Where should I move?

No power for 16 hours. Temp in the low teens. Too cold to start the tractor, but worse yet, too cold to get the emergency generator started. Power restored now, and the gen-set is now sharing the warmth of the wood burning stove to be ready for another outage.

The wood burning stove was the difference between uncomfortable and miserable.

Slick
 
Around here most homes with genset on site are powered by propane .... package set sold by several suppliers , usually good for 14 days ... I live in small town forever , longest power out for us has been 4 hours give or take , seems we on line that feeds regional hospital and get first response , from power company ... temp is plus 5C at this moment up on foundry hill in Truro NS ...
 
We've been having almost 50% power off / 50% power on the last 2 days+. Associated next-to-zero cell service when power goes out (doesn't make sense, but there it is.)

Thankfully water & gas pressure good.
 
My wife and I decided that our anniversary gift to ourselves will be a propane powered gen-set. We will be looking at options, just as soon as we can get up our road, and the public roads are safe.

From what I hear from the electric cooperative, there are many new homes in the area, and most are all electric, and the extreme cold (for this area) has taxed the grid. Heat pumps go to all resistance heat when temps are below 35F. And the lower goes the temp, the higher goes the KW off the grid. They are talking about rolling blackouts, but I would not expect a rolling blackout to last more than several hours.

So much for "so called green" energy. There are places (not in Texas) now with code restrictions that forbid natural gas connections to any new construction. Go figure.

Slick
 
Upstate S Carolina?
Relatively inexpensive, mild winters. Easy ride to the smokies and blue ridge parkway. Maybe around Greenville or Easly.
 
oldbeezer said:
Upstate S Carolina?
Relatively inexpensive, mild winters. Easy ride to the smokies and blue ridge parkway. Maybe around Greenville or Easly.
Click to expand...
All I remember about that part of the country was otherwise beautiful homes with roofs covered with pine debris. Weird...
 
texasSlick said:
So much for "so called green" energy. There are places (not in Texas) now with code restrictions that forbid natural gas connections to any new construction. Go figure.
Click to expand...
The last time I looked into it, if we switched totally to natural gas, we have enough for 500 years (who knows if that's true?). It is my understanding that gas is, by far, the greenest fuel that can actually do the job. I'm all for wind, solar, geothermal, wave and all the other green power sources, but they are no where near to being able to meet our needs. I am not a energy expert so if I'm wrong about any of this, feel free to say so.

The "science" that politicians use is not science at all unless you call political science, science - I don't. IMHO, we should be phasing out oil and coal, phasing in gas, and all the while working to do things that actually help the environment. Unlike the silly statement that oil workers can just build solar panels, they probably can work to produce natural gas and in many cases without disrupting their lives.

Most likely, if we spent the money we spend on changing directions ever 4-8 years on developing solar it could be useful - today, it really is not.
 
I will add my voice for Texas. You can actually find the commuity you are the most comfortable with from Austin (super progressive) to smaller rural communities that are more conservative. I live North of Dallas in a town called Sherman. You can almost throw a rock into Oklahoma from here. It is a medium sized town with a good mix of industry and shopping. We have an ER and it still has a small town feel but that may all be changing the way Dallas is growing. There are actually some pretty good riding roads near me. (This is not to say that our roads are Colorado good or Pennsylvanian good but it's not all board flat riding either.) If you want to move here you had better pull the trigger pretty fast. The land prices and housing prices are just going nuts.
 
Big_Jim59 said:
If you want to move here (Texas) you had better pull the trigger pretty fast. The land prices and housing prices are just going nuts.
Click to expand...
No joke.

Our house is now valued at almost DOUBLE what we paid for it less than 3 years ago.

My 4-acre ranch is worth almost TRIPLE what I paid for it (of course, I did run utility power, and built a steel building on it, but that only represents 20% of the increase)
 
marshg246 said:
Actually, that would be cool, but I don't think I'm nice enough to fit in :(

If the AU based YouTube channels I frequent are indicative of real life in AU - they are way too nice and happy!
Click to expand...
WE are used to loud-mouthed Yanks - you would be very popular. You would love our politicians. Most of them are really dumb. The thing about it is, as an American you wouuld have s different mindset towards doing business. We don't have the same economies of scale. As an Australian, I find America mind-boggling because of it's magnitude. An American success is huge and so are the catastrophes. Australia is more manageable. You might believe America is more democratic - in Australia we have compulsory voting, but we do not usually conscript people for military service. Our soldiers are all volunteers. Our only political problem is Rupert Murdoch. He manipulates the voters as he does elsewhere.
 
Last edited:
In the past 10 years, I'e been admitted to the hospital 10 times. In 4 of them it was touch and go whether I would survive. The last was the day after Thanksgiving 2021 - I died standing in line in the ER to check in - I was surprised when I woke up from that (quit breathing, but heart didn't stop). BTW, it's really annoying when your last thoughts are about how you wish you could breathe, and you wish you could stop peeing yourself!

In one of my early replies in this thread I mentioned the need for high-speed Internet and close to an ER. In this last event, had the ER been 2 miles further, I would have died driving and it's very unlikely that I would be writing this today.

I found many places I liked in TX and elsewhere, but none that met all requirements. Then I found the perfect piece of land and a builder selling it in FL willing to build me a custom house and shop for less than my current house is worth. But, it wouldn't be ready until I was over 73. At that point, I gave up looking to move - too difficult. Every room in my house has motorcycle parts and several rooms have motorcycles - just moving it all and getting set back up is a lot to consider.
 
acotrel said:
You might believe America is more democratic - in Australia we have compulsory voting, but we do not usually conscript people for military service. Our soldiers are all volunteers. Our only political problem is Rupert Murdoch. He manipulates the voters as he does elsewhere.
Click to expand...
Actually, I lived in Germany for about seven years. Its crystal clear to me the democracy and freedom are not better here than elsewhere. Don't want to start a fight - I'm a very patriotic US citizen but the freedoms and the democracy in Germany are much greater than here IMHO. I can easily believe that to be true in AU as well. Yes, some of it is point of view. An American might say that compulsory voting is bad just like many say that voter ID is bad.

BTW, we haven't had a draft for a longtime and I hope never will again. The US military has been all volunteer since 1973 (if I remember right).
 
marshg246 said:
For some months now, I've been looking for somewhere to move. Why? I live 8 miles SW of Washington DC - you can't even watch the weather without hearing about politics! More importantly, it is no fun to ride in this area and simple things like machine shops do not exist. I'm thinking warmer winters, less government, and definitely less busy body communities and governments deciding what I can do on my own property. I found the perfect place in Ormond Beach, FL, but their zoning disallows my motorcycle business and that seems true in most of FL. Lately I've been focusing on Georgia even though I know little about the state. Anywhere I move must either have a LARGE shop or room to build one. So, I'm looking for recommendations.
Click to expand...
Never heard of zoning in Ormond Beach disallowing motorcycle businesses. Unless there are some restrictions on operating said business out of a residence? There are quite a few bike and bike-related businesses, machine shops etc. in the surrounding area.
 
I live in eastern PA but grew up in NJ. Most of NJ once you get away from NYC is beautiful. I like south Jersey. My Dad lived on Long Beach Island, near Richard Tool, and loved it. But it is getting too expensive at the shore. There are plenty of towns more inland in south Jersey where housing prices are not rising as fast. It is mostly the boonies so no one is close enough to bother you. Also the government in NJ allows freedom. That's what my wife and I would like to do eventually. Good luck.
 
Danno said:
Never heard of zoning in Ormond Beach disallowing motorcycle businesses. Unless there are some restrictions on operating said business out of a residence? There are quite a few bike and bike-related businesses, machine shops etc. in the surrounding area.
Click to expand...
Surrounding yes, in the house I wanted, no. Stupid part is that the property has a giant workshop on it. I had a meeting with the director of zoning who made it VERY clear that I was not welcome even though I don't have a storefront and don't have customers visit. Really annoying when you read their web site and talk about being business friendly. He said, business friendly in our industrial and retail areas.
 
Greg,
I admire your entrepreneurship, but given your health problems, wouldn't it be wiser to scale down rather than up?
At any rate, renting a fire-proof storage facility (building) and tuning in on a different radio / tv station seems better options than moving far away ....

Cheers,
Knut
 
I’ll second that Knut. It’s easy to forget just how difficult and stressful a move can be especially with the set up you describe Greg.

Chill out, do something to make what you’ve got a little more suitable, and spend your time and energy fettling old bikes, cos that what you love doing isn’t it ??
 
mgt-son/Fast Eddie,

Long stories - I have absolutely no need to work but sitting watching TV will kill you pretty quick. Issue 1: I told my last big IT customer in 2018 that I was retiring at the end of March 2020 when I would turn 70. They never listened even when I reiterated it. Then in Feb 2020 they finally understood that I would be gone in a month. So, first they told me that I couldn't retire to which I laughed and asked them what country they thought we were in. They responded with: "Ok, we'll keep paying you and you just do what you think we need and don't come here anymore unless you think it's an emergency". They knew me better than I knew me. Lately I've forced myself to put in no more than 40 hours a week for them. Issue 2: My wife died in 2012. I was her sole care giver for almost 6 years all while running my IT and motorcycle businesses. When she died, I was left with nothing to do but work so I decided to slowly stop the intense IT work (had several big customers then) and focus on the brainless motorcycle rebuilding with no pressure or deadlines. Issue 3: Covid hit. Somehow that got people coming out of the woodwork wanting things from me. I owe four rebuilds, one upgrade and one oil burning fix all by the end of spring and I have others asking me to commit to build them a Norton by then - can't do it.

I wanted to move to a small house with a large shop so I could have a nice, clean, uncluttered living environment and a nice place to work on bikes. When I first started looking it made sense, but I have about four times as much stuff now and am tired most of the time. For one thing, helped out three guys in 2021 who needed to sell all their stuff - can't help anyone else - have so much stuff now I can't move.

I tried to get a storage place but apparently in Virginia none of them will allow unregistered motor vehicles in their storage units - at least I haven't found one that will.

If I could go back to 2013 I probably would do several things differently and I certainly would not build the garage I did - I should have moved then when it was simple.

So, all that said I won't move and will do what I've been doing since I was about 5 - make money and dream about a time when I can do something with it. I guess that something is to make my grandsons better off.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top