I was referred to these forums while listening to Free Talk Live. I stumbled upon Free Talk Live from investigating what the mask situation was like in The Shire after His Excellency decided to issue a mask mandate. I have been a regular listener of the show ever since. After witnessing the direction this country is going in this past year, I have looked high and low to find more like minded people that are not in complete trance. As a result, The Shire is one place I am seriously considering moving to.
I currently reside in Rhode Island and I have lived here my whole life. I have a small maintenance and repair business that I currently operate here. I really don’t want to give this up, but I definitely see the writing on the wall. I am really hoping to expand my network with people that value their freedoms.
Welcome to the shire fourm. We’re definitely not in a complete trance, but one way you know that is there is some disagreement on the situation. What you can be reasonably confident in is the liberty people here don’t want to thrust a mask down your throat and won’t utilize or advocate for violence to achieve their objective regardless of what they think of the current situation. There are definitely different theories and ideas about whats going on. From some who think it’s more a global conspiracy (most aren’t quite to that point… but…) to those who think the bureaucrats are taking advantage of the situation for personal gain and exaggerating things a bit. It’s hard to argue some of these points too. If you look at whose benefiting the most it’s the people at the top. While the peasants and small business owners have been handed a little bit of money to appease them the vast majority of it has gone to mega corporations and it’s not been across the board. If you look at the companies primarily benefiting it’s the likes of Amazon and Walmart and similar who weren’t forced to close whereas the little shops in most regions have been (and the logical fail of doing that).
I know how hard it is to abandon a business as well as the effort in moving a business. I shut down one business in 2016 in order to move to NH and moved another one. I had to fire people and sell and then buy property. The property I’d sold was only two years old too- so it wasn’t a financially sane thing to do even. It was more or less a break even in the end so it could have been worse. Anyway- the long term gains have far outweighed everything. I basically got twice the property at half the cost. My property tax bill went down as well, then I stopped paying income taxes, and benefited from there not being a sales tax in New Hampshire. But that isn’t the real reason you should move. Honestly at the end of the day it’s the people and what we’re accomplishing in New Hampshire. It feels more like a fantasy come true than reality sometimes. I’ve been here 5 almost 6 years now and it’s been the best decision of my life (excluding my partner).
Sometime in life ya just got to take a bit of risk- cause without it you’ll never move forward. I’d probably start my New Hampshire adventure with a visit to the different areas and communities here. There are thousands of people who have migrated that are spread across southern New Hampshire (mostly). It’s hard to find a spot anywhere in New Hampshire that you won’t have a freedom-friendly neighbor whose migrated to the state. However that said there are still certain cities and regions that are more densely populated with like minded movers than other areas. Keene, Portsmouth/Rollinsford/the seacoast, and Manchester are probably the more popular areas to settle down. Depending on what you’re looking for New Hampshire probably has it. We mostly have small cities (100k people), towns (20,000-40,000 people), and villages (5,000 people).
If you want to visit I’d probably take a look at the calendar below as there is always a ton of stuff going on. Read carefully as some events require an invite, but basically pick a handful of days and come up to some of these events. You’ll get the opportunity to meet like-minded folks from different regions if you do a 2-3 hops. The cities are mostly within 1-2 hours of each other so a 3-5 day trip will probably enable you to hit the three major areas and get to know people. We also have an event during the summer called Forkfest that is held in northern New Hampshire at Rogers Campground (there are motel rooms on site too and it’s within walking distance of a hotel or two as well, but you can also camp on the campground and many people do if its your thing). That’s another good way to meet people: https://www.forkfest.party/
Thank you for taking the time tying a reply to my introduction. Another thing that is preventing me from moving here faster is the expensive housing costs (you may disagree). I also forgot to mention in my introduction that I currently have a very decent living arrangement that has allowed me to avoid exorbitant housing costs. But I am positive that I will find a way to cope with this. It is a harsh reality in most places after all. I also thank you for the words of encouragement and sharing the calendar of “The Free State Project.” I hope to visit the Shire again later this week.
I typically go to the Friday crypto event, another crypto event in the Keene area that happens roughly once a week, and Social Sunday. So chances are I’ll see ya when ya get here!
I was looking at your site too. Looks like your the kind of person we could really use in Keene. We’re missing a handy man that takes crypto. One of the guys in our community more or less retired. We’ve got another guy, but he’s not friendly to everybody and he doesn’t take crypto.
