Looking for peace
 

Hi

I'm looking for peace in life and was wondering if anyone can help in deciding where to move.

What I want is to move somewhere that isn't going to be ridiculous buying a house (like the UK..where if you're starting on the property ladder you'll spend your life paying off a 2 bed flat)

My ambition and emmigrant dream is to move somewhere secluded and by a house maybe in a small village. I'm currently in IT although would consider doing something else...like cutting trees if it meant I could own a nice 4 bed housein 20-30 years time. I'd love the idea of being near a lake or mountains. Can anyone recommend any villages in Canada? I know it may be an impossible dream.

There's just got to be an escape from this 9-5 dreary hell

Re: Looking for peace
 

Cutting trees? Logging is consistently listed as one of the most hazardous occupations, and most loggers seem to know at least one person who was killed on the job. Not sure if this would typically be described as a peaceful occupation.

Canada is a huge country- it takes literally days to drive across it, so there are literally hundreds of "villages" dotted around the country. However, not sure if your idea of a village matches the Canadian version (where you could be hours away from the nearest city, completely off the grid, and no friends/neighbours for miles around).

Surely you could own a nice 4 bed home in 20/30 years if you stay in IT?

Re: Looking for peace
 

Yes that's pretty much what I mean :)
Off the grid without anyone for hours sounds like heaven!

I said logging as logging pretty much (to me I'm no expert in this subject) seems like the only profession that would get me furthest from cities.

Re: Looking for peace
 

Start your own business, then 9-5 would seem like a distant dream:sneaky:


You are right, you are probably not being realistic. I suppose this is one occasion when researching Iqaluit really is a viable option, but I suspect the reality of living "off the grid" for someone used to a more urban way of life might come as a rude shock.

There are lots of places in canada where doing a low level drone job for a living wage could well be enough to pay for a 4 bed house (not sure how nice though) in 20 or 30 years. Not sure where the quality of life is in that though, working to pay the bills and little else.

Forestry seems very romantic, but its hard graft, long hours, crap weather and the most dangerous job in Canada statistically speaking, plus no one is making any money at the moment from it.

Re: Looking for peace
 

If you ever find it, let me know where you found it.

Re: Looking for peace
 

You would probably like the Yukon, but I don't know about logging. The trees up there are pretty short.

There are lots of things that can get you out of cities.

Re: Looking for peace
 

Theres a couple of logging reality shows on Discovery at the minute - bugger what are they called - ooh swamp loggers is one and I can't remember the other, look it up then come back and see if it looks ideal.

Then look up the logging companies in Canada (bearing in mind the pine beetle ballsed up a lot of them with its eating habits over the last few years) and see where they are - check out 'villages' near to them.

Lastly - DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT ITS LIKE TO LIVE OFF THE GRID??????? Miles from anywhere???? A very well respected poster on here yesterday speared himself to the side of a tractor - and he's been doing this for years. Seriously i'd fear for your safety.

I admire your dream but I my advice for you would be to come over and have a weeks holiday in a wooden shed in somewhere like Fort Nelson BC in the middle of winter. Then report back as to how bad your cosy IT job is ;) Grizzly Adams is a TV show not a documentary :)

Re: Looking for peace
 

Thanks for the replies. I did mean peace in the very literal term however. I'm very fortunate in that I believe I found contentment a very long time ago- as long as I have a type writer/laptop to write storie, a canvas and paint brush and a good stack of books to read I'm happy with my lot so to speak.

And yes I've lived off the grid. Teaching at a school in the mountains of an indonesian island was the most remarkably beautiful part of my life and one which I very much want to replicate. Rearing chickens/goats and vegetables is nothing new to me.

A user was kind enough to post me a massive reply which is beyond helpful to me... Thank you very much and when I go to Toronto in February I will be checking out the islands. My aim will be to contract in IT and work 80 hour weeks for a year until I can afford my paradise home (probably a banged out 2 bed place with leaky floors) :thumbsup:

Re: Looking for peace
 

^Check out the replies in my thread Do you like where you live?. There's one post there from someone who lives in Nova Scotia. The way it was described was so beautiful, I almost left Hartford this afternoon.

Re: Looking for peace
 

Slumming it teaching for a year or two in south east asia is not the same as living that way full time. Those people are eking out their lives in poverty with limited or no access to health care and other basic services we in the west take for granted. Honestly there is no romance in being a poor subsistence farmer.

Note that you probably won't be able to do contracting in IT if you are in the middle of nowhere with no internet.

On a very hypocritical note, my search for just such an acreage outside Vancouver is going well;)

Re: Looking for peace
 

Two minor technical hitches in your plans - you say as long as you've got a laptop you'll be happy. Which is great, as long as you don't need internet access for said laptop.

And I seem to recall from your previous posts that you'll need a job offer to get any kind of long term visa for Canada which is going to be somewhat tricky in a remote area.

Just a couple of things that sprung to my mind anyway.

Re: Looking for peace
 

How about somewhere in Cape Breton Nova Scotia? Beautiful place, cheap housing, quite possible to be isolated if you want, and they have the Community Identified scheme so you wouldn't need a job offer, just a few recce trips to make connections. Might be worth looking into?

http://www.snowtao.com/cruise/Jewel2...abot_Trail.jpg

http://www.capebretonhighlands.com/imgs/spring.jpg

by the way, I don't think there's anything wrong with looking for peace and tranquility and being willing to do any job to get it! Seems perfectly feasible to me if that's what you really want - and why not go after what you really want? Good luck :)

Re: Looking for peace
 

In Cape Breton I got talking to someone who'd moved there years before, from Toronto's Beach. He said he had one of the best job combinations there, running whale watch tours in the summer and working as a bartender at the Legion. The latter was a sought after position because it includes winter work. No internet to speak of there, of course. Seasonal work, poverty, damp, no wonder Cape Bretoners are the people Newfies laugh at.

If you really want goats and chickens and to spear yourself with heavy equipment, make me an offer.

Re: Looking for peace
 

The best way of achieving this dream is to become a best selling author :)

Re: Looking for peace
 

As others have said. Canada is big. Really big. It also has some extreme weather. It's unlikely you will get internet access (at least not with a decent bandwidth anyway) if you move to a remote location. Villages here are nothing like back home. There's rarely a pub, or a curry house to had.

You can still buy a big chunk of land with a run down old house on it for a reasonable price here though. Even in Southern Ontario. It all depends on your price range of course. I work in IT too, and often think of doing the same thing as you. But in reality I'm just a townie at heart. The suburbs are as remote as I can take. I need a pub and a curry house nearby and neighbours to chat to in the summer evenings etc.

Best of luck with your search and stick a post on this forum when you find something.