[GregW]

luv80s -

"The hardest part I have living in Vermont really has nothing to do with Vermont itself. I'm just homesick. Its me, my husband, and our son also another baby is on the way. So its hard being away from family right now for me. "

This is perfectly understandable. Being away from family with childern can be trying. I suggest finding other young families and getting together in some sort of support group. In other words put together a new family. Then you'll be less lonley and less frightened.

In the meantime enjoy Vermont.

[Dwatted Wabbit]

To get to The Other Side?

[sweetana3]

We just returned from a wonderful week in Vermont. What a gorgeous state. However, we visited a lot of businesses and spoke with many people and the economy is very poor. Many said they had two jobs with minimum wage to survive. Many many farmers out of business.

The state has some great programs to try and provide support and ideas/marketing but it is hard.

I will come back since we found several other spots to enjoy and want more time to do it in depth.

[ab8mi]

The problem is and it has been a proven fact time and time again, a state with taxes like Vermont is not conducive to attracting jobs. Also government programs just breed dependence on the system with a few exceptions. As much as i am not a big fan of George Bush and though the media ignores it, since the tax cuts the government has taken in almost a trillion dollars this year in new tax revenue. That said however our government entities all spend too much money regardless of political affiliation. Too many ill though out programs that people now believe that they are entitled too and we are adding more each day.

[seanpecor]

Farming is as big as ever in Vermont. People decry the diminishing number of farms in Vermont but the reality is production continues to expand. It's just not five farmers in a row each tending 40 acres anymore. It's one farmer tending 200 acres. It's economies of scale. My in-laws own Stonewood Farm (Home - Vermont Fresh Turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas) in Orwell. In 1976 they were something like 400 acres and that was pretty large by Vermont standards at the time and milked something like 125 cows. Today, they're over 1,000 acres and board 600 replacement dairy heifers and grow 24,000 all natural turkeys annually for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They don't WANT to be that large but it's the only way to make farming pay for itself and provide a modest salary.

The economy is not terrible but the cost of living is so high that salaries don't stretch as far as they might in other states. If you find Vermont to be beautiful and dream of living in Vermont, then you may find yourself making financial sacrifices. As for my family, we've settled into Boones Mill, Virginia and absolutely love it down here. I'll be driving up to Burlington on June 14th for a visit and I'll be returning to Virginia with my mom. After 31 years in Vermont she has decided to leave Vermont behind and move to Roanoke, VA. I do love Vermont, but I've since discovered that much of what I loved about Vermont isn't unique to Vermont and it can be found in other places too. So if you're second guessing yourself you might consider looking further south along the Appalachian mountain range and visiting areas that may have eerily similar qualities as those you admire in Vermont. One of two things may happen. You might find you love Vermont more, and then you'll be certain you are making the right choice. Or you might find that you also love the newly discovered place; in which case you simply have more options to consider, which can be a good thing!

Sean

[arel]

Sean, how did you research and/or discover Boones Mill, VA?

Did you decide to look for a place with your favorite Vermont features and without your un-favorite ones?

How did you learn about, and then decide on, Boones Mill?

[seanpecor]

Yes, Arel, pretty much. We first moved from Orwell, VT to Blacksburg, VA when we were looking for a horse farm management job in 2004 for my wife Nancy (since I'm a fully mobile self-employed internet geek). It was at the tail end of that brutal Vermont winter of '03/'04 when we had highs under 0F for a couple weeks and constant drifts. I remember we had some horses get out of a paddock and they ran into a back 150 acre field with the winds kicking up -30F wind chills and I had to chase them back to the barns in a Gator. My gloves were wet from chores and they froze to the damn Gator steering wheel and my left leg got so damn cold from the chase that the pain when it warmed up was unbelievable. That was pretty much the tipping point Fiscal things like the economy, the cost of living and such, well you just tolerate that (up to a point) if you live in Vermont. But we just fell out of love with the winter. Winters sink in by October and you don't shake loose of the cold and the mud until the beginning of May. It's harder to stay physically active out of doors in that sort of climate if you're not addicted to skiing or snowshoeing.

We were looking at potential farm management positions in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado and Washington state. When we visited SW Virginia and Blacksburg we really liked the area. From an aesthetic standpoint it shared many similarities with Vermont so it didn't feel alien. Florida was too hot; in fact, Florida horse competitions shut down pretty much mid-Spring through the fall so that wasn't as convenient with young children. And then there was the hurricanes North Carolina was okay but the total economic picture didn't sit well with me. N.C. has the 2nd fastest growing Hispanic population in the USA, which isn't a big deal to me at all except according to the Pew Hispanic Center 2/3rds of the growth are illegal immigrants, and I think the manufacturing industry in N.C. is going to TANK when immigration reform laws _finally_ get put through. That would pull their whole economy down. And not many people know that N.C. has the highest number of natural disasters from year to year. Hurricanes, tornados, flooding, affect much of the state to some degree. And Washington state was just too dreary; we wanted more sunny days and a real winter and summer. So Virginia sort of won hands down for us.

When we we decided after 9 months in the 'burbs of Blacksburg to start horse farm shopping there were of course alot of horse farm properties in SW and Central Virginia on the market. We first looked at a 129 acre property in Blacksburg's Catawba Valley. It was offered at $1M but had NO horse facilities. And ultimately Blacksburg was too far from a sizable metro to attract a sufficient population of horse people. Other farm properties in SW and Central Virginia were also quite distant from sizable metros except for properties around Charlottesville, VA. So the Charlottesville area was in the running. Then we found a horse farm offered for sale in Boones Mill that had the unique situation of being too big and intimidating for the average affluent horseowners who didn't want to maintain everything. And it was too small for a major horseowner to jump into and start boarding en masse. But it was close enough to Roanoke (about 25 minutes to downtown, 20 minutes to shopping) and only 15 minutes to small town Rocky Mount. So we called the realtor and set up an appt on a Sunday. When we first came to look at the place, we met up with the realtor at the Shell Station in the little town of Boones Mill. We were _not_ impressed with the town It looked like every other dinky postage stamp sized town that was about 50 years past its prime But then we followed the realtor down Bethlehem Road into the country and, I'll tell you, we were just gobsmacked by the beauty of the southern foothill highlands beneath Cahas Mountain. Of course the property was amazing too and so we ultimately bought it. Later we came to realize that the little town of Boones Mill may be butt ugly but the people and the shops were just great. The folks at the post office, the pharmacy, the insurance company, the Southern States (think Agway), shops, the banks were just great. Franklin County itself sits between the Blue Ridge mountain range (sister to the Green Mountains) and several lakes (Philpott, Fairystone, Smith Mountain Lake). National park and state parks, beaches, great schools, beautiful vistas.

The one concern I hear often about Vermonters moving south is that there could be culture shock what with all the conservative republican folks. But the reality is that it's alot more moderate then people realize down in the Roanoke area, and it grows increasingly more so as folks continue to relocate here. And political viewpoints don't seem to rise up in everyday conversation down here; it's just not polite. So, while I'm an athiest democrat yankee, I've got a ton of friends, some of whom share my beliefs and some that do not. But we're still friends, and that's a cultural distinction between Vermont and Virginia, at least in my experience.

Sean

[MRVphotog]

Vermont is a very special place...if Best Buys, Walmarts, traffic congestion and crime are things you miss or feel is important than Vermont is definately not the place for you although Burlington has all those things.:wink: When I have to go Burlington I can't wait to leave. Yup...I'm a hick

Like most states you have regions where the real estate is high and regions where the real estate is low. As you might expect the places where the cost is low are going to be rural and non-tourist areas.

I think it is very important to live in a place that your happy and wake up every morning glad to be there. Diferent strokes for diferent folks. Those of you who want to leave Vermont have all found things about Vermont that you do like which is great.

The person who is stuck in Vermont for a couple of years reminds me of that tv show "Northern Exposure". For anyone, moving to a new area is hard. Being homesick is only natural. If you live in a rural area you do have to adapt to the lifestyle and become more self sufficient. I have found the internet makes it easier in alot of ways. The lack of cell phone coverage and high speed internet frustrates alot of folks.

One of the unique things about the Mad River Valley is that we have our own telephone company which is great. If you have a problem with your phone or DSL connection it is so nice to drive down to the village and go into their office and talk to a real person.

Please keep posting, although I am new to this forum, lot's of Vermonters in here, including me, will be happy to help you with any info you might seek to make your stay as easy as possible. For many, the summer is alot easier than the winter which should make the next few months more palatable.

I love Vermont but realize it's not going to be everyones cup of tea. It's kinda
warm again today so I think we will head down to our swimming hole to cool off. We only have an acre but we share the brook with the falls with our neigbor...it's all good.

Below is a pic of our swimming hole, for us it doesn't get any better than this... To show the other side of the weather I have also posted a pic after the Valentines Day storm this past winter when we got 42" of the white stuff,

[NYtoVT]

Revolt & Repeal - Home (broken link)

I sure hope that they succeed

[tkln]

MVR - I was SOOOO bummed to have missed out on the Valentine's Day Storm and the aftermath...we had been up there the first weekend of Feb when there was barely any snow on the ground...we own a small condo in Stowe, and we were rented the rest of February so we missed out. I was depressed for weeks...