you tend to thaw between storms.
As far as being accepted here, I don't see that as a problem really. In Southern NH there are quite a few foreign-born healthcare professionals. I've had Indian dentists and doctors (current doctor is Indian) and had a Russian surgeon a few years ago.
I live in SW NH, near Peterborough. My primary care physician trained in the Philippines. Do I care? Yes, because I know a foreign trained physician must at least as good as, and usually better than, US trained docs.
...I know a foreign trained physician must at least as good as, and usually better than, US trained docs.
What makes you think that?
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