I'm looking for a small farm/homestead in the Northwest Washington area to rent, lease, buy....do you have extra land your willing to lease to own, or owner finance. Highly responsible family of four, hardworking and dedicated, looking to get our children away from the high pressures of life and enjoy the country. If you have something to offer, please contact us at jgfields@yahoo.com or write to PSC 560 Box 190 APO AP 96736.

-- James & Ginger Fields (jgfields@yahoo.com), June 05, 2000

Answers

So, how far north or west are you wanting to go?

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), June 06, 2000.

why Washington? Are you near there already? I used to live there and the taxes were terrible. granted I lived in S.W and that is probably the highest but anywhere near the Olympia, Seattle area is the same. When we wanted to get out of town we found that the city life was still to close and to influental on the thinking of many, especially the kids. And some (not all and not to offend) of the smaller towns were sorta icky washed up welfare spots. Not to spoil your dreams just remember to keep your eyes open and look at all the aspects.

Of course we ended up in North Dakota so some think we are the crazy ones!

-- Novina West (lamb@stellarnet.com), June 06, 2000.

I live in the Seattle area and I am trying to help my parents find land in NE Wa. I have been told by many people that these areas are much better. Good luck.

-- Amber (ambrosia75@wa.freei.net), June 06, 2000.

James and Ginger can answer you but they are looking for a specific reason.

While this area is expensive (!) and has high taxes (!) it is a beautiful place to live and the average wage (just published in the paper a couple of weeks ago) in Puget Sound region is $20.00 an hour. That's *average*. So for some folks, if you live in an area like I do (on the way to Stevens Pass...N of US 2), want to make some bucks for a change (may involve an hour commute each way, tho), where it's beautiful, green, and you have wonderful neighbors...and you can keep up with the $$$ thing (in and out), it isn't THAT bad! You just have to *remember* to keep your values, and stay away from the population (traffic and idiots) and it's great...for a while longer, anyway.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), June 06, 2000.

Sheepish, you are right. Snohomish, King, Pierce and Clark counties and anywhere on the I-5 corridor are expensive places to live, but Washington is a big state where you can drive from high desert to rain forest in one long day.

After travelling all over the country, we chose this state to live for it's beauty, farmability, and the wonderful people who call this place "home." While not all small towns are pleasant places, the farther out you go, the better it gets. Even our cities are nice places to visit!

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), June 07, 2000.

I know very few people who are making $20/hr. Journeyman tradespeople, yes, but I think the software industry skews the figures. And what of it? Those fools work 12-16 hours a day, 6 & 7 days a week. That's a life?! The hamster in the cage treadmill runs faster, has to eat more, but in the end dies quickly, and awfully bewildered, too.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), June 07, 2000.

Snoozy, I worked some of those long days and hated it, so I am not advocating it for anyone in particular. However, if someone had a goal of say, five years, and could put up with it for that long, and made enough $ to retire in say, Oklahoma, it might make sense. Depends, of course...If you have to work off farm for a living, is it better to make a lot of money in a short time and get out, or to make less money and work off farm most of your life? Just a thought.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), June 07, 2000.

Snoozy, don't look down your nose at those hard working people. Some of use just haven't found our way out yet. Just because we work there now doesn't mean we don't want to get our way out to a better way of life.

-- Amber (ambrosia75@wa.freei.net), June 07, 2000.

I had it both ways. I worked out, for a year or two at a time and then went back to my homestead and farmed for awhile. It took me 17 years to pay off a 20 year mortgage but the payment was only $152 a month, I had bought raw land. Over the years I built my house, barn sheds, accumulated equipment and tools, fenced the land etc. When I was done I sold out and moved west and was able to pay cash and have enough to retire. Sometimes I made a two hour commute but most of the time it was at leaszt an hour & 15 minutes, I beat many a truck to death but I kept my focus most of the time.

-- Hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), June 08, 2000.

Kitsap county is cheaper compaired to the rest of the sound. And if you can buy some land on the Hood canel side of it,, thats even better. We are looking over there,,, and 20 acres goes for 85,000 to 95,000- and this is raw land with no power to it at all. There is a 41 acre place for sale for 85,000... but there is some resritctions to it,, and there is an easement road right through it. These are the BEST prices we have found. You would have to drive 1 to 2 hours one way for a good job though. Unless you have alot of money saved up,, or have a plan to start an organic farm to help pay your costs. Washington state is beautiful,, but can be very exspensive, taxes are really high. And where I live you don`t get much for it. Need a Sheriff or animal control,, forget it..... they either never arrive or do 6 hours after you really needed them. The traffic is REALLY bad on the Seattle side,, as bad as any other major city. Not to bad in Kitsap county. Another great thing here, there are NO posionus snakes!!

-- Bergere (autumnhaus@aol.com), June 08, 2000.

Out here on the Olympic Penninsula, we have no poisonoous snakes, no poison oak, no winter, no summer, no traffic and the nearest Wall- Mart is more than an hour away. It is nice going out into the woods or go fishing and not have to worry about grizzly bears and our black bears are well fed.

People sometimes ask why we left Montana for here. My usual reply is if we had to put up with Californians, we might at least live where there are jobs!

Before I get flamed, let me state that I originated in No. Cal. and left more than twenty years ago.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), June 08, 2000.

Same study mentioned above indicated that there are now more transplants around Puget Sound than folk who were born here (WA)...I was going to say natives, but that might make people think Native American...once they used to be the majority here, too!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), June 08, 2000.

We used to be out in the country (Port Orchard),, then they went and put in a Fred Myers about 10 mintues away from us!! Yuk.... Another good thing about WA state,, we have Sol Duc,, a really nice Mineral Hot springs!! A day soaking in that water,, and you don`t have any worries at the end of the day!! :O) Once the new Narrrows Bridge gets put in,,, we are moving to the Hood canel side. Oh,, and so far,, NO killer Bees or Fire Ants to worry about,, they would probably mold and die. :O)

-- Bergere (autumnhaus@aol.com), June 08, 2000.

Sol Duc is wonderful -- I'm not into the hotsprings part, but the forest there is incredible. I'm a north Kitsaper now myself, and I really like it here. Looked all over, from almost to Mt.Rainier to almost Index to almost Port Townsend, as far east as North Bend and down to the southern edge of Kitsap County. I need to be close enough to get to Seattle 3-4 days a week, and the ferries act as a good filter to keep the population from growing too fast. South Kitsap is maybe cheaper, but feels weird to me, like a lot of singlewides and alienation and survivalists and drug stuff. If I didn't need to be in Seattle for my business, I'd have gone the other side of the Hood Canal...you can get some very good deals there.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), June 09, 2000.

I apologize if I sounded like I was looking down my nose at people working long hours for money. It is just that making lots of money is supposed always to be a good thing, a measure of success. I really do think that balance is very important, even when pursuing a goal. A lot of people drag their tails into my teahouse to recover from their sped-up existence and I feel sorry for them and many say, oh, it's just for a little while, a few years, and pretty soon a decade has gone by. The media keeps glorifying such earnings and downplaying the toll extracted by the stress. And we all on this forum know that is not what we want, not the way to live -- that is why we are so taken with the idea and reality of homesteading.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), June 09, 2000.