There's a station on the lougheed hwy across the border into mission which has petrol at 1.22 or something ridiculous. It's over 1.40 here in MR - which is no better than downtown.

You could say the first bit about loads of places, including the most seemingly idyllic and refined villages.
One of the poshest and most expensive villages in my area of the UK some time ago was shocked to the core when a police raid found a lovely barn was actually a crystal meth factory No-one who lived there had a clue.

Re- the second comment, our nearest city is Nottingham. 'Nuff said.

Didn't I ask for positive comments in my first post of this thread? Maybe you missed that one!

Fantastic views and, er, ... you said it is very rural so it must be quite a long way from Abby itself.

I guess that's not really helpful.

PS John Deere is your OH's friend.

Don't forget those who live in Abbotsford have Mission close by if they're in need of culture and the finer points of life

Also, Manning Park is about 1.5hrs away and it's lovely there, or 3 or so hours to beautiful wine country. Silver lining and all that

40 acres in Abbotsford, just make sure you're careful with food containers, leftovers, womens underwear, etc

Silverdale? The area with 3 of them next to each other? I always fill up there when we're out. Think it's to do with less taxes or something.

Other side of the Highway and 40 acres
OH got to work in 20 minutes in Langley, so commute is very easy.
Yep, a ride-on mower would be great, but due to far too many lunches out with work colleagues and the need to buy furniture, my OH has decided that finances and his inflating paunch demand that he push the manual one round for a few weeks until he has the body of an Adonis once more

The scale of the grow-op problem in BC is just a tiny bit higher than in the UK; especially in border towns like Abbortsford. I lived in Nottingham for a long time, and it's not the same; though I did work in a pub once where the gunnies turned up and beat somebody up. As far as I know Nottingham never saw an all out drugs war with practically daily shoot outs and killings between gangs.

On the positive side, the bacon brothers (who where the main cause of that shenanigans) got arrested and it's all calmed down a bit since last year.

Honestly, I have the same lifestyle you are about to have. I live on an acreage in Maple Ridge and the reason I live here isn't that I like maple ridge (it's friendlier than downtown and is in nice countryside), it's because I really like the peace and quiet and I have a vastly reduced necessity to socially interact with people.

Still, there are probably plenty of houses in MR that are grow-ops. It's not just the odd one here and there either - it's a significant percentage of the rural housing stock. You are right that they mostly don't draw attention to themselves and you'd never know they were there. But you get occasional grow-rips, and sometimes the criminals aren't that smart and go to the wrong house.

Do you know the history of the house you are renting? Who rented it before etc? I'd want to know that before living on an acreage in BC. You really don't want to be in or next to one that was used as a grow-op in the past.

Like I said.......

Fair enough. Well it's in nice countryside and it's got a highway. There isn't anything else to say about abbortsford that you can't say about mission, chilliwack, etc etc etc.

Well, shoot me, but I think there's a fine line between "constructive responses only" and "I want to be in denial with my head in the sand"

Village life in the UK is very different to that in rural BC. Grow ops do appear to be a very popular hobby.

I think for me, the main positives for Abbotsford are not Abbotsford itself. I think the core isn't very nice but the countryside around it can be very nice indeed. Positives for me are proximity to other areas such as Manning Park, Okanagan, Bellingham Airport in the US for cheap-ish US flights, US National Parks, the view of Mount Baker on a clear day, and access to highway #1.

I also believe it used to be the murder capital of Canada (per capita) and was very high on the theft list, but not sure if this has dropped after the gang crackdown.

40 Acres out there will be ace though

Then you are only a short trip (and a border crossing) from the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. That is definitely a positive.

Sad but true. Two innocent people were gunned down in a rural property near Cranbrook BC early last year. Their crime? They were renting a property where the previous incumbents had been 'active participants' in the local drug dealing scene & who'd obviously trodden on the toes of peers in the dealing scene.

To think, when you do a search on a UK property, its to check the local farmer doesn't have grazing rights in your back yard every second Tuesday or other such covenants.

Yeah, I only just realized that helcat12 was simply after validation.

I know of people who run such grow ops, or rather used to in the abby/mission/whack area. The more rural areas are perfect for that kind of thing.