West Virginia Mamas

[wombjuice]

Hi! I'm back.

Every time I check on these tribes, I never find any threads on WV til the fifth or sixth page! So I thought maybe I could start a WV thread that we can keep going. Maybe you'd all like to introduce yourselves, talk about where in WV you are, and why you love it there. I'll start!

My name is Melissa and I live in Florida. I have my own business as a childbirth educator and postpartum doula. My husband is an A+ and N+ certified (among many other Irish certifications, but they are not accepted here computer technician, and is working up towards getting his MCP and then MCSA...and eventually MCSE!

We both currently work in cushy government jobs here in Central Florida, but I am not happy because I hate office work and DH is not happy because he is not in an IT position. We also don't like Florida.

DH and I are currently trying to conceive our first baby, and soon after getting pregnant, I will be quitting my office job and teaching more classes/doing more postpartum work. DH is currently looking for IT jobs in Florida, and also in West Virginia.

Our goal is to get out of this state, and we've been trying for almost two years now. We want to move to West Virginia, where my mom and her husband will also be moving soon, but we can't move there til DH finds a good IT job, as I could be pregnant very shortly, and it might take some time to fill my classes and find postpartum doula clients. Oh, and once we move to WV, DH will be opening his own computer (and computer gaming!) shop, and I am probably going into homebirth midwifery.

Our goals are to live in the mountains with lots of land (to me, lots of land is 5-10+ acres, not 80+ ), have a little hobby farm raising some chickens and sheep and growing our own organic fruits and veggies, and using wind and solar for our power. I want to be completely off the grid, but DH doesn't want to because he wants to sell excess power back to the power company.

So...hi! That's my life story in a nutshell! I'd like to hear from you WV mamas so I don't go completely crazy daydreaming (obsessing) about WV while waiting for a computer job to pop up somewhere up there.

[Elijahs Momma]

I'll join in..
I'm Christy and I have a 21 month old son, who is very spirited, and we're expecting another squishy baby in late January/early Feb. and hoping for a homebirth! (woo!) I've been married to my husband for a bit over a year but we've been together over 4 years. In addition to our growing family, we have 5 cats.

Dh and I have lived in WV all our lives and we currently live in a small community in North Central WV with a creek and hills on one side of us and a road where nobody obeys the speed limit on the other side. It's great and everything, but a bit annoying when your yard isn't fenced in with a running toddler. I think the thing I like most about living here is the scenery and mountains, I couldn't imagine living anywhere else (although we might be moving out of state in a few years), but hopefully we'll be moving to someplace that has mountains, I can't stand flat land.

Umm.. I guess that is our boring life in a nutshell. I hope your dh is able to find a job here, it's quite beautiful IMO.

[wombjuice]

Nice to meet you, Christy, and congratulations on your upcoming birth! I hope it is everything you dream it will be! :

[Doodlebugsmom]

I live a few miles outside of Morgantown (the Cheat Lake area, to be specific). I've lived in WV all of my life. The first 17 years were in a very, very rural area. A town with a population of 2,000. No fast food, no movie theaters (closest ones were just over an hour a way). There also wasn't an interstate highway within an hour. It was great to grow up there. Very safe. Our parents wouldn't worry when we'd wander in the woods for hours at a time, even when we were quite young.

I live in a lovely neighborhood now, where neighbors are friendly and always willing to help out. I think that's pretty commonplace for most of WV, though. People here generally will do anything to help someone. That's one thing I love about it. It's also absolutely beautiful. Here in Morgantown, we're within an hour of some nice state parks and forests. We've got Coopers Rock, about 15 minutes away. Cathedral State Park, which is about an hour away. Swallow Falls State Park and Deep Creek Lake are both in Garrett County, MD. They're 45 minutes from here. Also, if you need to get to a city, Pittsburgh is 1.5 hours away and D.C. is about 3-3.5 hours away.

Here in Mo-town, we have a nice selection of locally-owned restaurants which serve healthy food. We also have a natural foods co-op/market, which is awesome. Lots of farms around so our farmer's market is awesome, and we also have multiple CSAs to choose from.

I'm definitely a WV girl all the way. I can't say enough positive things about my experiences living here.

[Elijahs Momma]

Originally Posted by feminine_earth

Nice to meet you, Christy, and congratulations on your upcoming birth! I hope it is everything you dream it will be! :

Thank you, I hope it goes swimmingly as well. And it's nice to meet you as well, Melissa!

[wombjuice]

Hi Doodlebugsmom! I was hoping you'd respond!

I live in a lovely neighborhood now, where neighbors are friendly and always willing to help out. I think that's pretty commonplace for most of WV, though. People here generally will do anything to help someone.

This is just so wonderful to hear. It's one thing DH misses about Ireland, and that we definitely don't see here in Florida. In Ireland, everyone knows their neighbors, and if you needed help, someone would be there for you in a heartbeat. Here in Florida, we're lucky we live close to my mom because nobody knows anybody, and everyone only watches out for themselves.

We're looking forward to actually having friends again! :

[Doodlebugsmom]

Originally Posted by feminine_earth

Hi Doodlebugsmom! I was hoping you'd respond!


We're looking forward to actually having friends again! :

Awwww. Jeesh! Thanks.

If you do move to WV, I'll totally be your friend!

[smellyann82]

another WV mom here. we're in charleston, and i grew up in the cheat lake area in morgantown (babysat in your neighborhood, doodlebugsmom, if i remember correctly from a past thread). dh and i met in college in wheeling. we don't love charleston...too much stuff to make it quite dirty...coal trains, chemical plants which periodically omit a blue haze on the valley, etc...but we're glad to be back in wv after being away for a few years. dh is in grad school now, and in 3 years, when he's done, we hope to migrate else where...maybe outside of wheeling, or preston county??

[wombjuice]

Hi Ann! DH and I have looked into Charleston, as that's where most of the IT jobs seem to be, but it's just not what we're looking for. Too big, too busy...we're looking to relax a bit once we get away from Florida, ya know? I'm tired of city life (although, where I live is hardly considered a "city", but the urban sprawl and giant Wal-Mart's, Lowe's, Home Depot's, and Super Targets are absolutely EVERYWHERE...and I'm just tired of it.), and can't wait to move to a more relaxed, more laid-back place. *sigh*

Thanks for responding!!

[pixiepunk]

Hi there! Love to see the WV mamas (and wanna be's) chatting! :

I love WV. Grew up in Morgantown, now living in Hampshire County. DH and I are working on starting up our farm. we've got 44 acres. We did have a nice sized garden this year, and planted a load of fruit trees and will be adding trees every year so that eventually we'll have ourselves a small orchard. we really want chickens but haven't had the time to set everything up for them yet. maybe next year. and we're very excited because a neighbor of ours who cuts our hay wants to keep some cows here and is willing to keep a few for us as well, plus help us get our fencing fixed and gates up and things that have kept us from doing it ourselves.

regarding Charleston... not my favorite place either, my mom lived there for a while. But in general in WV you're going to find that the areas where there are the most jobs are the most built-up, and land when you can find it is a lot pricier. Most people who work in larger areas and want to live a more rural life end up having to commute. DH drives almost an hour to get to his job, and almost everyone we know locally works in either Cumberland, MD or Winchester, VA (60 min and 45 min, respectively). so it maybe something you need to consider if your hubby is able to find a decent job someplace that isn't a place you'd love to live. i mean, really, even if you live in Charleston or Morgantown he's likely to spend 20-30 minutes commuting in the car anyway just to get from one end of town to the other. So you may either have to settle for living in town and not having the kind of space you want, or having a bit of a drive. Like if your DH works in Morgantown, for example, you could probably find a nice piece of land in Preston County. or if you lived near me where land is cheap and abundant, you DH would probably need to work in Winchester or Cumberland.

[wombjuice]

Thanks, pixie! In the beginning, we'll probably be renting in town, but eventually we'll be buying land. Not owning land is not an option for me. DH will have to commute. We both drive 30 mins to work now anyway, and I used to drive 45+ mins. We're used to commuting, unfortunately.

Right now, DH is looking for work in Morgantown, VA, MD, and Pittsburgh, though we're hoping he can simply find a good job in WV. He had applied for a job at the hospital in Weston almost two years ago, but they would not accept his Irish certifications. That's actually why he decided to pursue certification here, even though he has the Irish equivalent.

You're in the eastern panhandle, right? Gosh, I would love to live over that way. It looks so beautiful!! *sigh*

Oh, and can somebody tell me why there are no Renaissance Faires in WV? I think the closest is in Pittsburgh! That will simply NOT do. I might just have to look into starting one when I get there, if someone hasn't already done so.

[pixiepunk]

depending on where in the state you end up, Pittsburgh will be the closest Ren Faire. There's a small one in VA (can't remember what town it is now... but from where i am it's closer than P'burgh). And then there's the big one in Crownsville, Maryland. it would be awesome if you started one WV! we'd definitely go

technically the area where I live is one county over from the official panhandle (which is made up of Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan Counties), and is called the Potomac Highlands. Doodlebug, you're from the Highlands originally, aren't you? And yes, it is gorgeous here ::

and ya know, the thing about commuting out here is that while it might take you 45 min or an hour to get to work it's flippin' gorgeous scenery and very little traffic the entire way. so it's not quite the same as sitting in bumper to bumper traffic getting flipped off and cut off and generally aggravated. it's fairly peaceful and generally enjoyable. i make the 45 minute drive to Winchester a lot as i have a lot of crunchy friends there, and that's where all the shops and things are for the most part. and it's really not so bad - gives the kids to catch a nap

[grapenuts]

Hi! DH & I lived in South Charleston (right outside Charleston) for four years. We moved to the Bluefield/Princeton, WV area about nine months ago. I became pregnant with our second daughter and we didn't like having our other daughter in daycare up there. It was truly horrendous. We are a family that requires two working parents just to make ends meet and the daycare situation that we experienced was just awful. So we moved back here right after DH's mother retired so she could watch our toddler. I like it so much better here. We don't have all the convenience of the malls and restaurants we had in Charleston, but we don't have the traffic, pollution and constant worry about crime. I don't know if your DH would be able to find any IT work in this area unless it would be at a local college or hospital, but you should definitely look at land in Monroe County, WV (Peterstown/Lindside area). Lots of farmland and it is truly beautiful and away from everything.

[Doodlebugsmom]

Originally Posted by pixiepunk

technically the area where I live is one county over from the official panhandle (which is made up of Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgan Counties), and is called the Potomac Highlands. Doodlebug, you're from the Highlands originally, aren't you? And yes, it is gorgeous here ::

Yep! I grew up in Petersburg, which is in Grant County. Very beautiful there, but not a hot job market. There are people who live there who commute to work in D.C. every day. That's nearly 3 hours each way!

[big-mama]

I'm from Hampshire County (Romney - born in Huntington), but live in VA...hope to move back up there one day. I'm in IT also so it might be a while.

[RolliePollie]

Hey WV mamas! I'm currently in the Northern Panhandle in Ohio County and lovin' it. =)

[wombjuice]

Hi RolliePollie and big-mama!!

Has anyone ever been to the Krishna temple up near Wheeling?? I want to go there SO BAD. We have a temple in Alachua that is about a 2 hour drive from me, so I've only been once, but I loved it. I could not believe there was one in WV!! So exciting!!

[pixiepunk]

big-mama - wow! not everyday i meet someone who grew up in Romney! i live about 20 minutes from there. if you ever are in for a visit, PM me!

[jtbuko]

Originally Posted by feminine_earth

DH will have to commute. We both drive 30 mins to work now anyway, and I used to drive 45+ mins. We're used to commuting, unfortunately.
Right now, DH is looking for work in Morgantown, VA, MD, and Pittsburgh, though we're hoping he can simply find a good job in WV..

We're in NoVa and my hubby loves working in the IT dept at HHMI's Janelia campus in Ashburn, VA. Since you are already planning a commute HHMI is a reasonable commute from the Harpers Ferry area I think. They are growing and have IT openings a few times a year.

[wombjuice]

Thank you, Jessica! I'm going to bookmark their website and keep checking for IT openings!