North West BS Thread

We live pretty close. I’m gonna check him out.

 

Well, that sucks balz. Lines are nuts there in the summer. Must have stretched into the street. Next time!


Well, got the house chores are done for the day. Got primer on the house (exposed plywood from our new roof), windows and screens washed and pulled the cover off our A/C compressor to spray off the cooling fins. Man, I hate ladder work.

Beer is open and three of these will be done in about 3 hrs.

 

Yeah, south of Asotin

 

It was awesome. Had 27 big horn sheep on the hillside across from us. Mainly ewes and lambs, a few Rams. That hill is super steep, picture doesn't do it justice.

 

Funny, I just sprayed my A/C out with Simple Green coil cleaner this week. First time since we built (2016).

Ribs look damn good, wanna trade? It's hotdog night around here.
But tomorrow... T-bone from our recent steer purchase!

 

It mentions plant fibers here.
I have to find that other site I was on...

 

Hey all, maybe not the right thread but you all seem nice, anyways.. Thinking about moving from Phoenix to the Portland area some time next year. From extreme sun to extreme overcast/rain. Anyone from there able to tell me how bad the 8 months of overcast really are. I'm sick of the heat and want more nature and just general greeness in my life. Thanks!

 

Welcome to the thread!
I would stay away from Portland unless your job requires it. If you can spread your wings, the Oregon coast is amazing. In Western WA, the Vancouver area or anywhere North of Everett would be my choice.
Keep us posted

 

I live in the Sw Portland area. The rain is as bad as you think times like 100. Also when it snows even 1/64th of an inch the entire city shuts down. Now this is primarily due to 2 reasons. 1. People have no clue how to drive. I don’t care where you drove in snow before. It won’t be the same. 2. This city has micro climates. So you could literally drive a few miles down the same road and run into three different types of snow. Usually it’s the ice that gets everyone.
What brings you up this way? Work?

 

We moved here from AZ a few years back and absolutely love it. I worked construction in AZ until I retired and almost hate the sun. I’m sick of skin cancer and in love with the mist, fog, rain and drizzle! Stay away from Portland if you can unless you like their political views. We’ve got a couple acres west of Portland and have a creek that salmon spawn in and blackberries everywhere. Pigs, chickens, rabbits, turkeys and a good garden.

 

I wouldn t move anywhere near downtown Portland. You ve probably hear what s going on there now. Actually, I saw a group of protesters on Stark St near Mall 205, and looked like they were up to no good, but for the most part, the protests, and violence is pretty much staying downtown. I live in east Portland near Gresham. It s not bad, though I work swing shift, so I don t get out much. East Vancouver rocks. My folks live there, and if I had a choice I would too. One thing about northwest; you can save money on car washes because the moment you wash truck it rains.

 

I'll throw out a few things to ponder:
- OR has no sales tax, but has an income tax. WA has the opposite. Many people live in WA even if they work in OR to avoid the income tax. Best of both worlds.
- I've only visited the Portland area, but from what I remember heading any direction out of town will quickly get you outside the "city" and into suburbs. The climate will vary, but the closer to the coast will get your cooler and wetter weather, while heading east will quickly get you into the dryer, warmer regions.

 

Thanks everyone, I am originally from a beach town in Southern California. I think I just crave actual seasons and weather of any kind. I work in a field that needs a large city (programming for Geographic Information Systems), Portland is one of the few hotspots in the country for this field, which is what draws me to that city and rules out a lot of the smaller towns unfortunately. I am working remotely now for the foreseeable future, but if I had to move jobs I'll likely need to work/live near Portland. I've always wanted to live in the forest, worked in Silicone valley for awhile and loved the redwood forest but couldn't come close to affording it long term. So I was pretty much looking for a similar climate but more affordable, Phoenix is really awesome having so much of the state being open space but I want my son to grow up close to nature and forest and not desert or semi-desert. Thank you everyone for your suggestions, I think I'll have to make a trip out for a week or two this winter to see what the rain is all about.

 

If working in Oregon I recommend staying in Oregon. It used to be you could come to Washington and not pay sales tax, but we recently changed that. Oregon is cheaper living than Washington. Yes you have state income tax, but if you live in Washington and work in Oregon you will get taxed from both states. You may get it back at the end of the year, but you will be heavily taxed. Works better the other way around for some reason. At least over here on the east side it does. Most people live in Oregon for cheaper living and work in Washington with higher wages. Washington has the highest minimum wage for a state(Washington DC is higher but it's not a state).

 

Interesting...I can see that in Walla Walla. That area is a pocket of "very expensive" in an otherwise small-town setting. What's cheaper in OR? Are you just talking about the lack of sales tax in general (which WA residents can take advantage of) or other items?

 

Housing, gas, alcohol, tobacco, soda(even with deposit fee), groceries, you name it the minute you're over the boarder it's cheaper. But good point, Walla Walla is expensive. But it's still cheaper in Oregon for those items than in our surrounding counties. Same for Idaho when going from Asotin county into Idaho at Clarkston and Lewiston. Washington is just higher cost of living than Oregon and Idaho. It's why our minimum wage is so high.

 

Good intel...I knew our sin and fuel taxes were going to be higher, but thought groceries would be cheaper. Crazy stuff...

 

Not that I’m being argumentative with you guys but one thing you can use to determine difference in cost of living is a Cola calculator. For example the military has one that they base your “housing allowance” on if you are married or for what ever reason live out in town. I used it after I got out to try and get an apples to apples comparison for where we might end up. I checked my zip vs Tim’s city which might not be fair because opposite ends of the state. My cola $2300’ish a month and Walla Walla was $1600’ish.

For example this income vs sales tax topic. It can be kind of a pita to try and compare. Let’s not even get into other crazy tax’s, bonds, fees or whatever they want to try and pass it as. If I am not mistaken it used to be that living in Vancouver was an awesome deal if you worked in Or especially if you had a CDL. You only had to make like two trips into OR a year to dodge the OR income tax. I guess that’s not true any more. I worked with a guy that lived in Ridgefield and worked inPortland. He had to pay OR tax and obviously WA sales.

Also the difference in real estate tax is freaking nuts too. I live in a suburb of SW side of Portland(WA county). Our house was built in the 70’s and appraised around $400k. I pay roughly $4500 a year. A friend of mine got out of the Marine Corps and moved his business up here. They bought a brand new $600+K home in Washougal and pay like $1500 a year.


Long story short...though sometimes needed...these tax’s are freaking crazy.

Edit: I almost forgot....the worst part of working in the Portland area and living in Wa... the I5 bridge!!! I used to laugh at my friend. Most days we would get off the same time and I could make the almost 30 mile commute through PDX traffic and he would still be waiting on the on-ramp from Columbia Blvd.

 

Yeah, all of the different places they add/hide taxes is pretty crazy. It is hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison. Especially with the WA sales tax since the rate varies by city and county, and food is excluded while other necessities are not.

There are cost of living calculators online...that is a good suggestion too.

 

Yeah. Hopefully this isn’t a crime to post or something but I used this...
https://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/bahCalc.cfm

Put in E5 with dependents.

Also thanks to this thread I just did 40 minutes of recovery cardio on the air bike and didn’t realize it .


Also this happened this morning



Lift is going on the 4Runner on Tuesday.

 

In Oregon, the kids they make us use to pump our gas are “higher”!

 

Our sales tax is 8.9. what's yours?

 

Thank you for posting this! It's crazy to see the difference between Phoenix and Portland, both are still better than California but this really helps. Nice rims!

 

Those tires are on my short list when I get new shoes for the truck. Those are the Discount Tire "exclusive" treads right? They look way better than online. I'll need a full report on how they handle, noise, etc....

The WA state sales tax website says Kirkland is 10%, but I'm willing to bet it is a few 10ths higher. The locals will approve any tax for any reason.

 

Thought someone would beat me to it. But let’s go Rip City

 

Edit: Botched the quote. @Green Thunder


I've been running these since spring, yeah Discount tire exclusive.
Love them so far, really good off-road traction with a solid sidewall, quiet on the freeway. Looking forward to some winter testing.
They like to sling gravel going up my driveway but it might just be that type of A/T

 

Nice...are they holding their balance? I had BFGs on my last truck and loved them, but they were out of balance within a few thousand miles. Please report back on how they do in snow. That's a biggie for me...

 

The snowflake designation was a big want for me too. The wife doesn’t have a long work commute by any means but there is a huge ass hill climb that can be a bit of an issue. Wanted to give her a fighting chance before I have to go retrieve her. But her lift came with free traction boards so there is another safety built into her 4Runner.


I can’t wait to see how this lift and tires work. We are already planning a beach trip for the week after I put the lift on. Sand was another important part to this puzzle.

 

Yep, they are so far. Going 70 with the trailer behind us down I-5 today. Smooth, no wobble.