Hi guys! I've been following the Free State Project as well as the Cascadia Independence movement for a few years now, mulling over whether I might want to move to either region in order to fully immerse myself in a philosophical discussion that fascinates me. I currently live in Birmingham, Alabama and spent most of 2011 and 2012 working with local activists on the grassroots Ron Paul presidential campaign, as well as C4L and YAL. I blogged for YAL for a bit in 2012 and also ran as a delegate for Ron Paul in the state of Alabama. Last year I also traveled to Austin, TX with a friend because we were considering moving there together. Her for the music and arts scene, me more so for the political scene. I went to some of the local libertarian party meet-ups to see what the scene was like there, and was told that based on my strong voluntarist/anarchist leanings I would find a better fit for myself in New Hampshire. Apparently you guys are more "radical" according to the Austin types 
My biggest concern is that I would be coming all by myself, with no job or housing lined up beforehand. I've always been an adventurer and went backpacking around the Australasia region right after I graduated college for a year and a half, mostly on my own. So it is not the sudden change in environment that makes me hesitate so much as it is this slow economy and the dwindling number of jobs. I'm really into organic farming and gardening, self-sufficiency, and learning trades and crafts as opposed to working the regular desk job, so I'm open to all sorts of work. I guess my main question for right now is how much money I should have in savings before coming for a visit to have a look at what's going and to decide whether it's a place I might like to make my home.
I look forward to getting to know some of you through this forum, and maybe I'll be seeing you in person in the near future!
Michelle.
oh, also I might add before people start commenting, the folks I met at the Texas LP meet-ups said that I'd probably like Manchester better than Keene because I'm more of a cosmopolitan type who prefers to live in urban areas where there is plenty of night life and cultural offerings. I've been thinking about driving up to NH to take a tour of several towns where there is an active liberty presence. I'm trying to save money and avoid hotels and have an account on couchsurfing.com. Would you guys recommend couch surfing? Is couch surfing a common networking tool in this community? I used it a lot while traveling overseas with reasonable success.
thanks again!
Awesome! Always good to see interested movers here.
I'm on my phone so this will be brief. If you move to Manchester you can get involved with several of us who are working to start a Grange branch. www.NHgrange.org has details on what that is.
Come with 2-3 months living expenses in savings. I don't know any liberty activists using couchsurfing.org, however if you post here with dates we can likely find you a couch.
Jobs are available, especially with your varied background. You'll probably get a shit job at first while you pursue a good one, and that will hopefully help you afford a room with someone.
There's a job listing on Facebook and also housing listings that get updated more frequently than this forum. The links are posted frequently here, so hopefully you can find them.
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Hello,
Housing it pretty easy to find ahead of time. Try Craigslist. Jobs is a bit tougher. I've never had a hard time finding one, but I have one of those evil desk jobs. 
It seems unlikely that you just be able to jump in to something else without a nice survival nest egg - don't want to be homeless in NH in January. Finally, Keene is not a city of nightlife unfortunately, though I don't know anything about Manchester's. Portsmouth might have something like that, and Nashua is the closest to Boston.
Yeah, a lot of the folks that move to NH are somewhat conservative or libertarian when they move here as part of the FSP. After a while of hanging out with some of the most successful and brightest liberty activists in the world, a lot of the conservatives become more libertarian and the libertarians become anarcho-capitalists or voluntaryists. I'd say the activists are more advanced when it comes to understanding liberty in NH than in any other state.
Manchester has more of a city feel than Keene. It has higher rent, more traffic, more pollution, more crime, better radio, substantially more job opportunities, a bus system, an international airport, a mall, a larger variety in restaurant options and so on. It has rock climbing and snow tubing in the city limits, too.
As Tuk said, I recommend 2-3 months living expenses for single people. He had good job advice too. Use the same advice for housing. Find somewhere but be very nice to the folks you live with. Go out of your way to be nice and keep in mind that you may move once you have been here a while as it is much easier to find better values when you have lived here a while.
The FSP has good housing and job resources to help you out.
They are listed in the moving guide. http://freestateproject.org/moving_guide
Hello and welcome. Darryl Perry is also from Birmingham! 8)
I agree that the Cascadian Independence Project is epic. So much so that it inspired my work with the http://spiritofarcadia.org. While you'd have to trade Portland Oregon for Portland Maine, the people of the Atlantic Northeast are known for their peaceful nature and independence and I'm glad to call it home. Not to mention the 1,000+ liberty activists here with thousands more to follow.
Do you enjoy writing? The SoA will be launching a newspaper this year and we'd like to be a resource to share "Backwoods Home" type information on permaculture and self-sufficiency, I have a lot to learn on the subject but I've managed to keep a couple of dozen chickens alive this Winter.
It's coming up soon but have you considered visiting New Hampshire during http://freestateproject.org/libertyforum. It starts on February 21st.