I'm at a point where my state was once a good place to be but is now full of retards and rainbows. Work is pissing me off enough I've almost walked out a couple times in the last year and I've been thinking of getting out of the this disaster of a state for at least a couple years now. Might as well kill 2 birds with one stone!

I need to find a job. Hopefully someplace I'll retire from in 20+ years (like I hoped my current employer would be). By education I'm a Mech Engineer with exposure to electrical and software and by experience maintenance (robotics and automotive paint plant with LOTS of PLCs) and production engineering with some EE and software mixed in. I also dabble in machining and I'm basically the #3 machinist where I work behind the guy with over 20 years of experience and the guy that works with him every day. I've been there almost 6 years.

I hate big cities and I'm from a city of about 1500. I know the jobs are usually in the big cities. I do NOT want remote work. Don't really see how that's possible for anything I've done anyways.

I've been to the Boise area a couple times, mostly on the way to and from Knob Creek. Never really spent much time there. What areas should I be looking at in ID? What companies should I be talking to? What areas should I avoid? What companies should I avoid?

I'm planning to spend a week near Lewiston and spend a little time north and south of Lewiston to get a break from work and look for potential employers. This will be at the end of April if all goes as planned.

I completely understand the sentiment of "don't come here with your politics". My state is a victim of that as well.

Anyone need a mech engineer?

Nobody here is going to be able to reply to you because you are asking “you” questions that you simply need to explore and answer for yourself.
I will say this, if you do not already have your nest egg you will not be coming to any notable place in Idaho and retiring in 20.

I think they’ve just recently changed the doable retirement age to 96 due to the pay vs cost of living

Northern Idaho is expensive. If you have $300K equity in your present home you maybe could swing it. Don't quit before you have the new gig.

Well, true.

I've done well for myself so far, have solid retirement plans, more in savings than most my age. Definitely not rich by any means. I have other plans for income and I am getting close to launching my own small business in the NFA/MG world with plans to branch out from there. I have a solution for a need in the transferrables realm (small market) with further plans. Thinking of using my current residence as a rental as rentals go for easily twice my mortgage here and will last less than 48hrs on the market. We have far more renters here than available homes.

The gov can stick their stupid retirement age where it don't shine. I do plan to work more than another 30 years, hopefully closer to 20 if I play my cards right.


Any recommended places to avoid or look at? Recommended companies to work or and any to avoid?

Mills are right out. Generally mass amounts of turnover and seasonal layoffs. Plenty of those here and even their supporting companies do the same things. It's ridiculous.

What I'm reading by that is anything below $500k is junk in ID. I do know that recently was not true in Boise, Nampa and Meridian as my family bought several rentals in that area in the last few years.


My present house I do not plan to sell. More than likely rent it and have someone else build equity in it for me and let me skim some extra off the top.


Don't worry, not planning to quit until I have a gig and a start date. I tend to have enough vacation lined up my current gig will get to pay me for at least a month after I stop working there. I currently get paid pretty far below market which sucks and I know my employer won't do any better. The hourly people benefit a lot more than I do. I think my last raise was my biggest since I became salary at about 1.5%. Still not even to where I was when I was in maintenance in Mississippi. Was that desperate to not be on night shift. I'm still screwed up from graveyard.

Probably still not enough time to move. Really not looking forward to moving the equipment turning my garage into a machine shop. 3500lbs of Bridgeport is gonna suck to move.


Anyways, didn't realize northern ID was expensive. I plan to check out Lewiston, a buddy of mine is a toolmaker for a gig that does radial aircraft engines a little out of Lewiston, and probably get up towards Hayden. Probably head south to the Boise area too.

It's not only expensive in North Idaho, it's quickly turning into California. County/city planners can't green-light disgusting apartment complexes fast enough.

Yep and there’s waiting lists to move in. What ever this thing is with Idaho taking food stamps and housing subsidies from other states needs to stop, but won’t.

Where are all of these rent payers working?

It makes no sense to me, but I don't understand a lot of things.

I have lived down by the river for the past 11 years. What they are doing down here is horrendous. They are packing hundreds of units along Seltice, and it is going to be a nightmare of congestion.

They are not. These programs fund the construction (actually over fund them to pay for the land & development costs as well as pay off the people that approve them) with your tax money and then they subsidize the rent.

I feel like a sucker!

I wonder if I can get any of them government subsidies...

PM sent

That's sad.

You have no idea.

I have an idea. I'm from California originally, defected to a very conservative part of OR and have watched the cities around my home town go from down to earth and conservative to hippies and commies. Half of the major town near where I call home is as bad as Portland.


I have no intentions of moving to a future Commiefornia.

The problem is that there is no place left that is free of this insanity. I lived in numerous states during my military career. Even extremely conservative states like Colorado have completely changed. I am just glad that I was able to experience some of these places before they want to hell.

We are witnessing the Fall of Rome.

I know, I worry about that. Maybe I can help be the straw that breaks the commies back in a good state. Until Portland and Salem get flushed, nuked, whatever, it won't happen here.


BTW, for this trip, any good gun shops I need to stop at in ID?

Black Sheep is my go to shop, but I also have friends who are FFLs.

East County Guns is solid as well but smaller.

Go to Independence Indoor in meridian if you want to rent machine guns or shoot a Barrett indoors.

Shooting a Barrett indoors would be one of the last things I'd want to do. Haha.

I miss the Black Sheep that used to be in Lewiston. Even the one in CdA was better before their relocation. One of the largest selections in the northern part of Idaho is actually in Spokane. Double Eagle Pawn.

For MGs I'll just open my safe or go talk to my SOT buddy. He has cool shit I'll never be able to afford for a hobby.

A Barrett indoors sounds unpleasant. Fun but unpleasant. I've got other 50BMG opportunities here in bolt and FA options depending on who I go shoot with.

Good info to know where the MG guys are though. I saw there is a MG club in ID.

It's cold in the winter. Wages are lower than the West Coast and there aren't a ton of high paying jobs. And there's a state income tax.

Your relatives probably bought property before the pandemic. Prices in northern Idaho almost doubled when the pandemic started and they are still much higher than 2019.

Apart from all that, it's great!

My folks bought their rentals right in the middle of the Plandemic. Places are a little more expensive than I paid for my place, 30% larger and 100% nicer materials, granite, etc. Hell, bought 2 for what they sold one tiny condo rental in Cali for. It was 2020 or 2021 they bought. I bought my place in 2018. Their places are more towards the Boise area. Buddy of mine got a killer deal on a huge place for less than he sold a much smaller, less desirable place in OR. He is outside Lewiston. Some crazy 3500sqft house with a full shop for his tooling and machines from a tiny house and tiny shop on maybe a couple acres. He bought that, I believe, 2020ish. Might have been 2021. He hasn't been there long.

My wages are already low but if cost of living is lower that doesn't really matter. I make 2/3 as an engineer as I did as a maintenance tech in Mississippi. Advertised wages of engr entry level just out of school stuff I've looked at is more than I make. Another reason I want to leave my current job. While I'm not motivated by money I do have expensive hobbies.

I love the snow and it kills me I no longer live in snow country. In highschool we got excited if the high was above -5F. In college we had a week with a high of -25F. Central and eastern parts of OR can be very very cold and see 100° temperature swings in a day. Unfortunately I'm no longer in that area. Wish I was.

State income tax here too. No sales tax but I get to pay out my nose for the rest of my taxes. They even tax the entire state to give people in Portland a free bus ride. Some sort of Oregon Transit Tax. None of that money funds anything that I've found outside Portland.

I consider East County one of the pricier shops in town. However, it also has friendlier employees than some other places - it's still my go-to. If you need to buy ammo, North 40 has decent prices - close to what you'd find online if you factor in shipping.

I agree with you. I have always gotten good service at East County so, I have a few cans sitting in jail...

Might want to look at inl.gov. As far as small town? Arco side of the desert. Anywhere from Arco to Mackay

Trip is done. Had a good time. Don't really like the entire swath from Oregon to Boise to Idaho Falls. Too flat and lifeless. Hardly a tree. Lewiston is OK. Really like Post Falls. Liked it enough to apply for a job or two up there. Not really infatuated by Coeur D'alene. I don't care about being fancy or the lake. I also really liked the areas within about an hour south of Coeur D'alene.

I liked the overall feel of the state and liked the people. Most folks were polite. I did note the speed limits were more of a suggestion. More of a "if you feel like going that fast you can do XX MPH. Lots of folks doing 60-65 in an 80. Nobody ever seemed to manage 35 in a 35. In OR 35 is more like 45 and most do 75+ when the sign says 65. Hell, we all do 65 when it says "SPEED 55". Not "SPEED LIMIT". Most signs here do not say "LIMIT". Also noticed 75% or more of the drivers havnt figured out how to use a blinker and most of the markings on in town roads are so faint I could hardly see them in daylight. Most of the time nobody was camped out in the left lane. McCall is ridiculous as is Eagle. The giant Albertsons in Meridian is insane but good food in the food court. Q

Buck Knives was fun to tour. The Idaho Museum in Idaho Falls was good. The Boise zoo has the bravest squirrels I've ever met and we basically had the place to ourselves once the rain started. I need to go back to EBR-1 when it opens for tours. That was super cool. Got to watch the first firing of a rebuilt motor for an aircraft like a B-17 fire for the first time after rebuild outside of Lewiston. That was cool. Guns N Gear in Idaho Falls got me hooked on the P938. I enjoyed the "Not legal in California" shirts and the LAW weilding bear at Idaho Guns and Outdoors.


Was a good trip. I wouldn't mind living outside of Post Falls.

What's the shooting pit and outdoor competition shooting like up there?

There's an airfield out in the national forest somewhere that people shoot at sometimes. No idea how safe it is.

I either shoot on my property or at FRGC. I haven't been to the indoor range in post falls in years. There's another outdoor range on Atlas in CDA.

The fanciness in CDA is all new - last five years or so.

Glad you had a good trip,Post Falls is basically CDA though.Im sure the division lines are little to none by now.

About 30-60 mins south of CDA was my favorite area.


CDA is kinda weird. Post Falls felt better but I was only there for a couple days b

Reservation land?

Dunno. Was far enough away from town, nice hills, few houses and something southern ID doesn't have: trees!

Closer to Lewiston the less I liked it. Didn't get a chance to go much east. Kinda went around Idaho from Idaho Falls to CDA.

Half hour to an hour south of CDA is pretty much all on the res. Figure a guy might want to know.

Attached File

You been to Lewiston yet or still planning. CCI/Speer is there they are always hiring.

This is a good sign for Idaho

https://apnews.com/article/constitutions-medical-marijuana-legislation-marijuana-idaho-56388b6b5ca7cbaa4ed695393c8ea899

Drugs have destroyed Kalifornia.  My old home town is full of drug addicts.  It is like the night of the living dead.  It all starts with pot.  

Little known fact - once they legalized pot in Kali, the cartels flooded in even worse than before.  Some areas in No. CA are no-go zones.

Got turned down by them in my last app. I'll have to see what they have listed right now.

I have a buddy about an hour out of Lewiston. I gotta go back and pick up a lathe soon.

Good!


Oregon has the same crackhead shit show as Cali. It's bad.