How's it going everyone,
My name is Don from California and have been a Ron Paul supporter since 2007 and have been planning on finally moving to New Hampshire once my wife finalizes her RN license. I am looking to move somewhere in between keene and manch but will be looking for 80-120 acres for my families homestead. ( anyone with property area suggestions, completely off grid BUT close enough for my wife to get to a hospital for a job).
I run my own online business and garden full time and my wife is a registered nurse and I feel our services would do well in a barter society. I can't stand California and my inability to home school my kids without truancy officers pounding down my door is just pissing me off >:(.
I want to participate in furthering the mmj efforts, open carry rights among many other personal rights. I also want to develop a camp ground ( allow festivals, shooting events, free stater rallies, "new in town" camping and whatever else ) on a portion of my property which I think is needed.
We are planning on making the move in the next 6 months. I will be selling all of our stuff, getting an rv and taking a family road trip on out to NH.
Live Free or Die
I, too, am from California. My wife is also an RN. We moved to Manchester first for easy jobs while wife looked for work as RN. Now we're in Grafton County and love it! Good luck!
How's it going ;D
yeah manchester is where I was looking simply due to the job aspect but am hoping we can locate her an RN job outside manch and maybe in the Keene area. I am trying to get AWAY from any big cities BUT close enough so a commute isn't that big of a headache for her.
I can work from home so my commute is pretty quick, it all depends on the traffic from my bedroom to the coffee maker though :o
Do you have any hospital suggestions for registered nurses to want to apply to in NH? Or better yet, are there hospitals we should have her avoid applying to?
It sounds like she's a new nurse, so she's just going to have to take what she can get. Nursing demand isn't as high as it was a few years ago. It took my wife 6 months before she found a job. Hanover is a great place to live and is the home of Dartmouth College and Medical Center.
Yeah the nursing field has its up and downs in California as well. I will check out those other areas as well and yes she is a new nurse BUT that is why we are still trying to figure out if getting her a job here for the next 6 months to a year make sense.
I just don't want to keep putting off my families future due to a job market that is only troubled DUE TO the government itself and will odds are get worse especially here in California.
Maybe nursing homes or other alternative rn positions might be easier out there. Her getting a job is pretty important for the move to work SO we will see how it pans out in the next 6 months to a year.
My advice is to move as soon as possible. She works at a nursing home and enjoys it. The best she could find in California was a part time job at a private practice. And we were unwilling to move to L.A. for nursing jobs. I wouldn't even bother looking for RN work in California. Find some retail or hospitality work or something in the mean time, once she gets her license, head straight to New Hampshire. New Hampshire is F'ed in one regard, before any employer in New Hampshire will consider applicants they have to first have a New Hampshire RN license. Before a person can get a RN license, they have to have residency in New Hampshire. Which means you can't just have a job lined up before you move. You've got to move, then look(while transferring the license), then find a job, then move again. It's a drag and she'll have to have a crummy job in the meantime, if only to keep a good work history going.
Thank you for the sound advice my friend 
It is hard with a new career indeed BUT I guess we will see how it all plays out.
I know we need to wait for the license BUT didn't even think about needing to be a resident FIRST so thank you as that would have really put a kink in our 6 month plans there lol.
I know we can get her an rn job here in the central valley since my mom has been an rn for over 30 years and know everyone. I just want to MOVE out of Cali BUT if rn jobs out there are hard to come by, we may just have to wait…
I hate money
They exist, but where she gets hired will determine where you live, not the other way around.
We were happy to live anywhere in New Hampshire, as anywhere in New Hampshire is better than everywhere in California.
She isn't going to apply in areas that we do not want to live so while I get your point, it isn't 100% in my case.
I am not going to move clear across the country to be stuck in another "city living" atmosphere even if that were the only rn position available. She would either commute OR find other ways for using her training to barter/trade with. I can't live with neighbors right next to me even if the best paying rn job was next door. I don't want to SEE any neighbors, houses, people driving down my roads or any of it, 100% private and why acreage is a must.
Pretty much I am looking for 100 acres preferably near a larger city ( 30-45 minute commute ) that does have a few hospitals, nursing homes etc. My career can afford us to move out there whether she works or not HOWEVER since she loves being a nurse and helping people I know how important it is to her in the same breath.
I guess the way I see it is, we are not moving out there to get a job. We want to move out there to homestead but "short term" we need to pay out bills, pay off the land, build the houses, buildings, greenhouses etc. Maybe California is where we need to be right now so she can enjoy the nursing, gain some experience, get our property, start transferring her license and who knows, maybe some rn positions will start popping up all over the place?
[quote author=lfod.me link=topic=6511.msg60674#msg60674 date=1340656684]
She isn't going to apply in areas that we do not want to live so while I get your point, it isn't 100% in my case.
I am not going to move clear across the country to be stuck in another "city living" atmosphere even if that were the only rn position available. She would either commute OR find other ways for using her training to barter/trade with. I can't live with neighbors right next to me even if the best paying rn job was next door. I don't want to SEE any neighbors, houses, people driving down my roads or any of it, 100% private and why acreage is a must.
Pretty much I am looking for 100 acres preferably near a larger city ( 30-45 minute commute ) that does have a few hospitals, nursing homes etc. My career can afford us to move out there whether she works or not HOWEVER since she loves being a nurse and helping people I know how important it is to her in the same breath.
I guess the way I see it is, we are not moving out there to get a job. We want to move out there to homestead but "short term" we need to pay out bills, pay off the land, build the houses, buildings, greenhouses etc. Maybe California is where we need to be right now so she can enjoy the nursing, gain some experience, get our property, start transferring her license and who knows, maybe some rn positions will start popping up all over the place?
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There doesn't seem to be a shortage of nursing jobs in NH. The schools keep graduating nurses and they keep getting hired. One of the Nashua hospitals has recently been running radio ads. A lot of nurses in NH seem to prefer contract work to straight employment. That way they can pick up shifts when they need cash or are bored, and be on their own time when that's preferable.
thanks for the thoughts indeed.
Nashua and Keene were both areas I was looking at with zillow.com
There seems to be a few house options with 80 to 120 acres for decent prices right now.
Any suggestions on land type issues or things I need to look out for when buying a house with land in NH? Any weird laws etc?
I want to put in a camp ground, shooting range and put in a manmade lake to put my "food fish" in as well as for the "campers" to enjoy.
I can then let friends and family come out and camp and check N.H out as well as others.
I'm pretty sure she could find a job in any city in New Hampshire and you could still get your 100 acres with a short commute. I wasn't trying to say that she had to live in the same city that she works, simply the same region.
Yeah i just looked at indeed.com for rn jobs and there are plenty of jobs available even nurse 1 positions.
I have hope again lol
Just a thought: you might want to recalibrate "a lot of land", because the standard in NH is a little different from western states.
Five acres is considered very large, and that's enough to raise all the garden you need, a few farm animals, and manage a small woodlot, while living in relative isolation from your neighbors, yet with easy access to shopping, etc.
Getting into the 80+ acre range is going to be all about timber management (a very long-term proposition), recreation, and other "current use" that will give you a huge tax break. At that level, it's more about how much you want to spend, not which lot is best, especially if you get up into the North Country.
In a state where timber is still such a valuable commodity, the standing timber is a separate cost item on any purchase of timberlands. Think of it as buying a commercial building, where the ongoing business and inventory are available separately.
Also, when it comes to relative isolation from others, you can always move north a bit and buy land that adjoins the national forest. You can't control what you don't own, but having 1-5 acres adjoining the national forest is like adding a million acres to your back yard.
Speaking of "current use", which I mentioned earlier, the tradition in New England is very different from western states. The NE ethos is that everyone has access to undeveloped rural land for recreation (hiking, fishing, hunting) unless it's posted to the contrary. Sure, you can post, but it's going to cost you quite a bit on your tax bill if you do.
I never took into account the timber aspect of it at all.
More research on my end.
thank you for bringing that up 
[quote author=lfod.me link=topic=6511.msg60676#msg60676 date=1340662726]
thanks for the thoughts indeed.
Nashua and Keene were both areas I was looking at with zillow.com
There seems to be a few house options with 80 to 120 acres for decent prices right now.
Any suggestions on land type issues or things I need to look out for when buying a house with land in NH? Any weird laws etc?
I want to put in a camp ground, shooting range and put in a manmade lake to put my "food fish" in as well as for the "campers" to enjoy.
I can then let friends and family come out and camp and check N.H out as well as others.
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Putting it like this: "I want to put in a camp ground, shooting range and put in a manmade lake to put my "food fish" in as well as for the "campers" to enjoy." makes it sound like you are in the market for a large piece of commercial property for your multiple businesses. If that [i]is[i/] what you mean, fine.
But if you mean to just have a place where friends and family can visit, maybe camp out, and where you can also raise some fish, then I would strongly suggest that you think in and use different terms. Instead of "camp ground," just have a piece of land large and flat enough where some friends could camp if they want, which is a pretty common thing. Instead of intending to construct a "manmade lake," how about having a pond? NH is very wet and there are ponds all over the place (lakes, too, but they are generally considered public property, like rivers and streams). You may well be able to find a property that already has a pond or two - there are even some right in Manchester - and various groups occasionally run pond schools on how to construct and care for them.
Raising fish for food is a bit of a challenge because of the winter, but it can be done. Usually, though, they have a series of pools rather than one large body of water, which allows for the various life stages of the fish to be segregated and kept from predation. Feeder fish can sometimes overwinter in shallow water, but it's not very reliable. Popular fishing spots are usually stocked every Spring. The State and Federal governments both have hatcheries here, and there are several commercial fish providers, too.
As to shooting on your property, it's common, but you have to follow the rules for distance from roads and occupied dwellings. The law does not permit local restrictions on shooting, and noise complaints are not allowed, but that is only in effect if your range was set up legally at the time you establish it. So once you get ready to shoot, be sure to document the existence of the range from that date. Depending on where you land and who lives around you, you might want to invite the neighbors over to shoot occasionally, or at least invite the local police chief over to eyeball it. That way if some anti-gun fruitloops call about you shooting, he can calm them down without having to drive out.
On the fish, I was going to have those in 55 gallon drums ( tilapia ) and can come inside during the winters. I wanted to then allow them in the manmade lake area to catch during the warmer seasons. As far as how the fish part would benefit us as food is still getting ironed out and might always stay in an enclosed structure with the rabbits, chickens and other animals that we want to raise during all 4 seasons.
Now I won't be able to get all of the fish out of the lake before winter and that is where I scratch my head about even putting them IN the lake at all and odds are won't be and just run the 55 gallon drum tanks. It would just be a great way to self clean the water, them + duckweed would work well.
Do you know if duckweed grows well out there?
One idea I had but not sure how well it would work would be to have small ponds ( 20 ft diameter ) and have the fish in there and during the winter ( or all seasons if cross ventilation was figured out effectively ) have a geodesic greenhouse style structure bolted in place over the pond area. I know greenhouse growing in geodesic structures can be done all year around. This seems like more effort than it is worth BUT once again still brainstorming the ideas.
I just love the idea of having ponds and small lake options where fish can breed and live 4 seasons long. Maybe a pond heater? lol odds are having them in the 55 gallon drums makes more sense. I will be able to move them in and out as needed or IF they need to be moved.
thank you for the thoughts 
I can't wait to get moving
When it comes to ponds and lakes, just be aware that any body of water over 10 acres belongs to the state, and the owner of the surrounding land can't deny access to the public.
271:20 State Water Jurisdiction; Published List of Public Waters; Rulemaking. –
I. All natural bodies of fresh water situated entirely in the state having an area of 10 acres or more are state-owned public waters, and are held in trust by the state for public use; and no corporation or individual shall have or exercise in any such body of water any rights or privileges not common to all citizens of this state; provided, however, the state retains its existing jurisdiction over those bodies of water located on the borders of the state over which it has exercised such jurisdiction.
Here's the official list of public waters:
http://des.nh.gov/organization/commissioner/pip/publications/wd/documents/olpw.pdf
That only counts for "natural" though correct?
I will be developing this lake man made style.
If the surrounding land owners allow people into my property then we will have issues.
In the live free or die state is there no private property rights or respect?
ANOTHER QUESTION
The snowmobile trails that are EVERYWHERE in New Hampshire, the trails that go on private property, is that A must allow also? As in the public will get access to my land if any of these snowmobile trails are on my property or will I as the land owner be able to choose?
I noticed this wording when I was looking at a property and it saying that the states snowmobile trail goes through the property.
Are fences or natural barriers illegal or unheard of in New Hampshire? I want people to come to my property BUT I sure as hell want to be able to say who can or can't be on it.
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