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RM> the shores of Georgian Bay, which is on Lake Huron. We are considered
RM> Central Ontario although treated like Northern Ontario by most
RM> government plans that change with where you live since anyone much more
RM> than 150 miles North of Toronto have the same basic living problems, a
RM> long distance between places and much colder temperatures in Winter, so
RM> we tend to get small rebates on energy used to heat the house and such.

MP>I had a discussion with someone who lives Jack Fish, ON.  He owned the
  >hotel I stayed at.  He told me he got a letter from the government telling
  >him he'd have to move to one of the big cities if he wanted to continue to
  >receive his government healthcare.

Yes, Healthcare in small areas has always been a problem. It's not like
you have to Live in the big cities, but you may have to travel there for
any major health care issues, and some low population remote areas have
only a Registered Nurse, and maybe not even that.

I'm lucky in Parry Sound area since even though they have a tiny population
(They claim under 7000) they have a fairly large reasonably well equipped
hospital because they service a large rural area with about 25,000 residents
plus in summer the vacationers add another 25,000+ people to the mix.

MP>I thought those areas of Lake Superior and Lake Huron were beautiful.

Yes, I'm in what they call the 30,000 islands area so there are lots of
small islands out on the water plus I actually live within the Georgian
Bay Unesco Protected Biosphere which makes getting building permits tricky
but they protect the area, like you can't get a new lot building permit
unless you have 2 acres of land with about 330 feet of water frontage.
I hate seeing some lakes where there's a cottage every 50 feet.
The restrictions here do make it a lot more expensive to build though.
You pay often over a $Million to buy a vacant lot to build on.

RM> night the temperature dropped down to at least -25c (-13f) and pails of
RM> water I had on the floor in the kitchen froze quite a bit. It was down
RM> near 40f when I woke up.

MP>Wow, I actually prefer it a little cool so the air doesn't dry out so much,
  >but 40F would require a lot of blankets!  Any way to improve the insulation
  >situation?

It would require redoing the siding and ripping out old insulation under
the floors plus better windows and doors so you're looking at probably
$40,000 to do a good job. I hesitate to spend that much since I may only
be wintering here for a limited time, probably less than another 5 years.
(Possibly never again the way things are going..)   B)

RM> BTW, this is not a money thing. I could easily afford to rent a house
RM> or apartment for winter or even year round but I would go stir crazy I
RM> think living in town all the time.

MP>I can understand wanting to stay out of the city if you are not used to it.

I have lived in apartments in big cities until I bought my first house
(in the city) when I was 21. Then I was in there and in my next place for
11 years and then, very briefly, bought an apartment building type Condo,
where the rules drove me nuts and I ended up selling that within 6 weeks.

I was changing to a much better job at that time (1986) but there was a
delay and I decided to take the winter off. I took all the money from
the Condo I sold and invested it and escaped to Florida for 6 months and
discovered I was making more money on investments than it was costing me
to live (cheaply) so I decided to take a little longer off.

I'm starting to think I may not go back to work at all..   B)

No, I've done self employed jobs over the years, things like computer
repairs and writing commercial software and some property management
and I usually managed to make enough money that I didn't have to touch
investment income at all most years and without working very many hours..

It's all good if you don't mind living in the woods and don't blow
a lot of money on bad habits.. like smoking, drinking, going out
to bars and restaurants.. Women..    B)

---
 * SLMR Rob  * I dropped my computer on my foot!  That Megahurtz
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