Boone, NC

[jhiggins]

Anyone here live around Boone, North Carolina?

 

[blgoode]

Yup.....1 1/2 hr up the road. Why? Daniel Winkler lives right there at Boone.....

 

[BuckyKatt]

I'm about 2 hours southeast.

 

[jhiggins]

Yup.....1 1/2 hr up the road. Why? Daniel Winkler lives right there at Boone.....

The wife and I are forming plans for possible relocation. Boone, possibly Asheville area. The inlaws lived up in the mountains in Linville few years. We grew to love the area. Pretty much like here, 'cept no seriously harsh winters. I'm getting to despise the winters here.

 

[Mr.Wrong]

Heck...... If you dont like winters move to south Texas its summer year round and home of the west nile mosqito.

 

[Mark Williams]

Alright !! teh Higgster could be closer to some real knifemakers he he he/ Just kidding. You couldnt ask for a nicer area.

 

[jhiggins]

Yeah no sh*t, bubba. New England is not big enough for me and IG. One of us have to go.

Seriously, though... We've been loathing the winters here for a few years now. My son is almost weaned now. At 22, he's almost ready to move out. My daughter and her hubby have a house out on the coast of NC. I figure if we live in the NW part, we'll have the whole state covered!

I think the thing that has really prompted me the most in this, is the fact I love to ride my motorcycles. NC has some of the premier m/c destinations in the country. Deal's Gap would be right down the road from us. A fellow in one of the motorcycle forums I post in said it the best: "For people who love to ride, and love the outdoors like you guys, why on Earth would you want to live in a frozen hell?"

Why indeed. Two years ago, the winter was so bad here that we had snow before Halloween, and it stayed on the ground and white for over six months! Yeah... I'm still thinking about how much that winter sucked. It snows in NC - to be sure - but never like up here. I don't ski. I don't snowmobile. and I don't ice-fish anymore.

 

[Mark Williams]

We;; you should just go ahead and start packing right now and take a few days off from the housework/restoration and head on down to Blairsville for the Trackrock hammer-in. Just so you will be sure if you like the area

 

[jhiggins]

We;; you should just go ahead and start packing right now and take a few days off from the housework/restoration and head on down to Blairsville for the Trackrock hammer-in. Just so you will be sure if you like the area

That's a good plan, Mark. I just can't afford any time off. The house is looking sweet, but I'm an aching mess because of it. Of all the times I been up and down the ladder this weekend, you'd think I'd look like an athelete instead fo a beer-gutted hillbilly. I'll post some pics when that side gets done.

Anyhow, Linda's folks used to live there. We've done a lot of looking around down there already. She's a medical documentation analyst. Its a certified field. I'm hoping she can find a decent job down there in one of the hospitals. This will allow me to stay at home and make knives. I'll probably open a machine shop/fab shop too. A few diverse income streams and we'll be good to go.

 

[peter nap]

Well Jeff, I generally try my best to discourage Yankees who want to move to Gods Country but I think I'll make you a "Special Redneck ". That's kind of like a Special Police Officer except you can use full sentences and don't need a dictionary to interpret English.

All I ask is that you be rude to enough to transplants when you get here, that one or two decide to go home. :footinmou


You'll love it here. Everyone is just like me!

 

[blgoode]

Come on down Jeff....we always have room for one more REDNECK!
You will have to make more knives in NC than you have been. Its a state law.....

 

[jhiggins]

Thanks for the encouragement, fellas. I know deep down that maybe in a past life I must have been a Reb. I try to get along with everyone, but seems all my life, the people I hold special to me are all from the Southland. Why is that?

15 years in the Air Force, and of all the different folks I met and worked with, the Southerners were always the ones I've kept as friends.

 

[peter nap]

One other thing you will like Jeff, is that both NC and Va have winters. Depending where in the state you go, they can be very mild or cold but are not long in either. Both states have the perfect seasons. When you are tired of one, it's time for the next.

I expect you would miss winter if it didn't come at all. I can't imagine Christmas in someplace like Florida...BTW (that's not really in the South anymore, it's a suburb of NY) :footinmou

Anyway, come on down....oh another state law is that you have to build at least one muzzleloader!

 

[Mark Williams]

It's called the Southern mentality. Most people from the South will give you the shirt off their backs. I broke down once in NC on my Harley. A fellow helped me get my bike loaded in his truck. took me to his house and put me up in his bed overnight while waiting on part. He and his wife slept on the couch so I could sleep in their bed. Kinda gave me the willies when he came in to get the pistol from under my pillow but it is amazing how people treat you in the South.

 

[jhiggins]

It's called the Southern mentality. Most people from the South will give you the shirt off their backs. I broke down once in NC on my Harley. A fellow helped me get my bike loaded in his truck. took me to his house and put me up in his bed overnight while waiting on part. He and his wife slept on the couch so I could sleep in their bed. Kinda gave me the willies when he came in to get the pistol from under my pillow but it is amazing how people treat you in the South.

...and this is the way I was brought up too. Even though we lived on the seacoast of Maine, we never failed in helping others. My mother was the great provider. We never went hungry, and we were always clean. My father would sit in his easy chair and talk on the cb. He'd invite people he didn't even know in for a hot meal. Some were kind of creepy, and my mother eventually put a stop to this practice, but in the end we are all just people and we need to rely on each other. I think city-folk don't know this. I think they are so used to effing each other over for a buck, they've lost sight of what it means to have some hospitality and grace in your life. Helping others is good for the soul.

 

[John Andrews]

Right on, about southern hospitality, Mark! I was born in the great state of Texas, but had to move all around the US to make a living. When I took my faimily back to Baytown, Texas to live for a while, folks would see the Iowa plates and make remarks about "Yankees". I would remind them I was born in Texas, and ask them if they were. Three out of five were not. Then, I would inform them that I was a born Texan. End of remarks. It was done in good humor, though. Yep, you gotta git south to enjoy warm weather and warm hospitality. Barring Hurricanes and a few tornadoes,of course. Hey, look at all the really great knife makers we have from the south, too.

 

[Mark Williams]

I had a buddy from Illinois come home to SC on a holiday while in the navy. It freaked him out that I knew all the people on the highway. Everybody waves at you. Just smile and wave back. (all four fingers please )