Could You Move to a Small Town

[Chewbacca 7785]

2 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Which is bizarre as shit for many basic reasons, but the stopping excess run off from your property into storm sewers or watersheds is a good thing.

The rest of the country kind of relies on that runoff making it into watersheds...

[Chewbacca 7785]

19 minutes ago, MoJames said:

It all has to do with agriculture.

People at higher elevations just need to get water the way people normally do.

I'd fathom the amount of people that live off of personally collected rainwater is pretty low.

Yeah, I've got a well at my place.  Previous owner collected rainwater in a couple barrels to water his flowers, but that's it.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

3 hours ago, YoungCounty said:

I was born and raised in Graham.  Moved to Austin to go to UT, and stayed there for 20 years.  My wife (who is also from Graham) and I finally decided to get the hell out of Austin and move back to Graham three years ago.  By far the best decision we have ever made.  We do miss the food options. But other than that, don't miss a thing about being in the city. 

It also helped that three months after moving back, we got to vote on allowing Graham to sell beer in stores.  It passed!!! No longer have to drive 15 miles out of town to get alcohol. Although there is a part of me that misses the "road trip" to get beer.  Always liked taking dirt roads back to town while having a couple of beers, shooting the shit with whoever went with you to get beer, and enjoying the scenery.

What all do you want to know?  

Just general thoughts on living there. Quality of the school system. Town seem to be going strong or slowly dying off?  We took a one day field trip out there and liked what we saw, but not nearly enough time to make informed decisions. I’d be commuting back to Dallas a couple of one a month so that’s a drawback. We just want a slower place of life, some elbow room, a bit of Americana and a cost of living that isn’t getting stupid. The wife would like to stay home more with kids. 

[SydneyCarton 48170]

1 hour ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

Just general thoughts on living there. Quality of the school system. Town seem to be going strong or slowly dying off?  We took a one day field trip out there and liked what we saw, but not nearly enough time to make informed decisions. I’d be commuting back to Dallas a couple of one a month so that’s a drawback. We just want a slower place of life, some elbow room, a bit of Americana and a cost of living that isn’t getting stupid. The wife would like to stay home more with kids. 

I hear they actually tackle in football practice, so probably not a good fit for your kids if they want to play football. 

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

4 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I hear they actually tackle in football practice, so probably not a good fit for your kids if they want to play football. 

It would sting if you actually stated the position correctly. I never said don’t tackle. I said find ways to mitigate injury possibilities for thin positions. And now we’ll have a back up QB and walkons taking snaps at RB for probably  the first half of the year. That’s when our two injured starters aren’t playing themselves  

I never said shit about Sterns. We have a lot of talented safeties. 

[SydneyCarton 48170]

Just now, Bobby_Batronic said:

It would sting if you actually stated the position correctly. I never said don’t tackle. I said find ways to mitigate injury possibilities for thin positions. And now we’ll have a back up QB and walkons taking snaps at RB for probably  the first half of the year. That’s when our two injured starters aren’t playing themselves  

I never said shit about Sterns. We have a lot of talented safeties. 

It was a fucking joke, you oversensitive twit. Getting your stance "wrong" is part of the humor. But instead of chuckling and rolling with it, I want to thank you for your thin-skinned response, it's more than I ever could have possibly imagined. 

Sorry for the thread derail everyone, that's all on me. I didn't expect a veteran poster of surly to grow a vagina and bleed all over the place after receiving a paper cut. Clearly I misjudged. My bad. 

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

2 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Yeah, I've got a well at my place.  Previous owner collected rainwater in a couple barrels to water his flowers, but that's it.

At our cabin, he have a 240’ well through hard rock that has water with iron levels at 343 ppm (not a typo). It needed a special lab for testing.  Instead of treating it, we cased it and drilled 306’ in another spot with similar results.  We said fuck it and decided to have water delivered to a 2500 gal cistern in lieu of an expensive treatment system. 

That was 17 years ago, and I’ve  looked at alternatives to treat the iron. A guy who just buried a propane tank for us  has a filtration system that can remove that level of iron. I don’t have a final bid, but I think it will be cost effective because the water delivery is now $.075 a gallon.  This system may have been around 17 years ago, but I was asking people who only wanted to sell me something else.  

I’m going to drill that 240’ well until we get enough flow. Then have it re-tested because wells in our area have been known to turn over in terms of Total Dissolved Solids, etc. The cost of burying water lines 6’ deep for 500’ makes the 306’ well a no go. It will take an excavator to trench that deep through rocks.

Once this gets done, I may use the cistern to capture rain water for irrigation, only we normally get plenty of rain. I just hate to see that cistern and pump to go to waste for anything but dumping bodies  

My first clue that iron might be a problem is the fact that Iron Creek runs through our property.

Gotdam water. What good is it, anyway?

Edited August 30, 2019 by ImissWallyPryor

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

19 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

It was a fucking joke, you oversensitive twit. Getting your stance "wrong" is part of the humor. But instead of chuckling and rolling with it, I want to thank you for your thin-skinned response, it's more than I ever could have possibly imagined. 

Sorry for the thread derail everyone, that's all on me. I didn't expect a veteran poster of surly to grow a vagina and bleed all over the place after receiving a paper cut. Clearly I misjudged. My bad. 

It’s difficult to tell humor from full blown, knuckle dragging meatheadedness at times. My bad. 

[YoungCounty 165]

9 hours ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

Just general thoughts on living there. Quality of the school system. Town seem to be going strong or slowly dying off?  We took a one day field trip out there and liked what we saw, but not nearly enough time to make informed decisions. I’d be commuting back to Dallas a couple of one a month so that’s a drawback. We just want a slower place of life, some elbow room, a bit of Americana and a cost of living that isn’t getting stupid. The wife would like to stay home more with kids. 

Schools are really good for a town this size.  They don’t offer as much as schools in bigger cities do, but there are opportunities for your kids to excel. I prefer the Graham schools compared to Baranoff, Bailey, Bowie track my two oldest completed in Austin. It is so easy to get to know all your kids’ teachers and communicate with them. This was not always the case in the big schools in Austin. 

The town isn’t dying. Basically the same population it’s been since I was born there in 1978. There are not a ton of job opportunities, but sounds like that won’t be an issue with you. 

Definitely slower paced, and I didn’t realize how much I would love that. It’s freaking amazing. My wife is also a stay at home mom now. It’s perfect. We coach our girls’ soccer and basketball teams, I’m in Lions Club, we are very involved with our church, etc. Graham is a great community and offers many different opportunities to be involved if that is something you and/or your wife are into. When we were in Austin, we simply had no time to do all the things we do now. 

I could go on and on.  I highly recommend.

 

[Pato del Muerto 52598]

Wyoming also has water rights that aren’t necessarily attached to the property. 

Think of it like mineral rights in certain parts of Texas. You have to make sure you are getting it when you buy the property, or be very aware and ok that you are not.

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

15 hours ago, YoungCounty said:

Schools are really good for a town this size.  They don’t offer as much as schools in bigger cities do, but there are opportunities for your kids to excel. I prefer the Graham schools compared to Baranoff, Bailey, Bowie track my two oldest completed in Austin. It is so easy to get to know all your kids’ teachers and communicate with them. This was not always the case in the big schools in Austin. 

The town isn’t dying. Basically the same population it’s been since I was born there in 1978. There are not a ton of job opportunities, but sounds like that won’t be an issue with you. 

Definitely slower paced, and I didn’t realize how much I would love that. It’s freaking amazing. My wife is also a stay at home mom now. It’s perfect. We coach our girls’ soccer and basketball teams, I’m in Lions Club, we are very involved with our church, etc. Graham is a great community and offers many different opportunities to be involved if that is something you and/or your wife are into. When we were in Austin, we simply had no time to do all the things we do now. 

I could go on and on.  I highly recommend.

 

Thank you for the reply. 

[DaysOff 7974]

How long is the drive to DFW from there?

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

The ideal small town would be a college town.

[3adays 454]

Any additional thoughts on Wimberley? We’re in Austin (78757), but the wife and I have been looking out that way. Both of us grew up here, but we’re getting tired of it. We have a 2 yr old, so schools will soon be important. 

[Neonmoon 38130]

I want to move to small town in a cooler climate. Now we have realized finding a JOB might be a problem in this small town. However the conversation has started to move to “what do we really need?” to live on 

[Errestaurants 2570]

Glen Rose is a pretty damn nice place especially if you've got kids. The School System is pretty good. Decent medical options in Granbury. The new tollway to 67 makes getting to Ft. Worth not bad. 

The countryside there is beautiful. 

[Errestaurants 2570]

Pretty nice here in southern Kaufman County. 40 minutes to Dallas on 175. Lots of people have been buying land and building on it. 10 to 20 acre kinda places.

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[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

12 hours ago, DaysOff said:

How long is the drive to DFW from there?

1hr 45min ish.  Not ideal, but I only come to work a couple of times a month.

[BradInATX 9208]

On 8/31/2019 at 3:44 PM, 3adays said:

Any additional thoughts on Wimberley? We’re in Austin (78757), but the wife and I have been looking out that way. Both of us grew up here, but we’re getting tired of it. We have a 2 yr old, so schools will soon be important. 

My mom moved out there a couple years back and likes it a lot. They still come to Austin quite frequently to get their fix of city stuff, though. Wife and I looked at a few houses in Wimberley but are thinking New Braunfels because there's more to do there.

I've posted upthread a bit about this but our family is in the exact same position as you. We offered on a house in New Braunfels over the weekend and it was accepted. It's a contingent sale so we have to get what we want for our house for it to actually happen, but our realtor thinks it's a pretty good bet that we will. Moving from 78745 which feeds into some not great schools (Crockett HS). The house we're moving into is incredible, on multiple acres with a beautiful view from the backyard, etc. It's what my wife and I have always wanted. It's our dream house. And yet I'm a bit of an emotional wreck today. I was born and raised in south Austin and it feels a bit like giving up a piece of my soul. It will pass I'm sure as everything about the move makes sense, we're both ready for it.  New Braunfels is great and there's plenty to do. But still, Austin is part of my identity. We've made a pact to come to Austin once a month to see our friends and do Austin-y things. We'll see if that lasts.Maybe we won't even miss it. But right now, damn. This is tough. I never thought the day I got my dream house I'd be sad.

One thing we did prior to making the final decision was pull up some lists of "best things to do in Austin" and "things you'll miss when you leave Austin". And we realized that with a one-year old baby and generally settling into the middle part of life, we don't really ever do those things, unless we have people in town. We rarely cross the river, and most of the cool Austin stuff is too crowded/too much of a pain in the ass these days to mess with. That definitely helped with the decision.

 

PS - the last two paragraphs weren't necessarily for you 3adays, just general venting and updating my situation that I brought up earlier in the thread.

Edited September 3, 2019 by BradInATX

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

On 8/31/2019 at 4:30 PM, Onboard 2.0 said:

The ideal small town would be a college town.

You beat me to it.  Colleges bring in guest speakers, authors, musicians, artists, have theater and music departments, etc, that wouldn't be there otherwise. Allow opportunities for interesting conversions with professors. College towns usually have more restaurant option, too.

Edited September 3, 2019 by ShaggyBevo RIP

[BearSchlong 8114]

Did we ever determine what sized population is small town?

On the subject of college towns, I'm in love with Columbia, MO, but it doesn't really qualify as a small town.  Still, within 2 hours of KC and STL is nice.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

30 minutes ago, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

You beat me to it.  Colleges bring in guest speakers, authors, musicians, artists, have theater and music departments, etc, that wouldn't be there otherwise. Allow opportunities for interesting conversions with professors. College towns usually have more restaurant option, too.

Exactly for all the reasons you just listed, plus sports, and usually decent rock music scenes

[Al_4_ISU 12484]

23 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

Did we ever determine what sized population is small town?

On the subject of college towns, I'm in love with Columbia, MO, but it doesn't really qualify as a small town.  Still, within 2 hours of KC and STL is nice.

Columbia has a lot to like (in terms of what I'm into).  Close to the Ozarks, and the bigger cities, with all the college town amenities.

[APEX 63]

After spending a week in Colorado, I can picture myself somewhere between Denver and Colorado Springs or to the west of there (Fairplay). I have a realtor friend who is saying people are being priced out of Denver and are moving to northern Colorado Springs and commuting.  I-25 is a mess it beats I-35 here in DFW.  For a Texan, winter in Colorado can be brutal but it has so much to offer as far as outdoor.  Did I mention weed is legal?

[Guest Lobo]

48 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

Did we ever determine what sized population is small town?

On the subject of college towns, I'm in love with Columbia, MO, but it doesn't really qualify as a small town.  Still, within 2 hours of KC and STL is nice.

I think a lot of it has to do with proximity to other populations.  I've lived in towns with just 3,000 people but they were 15 minutes from multi-million person cities.  I've lived in 20,000 person towns but there wasn't anything in any direction for 30 minutes so it felt a lot more isolated.  Just as there are shitty large cities, there are shitty small towns.  Two of my sisters-in-law who grew up (obviously) in the same small town as my wife did always said they hate the city and want to live in small towns.  But they both picked 50,000 person shitholes in Southern Kansas.  I don't get that.  Anwyay...

[Shoxthemonkey 1983]

^^^^^^

I'm not disputing that there are shithole towns in Southern Kansas, there are many,  but I don't know of any with that many people. Dodge City, Garden City, Pittsburg and Liberal are all under 28,000. They are mostly so small that they only have a single high school. I'm not sure where the "small" line is but I would guess that most folks would put your SILs on the small side of it.

[Pato del Muerto 52598]

Ruth-Anne and Lynne they come from Baxter springs 

[Shoxthemonkey 1983]

Baxter Springs, pop 3,944

https://www.kansas-demographics.com/cities_by_population

Edited September 3, 2019 by Shoxthemonkey

[Beau Vine 54428]

On 8/31/2019 at 3:44 PM, 3adays said:

Any additional thoughts on Wimberley? We’re in Austin (78757), but the wife and I have been looking out that way. Both of us grew up here, but we’re getting tired of it. We have a 2 yr old, so schools will soon be important. 

You could have bought my old house if you had acted more quickly. 

 

[Beau Vine 54428]

1 hour ago, BearSchlong said:

Did we ever determine what sized population is small town?

 

Population is such a nebulous measure with how they draw borders that it's a worthless number.  What qualifies something as a small town has more to do with the characteristics of the town. 

Necessary conditions for "small town":

1.  Can't have more than one public high school.  This disqualifies Boerne.

2.  Single public high school must be below largest classification if it draws only from that town.  This disqualifies San Marcos.

[mchookem 16385]

1 hour ago, APEX said:

After spending a week in Colorado, I can picture myself somewhere between Denver and Colorado Springs or to the west of there (Fairplay). I have a realtor friend who is saying people are being priced out of Denver and are moving to northern Colorado Springs and commuting.  I-25 is a mess it beats I-35 here in DFW.  For a Texan, winter in Colorado can be brutal but it has so much to offer as far as outdoor.  Did I mention weed is legal?

i'm retiring in a few months and Denver is on the table bc 1) tired off sweating (i've been hot my entire life in texas!) 2) we have friends there and 3) weed.

i *do* like city life, but we realize cost of living is comparable to central Austin, but we're also planning to downsize significantly so maybe it will even out. so we're also looking northward, Ft. Collins, Longmont, Lousville...

i especially like a college town. i realize 150K plus isn't exactly 'small town', but compared to Austin it will be. 

oh, and an RV/camper for heading south in the winter lol

[Spaulding Smails 1555]

On 8/31/2019 at 3:44 PM, 3adays said:

Any additional thoughts on Wimberley? We’re in Austin (78757), but the wife and I have been looking out that way. Both of us grew up here, but we’re getting tired of it. We have a 2 yr old, so schools will soon be important. 

Wimberley is pretty awesome.  Good people.  Schools are decent given the size.  Our kids started school there until we moved to Drip.  I have one kid that's super bright and one that's special needs.  We needed more resources from a school perspective and we needed to be closer to doctors / therapy in Bee Cave.  

But, Wimberley was great while we were there.  We lived between Wimberley and Driftwood, so we were a bit out of town.  Very tight community that got tighter after the flood.  It's an even better place to live if you can be near the river or have access to it.  Only drawbacks that we saw were the demographics tended to be older on a per capita basis.  So, while there was a decent amount of younger families, it seemed to skew towards retired couples, etc.  That's been 4 years ago, however.

[Al_4_ISU 12484]

Ruth-Anne and Lynne they come from Baxter springs 

That’s one hell raisin’ town

[Chewbacca 7785]

2 hours ago, APEX said:

After spending a week in Colorado, I can picture myself somewhere between Denver and Colorado Springs or to the west of there (Fairplay). I have a realtor friend who is saying people are being priced out of Denver and are moving to northern Colorado Springs and commuting.  I-25 is a mess it beats I-35 here in DFW.  For a Texan, winter in Colorado can be brutal but it has so much to offer as far as outdoor.  Did I mention weed is legal?

Colorado is full.  The moose must not have told you.

[Ths71 472]

I moved to a small town of about 5,000 when I got out of school in 1990. One high school, one grocery store. Pretty easy access to a major metro area via a two lane State Highway.

Now there are 180,000, 42 Elementary Schools, 17 Middle Schools and 10 5A High Schools.


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[Pato del Muerto 52598]

6 minutes ago, Ths71 said:

I moved to a small town of about 5,000 when I got out of school in 1990. One high school, one grocery store. Pretty easy access to a major metro area via a two lane State Highway.

Now there are 180,000, 42 Elementary Schools, 17 Middle Schools and 10 5A High Schools.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Sounds like Mansfield 

[RDCanecutter 26472]

21 hours ago, BearSchlong said:

Did we ever determine what sized population is small town?

I think it's whatever's smaller than what you're used to.

I say that suburbs shouldn't count. For it to be a real town, it needs to be the destination that rural folk go to, not just a string of strip malls that people pass through going somewhere else.

[NowThis 931]

On 9/1/2019 at 3:58 AM, Bobby_Batronic said:

1hr 45min ish.  Not ideal, but I only come to work a couple of times a month.

how fast is  your internet, what system?

[Beau Vine 54428]

18 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

Wimberley is pretty awesome.  Good people.  Schools are decent given the size.  Our kids started school there until we moved to Drip.  I have one kid that's super bright and one that's special needs.  We needed more resources from a school perspective and we needed to be closer to doctors / therapy in Bee Cave.  

But, Wimberley was great while we were there.  We lived between Wimberley and Driftwood, so we were a bit out of town.  Very tight community that got tighter after the flood.  It's an even better place to live if you can be near the river or have access to it.  Only drawbacks that we saw were the demographics tended to be older on a per capita basis.  So, while there was a decent amount of younger families, it seemed to skew towards retired couples, etc.  That's been 4 years ago, however.

We went to the football game last week and I noticed that everyone in the stands was either in their 30s or their 60s-70s.  Young families and retirees.  

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

7 minutes ago, NowThis said:

how fast is  your internet, what system?

I fly planes, and don’t work from home. 

[NowThis 931]

23 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

I fly planes, and don’t work from home. 

ok, still, how do you get your webs out in the country? DSL? Satellite? 

[Bobby_Batronic 1994]

2 minutes ago, NowThis said:

ok, still, how do you get your webs out in the country? DSL? Satellite? 

I live in the metroplex. Just spitballing a move to a small town. 

[Ths71 472]

Sounds like Mansfield 

Frisco


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[Pato del Muerto 52598]

24 minutes ago, NowThis said:

ok, still, how do you get your webs out in the country? DSL? Satellite? 

I live actually in a small town, so internet is same as normal. 2 companies serve it, one being spectrum and one a regional joint. 

The folks that live outside the town on acreage, you get very far out of town and the choices are limited to satellite which is still expensive and slow, or maybe an old dsl through the phone. Or ask spectrum if they will run a fiber line to your house from the nearest junction if you pay for it. They may say yes depending on the distance. 

[Chewbacca 7785]

16 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I live actually in a small town, so internet is same as normal. 2 companies serve it, one being spectrum and one a regional joint. 

The folks that live outside the town on acreage, you get very far out of town and the choices are limited to satellite which is still expensive and slow, or maybe an old dsl through the phone. Or ask spectrum if they will run a fiber line to your house from the nearest junction if you pay for it. They may say yes depending on the distance. 

Yeah, internet is a real problem in rural areas.  The best service we can get in the mountains is 40 MB service through DSL and that only happened a year ago.  Prior to that, our only internet choices were 1.5 MB DSL (yes, you read that right) or satellite.  Thankfully we get good cell service, so we could always stream movies and browse the web on our phones.

[Guest Lobo]

NoCR/.  If the last few years have taught us anything is that disillusioned, disenfranchised white Males in rural areas with access to weapons could really benefit from high speed access to stupid shit online.  I promise you dial-up is doing more to stop the next mass shooting than our government is.  U

[Jkwellborn 6739]

NoCR/.  If the last few years have taught us anything is that disillusioned, disenfranchised white Males in rural areas with access to weapons could really benefit from high speed access to stupid shit online.  I promise you dial-up is doing more to stop the next mass shooting than our government is.  U

No Cr my ass.

[Chewbacca 7785]

26 minutes ago, Lobo said:

NoCR/.  If the last few years have taught us anything is that disillusioned, disenfranchised white Males in rural areas with access to weapons could really benefit from high speed access to stupid shit online.  I promise you dial-up is doing more to stop the next mass shooting than our government is.  U

Keep your cloak room bullshit in the cloak room.  Many of us avoid that place on purpose.

[Guest Lobo]

Internet and guns belong to a political party?  Got it.  

[Chewbacca 7785]

4 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Internet and guns belong to a political party?  Got it.  

Why the fuck are you talking about mass shootings in this thread?  Fuck off with that.