Just found this forum

[jeffreyi]

Wow, others like me! At least, sort of. I'm in NE California, high desert quasi-continental climate (dry, cold, most ppt is snow, mostly in the winter)
I have a "day job" (gov't resource management agency) and my place here is 28 acres. A bit of it has a 15-year old stand of Great Basin wildrye (Leymus cinereus)that I planted for seed production a long time ago; will put the rest of the place in basin wildrye in the next year or so. I don't have big animals at the moment because of job demands (keep me away from the place for substantial bits of time) but I will very likely get back into horses when I retire, about 1.6 years from now. For now the Border Collie and 3 cats provide plenty of animal action. I will be looking for an Arab when the time comes....my horsey friends do endurance riding and that looks like fun although my favorite equine things have always been chasing cows or riding in the mountains/rangelands on some work-related mission.
The community here is small and hasn't really changed much until recently; now it's getting yuppified as land here is comparatively cheap and people are profitably relocating from urban places. For a long time the difficult climate and remoteness kept people out but no more...the winters definitely are easier recently, and remoteness isn't as much of an issue with the internet etc.
One thing about new people moving in; at least a few of them have an environmental ethic, most seem to be at least leaning left, many have at some political savvy, so we shall see. There are some real opportunities for getting some more sustainable agriculture going, and that's good. Most people I run into at work or who are moving in have a very limited and/or distorted notion about what it's like to live in and work in a rural environment.

[Vektor]

1. Hi there! Welcome to DU.

:hi:

My parents live in Plumas County, myself in Shasta. Whereabouts are you?

[jeffreyi]

5. Modoc County

Specifically, Surprise Valley. I work out of Alturas. Where are you in Shasta county?

[Vektor]

7. Oh, wow - you are waaaay out there.

I didn't know that there was a single non-Neocon in Modoc county. Come to think of it, there aren't many in Shasta either. We have property in Redding and Lake Alamanor (Plumas).

Pretty country, but RED RED RED. :-(

Can't help but run off to S.F. or Berkeley as often as I can for a breath of the sanity - the kind that comes from being around non-Repukes.

[jeffreyi]

8. Yeah, a healthy sense of humor

definitely comes in handy around here. One should have at least four ribbon magnets on one's pickup and Rush blaring away on the radio to properly fit in.
There's a few of us pagan lefties scattered here and there but we're a somewhat rare commodity.
Thank G_d for the internet!
I grew up in Redding (it used to be small!); still have relatives there. Riding the River Trail is the big highlight when visiting...that whole McConnell Foundation deal has boosted Redding a thousandfold, in a good way.

[Vektor]

9. True -

And Turtle Bay is a nice addition. A few nice things are happening here, but I can't imagine the town ever becoming truly "progressive."

Oh well...a sense of humor indeed. :-)

[progressive_dude]

11. If blue states are so great...

Posted by Vektor:
"I didn't know that there was a single non-Neocon in Modoc county. Come to think of it, there aren't many in Shasta either. We have property in Redding and Lake Alamanor (Plumas).

Pretty country, but RED RED RED.

Can't help but run off to S.F. or Berkeley as often as I can for a breath of the sanity - the kind that comes from being around non-Repukes."


The place was RED RED RED before you arrived, presumably you knew this when you moved there.

If SF or Berkeley are so great, why not move (back)?

This kind of behavior is confusing...people flee the results of hard-core Leftism and then try their best to replicate it in their new environment.

Another example: MA residents moving to VT and raising holy heck about their new state's gun laws. Lower crime, progressive Democrats in power, no instances of violent Wild West shootouts in the street, why try to turn VT into MA??

[sam sarrha]

2. welcome to DU... i live in West Tennessee, this is my conection to sanity.

this it the Bible Banging belt.. very rural and the mindset is inbred Reich wing. i feel if people here knew i was a Buddhist they would lynch me.

[progressive_dude]

12. West TN.

Posted by sam sarrha:
"this it the Bible Banging belt.. very rural and the mindset is inbred Reich wing. i feel if people here knew i was a Buddhist they would lynch me."


Having spent a great deal of time in West TN I'd say you are suffering from paranoia and/or projecting your own intolerance of religious diversity.

Same psychological glitch that has many in our party pushing gun bans for fear that law-abiding citizens are on the verge of shooting them.

As long as you don't try to force your views/beliefs/values/etc. on the West Tennesseeans, it's a very safe bet they could care less about which God you choose to pray to.

[dave502d]

3. jeffreyi,Welcome to DU. n/t

[mitchtv]

4. Hi Jeffreyi

I love rural living, I just gave it up for a more suburban life.I miss norcal much, but It'd nice to be free from picking season, irrigation, and pruning. My arthritis has definitlely improved, but I miss the quiet and the wildife. Regards from the desert

[orwell]

6. Hi Jeffrey

I'm in Lake Co. California, just north of the Napa Valley.

Welcome aboard.

[HeeBGBz]

10. Me too. Southern Missouri

Ozarks. Howdy!

[NMDemDist2]

13. me too! I'm moving to a rural enviornment this summer

much like your climate only in New Mexico on the Pecos River

I'll be putting in a major garden and depending on the land I get raising some rabbits and chickens and maybe a drop calf every now and then...

:bounce:

[LWolf]

14. Hello, jeffreyi!

I drop in here now and then to see what's up; I moved from California a year ago. From southern high desert (Mojave) to the high desert in Oregon.

I'm still cleaning up this old place I bought a year ago. It's not as much land as I would have liked, and the whole place is in bad shape, (can you sing "green acres?")but it's the most my single teacher income could do.

I have 6 acres of grass and weeds, fenced and cross-fenced with fences that need maintenance and repair. A nice big barn, numerous sheds and shelters, and an old manufactured home that needs replacing. Two horses, chickens, and I'm in the market for some hair sheep. I haven't found a local source yet. I'm putting in some fruit trees, in a limited way. The climate here is harsh enough that many just won't produce. Eventually, if I ever get the place cleaned up, I'll put in a garden.

I left a lot of endurance enthusiasts down in CA; I used to ride out with them on "conditioning" rides. That left me with enough time around Arabs to know that I don't want one. Smart, athletic, decent looking if you can get over the bony hindquarters, and way too independent-minded and argumentative for me. If I decide to do endurance rides when I retire, I'll stick to a mustang. Meanwhile, my mustang/qh/tb cross mares are doing just fine meandering over trails at a leisurely pace, lol.

I, too, live in a "red" area, although it's not as red as it used to be. I'd like to see progressives gain an understanding of rural issues.

[jeffreyi]

15. Hey LWolf

Just checked in...haven't been here for awhile. Sounds like you have a nice little place. I live in a "vintage" trailer, I mean, "manufactured home" too. Some years ago...it was apparent that my classique doublewide was melting. Mine's made out of particleboard and faux paneling. Any water on the particleboard and the melting commences. The trailer now has a roof over it, which has extended its life considerably. I guess a lot of counties are phasing out these old trailers...can't be moved and set up somewhere else legally, if they are of a certain age. Probably a good thing, in the long run. I will probably figure out a way to build an energy-and-water-efficient house on this property in a year or so.
In the meantime. The sandhill cranes are back...a pair that nested here last year and successfully raised a little one. They are bold; they come right up into the yard. It's really nice to see them.
What general part of high desert Oregon are you in?

[LWolf]

16. A "green" house

is on my list of things I'd like to do. I just don't know how to finance it. The mortgage just to get the place is a little more than I should have done, with the paycut I took to get here.

I'm about 15 miles north of Bend, OR, west of the Deschutes River. It's an interesting combination of desert scrub similar to what I left behind in the Mojave, all under the cover of Juniper trees, instead of juniper shrubs. I get lost out on the trail all the time, because the trees keep me from seeing the topography laid out in front of me. Sand, rock, sage, and juniper everywhere you look. There's a nearby butte that stands high enough to be a landmark, so that I know what direction to head when I'm lost, and that gets me home.

The trailer? It could last awhile, given a bunch of maintenance. I just keep hesitating to put money into repairs, or replacing heating systems, etc., when it won't be permanent.

Wildlife abounds, and many of the birds are "back" for spring, whether they migrated or just stayed quiet through the winter. The quail, rabbits, deer, coyote, hawks, buzzards, magpies, jays, raccoons, and, this last week, snakes, are visiting frequently. I had a buck muledeer spend a couple of hours blocking my driveway last week, and ran into 6 snakes hiking at a local state park. It's still a little cold for snakes except for at the park, which has huge rock formations that soak up heat, warming the area up faster. 3 rattlers and 3 gopher snakes at the park, and it's almost time for the gopher snake that lives beneath the trailer to wake up.