Yep this was me and my brother too! My liberal arts school was 65,000 per year at the time and I came out of it with way less student loan debt than my twin who attended UVM. Since we’re the same age it was also a direct comparison for our respective schools looking at our family’s financial situation and determining aid.

There’s that hill and the one behind the club, which is steeper. Have fun wherever you decide to go!

The golf course! That’s where we always went.

Oops thank you! I just remembered it was a different temp than maple syrup from my childhood and had it wrong. Will correct above, but still not sure of any places that do this off-season.

I’ve only seen sugar on snow during sugaring season, because (at least in my experience) the sap for sugaring is slightly edit: MORE boiled than maple syrup. You can make it yourself if you can’t find any off season : ) I have memories of a childhood friend having sugar on snow at her March birthday party and it was amazing-just her dad boiling and pouring.

I’ll be honest I would absolutely not recommend a move to Vermont right now in general and especially on that income.

I say this as a household who nets more than you, has a ton of family in Vermont I could stay with/lean on, connections from growing up here, and is STILL not able to buy a viable home.

I’d recommend looking at upstate NY- possibly very similar in terms of checking those boxes but much more affordable. Additionally since I don’t see it mentioned yet- I’m assuming you’re working remote, and any of those 100k listings you’re seeing beyond likely being completely dilapidated will probably not have reliable internet capacity.

I’m not sure where you’re doing your research but housing in Vermont is an enormous challenge right now and unless you get extremely lucky and can pay in cash it will be hard to find what you’re looking for. Wages are also lower for comparable jobs and cost of living is high.

This might be an overstep, but I also think the ages of your kids could make for a difficult transition- most kids in Vermont have gone to small schools together since preschool, and high school is tough enough without trying to break into that kind of culture. Also it’s great that you all love nature, but there is not much to do outside of that in terms of teen activities. Even playing school sports often requires hours of driving to get to games, and busing isn’t always an option (in fact, none of the schools I attended had buses at all). Eta after reading your comment: homeschooling will make connecting with other teens even more difficult in my opinion.

In terms of jobs, trade work is generally needed. Hard to say with reflexology, but if I had to guess I’d say since many people are struggling financially and suffering from lack of housing demand for that type of service is reduced. The people who can likely afford extra health treatments are probably second-home owners who don’t spend time in the state year-round.

Eta suggestions: if I were you I’d seriously look at Upstate NY and Maine. Both have the qualities you are looking for and opportunities have not been totally bulldozed by people moving here based on a stereotype of Vermont.

Mt. Philo is so pretty! Seconding this suggestion.

Oo this is fun! I want to add some towns I haven’t seen on the list even if they might fall a bit outside of your parameters: Reading, Brownsville (but sounds like they are too far south), South Royalton, Barnard, Brookfield, Craftsbury?

Even if he wasn’t trapped in this instance there are countless other cases where a tool like this could have saved lives. Thank you for linking u/2q_x!