It was never my intention to move down to the south.
I was born in the Pacific Northwest and was used to hiking and mountainous regions with dense pine forests.
Granted there were dangers in that region as well, there weren’t nearly as many venomous snakes. You basically had to go east of the Cascade mountains if you wanted to find a rattlesnake in the Pacific Northwest. The real dangers in my mind were the bears, especially the brown bears. So with that in mind, I guess I’m happy that I can hike in the South without really having to worry about bears attacking me, even if we do have some black bears down here. I also don’t miss all of the heating costs throughout the year living up north. It got extremely cold during the winter and you had to have two different heating sources just to survive through power outages and blizzards. Nowadays I just use a heat pump because the temperature rarely gets below 35 degrees fahrenheit. Heat pump is really energy efficient compared to the gas furnace I used to use living in the Pacific northwest. The heat pump is also ideal compared to a standard electric heating system found within a central air conditioner for instance. Those typically just have a heating coil that air is passed over and sent through a ventilation system. It’s an inherently energy-inefficient way to heat your home. I also got a discount on the heat pump by purchasing it at the same time as my new air conditioning system. It was smart for me to sign up for a heating and cooling maintenance contract as well.