If you could live anywhere...

[Katrinaquerida]

Where would you live if you could move anywhere? Right now I have a great home with 8 acres of woods that is near my family, but I like to fantasize about relocating. We live in New York, so costs are high and winters are long. If you could homestead anywhere, where would you go and why? l

[mattemma04]

No set state,but somewhere with mild winters.Land would be 10 acres with clear and wodded.Would also want a creek. I often look on unitedcountry.com at homes all over.We are in Ohio right now and the only thing I detest is winter driving.Could tolerate the cold if I did not have to drive in it every day!

[Adaline'sMama]

I love where I am, but if I were to relocate, there would be an ocean involved.

[CrunchyJess]

If I could pick anywhere without considering family or obligations, just basing the location off the area, I would definitely love about 40 acres in the smokies of east TN . I love the climate, the defined seasons, the attitude of the area.

However, do to the fact that my ex husband lives here and I want my sons to have a relationship with their dad, as well as my entire family being here, Central Arkansas is where I will stay.

And considering our budget and time constraints, we will be buying about 6-8 acres rather than more.

[JamieCatheryn]

For climate and lax building permits alone I'd want West Virginia, about 12 acres partially wooded. But thier vax laws make that impossible and I think I heard the govt had a crusade against homeschooling of some kind going on. Virginia seems like a good option.

[Lovesong]

If I could choose...

Somewhere where the summers are long enough for tomatoes, pumpkin and watermelon to actually ripen in the field.

Not too far from the sea, so on hot summer days I could take an afternoon off from tending the home and just enjoy a cool breeze, sand between my toes, the cry of the seagulls riding the winds leisurely while keeping an eye out for picnics and the smell of salt and kelp.

There would be plenty of wheat and rye fields, bordering the gravel road back to my home. Billowing softly, the waves becoming bigger as they disappear towards the horizon and heave up into green, forested hills.

There would be little rivulets in the forests, pooling into a deep blue river where when the season is right the salmon comes jumping.

Around my home, there would plenty of meadows for geese, sheep, alpacas and the family cow and two plough horses.

And a fruit orchard, where peaches would ripen long before the frost comes.

All that, and there still would be deep snow in the winter. White and glistening, hanging like flowers in the trees. The air so cold as to freeze the inside of my nostrils when I go outside to see to my animals. Make sure they are not freezing, or bring in wood.

I think, Denmark would be just perfect. :)

[Katrinaquerida]

I was thinking West Virginia, I wonder about the growing season there? Could I plant in May and grow through September? 

[Adaline'sMama]

And also, West Virginia is plagued by coal companies destroying it's mountains all over the state and its laws make it so easy to continue to do it that its projected that in less than 30 years most of the mountains that have coal will be topless and a huge portion of the population will be unemployed. You'd have to find a place with no mountains to be safe.

[Katrinaquerida]

Thats true. So I guess I want a blue state, with a long growing season, but changing seasons, low cost of living, access to hills, water and trees. Decent education system, good environmental policy, no weird hazards to life and limb... maybe I am dreaming?

[elspethpaisley]

I live in Virginia, and I like the climate except for the terrible humidity in the summers. I sometimes fantasize about moving back to western Mass., where it gets colder in winter but there are lovely old mountains and a liberal political climate. My perfect (imaginary) location would combine the long growing season we have here with a nice crisp snowy winter, the ocean nearby, also mountains, laws that don't discriminate against my family, and multiple intentional communities to choose from.

[SweetSilver]

The Shire.  Sounds fabulous!  Seriously, though, I love the PNW but I wish I could grow tomatoes and in our particular area rosemary just isn't growing.  That makes me supremely envious because I get to the water and there is a gorgeous rosemary bush, so glossy and green.  And it tortures me thinking about the rosemary hedges I used to trim in Seattle.  Sigh!  But I don't suppose rosemary grew too well in the Shire either.....

[Katrinaquerida]

lol! Youre right! Its the shire I've been thinking of all along. Or maybe Narnia...

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by Katrinaquerida 

Thats true. So I guess I want a blue state, with a long growing season, but changing seasons, low cost of living, access to hills, water and trees. Decent education system, good environmental policy, no weird hazards to life and limb... maybe I am dreaming?

Strange but true, sounds like NJ (although I'm not sure if it's a blue state--I think it is).  And yes, there is farmland there.  But you have the ocean as a day trip, plenty of mountains, as a STATE the education is better than a large chunk of the country (their bad schools are still better than some states great schools as my family found out the hard way as they each left for different states).  Environmental policy is decent but not all that progressive (massive open space initiatives have left a lot of preserved space outside of the already built-up NYC metro area).  And no real hazards to life and limb.  Hurricanes, but that's really just rain and wind.  Some areas have coyotes and bears, but otherwise, nothing really horrible.

AND, there are a few "right to farm" communities (so anything you do that is related to farming--your neighbors can't gripe about ;)  ).  You could totally grow pumpkins, tomatoes, etc.  I even grew sweet potatoes in the northern part of the state.

I've relocated to IL and would actually like to go back to NJ.  I scope every once in a while for land.