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What is the nearest Russian city to Norway on the land border?

Trading in the city life for lots of land, but where?

  • Sorry Austin, but we just can't do it anymore. Your 100+ degree muggy summers and allergy laden weather have been put up with for 10 years now, but its time to move on. These two techo-hippie, computer nerd gardeners are selling the house, living lean and looking for some nature in the American West. Where would you suggest we move? My partner and I live in Austin, Texas. In the last 10 years our tastes have changed and we have found ourselves more interested in the outdoors (hiking, farming) and less interested in a big-city lifestyle. Seems like we have too much stuff and not enough stars and sunsets in our lives. Austin is great in a lot of ways, but half the year it is too hot to really enjoy the outdoors (it was 105 yesterday), and the city seems to become more densely packed with every passing year. We work from home, so we can make our living as long as we have an internet connection (which we can get almost anywhere with satellite). We'd like to move out west and could really use some potential location suggestions from anyone more traveled than we are. Our primary desires, abbreviated and prioritized:Enjoyable weather: for us, this means sunny skies (we get bummed out with rainy/overcast weather) but with temperatures mild enough to have a reasonable growing season. In Austin, allergies are will slay you and your baby seal and will show no remorse; we'd like to be somewhere that isn't the case.Ample land: part of this will be used for growing food, just enough for us. The rest will be for scenery and to keep our nearest neighbors a good distance away. We can spend about $350k on the land.Within 10 to 30 minutes of a city big enough to support a Costco and a Whole Foods (or equivalents) and a few tasty restaurantsFewer people and more nature (hiking, wildlife)Any nearby communities are preferably liberal/laid-backWe've been to Bend, Oregon, and it's a great example of a city we'd like to live near... large enough to have some well developed amenities, but still somewhat small, and the population density drops off rapidly. However, we worry about the cold winters and short growing season. We've also heard good things about the areas in California northeast of Sacramento, but, without having visited yet, we assume there would be too many people and high land prices. Do you know anywhere like this? We're looking for places to visit this summer, so your suggestions could help us out a great deal. Thanks!

  • Answer:

    How about Fort Collins, Colorado? The weather is pretty temperate, it's not too large (around 120,000) and there are national parks and skiing pretty much everywhere you look. There's also Colorado State University, so there's a nice intellectual vibe thing going on. Anyway, I think you should check it out. Of course, the whole thing is moving somewhere you can find a job, so there's that to consider as well.

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Allergy datapoint: I lived in Seattle for 7 years and now live in Portland, and I can tell you that my allergies have been terrible ever since I moved to the Pacific Northwest (I'm originally from the east coast). Mild winters = things grow year-round here and there is a LOT of stuff to be allergic to. Plus, we've got the rainy thing going on and you said you needed sunny. Don't move to the Pacific Northwest.

rabbitrabbit

How about the outskirts of Charlottesville, VA? The area is liberal, there is plenty of land, the people are friendly, open-minded and intelligent. There are many farmer's markets... and yes, a Whole Foods and a Costco. You would have very easy access to both Shenandoah National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway, so hiking options abound. The area has tons of wildlife, too.

MorningPerson

I'm in Fort Collins, Colorado. It hits most of your recommendations - stunning nature access, 300+ days of sunshine, small-town but liberal, community-oriented vibe. Great farmer's markets and CSAs; very bike friendly. Thriving craft brew culture, if you're into that. The winters are milder than you would think - it gets fairly cold, but the state's got its act together pretty well about keeping things accessible even in biggish snow (and the snow is nothing like what you'd get in upstate New York or even out on the plains). I think you can still buy some pretty big parcels of land, too, for not-outrageous sums. Denver and Boulder are about an hour away. It's a nice little town, full of aging hippies and first wave feminists and young families and college professors. Downsides: It's full of college kids. It's a little liberal enclave in the middle of conservative ranch and farm land. There are a lot of restaurants in the cute little old town area, but there are very few good ones. The growing season is fairly short, and you need to water a LOT because it's so dry. And you have to drive a long, long time to get anywhere else - I'm from DC, and the lack of light rail connecting the Front Range towns with Denver is completely baffling and infuriating to me. We've been talking about moving to Denver when our lease is up next year - but it might be just your speed. Come and visit!

peachfuzz

Although I half agree with Blazecock Pileon's assessment.. the half of the PNW which lies to the West of the Cascades isn't that cold. East of the Cascades is an entirely different weather entirely. We had nearly 100" of snow in the Spokane, WA area last winter, and temperatures down to negative F at night. Summers are longer, sunnier, and have less rain than the West side.

hippybear

Spokane is fantastic and there is plenty of cheap, beautiful land within an hours drive. Short growing season for sore but you can really extend it with a greenhouse. PM me for details.

LarryC

If you need sunny, avoid the PNW, and by PNW I'm including Pullman/Moscow and Couer d'Alene.

HotToddy

My wife and I live in Austin and were just discussing the same thing last week with a friend who lives in Seattle, and we've all decided to form the "other city committee" and consider other places to live. So far we've found: Greater DC Area, Seattle, Portland, and Little Rock. Our friend tells us that Seattle winters can suck the life out of you, but anytime there's a sunny day you're reminded why live in Seattle; it's a perfect sunny day (like, all summer, as opposed to three days in March for us).

spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints

Tucson's the liberal stronghold of Arizona, but summers top 100. And I'm not too sure about farming there, either.

Precision

Don't forget Northern California -- mountains and ocean. There are some beautiful towns up there.

heather-b

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