You know your neighbor's visitors are from the city when...

[Creamer]

Now lets look at the map of donor states vs recipient states - The red state ripoff:

... And I found a quote on that page that speaks directly to your blue/red comparison:

"In essence those in blue states are subsidizing those in red states. Both red and blue states appear to be acting politically in opposition to their economic interests. Blue states are voting for candidates who are likely to continue the policies of red state subsidization while red states are voting for candidates who profess a desire to reduce federal spending (and presumably red state subsidization)."

It all depends on how you count. It looks like they are including the funds to care for all the federally owned land in all those red states that the state does not get tax money from. That is 1) a big loss to state coffers and two federal money that goes to federal uses and should not be counted. States like Utah are 40% federal lands. It is not a small chunk.

 

[seaneastok]

I live in a rural town in MA, hard to find one of those here, and I am amazed at the "city folks" that move into the country, like my neighbors, and when a branch falls from a tree during a storm, they hire a tree service to remove about 6 trees they are afraid of. If you don't like the country, stop cutting it down and move back to the city!

I spent most of my life living in the Sierra Nevada's in California. Our deal ,was people from the central valley or the San Francisco bay area that would move up to retire/or play weekend retreat, get their "little piece of heaven" .Cut down the tree's, build a huge house , then proceed to tell their neighbors that had been there 40 year's what they could or could not do on their own property...I had a neighbor that move'd in ,built and then proceeded to tell me I couldn't hunt behind my own house (U.S. Forest service public land) because the deer were his pet's and he fed them every night and enjoyed watching them. Complained about my snowmobiles,didn't want me to plow the road of snowfall because it ruined the winter scenery..etc..etc...:confused2: GO BACK TO THE CITY...

 

[MossRoad]

GO BACK TO THE CITY...

That's sort of what the native Americans were telling the Europeans.... doesn't work.

 

[Wagtail]

I spent most of my life living in the Sierra Nevada's in California. Our deal ,was people from the central valley or the San Francisco bay area that would move up to retire/or play weekend retreat, get their "little piece of heaven" .Cut down the tree's, build a huge house , then proceed to tell their neighbors that had been there 40 year's what they could or could not do on their own property...I had a neighbor that move'd in ,built and then proceeded to tell me I couldn't hunt behind my own house (U.S. Forest service public land) because the deer were his pet's and he fed them every night and enjoyed watching them. Complained about my snowmobiles,didn't want me to plow the road of snowfall because it ruined the winter scenery..etc..etc...:confused2: GO BACK TO THE CITY...

A somewhat related story from down here... A woman from Sydney (Mrs. Doris Owen) bought a weekend retreat in the Shoalhaven/Swan Lake area of NSW. She was an 'environmental activist' and proceeded to change things there to suit herself and her 'greenie' slant on things... shutting down trails, no land clearing and generally imposing her will on the community.

She was murdered in that retreat in '06. Lot's of suspects due to her meddling in the community and the local communities 'attitude' towards her because of it.

Turned out that one of her sons did her in.

 

[roadhunter]

I spent most of my life living in the Sierra Nevada's in California. Our deal ,was people from the central valley or the San Francisco bay area that would move up to retire/or play weekend retreat, get their "little piece of heaven" .Cut down the tree's, build a huge house , then proceed to tell their neighbors that had been there 40 year's what they could or could not do on their own property...I had a neighbor that move'd in ,built and then proceeded to tell me I couldn't hunt behind my own house (U.S. Forest service public land) because the deer were his pet's and he fed them every night and enjoyed watching them. Complained about my snowmobiles,didn't want me to plow the road of snowfall because it ruined the winter scenery..etc..etc...:confused2: GO BACK TO THE CITY...

Post the location of that public land on some hunting sites. He will have plenty of visitors. Hunters love opportunities like that.

 

[California]

I spent most of my life living in the Sierra Nevada's in California. Our deal ,was people from the central valley or the San Francisco bay area that would move up to retire/or play weekend retreat, get their "little piece of heaven" .Cut down the tree's, build a huge house...

We got invited up to one of those when wife's PTA friend moved up there. First thing I could think of was the extreme fire danger in the middle of steep dry tinder - literally - for miles around. And if you do the 100 ft clearing or whatever it is CalFire requires as a condition for defending your home when the inevitable comes, the pleasure of living in the forest is quite diminished.

We hobby-mined a gold claim up by Quincy, 20 miles beyond the end of the pavement, for some 30 years and the sense of imminent forest fire was always present, sometimes realized. I don't think I would want to raise a family in such a high risk area.

 

[MossRoad]

.... the pleasure of living in the forest is quite diminished.

...

I grew up in a heavily wooded neighborhood. We had about 60 large, mature oaks on less than 2 acres. My parents were quite proud of the fact that they only had to cut down 3 trees when they built the house. While it was beautiful, peaceful, serene, cool shade, etc... as a kid, I lived in constant fear anytime there was a thunderstorm. Every year at least one of those huge trees would come crashing down right next to the house. Several people in the neighborhood were actually injured by falling branches and trees while inside their own homes. And several homes were heavily damaged by trees falling on them. Heck, one time on a nice, sunny day, I heard a loud crash and looked over at my grandmother's house next door and there she was, 95+ year old grandma, sitting on a rocker on the porch, looking at a large branch 6' from her, the tip of which was resting on the concrete porch floor with the rest sticking strait up through the roof of the house and extending 30' into the air! I will never, ever, live in a house in the woods again. 24 years of terror was enough. All trees larger than 30' high will be removed back to a distance from the house 1.5 times their height. :laughing:

 

[ultrarunner]

I went through the same a few years back... 30 days with precipitation and then came the 90 mph winds and then single digit temps...

Trees were down all over the county and roads closed... power out for a week so it was generators to power the well and not a chance to buy fuel locally the first 3 days.

I had some 180 firs topple with root crowns 10 feet in the air.

After that I never viewed trees the same... it was now adversarial in that if it went down could it reach the house...

Took out several beautiful trees but slept better... on a side not with the big firs gone the maples went crazy... 4' growth in a year and sprouting like weeds.

Old sourdough neighbor told me to call his tree guy... young fellow 4th generation and followed his advice to the letter... a couple of trees I thought were fine he said needed to come down... sure enough they were stump rotted or hollow.

I value the experience and knowledge from those that spent a lifetime in an area and grateful they are willing to share.

 

[KWRB]

We have two old Winn Dixies in town. I looked them up one time to find out if there were any left. To the best of my memory they still exist somewhere up north like maybe Virginia.

I grew up in NY, but my grandmother was from West Columbia, SC. She inherited a little bit of Winn Dixie stock from her parents, and so my grandparents would often talk about "how's Winn Dixie doing?" It threw me for such a loop. The name sounded so sing-songy, like a cartoon character or something, and I couldn't wrap my young head around why there would be a grocery store with a different name than ours, and how someone could own "part of something"...

So that's still what I think of when I hear the name "Winn Dixie". Honestly, I didn't know they were all gone. Sad. I guess I knew they had a Publix nearby their place in recent years, but nonetheless hearing that Winn Dixies are gone is sad. My grandmother just died recently and somehow learning this bugs me. I guess that means I recall my childhood fondly!

 

[hawkeye08]

We seem to get city folks moving out here to the country that think it is okay to let their little dogs out at night "to go potty" before bed... Seems they all put up "dog missing" posters before long. Coyotes served city dog, all fat and delicious. City folks do not understand they put coyote bait out and the coyotes were glad to have some..