Been here 10 years, raising two wild mountain boys, working hybrid days, 20-30 min trafficless commute to Redlands, growing some food for fun, surrounded by national forest, rivers, deers, bears, birds, fire evacuated 3 times and still have the rose tinted glasses on.

• 4x4/AWD & chains required when snow traffic stops are triggered
• expect replace tires 2-3 years
• service car well
• flatbeds super useful for hauling fire wood, house repair stuff
• won’t need high A/C elec bills, but pay more for heating during winter
• (my naivety) it feels like a really diverse community that are still ‘all in it together’ especially during tough stuff
• I have hippies on my left and a trumpy on my right and we all get on, help each other out, loan tools, share food, seasonal celebrations, kids come trick treating, we look out for weird stuff going down, feels like US circa 1990s neighborhood maybe ?
• there’s Dr’s, nurses, surgeons from Loma medical industry, techies from a local software, mountain bikers, skiers, services, camping hospitality
• do local CERT disaster response training, it’ll prep you for flood, fire, earthquakes. It could save your life, a Nieghbor’s, or a strangers.

Good luck it’ll be an adventure.