From our WV refuge-

[freetek]

I once owned a VW. Is that close enough?

Ya know, I rented one of the Beetles in Germany in the 60s and decided I didn't want to own one after the windshield knocked the fire off of the end of my cigarette which then landed in my lap.
Not civilized behavior for any car ;-).

 

[saveliberty]

"Free" natural gas?

 

[freetek]

"Free" natural gas?

Not "Free" Free!

We had narrowed our choices down to 2 states; Nevada and West Virginia.

We learned that Nevada had weird water rights laws. If you drill a well on your property and it isn't toxic, it belongs to the state so they can supply all those nifty fountains in Vegas and Reno with potable water.
If the well will kill you, you own it and can use all you want.

WV on the other hand, had many (about 1/3) parcels with no mineral rights but natural gas wells on them from which one could have an annual allotment or an unlimited amount for residential use.
In the areas where oil and gas is found, if property owners were sober when they sold their mineral rights (sometimes a century ago), they reserved some usage and occasionally also shared in the ongoing profits.
In the coal areas (mostly southeastern) an annual pile of coal service instead.

We kinda like gas, don't gotta carry it.

Around '98, the number of parcels to choose from dropped a bunch so we bought then and moved from CA in '03, built a new home in '05.

There are still parcels showing up on the market with free gas rights and very rarely, parcels with mineral rights, but those can be pricey and most probably don't have any known deposits.

To keep an eye on the value of our property, we check Calhoun Realty, Inc. website now and then.

BTW, on allotments: I calculated roughly what quantity of gas one would need to be 'off the grid' (we aren't; and at .07/kwh, the monthly damages are minor and own stock in the utility so get it all and more back anyhow) and it amounts ~650,000 cubic meters/annum. Most allotments are well under that.

The folks here are friendly and it is a gun-owners paradise that the ATF hates.

 

[saveliberty]

Nothing is free, it is cost shifting at best. As a Libertarian, why are you not paying your fair share?

 

[freetek]

Nothing is free, it is cost shifting at best. As a Libertarian, why are you not paying your fair share?

As a libertarian, I believe whatever one has left-over after government steals from you and spends it on things with which you disagree, can be disposed of in any way you wish.

The free gas entitlement is an attribute of the property we bought in a period when we could have spent less per acre if we had chosen land without the benefit of the free gas.
We didn't steal it from anyone, it was a transaction between a willing seller and willing buyer.

During the years of our work, we have paid taxes due, and whatever was left over was invested wisely and well, allowing us to buy where and what we wished for our retirement years.

Our property taxes are low in this county of 7500 because the Democrats on our county commission are amazingly prudent and conscious of the limitations of the ability of the people here to pay and the unusual personal liability borne by the elected officials.
State law prohibits the counties from having a deficit of 3-4% at which point a bonding company steps in and fills the void.
The bonding company then has the right to sue the individual county commissioners personally for recovery of the funds they have been forced to pay to cover the deficit.
A principle that should exist in every level of government.


Your moniker ‘saveliberty’ is poorly chosen if you believe that ‘fair share’ means that anyone must give up a share of their earnings beyond that extorted by the various levels of government to waste as they see fit.
Perhaps ‘savesocialism’ would be more accurate if your interpretation includes ‘fair share.’

 

[freetek]

Thank God. Another West Virginian on the board.

Are any of your family native to the state.

I have been to Grantsville a few times its a beautiful part of the state.

If you really want to see the wild part of wild and wonderful come to McDowell county

Glad to have you here.

Tony Stewart? I'm not a NASCAR follower, like F1 better but my wife, born in Germany would argue with ya- she's a Jeff Gordon fan.

We have no ties to WV that we know of; most are farther west in Indiana. <grin> Little chance of being 'double-related.'

I don't know when you last saw Grantsville but it has shrunken further since we arrived in '03; population is now under 600 in town. We live a tad outside the city limits by a few hundred yards.
We jumped on the property we have since we can see no signs of civilization in any direction but we are located exactly 1 mile from a supermarket and another 1/4 mile to the center of town.

I passed through your county in '98 while looking at land but a dim memory of passing through WV as a teen left me with the impression that there were few places that weren't beautiful - as long as you didn't need a job!

Sorry the reply was delayed, have been in- and out- of state a lot recently.

 

[uscitizen]

It's West By God Virginia.