A little background before I ask questions of the hive-mind:

I just sold my house and am considering a move from the sad state of Kalibania to the fair state of Ohio.  I have family from the Williams County area in NW Ohio (Bryan/Stryker/West Unity) and am considering moving to that area.  I am looking for a house outside of town (about 5+ acres).  I have some questions for all you native folk, though.

Utility bills - how much am I going to pay for heat in the winter?  Do you mostly use home heating oil or natural gas?  Electricity - I average about $100/mo in the winter and $200 in the summer in a 2400 sq ft house in CA.  Will it be similar for the same size house in OH?

The job market - does it suck or is it okay?  I will need to find a job fairly quickly upon moving out.  I am currently a LEO out here, but I am in no particular hurry to stay in law enforcement.  I will likely need something that pays fairly well and has decent bennies - UPS or FedEx, perhaps, or the USPS.  I figure that I will do that for about a year or so while I either go back to school for something else, or try to get hired on to a local PD/Sheriff's dept.

Taxes - income and property - high/low or not too bad?  Property taxes in Kali run about 1-2% per year of the home's value, which is pretty high.  State taxes out here suck too.

And now to the fun questions....

If I get a house outside of town, will I be able to legally shoot on my own property?  Does it vary from county to county or is there a state law that covers it all?  For example, in Kalibania, you have to be 1/2 mile outside of city limits.  Any links to such laws would be greatly appreciated.

How hard is it to obtain your CCW license?  What are the costs and training involved?

Please help out a poor potential refugee.  It would be nice to live in a free state.

I can't answer  all of your ?becauseI live in NE OH
For the heating we have heating oil so you get a punch in the stomach every time we fill (500 Gal). It averages about $2.25 a gal. It lasts us all winter but we also live in the snow belt up here.

As far as taxes here it's a mixed bag it depends on the school district you plan on living in. Good news is if you live in a township you taxes can be fairly low

shooting, I live in a good county (portage) and as long as your neighbors are cool your ok. You can have problems if you don't have some kind of stop though.

CCW is a piece of cake but it is a little watered down I'm getting mine but do not have it yet to give more spec.

To let you know I moved out here from Kali myself. There will be an initial culture shock but the people here are good. I would never move back especially w/ a family and the laws they have there now!

I moved out to Ohio from Kalifornia as well, and as lowriderrich has already pointed out, there will be an intitial culture shock, but it shouldn't last too long...especially if you have kids.  I live closer to the Cleveland area, in a Township and have all the privileges of being able to shoot in my own back yard.  Of course, I had 220 cubic yards of dirt brought in on my property (almost 10 acres) so that I could create a nice berm to stop any rounds.

As for CCW, I got mine when the law was first changed to allow for us the right to carry.  It was a piece of cake to get it.  Basically, you take a 12 hour class course and shooting, take the test, and then apply at the police department.  

As for utility bills, I have a 3500 square foot Colonial and it cost us about $300 to heat her up in the winter months, but only around $125 to cool her down in the summer months.  Of course, the heating season this year hit alot of us due to the increase cost of natural gas.  Last year I think we only paid about $225 a month to heat the house.  Also, I have a wood burner in the house, so had I not been lazy to go out in the backyard and chop some wood for her, I could have reduced that bill somewhat.

As for taxes, it depends on the school district that you live in.  My taxes are WAY up there; we pay almost $5K a year just in property taxes, but don't pay local income taxes.  Again, this is based on the school district you'll be residing in.

The job market is picking up lately, but it depends on what field you're in.  I'm in computer related and it's going through ups and downs at the moment.

Quoted: Utility bills - how much am I going to pay for heat in the winter?  Do you mostly use home heating oil or natural gas?  Electricity - I average about $100/mo in the winter and $200 in the summer in a 2400 sq ft house in CA.  Will it be similar for the same size house in OH? --My 2100sq ft house:  105/mo (year round) natural gas.  80-100/mo electricity (no kids, helps). --Not sure about taxes yet.  I'm all escrowed.  I know taxes went up ~100/mo last month.  "And will be taht way for the next 12 mos" If I get a house outside of town, will I be able to legally shoot on my own property?  Does it vary from county to county or is there a state law that covers it all?  For example, in Kalibania, you have to be 1/2 mile outside of city limits.  Any links to such laws would be greatly appreciated. --Down where I am, I can shoot outside of town.  I suspect each township/county varies.  My buddy lives on a 1 acre lot and we blast targets in his back yard.  He has people within 100yds on either side.  I like my other buddy's 400+ acres better though.

Thanks for the answers.  Is it better to do propane or home heating oil?  Any pros/cons besides price?

I also figure that cars wear out a bit quicker due to salt on the roads in the winter.  What is the best way to deal with that (besides taking the bus )?  Will I need a 4x4 for winter driving or will snow tires on the family minivan be good enough?

Thanks again for your help.

FWD isn't too bad as long as you have some good tires.  My stock tires (goodyear RSAs)  sucked so I got some snow tires.  Then a second set of wheels/tires for summer.  Before that I had a beater 4x4 Toyota truck.


Winter varies though.  One year it is horrible, the next it is barely here; just cold.

my electric runs $77.00 bucks a month. my heating oil bill runs $400.00 bucks a fill up. i believe it is state law you have to have 10 acres or more to shoot on your own land. to get a job driving for ups it may take 5 years or more. so you would be on the dock working your ass off.  if you know someone with a semi truck you can rent the pad for $100.00 bucks from us xpress and take your cdl test. there currently trying to find a so called fair way to make it equal on state wide school funding. sounds like there going to tax us more. gas is $2.500 a gal. there is a job drain going on in ohio. alota people are moving south. florida, texas, and arizona are the three hot states. the fastest growing town is las vegas nv. have you looked in north carolina? they say the cost of living there is low.

If you live in the township you are generally fine for shooting, regardless of lot size.  Check the local area laws however, as the local township trustees may have put an ordnance on the books restricting our rights further.  In NW Ohio you should be fine for shooting in the township though.  (fairly conservative area)  I do sugest a GOOD backstop as that area of the state is FLAT and there's not too much roll to the land to stop bullets.

Natural gas in the urban/suburban areas, propane in the rural areas.  Heating Oil in the rual areas too.  I have a 6 acre lot I'm going ot build on in NW Ohio.  I have a natural gas transmission line running right through it!  What sucks is they can't tap it, it's too high pressure and they don't/won't put the necisary reducing equipment in for a couple houses.  Same goes for cable TV/DSL lines.  Not cost effective to run the fancy cable down my road for half a dozen houses.  That means I'm stuck with dialup or Satalite for internet in the future...

NW Ohio is not the job capital by any means.  Look to the Three C's for more job oportunities and higher wages.  Plus all the added agravations!

You could check out the cincinnati area.  Alot more rolling hills here then up north, no need for 4x4s, and if you wanted you could live in KY (which is even more "free" and home to the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot).  You can have magazines as big as you want, Machine guns, silencers, evil black rifles, basically all the fun stuff.  Kentucky's CCW is also less of a hassle to get and much less restrictive.  whatever you do, stay out of the city of cincinnati. It sucks. Live outside it even if you work in it.