Well, Northern California is a big place, oraganic :-) You need to give us your Sunset zone (see my "Zone" entry) and the city you live in. It really depends where you live, and how cold it gets in your area, as well as how warm your summers are. You would want to check out your local large garden centers or citrus nurseries for citrus trees, including Valencia orange trees. You'll then need to decide how large a tree you're after. A tree grafted onto standard rootstock, which can get as tall as 20 feet, or a tree grafted onto semi-dwarfing rootstock, or even dwarfing rootstock. Depends how much room you have for a tree, and how many citrus trees you'd like to plant. Forget seeds, it will take years for the tree to produce fruit. You're much better off with a two or three year's of growth. You'll have fruit within a year or two. Get yourself to you best local garden center, start talking with knowledgeable folks there about what citrus varieties will do the best in your area, as we have many many micro-climates in California, and your local garden center associate should know your area specifically, and can tell you about your climate, and whether or not it will support citrus. Patty S.

I live 15 minutes north of Jackson in Gibson county. Moved here 7 years ago from Chicago burbs. There is crime but again, it's everywhere. There are areas that are better than others, just like everywhere. It doesn't sound like you'll be planning to move to the city proper. The only thing you'll end up going to Jackson for is shopping and the main shopping area is pretty far removed from where most of the crimes occur. There are some nice rural areas in Gibson, Carroll, Crockett and Madison counties that you might want to look into. Additionally, Henderson (big town is Lexington), Hardin (big town is Savannah) are pretty nice and are within 45 minutes or so of Jackson. Be warned; outside of Jackson, the only real grocery store is Walmart. Jackson has Kroger (not so great) and Walmart. You have to go to Nashville for Costco and Trader Joes (2 hours); Memphis for Costco (1.5 hours). Restaurants around here are mostly chains and are so-so. There are trade offs when you move. As far as weather goes, we have some good storms. Tornados happen pretty much everywhere so there's that. People are people; the hospitality you get matches the hospitality you produce. We've met lots of really nice people here. If you would like some assistance on areas you are looking at, shoot me a private email via my page. I can either connect you with a real estate agent in the area or give you a preview of the property/area to see if it's overpriced. There are still some folks who think their property is worth a lot of $$$.

Our city engineer has reluctantly OK'd these plans. On paper, he can't prove that the plan wouldn't work. The city is always afraid of being sued. Last ditch effort is to see if the Building Review Board can nix the project. However, the only portion of their charter that obtains here is that a proposed building 'fit the site'. (I think the plan should fail on that point. There may be a style that would work -- a contemporary on pilings? -- but this plan tries to alter the site to fit the building plans.) Is anyone familiar with this kind of proposed foundation/water-retention facility? I hoped that a forum member who lives near a waterway might have heard of this. The lot owner's engineers claim this will *improve* the flooding along the waterway! At the last BRB meeting city staff recommended the lot owner legally assume responsibility for damages. That's nice, but I can't see how he could make whole all the homeowners affected if we all flood. We'd all have to sue, etc., etc. Big mess. I wonder what the lot owner REALLY wants. Maybe he could 'donate' the lot to the city, which would then officially declare it what it IS, a wetland, not buildable. The owner could stop paying RE tax and possibly qualify for a charitable deduction. The city wouldn't have to DO anything with the land except leave it alone. Meanwhile...how to keep kicking this can down the road until it goes away?

Considering that world leaders go to Mayo when they need care, the distinction is obvious. But I'm sure you know that. There's another option. If they really wanted to see the kids more often, they could move too! I wouldn't let that be a blackmail item. It's obviously a consideration but your marriage and family are your priority I would hope. Sometimes we do what we don't want to for the good of the family. Rochester is a surprisingly "middle class" area IMO. There's no movie stars hanging around too often (they tend to sneak in and out of the Mayo!) and Bill Gates doesn't have a summer home there. They are very dependant upon Mayo of course. I like the area. OK, I'm a bit biased, being Minnesota born and raised and no desire to leave. But then again, liking the area is one of the reasons I want to stay. I like the change of seasons. The car issue in winter is really not such a big deal since many people garage their vehicles but a good set of jumper cables is still treasured. With so much more plastic in cars today, rust is less of an issue and that probably isn't really a consideration of yours anyway. And there's plenty of car washes around. Quality food is available since there's a lot of farming in the area. What more can I say? Before you come to the area I'd suggest you get a hold of the Chamber of Commerce or something or look up some info on Rochester on the net. Then you could check out some of the points of interest that interest you. You could also get a feel for how well the area accommodates your family's interests. Rochester is about 90 miles from the Twin Cities. It has "small town" local television if that's a concern. Of course cable and satellite open that up. If it's of interest to you, it's designated television market area #154 (includes Rochester, MN, Mason City, IA and Austin, MN) with 144,700 TV households. The Twin Cities for comparison is #15 and Indianapolis is #25. I don't go to Rochester very often but did work there a few days about a year ago so I stayed over. Was doing a lot of driving around. Roads are good. Services, stores and conveniences are good. Let's face it, there's great people, good people, bad people and jerks just like everywhere else. It's not like a big metropolitan area and that's good in some ways and bad in others and whether that's a pro or a con is dependant upon your priorities. I can't speak to the Rochester schools specifically but can say that the Minnesota schools are always rated among the highest in the country. Education is a high priority in this state and it shows. I would make one suggestion. Sit down as a family and make a two lists. 1) What do we LIKE about where we are? and 2) What do we DISLIKE about the area? Think it through and it should give you some ideas on what to check out when you're researching and in the area. Good luck in your decision. Here is a link that might be useful: This could get you started...