Californians who've relocated to Oregon - weigh in (Corvallis, Albany: loans, house)

[snuggarelli]

Originally Posted by freedom

Insight on Thanksgiving? yeh, my brother raises the turkeys, butchers them and we eat. It's awesome.
Bring a coat.

Pretty cool! We have wild turkeys by the creek near our subdivision, but they look a little scrawny.

[Pen Cap Chew]

Originally Posted by freedom

Insight on Thanksgiving? yeh, my brother raises the turkeys, butchers them and we eat. It's awesome.
Bring a coat.

It' not awesome. Go Vegan. Don't eat the mascot of Thanksgiving. Are you going to grill Santa for Xmas or roast the Easter Bunny?

[snuggarelli]

Originally Posted by Pen Cap Chew

It' not awesome. Go Vegan. Don't eat the mascot of Thanksgiving. Are you going to grill Santa for Xmas or roast the Easter Bunny?

I eat the head of the chocolate easter bunny first.

[Kiwi]

Good to hear about the comments about moving from CA to OR. How about moving with school age kids? My boys will be in 4th and 6th grade when we move in Summer'08. Any advice or lessons learned when you moved with kids? How was their transition in making new friends?

My boys play sports, so I'm hoping that they'll start meeting friends in sports leagues. We're also putting off getting a new dog until we move. Who can't resist coming up and petting a cute puppy.

Ciao,
Kiwi

[nanannie]

Kiwi,have you checked out the schools situation in most of Oregon? Very dismal

[freedom]

Originally Posted by Kiwi

Good to hear about the comments about moving from CA to OR. How about moving with school age kids? My boys will be in 4th and 6th grade when we move in Summer'08. Any advice or lessons learned when you moved with kids? How was their transition in making new friends?

My boys play sports, so I'm hoping that they'll start meeting friends in sports leagues. We're also putting off getting a new dog until we move. Who can't resist coming up and petting a cute puppy.

Ciao,
Kiwi

We have excellent sports programs here, our public schools aren't bad, there is a lot of parent participation, and the schools encourage parents to come into the class as aids. Our neighbor spends a couple hours a week in each of her kids classes. They are 8 and 10. I'm speaking of Grants Pass, Rogue Valley area.
Don't know much of the other areas.

Best wishes on your move.

freedom

[nanannie]

Freedom,Do you think the schools are better where you are? My family up by Portland complains all the time about them..I would think,maybe good teachers WANT to move to a beautiful place like Grants Pass/Rogue area so there are many wonderful teachers in that area - other jobs are not plentiful and professionals like Teachers,docs etc are the lucky ones who can move just about anywhere,,,or am I dreaming?

[suncat]

Originally Posted by Pen Cap Chew

It' not awesome. Go Vegan. Don't eat the mascot of Thanksgiving. Are you going to grill Santa for Xmas or roast the Easter Bunny?

Pen Cap, bravo! That's a great parody of the Portland attitude. You've captured it perfectly.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by snuggarelli

hey larry - 93 acres - how do you cope with all that land? Do you have to fence it or just let it go naturally?

I raise timber. When I bought the place, I planted 14,000 seedlings on the bare spots. About 50 acres is almost-mature timber, which will be worth maybe $200,000 when in retire in 5 years, depending on the saw log market. By that time the seedlings will be 15-20 years old, so the place will still look like it has trees on it.

Oregon has an interesting tax deferral for timber or agricultural land. The state pays 90% of the property taxes on timber property, paid for by a harvest tax on the timber when everybody has lots of money. You have to file and adhere to a timber management plan, but there are state extension foresters who will help you with that, and financial assistance is available. Because of property tax limitations passed in 1995, the timber deferral program, and living in a conservative rural area, my property taxes are less than $1200 a year. Plus, anything I put into forest management is deductible on my federal income tax. You can't beat a deal like that.

I have about 1/3 of a mile of creek frontage, so do erosion control projects and swim the dogs. About 15 acres is open pasture, which I keep mowed to keep the brush down and minimize fire danger. Some of it is vertical rock face, which is home to falcons in the summer, and a waterfall in the winter, when it rains.

It's a dark sky site, with no artificial light visible from the house. We like to turn off all the lights and sit in the hot tub during meteor showers, and when the occasional comet flies by.

Acreage is not that hard to handle, if you are reasonably active and do your homework.

[snuggarelli]

Thanks Larry for that insight. Never knew about the timber tax shelter. Cool.