[looking4home]

Originally Posted by happeemommee

Lassie- sounds like we are very close to the same part of the NC mountains. My family and I are also looking to escape to Vermont, hopefully next June.

Btw, I totally knew what you meant by,"flirting with babies and old men", lol.

You live in Blowing Rock and you hate it and want to move to Vermont??!!! Are you joking???!! It's one of the nicest areas of NC, if not the South. I don't know how to break it to you two Southern gals, but half the population of the Northeast, Vermonters included, have moved to North Carolina in the past 30 years or so. It sounds strange when you say you want to "escape" to Vermont. I think it's usually the other way around - Northerners want to escape the brutal, long winters, high taxes and cost of living so they move south of the Mason Dixon line.

I guess it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round!

[happeemommee]

Lmao! Have you paid attention to the political scene in NC at all? It's ridiculous and getting worse. Plus, I love that a lot of VT schools grow their own gardens, add in the GMO labeling and the progressive - ness in general, that makes it light years ahead of NC.

I could go on and on, these reasons are just the tip of the iceberg for us.

[arctichomesteader]

Wait till you get a "progressive" property tax bill, or you encounter the progressive busy bodies in towns like Middlebury or Montpelier who want to run your life.

[happeemommee]

I think those busy bodies are everywhere. I'd also rather pay a little more in taxes and actually get something for my money - like these school gardens- than paying for another Duke Energy spill.

[Cackalassie]

Amen, sister. NC used to be a beautiful, progressive (for the South) state. It's all gone to pot. Even the natural beauty is being carved away by politics and barely-there zoning laws.

[cgregor]

I don't know about the rest of the state, but Yancey County was definitely in the thrall of the good ole boy network when it came to ridge line despoilment, environmental degradation and zoning infractions. I don't think you'll find that in Vermont.

[delmioquartiere]

Originally Posted by cgregor

I don't know about the rest of the state, but Yancey County was definitely in the thrall of the good ole boy network when it came to ridge line despoilment, environmental degradation and zoning infractions. I don't think you'll find that in Vermont.

You're right, not here. Kingdom Community Wind, Lowell, 21 turbines.

A dozen industrial wind farms under way in Vermont despite intense local opposition

[arctichomesteader]

The wind turbines are our mountaintop removal mines. About as bad, and in our most sensitive natural areas. We barely avoided having turbines on Seneca Mountain, an area where several endangered species are.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by happeemommee

I think those busy bodies are everywhere. I'd also rather pay a little more in taxes and actually get something for my money - like these school gardens- than paying for another Duke Energy spill.

You might rethink that you're getting something for those taxes when your car's suspension gets destroyed by the potholed roads every year, or the local school still doesn't meet standards despite rising spending per pupil every year. We've got some seriously snobby busy bodies who have moved in from big cities with their big money in certain towns. I've had them try to tell me to stop hunting on fish and wildlife department lands my hunting licenses pay for, as if they own it. There are some parts of the state where you don't run into too many of these sorts, but 2 of the towns you mentioned, are bad for this sort of thing. Montpelier, for example, is trying to ban all public access to Berlin Pond. The SCOV ruled they can't. But they still want to restrict access, except, of course, for the wealthy people with waterfront property on it.

[Cackalassie]

That's unfortunate, but still peanuts compared to the environmental impact down here. We've got those folks, too, and I suspect they've come from the same place. Still, there might be something left of VT in the future when NC is blanketed with strip malls and McMansions. Besides, it is too damn hot, the air quality stinks, and the uv is off the charts.