Posted on 09/14/2016 4:49:50 PM PDT by Bulwyf
Please forgive me as I've never posted anything before, and I'm not entirely sure I'm doing this correctly.
I live in northern Alberta, and for the last two years I've been trying to make it work up here, but it's getting far worse.
The far left government that got in both provincially and federally are killing us economically. The new taxes coming in are ensuring we don't have two nickels to rub together (they got rid of pennies). I've been fighting them on the federal level and provincial, but we have no legal political way to remove out of control governments and the locals seem unwilling to put up much of a fight.
I'm a vet, I did my time in the infantry, I did three tours overseas, and I'm not afraid of a fight, or putting my neck out there. I just don't want to be doing it all solo.
I'm a journeyman electrician in the oil and gas industry, though I can do commercial as well. The work is drying up, rates are falling drastically, and there are jobs in other areas but I don't want to move to put myself in the same boat.
I would like to be able to find something and work with more like minded people and be surrounded by like minded people, and I would like to know a few things.
1. How difficult is it for a trades guy such as myself to work in the south. (visas, and such)
2. If a man or woman comes down to work, are we able to apply for permanent citizenship?
3. Are there companies that allow us to contract? (run our own trucks, tools, etc).
4. Is that recommended to contract? I am not sure how that works out, or if it's better to go employee with benefits.
5. I'd want to be in a gun friendly state as I own some and of course you can never have enough.
6. Is anything I'm asking feasible? heh.
I'm a 40 year old man now with wife and kids, and I don't see a future where I am. I know the situation is similar in many places, but at least as I mentioned earlier, I'm not as likely to be out there solo.
I'd appreciate any input in this as you FReepers see fit.
Thank you all very much, and God bless.
Bul.
No, the eastern part is moderately hilly and pretty well forested. Around Oklahoma City, which is smack in the center of the state, it flattens out, and to the west of a north/south line through the center, it’s mostly Nothing as far as the eye can see.
A good thing about Oklahoma is that the whole state is marked off in square mile grids, and all the roads run east/west or north/south, so you always know where you are.
Understood.
I do have that, but just Alberta, I’ll refine it tomorrow too.
Tonight, I’ve been reading replies and replying and making sure these kids are doing their homework. I don’t recall having homework in grades 2-5. Weird.
That’s like Alberta too, sometimes features get in the way, but it’s all marked out in miles. Range roads and TWP.
My Dad moved the family to North Carolina in 1959.
He was working his way up in the textile industry.
Times have changed a lot since then!
Thanks, I’ll have her have a gander at that.
I’d rather she only work if she had to. She has stayed home for a while now. I like having a home administrator heh.
They offer them here for under $5K. I think the last time I looked they were between $2-3K. Based on my research, there is no jackhammering into bedrock. Now you’re making me go look for further information.
We don’t have basements because the frost line is 2-3 feet down so we don’t have to sink pipes as low as they do in northern climes where the frost line is much lower.
Oklahoma City is pretty flat, the whole central part of the state is. Tulsa is sort of gently rolling. Hilly to the east, there are mountains in the southeastern corner.
It’s called “sections” in the U.S. A one-mile square is a “section,” and the roads are called “section lines.”
The highest point is actually a mesa in the Panhandle.
But isn’t it a high plateau that generally still looks flat other than occasional mesas?
Yes. The overall altitude increases going west, but it’s flat, flatter, flattest except for the scattered mesas.
My bucket list includes getting back to visit the places where I lived in the US. (1959-67)
Although with Google street view it’s almost like being there.
I’d be happy to go no more than 100 miles from here, and I could just stay home if my family would go on vacation without me!
Since you mentioned children - one thing to watch out for is that school districts are distinct from city and county lines. For example, the City of Plano is split between the Plano, Frisco, and Lewisville school districts; while the Plano School district takes in a chunk of far north Dallas, a slice of Richardson, and some small suburban towns to the east. School districts can be more important than municipal boundaries. And, of course, stay away from the urban districts. A good resource is the ‘Great Schools’ website.
More specific to the Midland area - Odessa has historically had the better high school football teams. Odessa is considered more blue collar, and Midland is considered more white collar.
Good advice, thank you.
Electrician is the white collar trade of the blue collars, so is that kind of an off-white? heh.
Don’t tell that to any instrumentation techs though, they get hurt feelings real easy heh.
I should look at WY too, the climate would be up my alley.
We call it sections too. A quarter section is 160 acres if I remember correctly.
We just have different names for the roads. Range roads go north and south, and TWP are east/west. That way you always know the direction too.
It’s going to come down to who will let me remain self employed probably. I do like having options that way.
I don’t know what health etc would cost me, but I imagine it can be pricey.
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