Big cities are dying. This should shock you.

[goeduck]

For him it could mean divorce... his wife is a city girl and she said there is nothing redeeming about living on a farm in Oregon

Is he married to Eva?
"Green Acres" Opening and Closing Theme Song - YouTube

 

[Larry Caldwell]

The call of the PNW is great this time of year...

One of the Docs I work with bought an old farm in Oregon on the Umpqua river... he is counting the days to when he packs up and moves out... more like 3 years.

For him it could mean divorce... his wife is a city girl and she said there is nothing redeeming about living on a farm in Oregon... his boys are split.

I do think that once a person leaves they often wonder what took them so long... as in the old Oakland saying "There is no there there anymore"

My wife was a city girl too. She had never lived out of town. I refused to live in town, and wouldn't get married until we found a place. Almost 33 years later, you couldn't drag her back into a city. She loves it here. We have a tributary creek to the South Umpqua in the back yard. The river is only 3 miles away, so while there is no salmon run in the creek, I can walk to the river to go fishing. We have deer, bear, the occasional bobcat or cougar, turkeys, and even once in a while an elk or two will wander through. The loudest sounds in the evenings are the wind in the trees and the riffles in the creek.

I only have 90 acres, but I know a couple of retired docs that tend toward 500 acres of timber with North Umpqua river frontage, ponds, and really fancy digs. The North Umpqua is one of the premier fly fishing streams in the world. Several miles of the river is barbless hook dry fly only reserve, full of trophy sized rainbow and cutthroat, steelhead, chinook and coho. You should hear the guys brag when they land a 35 lb. chinook with a fly rod and 15 lb. test line. Diamond Lake is a popular ice fishing spot in the winter. There are no ski lifts, but Crater Lake National Park is a popular cross country area. It takes an hour and a half to drive to either Crater Lake or the coast. Fresh catch seafood shows up in Roseburg a couple times a week, but it's a small town. If you want gourmet food, you pretty much have to cook it yourself.

Our local rod and gun club has a 108 acre facility with trap, rifle, bow, indoor and outdoor pistol, a 5 acre bass pond and a quarter of a mile of North Umpqua frontage below the winchester dam. Membership dues are $8/month - $96/year. The club house has a commercial kitchen with restaurant seating, and there is a pavilion, picnic area and campgrounds.

If your buddy's wife can't enjoy herself in that environment, she needs to stay in town. For the life of me, I don't understand why anyone would live in a city.

 

[lilranch2001]

FARM LIVIN IS THE LIFE FOR MEEEEEE!

 

[EKlee]

Hollywood should have moved to Europe a long time ago, based on their promises. Please go go go! Bunch of crazy progressive commies.

 

[EKlee]

I grew up around farming, but had terrible allergies and got out of a lot of work in the fields because of it. Since, I've always been a white color self employed guy, that loves diesel engines, machines, bikes and now tractors. I'm 55, so I know it might be late to start, but my investments in rental properties and my lax business schedule gives me time to enter into farming.
The real question, what does it take to make money farming, and where is the most promise.... hay, goats, vegetables, LLamas? I've been looking for up to 40 acres to clear and start with. Is that enough to make money in hay? Im trying to figure it out.

 

[goeduck]

My wife was a city girl too. She had never lived out of town. I refused to live in town, and wouldn't get married until we found a place. Almost 33 years later, you couldn't drag her back into a city. She loves it here. We have a tributary creek to the South Umpqua in the back yard. The river is only 3 miles away, so while there is no salmon run in the creek, I can walk to the river to go fishing. We have deer, bear, the occasional bobcat or cougar, turkeys, and even once in a while an elk or two will wander through. The loudest sounds in the evenings are the wind in the trees and the riffles in the creek.

Beautiful area you live in. I handled Oregon for business at one time and I loved that area all the way down to Ashland and over KFalls. Gods Country. Except Ashland has a bunch of nutty libs at SOU. I could not count the times I was in and thru your area.

 

[bcp]

I grew up around farming, but had terrible allergies and got out of a lot of work in the fields because of it. Since, I've always been a white color self employed guy, that loves diesel engines, machines, bikes and now tractors. I'm 55, so I know it might be late to start, but my investments in rental properties and my lax business schedule gives me time to enter into farming.
The real question, what does it take to make money farming, and where is the most promise.... hay, goats, vegetables, LLamas? I've been looking for up to 40 acres to clear and start with. Is that enough to make money in hay? Im trying to figure it out.

Probably should start a new thread, as I can see answers taking another 10-20 pages. My family had 30 acres, at times in cotton, watermelons, alfalfa, and barley. The crops paid the mortgage and a bit extra. Two full-time jobs supported the family.

Bruce

 

[tjkubota93]

You have a choice; either don't touch the power line or don't touch the ground.

I should remember that most people here are not really rural. The transmission line on my road is not really high voltage. It's 1200 volts, which is not going to create a fireball that lights up the night. Usually it doesn't even kill the beaver that dropped the tree across the line. People who live in town where there might be 1000 customers on one feeder have an entirely different infrastructure from a rural area with 20 customers on one line. It's not like they have to hi-pot the circuit to avoid arcing. A set of ag tires is plenty of insulation, and even if it gets a little leaky, the current path is through the chassis and hubs to ground, not through the operator seat.

Utility workers are trained in safety routines because they actually have to reach out and touch the wires. That's a different ball game from shoving a downed utility pole out of the way with a front loader, even if it has wires still attached.

Back to the point, which was that urban dwellers have no resources, and no ability to assess reality. Most of them can't even change a faucet washer or repair a faulty electrical circuit. They whine about garbage, when there are 100 people within earshot.

I own both sides of a quarter mile of country road, and every once in a while some Arlo Guthrie type will dump a VW van full of kitchen garbage on my property. Out comes the pitchfork and off it goes to the dump. That's just one of me, putting up with the typical slimeball who has been pulling the same crap for 30 years. What has changed in cities is not the bums, it's the business owners and homeowners who have decided it's not their responsibility and not their problem. Thirty years ago there would have been 100 people out there cleaning up the mess because they had a little pride. Now there is nobody, and they blame city hall when they are the problem. If everyone on that block hauled off a pickup load of trash a couple times a year, the street would be squeaky clean.

But then, they probably don't even own a pitchfork.

They must lose alot just getting power out to yall. The longer the line, the better you are with higher voltage.

 

[tjkubota93]

Hollywood should have moved to Europe a long time ago, based on their promises. Please go go go! Bunch of crazy progressive commies.

I thought they were all going to Canada after trump won?

Eh?

 

[tjkubota93]

Hah. Although we are now more suburban now than rural, we live in a development that all homes are on an acre or more, and on a cul-de-sac that only has 5 homes, all backed up by a big creek. Last Summer, saw a truck load of "illegals" unloading a huge trailer of leaves and clippings in the creek. They were about done by the time I called the cops, so they didn't get there in time to catch them. Even worse, some goober dumped a pickup load of shrub trimmings in the cul-de-sac, in front of my neighbor's drive way. They are both disabled, so I cleaned them up. Can't figure out why they dumped it here, since there are lots more open spaces close, including a 5 acre lot half mile down the road.

We are similar. We are out of the way enough that people lazy enough to dump are too lazy to get here.

I rarely hire anything out, but had alot of clearing and dirt work done. The tree cutting losers left cigarette butts everywhere. If you want to smoke, fine. The smell doesn't bother me. Throw your trash away, not on the ground. I dont drop beer cans when they are empty. (If I do, it's in my yard and I pick them up within a couple hours)

"I don't understand why anyone would live in a city."

Compromises.

We are half way out, got annexed. We both have a pension at work, 2 kids, another on the way. Daycare, schools, work 20 minutes away without highways or traffic.

Long enough for cars to get warmed up and keep battery charged, but not far enough to rack up miles.

I am subject to alot of OT at work. I have co workers that live 1 hr away with 30-40 acres. They pay less taxes and have more room to garden. They still have all the negative points of neighbors like us. But they wear out cars regularly and buy alot of gas.

I would rather live 3 hrs from here with no neighbors. Maybe after we retire?

I guess people in Manhattan say the same thing about a place like where I live.