Hi everyone Do any of you have a homestead on the gulf cost??? I am planning to relocate there. It should not be to hard for my husband to get a job there, he has a teaching degree, certified in math and reading... We are sending out resumeas today. I would love to hear from anyone who gardens on the cost or raises chickens there. Thanks Lisa

-- Lisa in TX (westexas@ev1.net), July 30, 2001

Answers

Response to costal homested

You are aware of the humidity, hot weather, mosquitoes, and occasional hurricanes right?

I'm not saying it's a bad place, I've seen some nice places there. I'm just saying it's not necessarily my first choice.

-- Rick#7 (rick7@postmark.net), July 30, 2001.

Response to costal homested

Hi Rick Yes I grew up in Deer Park. I love west TX. It is true about the mosquitoes. But I feel a tug to move back to the cost. My family is there and I made alot of people here real real real mad... It has efected my whole family. Small towns, you know. I told on the school district here for excluding a speacial ed student from partys, field trips, and everyday class room activitys. I did the right thing, and the little girl is cared for correctly now, and I would do it all again . But my family has not faried to well through all of it. thanks Lisa

-- Lisa in TX (westexas@ev1.net), July 30, 2001.

Response to costal homested

Me again you said that you have seen some nice places down there. Can you tell me were, Have you seen Jones creek, or Sargent, Wadsworth, Matagorda, Oyster Creek????I would like to know what thees towns are like. If any one knows Thanks Lisa

-- Lisa in TX (wtxhomestead@safezone.net), July 30, 2001.

Response to costal homested

Lisa my husband moved me from San Diego to Pasadena TX. My daughter right now works in Deer Park and lives in Webster. I live north in Cleveland. Friend of ours who live in Matagorda Bay literally never go outside this time of year for the mosquitos. You do realize that Houston now ranks number 1 in air pollution, all year we compete with Los Angeles for this right! More children in our area have asthma than in any other large city our size. We also have more uninsured women and children, for health care, the realities are that the pay for teachers are so low that your husband may not be able to afford to put you and your family on the insurance that the school carries. What really got me when we lived in Pasadena was how the folks in Deer Park somehow thought (including my sisinlaw) that they had it better, when in fact they lived closer to the refineries than we did! Husband graduated from South Houston High in Pasadena/South Houston. Had they nicknamed the area stink-a-dena before you left? With Bush wanting to further loosen the environmental laws it can only get worse! I couldn't imagine letting my children grow up there, we moved away for this reason. I hate that my oldest daughter has choosen to move back! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 30, 2001.

Response to costal homested

Lisa, I don't know anything about living in Texas, but just wanted to say thank you for what you did for that handicapped child.

-- Annie (mistletoe@kconline.com), July 30, 2001.

Response to costal homested

Vickie I agree with everything that you said. I grew up there and I hated it. I worked very hard to get away from houston. But I am not talking about going back to ho. or pasadena. I cant even stand to visit there. ( no offence entended) I am talking about out in the country on the cost 2-3 hours away from houston. i am glad that you told me about your friends in Matagorda. Can you tell me any thing els like what are the schools like ??? ect?? Is there nothing that can be done about the mosquitoes? Lisa

-- Lisa in TX (westexas@ev1.net), July 30, 2001.

Lisa,

I grew up in Pearland, now live in Cypress, and regularly fish and hunt in the Galveston/Freeport area. Most of the cities you mentioned are a hair farther south than I normally go. Jones Creek consists pretty much of a convenience store and a car wash. I was amazed to find out a couple of months ago that it is actually an incorporated city. The population can't be much over 400, if even that. Major attraction in the area is Peach Point WMA. If you think you had skeeters in Deer Park, you ain't seen nothin yet. At Peach Point, wile waiting in the car for the gate to open, they make kamakaze runs at the car trying to get at you. You can actually hear them banging into the glass. Oyster Creek is a bit farther north. I've only driven through it once or twice, and I seem to remember it as being more of a retired people/bay house/postage stamp lot kinda place. Both places are probably in the Brazosport ISD. Houston ISD is starting teachers at about 36K, I think Pearland is about 33K, and most places will probably fall somewhere in that range. With a math certification, he will probably be able to find a job in just about any district he wants. Freeport has quite a bit of petrochem stuff, so if you're wanting to avoid refineries, you may want to try more towards Matagorda county. You also may want to try a bit more inland, maybe more in the Angleton/Danbury area. Bailey's Prairie comes complete with it's own ghost. Almost all the petrochem stuff is concentrated right on the coast. Brazoria county as a whole is pretty low-lying, so you'll have skeeters anywhere.

As far as Houston being the most polluted city in the nation, most of that is just Gore campaign hype trying to discredit Bush. It's true that in 1999, Houston had more air quality violations than any other city, but they were for a single pollutant, ozone (LA has violations for 3 or 4), all but 1 of the violations were for a single monitoring station, directly down the prevailing wind from the ship channel, and 1999 was one of the biggest droughts of the century (high temps+low humidity+low winds=ideal ozone formation conditions). They've been calling it stinkadeena since I was a kid. A lot of people from my wife's home country work on cargo ships and we go down to the ship channel every couple of months to meet them when they're in port. I try unsuccessfully to hold my breath the whole time we're there because the smell can be so bad, but the fact is that for most of the Houston area, the air is just fine.

-- Steve - TX (steve.beckman@compaq.com), July 31, 2001.

Thanks Steve That is the kind of info I wanted. I spent my honnymoon in Brazoria, We liked it but the skeeters were bad. That was 19 years ago. (dont seem that long). I forgot to mention to Vickie that my school teacher huby makes less here than he would there. He started here at 20 5 years ago he is only making 25 now. And we can not aford insuranc. I am very happy at the possibility of state insurance if it goes through. It will be a great help. I make prety good money with my homestead, I am not saying how cuase you guys beat me up last time that I told you. The fact that you knew nothing about me did not slow you guys down abit. I like the way countryside has posted what this forum is realy for. Did K. S. from kentucky do that ???? I would still like to hear from any one who raises chicks on the cost. I have no problems here with my chicks but thought a diferent climent might cause some new problems? Another thing I like about this forum is that no one has ever made fun of my spelling. I cant spell and dont no how to get to the spell check while I am on the forum. My knowledg of computers is very limited, You can ask me about chickens or dogs or gardens. I have a new set up for e-mail (ev1.net) and can not figrue out how to check my e-mail.... Now that is dummmmm. Lisa

-- Lisa in TX (westtexas@ev1.net), July 31, 2001.

Go to www.ev1.net, click on ev1 mail, type in your username and password, and you should have your mail.

-- Steve - TX (steve.beckman@compaq.com), July 31, 2001.