This is spot on. I was born near Rutland. Grew up there. 1st generation college grad attending St Mike's in Colchester. Moved to Santa Cruz, CA. on a trek across America as a googly eyed 20 something. Came back to Vermont. Joined the service & traveled the world. Once I got out after 20 years, I settled and worked in Chittenden County since job was there. I liked it as a college kid but it had drastically changed. Started going to NEK in 2000. Sold my house in S. Burlington 5 years ago to move here permanently. Love it here. Involved with my community. All the nature and uncrowded recreation. Close to Northern NH & Western Maine and Quebec. The best quality of life for me too.

Home Ownership: You’re not going to find very many houses for sale in VT for less than $350,000 unless they need at least $50,000 of work.

Renting: Renting just isn’t a realistic option in VT unless your household makes at least $100,000 a year. Even then you’d just be getting ripped off by greedy landlords. Sane prices for a apartments in Vermont would run between $700 - $1500 a month.

Crime Rates: These are currently out of whack due to concurrent issues from the Pandemic. That being said, VT is still one of the safest States in the country. The only place here that you should avoid is Bennington County, and that’s because it’s effectively a Sundown County.

Where to live: If you can somehow buy a house here, then I recommend Addison County or Windham County. The Brattleboro area in particular has a number of quaint and quiet small towns surrounding it.

I’d want to have a combined income of at least 120k to live in the rural or less desirable parts of Vt. If you’re looking at living in Chittenden county, Waterbury/stowe, Montpelier, upper valley, or higher end ski/resort towns, I’d put that figure closer to 200k+. Most folks that I know that live comfortably work in the trades, manufacturing, medical field, or work remotely.

you commute then

That's less climate change and more the result of terrible and nonexistent management and droughts caused by pot and almond farm out that way.

We as humans are completely responsible for it, but it's not because of headlined reasons and the headlined solutions won't fix it.

Many of our friends have had mini splits installed in the past few years. All of them are happy with their purchase. Some of the nuisances… installers are fleecing the fuck out of folks in the past couple years.

Had one friend get an install with a compressor and 3 head units 3 years ago, and pay 8k installed. Had another friend put a compressor and 4 head units in this year to the tune of 22k. The later had a monthly electric bill at $600 on a sub 2000 sq ft house.

I’m holding out for the time being as the demand is making the install price of these things insane. Installers are fleecing the shit out of the consumer due to tons of folks jumping on the bandwagon all at once.

I’ve spent about $2500 in fuel oil this year with steam heat. I’d love to switch that to a wood stove and mini-splits, but until the mini-split price goes down I’m sticking to the ole oil and a couple window AC units.

We can stop pretending VT is an agricultural state anymore. There are not enough sheep to pose a threat anymore.

There are plenty of places to live just not places that will allow you to live the lavish lifestyle on these wages but certainly it's a doable scenario. Nothing in this life is easy and the longer you wait for it to get easier the worse off your situation will get.

North of Montpelier is Wrightsville Reservoir, with a long sandy beach and beautiful forests surrounding the lake. I’ve even seen bald eagles catch fish in the lake while sunbathing.

Just across from the entrance to Wrightsville is Shady Rill. Where there are a few pull offs and nice little swimming holes next to the road. Not too much of a climb to the water. Shady, and shallow at first, so easy to get in, with lovely cascades of waterfalls.

That literally makes no sense.

I installed mine myself this fall. We got a 18k btu ceiling cassette with hyper heat. I think it was ~2k for the unit, +200 for the vacuum pump, connectors, and seal goop. Took a few days of crawling in and out of the attic but it wasn't too bad. It's been out only heat source and has been doing well! It used 500 KW in February set to 68. Twice that in January when I accidentally left it on 80 WHOOPS!

The wall unit should be easier to install. Just do me a favor.. the interior unit ships pressurized. You're supposed to release the gas slowly. Don't panic and undo it faster, your eardrums will thank you.

Oh yeah, definitely a good time!

We’re talking past each other a bit- I’m saying the pleasant pedantry is ours over whether Hartman’s Law applies here. There’s no point in being pedantic (except humorously) about it or Poe’s Law, Godwin’s Law, or any of the other “Laws” which are really observations at best. It’s indeed a bad opinion piece if we’re arguing about the possible qualified intros and not the content. And it was always clear that your complaint was not limited to a typo, but like you I couldn’t resist the zinger.

Getting back to the author’s credentials/ possible motivations Beck is listed on the SJA website as a Social Studies teacher and local business owner so as an alum I’d prefer to think that his incoherency owes to

1. not being an alum, unlike a great percent of the faculty
2. not being in the English Department
3. possibly since he got his M. Ed. from The Citadel?! TIL

All I meant was we could leave the Academy out of this. That he has no discernable point is clear but the Academy is not responsible for that.

It’s a combination of fearing food shortages and enjoying gardening and raising trees. We don’t have long growing seasons but that can be mitigated by starting your garden inside. I learned the hard way that it’s smart to put extra mulch on young fruit trees and to wrap them for winter after losing some.

Not a bad idea

I’m sure they exist it’s just not a common thing. I do think it’s funny because I wanna know shit about people move here thinking they’ll be able to ride out the future without realizing right what about food production is going to be a real problem with bizarre weather causing crop loss worldwide. We’ve already seen it last year in the US, most of Europe and China. That’s why I am want to get more land, to prepare for food insecurity.

Jobs are plentiful but they pay less than most other places. Rents are outrageous if you can find an apartment. It makes saving for a home very difficult.

I live in lamoille county. The only people that seem to do well financially are those who bring money they made somewhere else and work remotely or part time as consultants while they spend down their trust funds

If the housing market around here is crashing, it must be crash upwards

Good paying engineering jobs are scarce. I can tell you that much.

I know three people who moved here from the SW because they were tired of annual forest fires. It's anecdotal sure, but there are people moving to the NE to escape climate change.

Installed Haier Mini-split system with one outdoor unit and 3 heads inside. Two are 9000btu; one is 12000btu. Total cost with electrician to run the circuit was about $13,000. This was last summer. 2600sf house. We haven't used the oil burner all year except when we had family over the holidays and used our downstairs bedrooms where we didn't bother with mini-splits. They keep us plenty warm, but on that -20 day they used quite a bit of electricity. I'm thinking it might make sense to run the oil burner whenever it falls below -5 or so...depending on oil prices. The oil in my tank was purchased around September at $3.29.

Yes, your searches will be much more effective searching for heat pump vs. Mini split.

Up for a week with my dad in neighboring NH. It has been in the teens at night and he hasn't turned on the oil yet. Keeps the house too warm for me - 78 lol. The heat pumps have had zero issue keeping up. You're gonna love 'em.

We paid $22k for one heat pump, Bosch with Aux coil. That price included updated panel and pole. New ducts and floor vents. No splits. Installed in November. We were toasty warm even when the temp dipped down to -20s. No wood stove nor fireplace back up. We have a propane automatic generator.

I’ve been in aerospace for 20yrs, barely anyone has an “aerospace degree” any hourly job you just need a high school diploma.

I'm interested, too...