what is easier

[bookwormom]

to live up North or in the South? My money is on North. After almost two full years in Kentucky I find it a lot harder with less rewards. I guess I am bound to stay though.

[CarolAnn]

It depends on what you're looking for.

I loved living in Arkansas, the clean water and air, the wildlife, the beautiful woodlands, the nice, laid-back neighbors. I didn't love working very very hard for very little pay and always struggling to make ends meet. Taxes were low, though, and winter didn't cause much of an expense for heat.

Moving to Wisconsin doubled and later tripled my income from Arkansas. But the pace is very fast. It's harder to get to know people, and in some cases, harder to like them once I do know them! I have enough money most of the time, and can finally put some away for a rainy day. In a couple of months I'll even have health insurance if all goes well. But the air is often stinky and the water in the rivers is so nasty that no one here (in this area anyway) would think of eating a fish they caught. You can't swim in the lakes - there's too much toxic algae!

So how do you choose? I do what I must for as long as I must, and dream (and pray) that there will be a day I can live in the south again before I'm too old and decrepit to enjoy it!

[Quietgentleman]

Oh I believe both have their draw backs. I live in Iowa and when as a kid we heated strictly with wood. So we spent quite allot time just cutting spitting and stacking wood. With just wood as heat tied us to the house keeping a fire going. There wasnt no being gone overnight without finding someone you would strictly trust in your house alone and confidence in that they would keep the fire going. This year I lost my early plantings in the garden we got a late hard frost and everything that was up just curled up and died. I guess I could of fretted over my luck but it all turned out for the best. I had one of the best afternoons replanting it. My 10 yr old great nephew was over and we planted everything together. Now he keeps coming over to check on the garden and we spend at least one afternoon a week weeding and just seeing the pride on his face as he see something he planted grow. Is something I would of missed if the late frost wouldnt of happened.

Quietgentleman

[DaNgEr_KiTtY]

i was born in chicago & moved when i was 3. wound up in VA in '75. we got those fast paced cities like the hampton roads area, richmond & of course washington dc. i grew up in virginia beach in the area called pungo. we had one blinking traffic light & were made fun of it but we liked it out there. we had great fishing in back bay for bass & also had basically the northern end of the outter banks. it was great! but the sprawl came & i went to college & then to wash dc. it was fun for a lil while when i was young & made great money.....but i began to hate the lifestyle.

i was able to make a 100 grand a year painting houses & faux finishing. had a great 2600 sq foot townhouse in a gated community & a cleaning lady. i would find anyway to escape the city & come out here to the blue ridge & finally i just decided to just leave.

best decision i ever made! i may make a lil less but for what i get its well worth it. i have piece of mind, trustworthy neighbors, friendly people & a 100 times the land for the same price! if you are a hard dependable worker you will do fine out here. people say hi when ya pass em on the sidewalks in town & wave to ya on the back roads.

[wax]

Great question Bookworm!

I am a Northman, it might be due to my Norse heritage.

The question must be: Would you rather be hot or cold?

I often get complaints from associates who wonder how I make it through the winter. But I enjoy 50 degrees, 60 is fine too, 70 is getting a bit much!
I had a girlfreind once who left me because she would start complaining at 68, get out her sweaters and just sit there and shiver, glaring at me and mumbling under her breath.

I go to central America fairly often and I have never suffered more than being in Belize in 100 degree heat! I am like a snowman there! Now don't get me wrong, the water there is clear and wonderful, but you have to get out once in a while!

I would much rather freeze to death than die of heat stroke, but that is a very personal choice.

And of course your question appears to involve more than simple heat or cold... and then it becomes a question of what is meant by "easier".

Others have mentioned chopping wood, and that labor (joyful family outing) is not required in the south.
Finance is the same no matter where you are in America, there is only one color that truly matters here: Green.
The more green you are the less hassles you must endure, the less green you are the more you are subject to discrimination.

If you make $12,000 per year in Minnesota you might be very well off... but it isn't likely!
But there are some places in Georgia where you would be considered comfortable, if not middle class.

I was in the Minnesotan region of the Lake of the Woods recently to visit two relatives, and I was shocked by what I saw.

One uncle retired from military service and bought a house on a lake, he had saved up a great deal of money and payed over $500,000 for a nice prefab "log cabin" with a nice dock to house his cabin cruiser.
He is miserable!
His electricity costs too much, heating is "insane", and those damn kids keep riding jetskis all over and scaring "his" ducks!
Of course, those are simply his expressed complaints and not the real problem.
The real problem is that his cabin cruiser is more than two years old, and his associates point that out often.
The house to his left... directly to his left with no room to breath in between cost $900,000 and his property is somehow not as good as it once was when it sat alone in the development.
He has become a sad lonely man.

Meanwhile, my other uncle is a king who breaths deeply every morning and revels in his domain.
He also invested a great deal of money... in bare acreage.
His log cabin is a bit smaller than his brothers but it was built by hand.
His buildings are all heated by wood (as well as waste oil and a solar water "experiment") but he has no problem because he has sixteen kids (only two of them girls... not that there is anything wrong with girls) who have matured into one of the closest families I have ever seen.
Fifteen hunting permits in one family puts plenty of meat in the table and as each child gets older land is purchased nearby and a new branch is formed.
They formed their own business running a pretty good sized lumber mill, some children choose to stay in that business when they get older but some make other career decisions. For some reason they all end up settling next to mom and dad no matter what they decide (the family has a lawyer and doctor at hand whenever they need one).

One son was killed during a hunting accident and I have never witnessed a more moving example of family unity and support than I did during the four day celibration of his life.
Yes it did involve a funeral, but it was something more as well.

So the question becomes which ones life is "easier".
One uncle doesn't work, he just sits around and complains.
The other is constantly busy, constantly engaged, constantly... well just constantly!
Losing his child to the life he has decided to lead wasn't "easy" in any way, but it was better than the alternative!

I would say that life is easier wherever I decide to make it easier, and I have a pretty good example to support that claim.

[TNDadx4]

Although I've lived in both the Northeast and Southeast, I like the North myself. The Southern heat is way too much for me. The way that I see it, ou can heat easier than you can cool.

In either case, I try to avoid big cities which can be found in either locale.

[1lifetolive]

In the cold you can aways put on more cloths, but in the heat you can only get so naked.

[DaNgEr_KiTtY]

In the cold you can aways put on more cloths, but in the heat you can only get so naked.

hehe thats something i have said a million times, but i actually think people tend to adapt to their local temperatures just fine. but if you ask a person born & raised in florida who moved to minnesota how great it is that they can always adjust to the cold by putting on more clothes they will think you are crazy. some people say the desert heat isnt that bad cause its a dry heat but to me you can stick your head in a 400 degree oven & thats a dry heat too.

[Faye]

Whereever you live you have to learn to work around climatic conditions. I live in lower Alabama and right now it is hot as hades! I do outside work EARLY in the day before it gets so hot. If you wait till late in the day after sondown you can do some stuff outside but everything has absorbed the heat and is releasing it back into the air. I was born here and lived here till I was a preteen and then moved to Chicago. I learned to love the cold but a few years later I moved back and have been here ever since. The older I get the more I like the heat instead of the cold. Besides, with AC I am conforable all summer.