Kentucky anyone?

I was wondering if anyone here is from Kentucky?

I check in here most of the time but rarely post. We're all bovine here so there's not usually much to say.

We're in central KY.

Janet

Hey cuckoo
I am from the eastern part of Ky. If you know where Morehead is, its where you guessed it Morehead state is. There are 3 DGers here in Morehead. 2 of us are poultry/livestock people(and of course gardereners) There is also the Ohio river Valley forum and there are tons of us in the region, some not in Ky, but in the area, like southern Ohio and I chat birds and goats with some of them. At the spring RU we plan to not only trade plants, but hatching eggs and maybe a goat/chicken also. Come on over to the coffee house at the ORV forum and say George sent you, we are a great bunch of well how to describe us "NUTS!", but good people. We love to meet new people.
Geo

Well, I live in New England right now, but i am moving to the corbin area hopefully in 2008. We are trying to find work and housing. We will be putting our house on the market in spring or summer up here. I have never been to Kentucky, but i want to find and area where we can buy a home with a few acres. like 10+ acres. We want a mini farm. My husband is a woodworker and we found a cabinet co. in Corbin..........how far is that from morehead? is your area country like? I hate to stand out in a crowd.....i like to blend.....but when i hear the southern twang in the people i have talked to on the phone.......I am afraid i will stand out when i get there, LOL.

Hey cuckoo
Google Daniel Boone National forest and this is what our area looks like. I live on the edge of the forest on 100 acres of wooded land. We lived in the bigger cities like Lexington and Louisville, but love the country. Morehead is a college town. There is every type of people here, with the students and staff. The natives here are just typical small town people and a lot are people like me who went to school here loved it and stayed. Corbin I think is in more western Ky. Which we are on the eastern part closer to WV. There is also a cabinet co. in Mount Sterling, which is about 30 miles west of us. It is named Quality cabinets. They do construction home type cabinets. More like factory type work. Here in Morehead we have a lot of artist who work in all types of medias. I know of one guy that works wood, but it being totem type carving and such. He has had a store for years here. Moreheads slogan is "The Hardwood Capital". There are tons of sawmills here. I would think there would be a fairly good chance of someone doing custom cabinets here and doing well. Kentucky is very proud of our artist. Also google Berea. It is kinda like a whole artist community, with a college there devoted to the arts. I am not a Kentucky native. My mothers family was and we moved here in 1980 form OKLA. I also live an alternative life style and have never had a problem. I have had the chance to get to travel around a bit and for me I find Ky and its people some of the most beautiful land and nicest people I have ever met. Feel free to ask me any more question, I will do my best to help answer them and even if you want you could call me, but ask for that only in a personal dmail. I hope this helps. This is a pic of the creek that runs in front of my house. I get the luck to see it from my front porch and hear it always.
Geo

Corbin is in the south east in whitley co next to the daniel boone forest. Its definately on the east too. Can you get me the name of the cabinet co. please???

Hey cuckoo
The name of the company is Quality cabinets, its located in Mount Sterling, Ky. Its right on I-64 and is a straight shot from Morehead which is also on I-64.
Geo
There is quite a bit of real estate in this area and is fairly reasonable. It does get higher the more west you go such as in Mount Sterling(you are getting closer to bigger cities such as Lexington) Without getting personal there are also a few programs for housing for people with limited incomes. I had a friend who just got a house and an acre(I know you want more) and he pays like 300.00/month and its a great home, set right on the edge of daniel Boone. Also look up Cave Run Lake in the Daniel Boone forest area. There are lots of the cutest cabin/A-Frame homes with acreage in that area also and the lake is spectacular. That area is more geared for seasonal housing, but is really private and nice.
George

I'm Kentucky born and breed, however I am not living in Kentucky right now. (pouts) Me and my wife are looking at some land arround hazel, but honestly I think it will be five or ten years before we move back.

Thank you George.......I will look into that. I am not rich by ANY means, but i am sure i will not qualify for any housing....but thank you. I have also found a wood shop in somerset that i will have him look into. They do sheds, gazebo's and barns. I dont know if its anything he is interested in, but i want him to see all there are for his choices. I really just dont like HUGE cities.....but i want to be close enough to STUFF......you know what i mean? When you need stuff....i want to have a farmers supply and maybe a walmart/target and old navy maybe......at least in driving range. I try to look into other areas of the state, but it seems the east side is more our style. Can you tell me about winter there? When does it end? I am really looking forward to a lighter/shorter winter. I love winter....just not so much of it. I look forward to the plants and birds that we dont see here because of the zone. This is going to open some really cool doors for us.

Hello! cuckoo
Here in Morehead we have a super walmart(open 24/7),super kroger,Lowes(I spend Way to much time there!) and 3-4 more grocery type stores. Ace hardware and other building type stores. Lots of little floral and specialty shops from florist to home decorating. Quite a few garden/greenhouses(one right at the end of my road) Clothing big one is Goodys and other specialty ones. Eating is from every type fast food to buffets, home cooking places, couple steak houses, I could go on and on in this category. We have quite a few antique and collectible stores, one large antique mall/booth place. 2-3 thrift stores, Goodwill being one of them(love these shops). Some nice coffee shops and book stores. The university has a great art gallery and theater. We also have a Folk art museum and one of the largest Bluegrass festivals in the east. The arts are very big here. We have open air theater, story telling, music and lots of gallery shows. We have one festival devoted to artist. Its really cool. If you are into water, Cave run lake can not be beat for camping,swimming and all other boating and water sports. They have a B&B and cabin rentals also. If you want malls and a wider variety of shopping, we go to Lexington which is about 55 miles west of us. Their is anything there you could possible want. We hit the largest "city" mall there called Hamburg. Its easy to get to, right off interstate. It has the Old navy, pet smart,target,garden ridge, pier one,barnes and noble, bed, bath and beyond and the list goes on and on. I spend the day there and still only see prob 1/10th of whats there. There are also prob 3-4 more malls, but Hamburg has everything. Lexington also has some of the best hospital in the nation. Morehead has one, but Lexington has so many more with specialists. Example I go to Central baptist due to the heart specialist facilities.(I had open heart there last year, it was first rate and I did a lot of research before letting anyone crack my chest!). This is prob too much info and its getting way to long. The winters here are mild. We usually have a few snow with about 6 inches being the norm. It gets cold here, but not crazy cold. It stays in the 20-30 degree range, but can get to the teens also. Its been awhile since we have had neg. temps, but they do occur. My biggest complaint with weather here is its a wet winter and we have humid summers. This year we did not get a really hard freeze until Dec. and even now my pansies and honeysuckle have blooms on them. Its Jan. and Feb. that is the worst for us. I usually start planting in late April. Farm stuff is plentiful here in Morehead and in Mount sterling they have a large livestock auction facility. I feel like I need to print this and submit to our tourism LOL. Feel free to ask any more question.(you can prob tell I love it here)
Geo

Well......i would like to know some good towns outside of town that would be a quiet little country town. Thats good to have access to, but i would never wanna live in all that kinda chaos. I wanna live on a dirt road country farm life.....but drive to that kind of city for stuff. So what towns should i look into for a house like that?

Hey cuckoo
The town of Morehead is the county seat. I am considered Morehead, but live at the end of a gravel road about 15 min outside of town. Very rural. Its the same with all the towns i mentioned. They all have small village/towns outside their main city. Keep in mind Morehead population is only about I think 12 thousand. I could give you so many small towns in just the rowan county area where Morehead sits(dry creek, clearfield, halderman, etc.). Bath county may be another option you may want to look into. It has a small town called Owingsville as the county seat and its very small. It sit between Morehead and Mount Sterling on I-64. It also contains the towns of Salt Lick, Midline, and Preston. Clark county sits more west toward Lexington past Mount Sterling. It is a little bigger town, but like Mount Sterling has a beautiful historic district and downtown with many small roads with land that might meet your needs. I am not sure what you are really looking for. To me all these towns are small and there just is not really anymore dirt road towns in Ky anymore. All towns in Ky have a rural area in them even Lexington. I think you need to think about employment first and finding your home will come easy. I have all the benefits I have described and live down a 1/2 mile driveway on 100 acres and still get all the "town" action I want. Whatever your income will allow will be the indicator as to what you can find and your willingness to commute. I am not sure what level of cabinet/wood working experience your partner may have, but again I would make that a major factor in relocation. The feel of living you want is everywhere here. We have mansions on 1/2 acres and mobile homes that have 1000 acres.
George

Hey Cuckoo...
I am from New England and have lived her for 20 years now. We live in Payneville, KY which is west of Louisville. We are close to just about everything. Meade and Hardin Counties are great places to live. You can check us out at www.meadecounty.org (let me double check on that and I'll edit if it's wrong).

Elizabethtown is in Hardin County and is close to so much and there are a lot of farms available in both Hardin and Meade Counties. We have a farm (28 acres and farm 12 of it).

I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Where are you in New England? I lived in Massachusetts and all of our family is still there. Our children and grandchildren are here :)

Blessings,
Kathy
Okay editing to say the website is www.visitmeadecounty.org You can also check out our website at www.packardsmmfarm.com

This message was edited Dec 28, 2007 11:22 PM

I was born in Eastern Kentucky (Johnson County) but was raised in Michigan. My parents were both born and bred in Johnson County and moved north for work when I was little.

I don’t know anything about Corbin, KY, but if that falls through or you decide to look elsewhere in KY, my recommendation is to check out homes and property in a 45-60 minute drive-time radius from Lexington. Lexington is a beautiful city with all the conveniences, major hospitals, major university, businesses, employers, shopping, etc., that big cities offer, but you can still live out in the country by living an hour, give or take, away. Lexington is also located in a good spot in the state, so that you can easily access all of Kentucky should you want to travel north to Cincinnati, west to Louisville & more, east to the mountains, and south to Tennessee, Georgia, etc., having I-75 running though Lexington.

I'd move there in a heartbeat if I could get my kids and grandbabies to move with me. Them being here is the ONLY thing that keeps me in Michigan. I LOVE Kentucky, and go there to see my relatives every chance I get!

Good luck!
~~ Glenda

Glenda, I have a son that lives in Frankfort, loves it. My daughter lives in Lexington....it is VERY expensive to live there. Yes, convenient (sometimes), traffic is horrible in Lexington. It is a beautiful city to visit....but even our pastor who lived there for years says he will never live in Lexington again.

Here in Meade County, we are close to Ft. Knox, an hr from L'ville, 2.5 hrs from Nashville...about 5 hrs from St. Louis, about 3 hours from Western KY...2.5 hrs from Cincinnati...2.5 hrs from Indy and about 6 hrs from Chicago. We are putting in an interstate so that one can get from here to I 65 a lot quicker. Right now it takes about 45 minutes to get there.

My son has a beautiful house in Frankfort, in a great neighborhood. I would live there, if need be. That is Franklin County, KY.

We are about 20 minutes from Corydon, Indiana as well, here in Meade County.

Corbin is pretty well southeast in KY and is very mountainous. Our church does a lot of Mountain Missions in that area. If you're looking for country, but close to civilization...Corbin may not be what you're looking for.

But KY is a beautiful state and I'm not sure I'll ever leave :)

Kathy

Colquhoun, where is Hazel? Hearing that struck a deep down place in my brain/memory. LOL My family owns acreage in a place called Hazel Patch. I guess it's more of a squatter's rights thing. Several generations ago, it was willed to everyone and their descendants on my father's side of the family. He's been there before and said it's um, kind of scary, in a take a cop with you way. Ahem. Apparently those that live there, live pretty rough and with little to no luxuries. My father was there many years ago and told us what he saw. Yes, he did take a cop with him! LOL

Anyway, is the Hazel you mean, near Somerset?

Chele. This could be what Colquhoun was talking about:

http://www.hazelky.com/

I'll google Hazel Patch...but not sure I ever heard of it. But.........there are a lot of weird names for towns here in KY.

Having done census here, I can tell you that there are places like you describe...ha, ha..

Just smile...

:) Kathy

Edited to say...well, Chele.......you just might find this interesting tidbit of info about Hazel Patch, KY. Gives the location in almost perfect order. Have fun reading this:

http://www.rootsquest.com/~jmurphy/lessons/tip_03.htm

This message was edited Dec 29, 2007 12:08 PM

Now that is terribly interesting! I need to get out to my sister's and see my dad. When I do, I'll have to find out exactly, the name of the family line that last owned it. I do know my grandfather's last name but I'm not sure if it was his elders or my grandma's elders. It should be fun to learn more. ;)

For some time, my father had thought about moving there. I know he heard it was stripped of many of the gorgeous trees, due to lumber mining. I guess someone made money off of it or no one wanted to fight for it?

Well, you might find this interesting as well :) Sorry, not meaning to hijack a thread here...:(

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kylaurel/

What is your grandfather and grandmother's names?

Ok...George......thank you again....you are so helpful and it will all come in handy. The corbin area was just a start and the company only has 5 employees, so i am already looking elsewhere. I was planning to get hubby a job and work around that for sure. My skills will allow me to get a job anywhere.....I think:)

MISTY......I am in Western Massachusetts. Franklin County.......And where were you from? Are you familiar with Keene NH?
I would love to live in a town/city just like that......it has everything you could ever need.....its spread out nicely and EVERY town around it is a farm type town. If you know keene.......Thats what i want....with a shorter winter :) You guys are all the best.....and so helpful....I really appreciate your help.

Cuckoogirl, I am from Western Mass as well. Berkshire County, (Pittsfield) born and raised there. Our families still live in Hinsdale, Becket, Middlefield. Franklin, now is that Springfield? I am familiar with Keene, NH.

What does your hubby do? If you said already, I apologize. Corydon, IN, which is just across the river is a great town. There are farming communities all over here. Shelbyville, KY is a nice place. It is east of Louisville and up and coming with still farming communities left.

Check out our Kentucky Dept of Ag website. I think it's www.kda.org you can see lots of farms on there and I think they have maps so you can see locations. Another site to check out is www.localharvest.org It too has the farms that are listed on a map of KY. There is a lot of history here in KY and a lot of traditions.

Check out this site for farms/prices www.barrrealtyandauction.com You can get an idea of the cost of some of the places in our area. Anything I can do to help you, just give me a holler. I'll dmail you my email address. :)

Blessings,
Kathy

Hi Kathy, I am in greenfield.

This message was edited Dec 29, 2007 5:30 PM

Sorry, been a busy week. Hazel is seven miles south of Murray, Kentucky home of Murray State. Murray isn't a big city like Lexington, but its a very nice place, a nice small town with some of the nicities of a big city. Hazel is despite being on seven miles away, more or less Mayberry,a truly wonderfull place.

Rabbit Hash is a great place, but too expensive for us.. but if you get a chance to watch the movie about it, by all means do.

The only real crime in Rabbit Hash anyone can remember is the day someone came into town and stole a pack of cigarettes, after jumping in the river to escape the 'Rabbit Hash S.W.A.T Team and Jug band' he was arrested after they commandered a houseboat. Oh, and they normally elect a dog from mayor.


This message was edited Dec 30, 2007 2:03 AM

Hey misty
I think it was you that I read had a underground/straw bale style house. I could not find the thread to confirm. If it was you could you post a pic or give some info on how you like it. I also loved your web site, you all have a great set up!
Geo

Hey Geo...Yep, it was us. We live in what is called a Berm home (underground house). It is warm in the winter, cool in the summer. We have windows only on one side and it makes it a bit rough as we have no windows in our bedrooms. When we first moved here, we were sleeping until 2 in the afternoon because we put the shades down at night. It made it like a cave in here. If I could change things, I'd put skylights in our bedrooms. ha, ha. I will try to take a picture or some pictures.

We've had a lot of problems with mice this year and I think they are eating the wood around the upstairs floor (we use for storage). It is basically a gambel roof. Our cat is getting pretty fat. But then when you live on a farm, you have mice.

We also put up with a lot of Wolf spiders in the fall and winter. I don't think this place is a sealed up as it should be, but then we didn't build it and I can see so many things that this guy did wrong.

Thanks for the kind words about our website. We have a customer that was generous enough to build that for us; only problem is that I have to keep bothering him to change things. I wish I knew how to design a website.

At one time, DH wanted to build a straw bale house, and then another time we talked about a cordwood house....

I feel very safe in this house when the storms come through and here in our part of KY, we see plenty. I can sit here and watch them go by. If you're ever in our neck of the woods, stop by and see our "taj majal" for yourself...:) You are always welcome.

:) Kathy

Hey Kathy
I would love to see your place, thank you so much for the invite. I have friends who live on a commune/combined work community in Tenn. Its called The farm. It has a soy dairy, birthing center and tons of work shops on simple/organic lifestyle. Its a fairly big community with some pretty strict requirements to live there. My friends special talent is she does herb work shops and he does converting cars to using biofuels. They have a VW van that runs on used vegetable oil. They smell like french fries when they are driving. They use a type of material for their houses called cobb housing(spell check). I have never got the chance to go there, but have seen it on their web site. We plan to visit this summer and stay in the hostel there. Maybe we can swing by and check you all out. My goal is to be self sufficient.
Geo

Hi George, Well, the info you gave me looked good (cabinet shop) and we got that as the only good lead in your area. We then followed some of misty's leads to her area and as of right now, we are looking into the bowling green area. we found a small home on over 60 acres. I dont know if we could make it a reality, but i am going to start looking into work in that area for my wood guy. I am hopeful and from what i have found for pics of that area it looks very nice. What do you think of that????

Hey George,
We would like to be totally self-sufficient...it is a hard thing to do, when you haven't been. ....arghh. Sounds like a place I might have liked as a younger farmer....I like my space now, not sure I could do the commune thing. ha, ha. Just give us a holler. If you checked out our website, you know how to contact us :)

Cuckoo, Bowling Green is a nice area. I actually was going to mention that...but didn't get around to it. I believe BG is about 2 hrs from us....down 65. Of course, that's where they make Corvettes :)

Kathy

Hey Kathy....and what a coincidence that my Dad has a 1961 Corvette. He would love that!!!! He lives in Shelburne Falls if you know where that is :)

Of course I know where Shelburne Falls is :) The bridge of flowers. :)

Yup.....bridge of flowers. We have a new incentive to move to Kentucky......see the weather we have right now? Its already snowing and we might get up to a foot. We already had 2 feet so far this month......I am very thankful that its been warm for a few days because we had alot of ice melt. My chickens HATE all this snow. I am finding alot of good job options in Bowling Green. I cant wait to get to go see the area. How long is a flight from here to there about???

I fly into Albany and in better weather, Hartford. Depending on the airline, the city in between is questionable. Sometimes Detroit, sometimes Chicago, sometimes Pittsburgh, well you get my drift. I would say 1-2 hrs from L'ville to a connecting flight and then 1-2 hrs from there. The time is spent waiting in airports!!!!

We just saw on TWC that it is snowing back home. You can have it, but I'd like a little snow. All I wanted it to do was snow a little bit here on Christmas Eve :( Just a little...

No chickens don't like snow....ours are funny when and if it snows. They act like they're walking in say.....chicken poop!!! ha, ha.

My mother will be calling tomorrow and telling me of all the snow, ha, ha...or my sister. Enjoy the white stuff. BTW, one foot of snow in KY would cancel the whole state!!!

:) Kathy

LOL....i heard 3 inches would shut down Kentucky :)

You're right!!! But DH doesn't mind driving in it and when it snows, we get calls...."I need bread, I need to get to the doctor," etc. In 1994, the commonwealth was shut down for 7 days. Our truck was the only one moving and there was no bread or milk to be found. Now when you hear the "S" word, better run and get milk and bread........because there won't be any. We just keep a good supply of both on hand, just in case. That's something you learn living in snowy New England is to stock up and take advantage of sales. Of course, most people having cellars....we had lots of room for canned goods, freezers, etc.....

Yep, I think I'd like to be snowed in.
:) K

MISTY! bite your tongue! I was stranded for those 7 days in "94" I was finishing up my degree and could not make it to my house and had to hole up with like 10 other people in a 2 bedroom trailer. cuckoo, you can come to Ky, but leave the snow behind. A few inches is all I want to see.
Geo

Geo, Yes, we had to leave our house...we lived in a mobile home at the time and we lost all of our power, had twin lambs born that night and lost a 24 foot freezer full of meat. All of pipes burst in our mobile home and we had no water for a while after we got electricity back!

We had to go and stay at a neighbor's house and bring the 2 lambs. They were kept in the basement and I had to bottle feed them every 2 hours; they blatted all the time and we had to keep them tied up so that they wouldn't wander all over the basement and make a mess of things (if you know what I mean). There were 5 of us that moved in with 2 more into 2 bedroom house. She was very gracious and they were great people. Sadly, both of them have moved onto heavenly delights.

It was a time to write down a story in the books, that's for sure. And I never want to see that happen again....but a little snow would be nice. Now I don't want the foot that Cuckoo is getting, but a few inches, I'm okay with ;)

Okay, I've bitten my tongue...it hurt....are you happy? ha, ha.

:) Kathy

I promise to leave the snow behind. Here is what i woke to this am..............

I love it. :) But you can have it...ha, ha.

cuckoogirl, Our d and sil lived in Lexington for about 4 yrs. If the grandkids knew that you had so much snow they'ld have a fit!! LOL!
Kydaylilylady, We're bovine, ovine (hair sheep) and poultry people here.

Gardener, Simmental/Angus cross here. We're in the middle of trying to get our fall freshening animals bred back and I'm afraid we're starting to see the results of a hot dry summer. Cows aren't cycling back as quickly as they should and it's going to really mess with the calving interval. Oh well, there are years that we apparently don't work for profit....

Shelby County is a nice county with lots of variables in landscape. One part of the county runs to flat while the eastern and southern part is more wooded and hilly. More ridgetops there. Unfortunately it's turning into an urban playtoy sprouting more $300,000-$500,000 homes than you care to see. You'll be seeing ground going up to $10,000 an acre depending. Good thing these people aren't paying for that ground farming because they can't. It is, however, very convenient to people looking for jobs in Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort or Georgetown. You can see a little of the landscape of Shelby and Franklin counties in our picture gallery at our website http://quarlesdaylilies.com

A rather chilly morning this morning. Wind chill about 2 below. Sure glad there weren't any fresh cows this morning....And thank goodness for Mirafont water tanks!

Janet