Real talk. Family talk. Life decision talk.

I'd make the move while you can. I'm in the Phoenix area. My wife and I sold our house and were prepared to move to northern AZ. I work from home and she did freelance stuff. The market crapped out so we waited for better rates before buying. She now landed her dream job and won't go. I get heat stroke, so I have to go. Hard decisions are on the horizon for me. If your wife is willing to make the jump, go for it. Like others have said, you can always move back.
 
I'll add to the noise;

"The Grass is always Greener" is a true human condition, stronger for some. Then realize, nothing is ever perfect. Some people are never happy with what they have...they always think something else is better. The secret to life is being happy with what you DO have.

I'm not implying you are one of these dreamers...but it's a condition we all need to look out for.

New job, New wife, New location, whatever- always seems better until you live it.

Before making a move, I would spend some time out in your chosen location in different times of the year- not just hunting season. I have friends that moved out of Cody to MT because they couldn't take the constant wind.

Yeah that Kentucky/Tenn area of the country has some brutally humid hot summers....but there are many advantages. I had a few friends move there from CA recently. Good luck.
 
It really depends on how much hustle and durability you have.

The common thread among those that make it and those that don’t, is there’s no common thread - it’s very hard to predict how well any family will adapt to the economy and weather.

In general most folks that move to the state underestimate how long cold blowy winters will effect their mental health or waist line, over estimate their expected standard of living, and either way, staying or returning home contributes to the number of folks with joint custody.
 
Move. You can always move back
If you own your current home, consider not selling for a year and renting it out.

Having one foot in and one foot out could potentially causes its own problems, but buying and selling homes is very expensive, especially if you bought your home at pre-covid prices and interest rates.
 
you're looking for western Wyoming? Eastern is fairly flat.

are you open to other western states? The west of freakin awesome man!

I would say discuss a location with your wife, let her have a major input on where. If she isnt in the "Lets go!" group but is supporting it would probably make her happy to feel like she can have input on the location.

Look at places where she will find work easy and her job search wont stress her out. i think those types of things will help the transition and keep the peace.

Otherwise, i would say just do it! i think you will enjoy the change and its truly special out here. Make sure you look over the local hunting regs too and see what sort of opportunities each state has. Not every state is easy to get a tag or have a harder time being able to get out. Check into idaho also!
 
If your wife is going to be a nurse, and you are seasonally employed, then you might see about traveling rn jobs. They pay well and you could maybe time it for your off season. Would let you get a taste of a few different places while still bringing in some income.
 
Idaho sucks. Rampant bear attacks, housing prices, ticks, etc. Best to keep looking at Wyoming.
well i was meaning more for the hunting. im in nevada and out tag numbers keep dropping with increased apps. States like idaho where you can snag a tag over the counter is more what i was meaning. I have no clue what moving there would look like which is why i said to look.

with people being able to sell their little 3 bedroom houses for a million dollars these days, the west is starting to look a lot different.

We have a little town down the highway where my wife grew up that was mostly ranching and farming. small community that wanted to keep it that way so it was made to be expensive. well now, the town has doubled in size with all the amenities of a big town. its sad to see all the city people wanting their "mountain views" and a freakin latte at the same time.
 
There is a bit of a callus on rokslide or any other outdoors forum where someone wants someone else (all of these people are grown ass men (in theory), to tell them it is ok to leave home and move West.

I am from Wyoming, and I want to move back there and I get that. But I am currently overseas doing military stuff, and I will return some day. It's my home and I have family there. This is a huge thing, Wyoming people are not friendly to each other and even more not friendly to anyone who is not from Wyoming. Most westerners are the same way.

The most recent version of the Unknown Munitions podcast had a similar piece of wisdom.

Where the guy that owns 6th Day Arrows basically said, Casper is kind of ok and I live in Wyoming because of the opportunity to hunt. He moved from Alabama and was a successful business owner in his 50's. So not the same thing at all.

She is going to have concerns.

1. Will she make friends? Probably, my daughter is a nurse and has moved many times and all her little girlfriends are from her work.

2. Does it suck to not live near family? 100%. We are 10,000 miles away in Germany on our 3rd overseas assignment. We love Europe and I have killed a ton of stuff, but that doesn't make it worth it to be away from family.

3. Can you afford to live in Wyoming? I will answer this with this thought. I was looking for a place to buy in the bighorn valley near Lovell yesterday. A town of 800 people. $500,000 bought decent house with 4 bedrooms in town made 15 years ago. Casper has a bigger market, Sheridan has a more expensive market. You could probably live on the I-80 corridor in the prison town or closer to Utah and do a lot better housing wise. My home town or Riverton sucks, and it is cheaper. Lander is more expensive, as it is one of the nicer towns in Wyoming. Cheyenne sucks, the wind blows as much as Casper, and it is closer to Colorado. The only positive attiribute of Cheyenne is that half my family lives there (the part that doesn't live in Casper or Riverton) and it is in Wyoming so you can get most of the tags OTC vice living in Fort Collins and wishing you drew a tag in Wyoming.

4. Will you make friends? Maybe, I would not expect anyone to bring you into their hunting fold for a very long time.

5. I don't know anything about guiding for ducks, but I guide antelope part time. Even as an outfitter I would have to have a real job. What are you going to do for a real job? My nephew is a duck guide in Riverton, and he scraps together a living driving heavy equipment the rest of the year. I worked with a lot of guys that had a guide license when I was in New Mexico. None of them were full time guides. They all had real jobs 300 days a year.
LMAO

Don't believe everything this guy posts about Wyoming.
Folks are friendly and accepting if you don't try to change things or keep telling how you do where you're from.
We moved up here 37 years ago and made fast friends. Folks welcomed us as they got to know us.
Housing market is tough but not like it was say 3 years back.
Nursing shortage here so yes she can find a good paying job.
Winters can be tough but I manage to take it so why couldn't you all.

We do get deeper snow than cnelk posted, in July some years but hey that's Wyoming.

As far as splitting wood, I still do it. We cut 3-4 cords a year for winter heat.

But, making friends- it took us 3 years to get to know a rancher that now has us controlling his access and managing his wildlife.
It ain't hard if you show them a little respect.
Folks are more conservative and don't like loud mouths, they will let you know when you get too loud, lol.

Guiding, yes you'll need another job for off season but that is not hard to find either.

I say go for it.
 
It's not as easy to just pick and move [back] as many believe.

Yeah, depending on how you move and your situation, you could easily spend 10,20,$30,000+ moving across the country twice. If you compress that into a short time frame of, say 12-16 months, that's potentially setting your family back quite a bit. Then there's selling and buying houses or dropping $8,000 in deposits just to move into a rental these days. One might also consider that nurses and medical professionals tend to be underpaid in the Mountain West, not to mention potential rural hospital closures looming in the near future with recent Medicaid cuts.

But, end of the day, a person who prioritizes the lifestyle will figure it out and make it work. I did. 2 of my hunting partners have also done it. My fiancee did it. Hell, most everyone in my local social network decided they wanted to live here, gave up stability elsewhere and figured out a way to make it work.
 
The good money for nurses seems to be dropping. A buddy is a 30 year experience ER nurse in Billings and he said they were starting to cut his pay back. Not sure if Covid money is drying up or not.

My daughter is a nurse in San Diego. She has had her pay cut and hours moved around. She has 3 years experience as an RN, and another 5 as an LPN.
 
To me it sounds like your wife is getting an advanced nursing degree (NP, CRNA, etc) and you plan on having a sugar momma.

My wife and I are both nurses, we moved to AK shortly after nursing school. Lived there for 6 years. Killed and caught everything AK has to offer. Enjoyed every second of it! My wife got knocked up and we decided to move home to be close to family.

My suggestion would be take a few trips west to some different cities/towns and see which one y’all like best then go for it. Can always move back home.

But if I was to move to Wyoming it would be to Sheridan or Cody.
 
Usually when people talk about winter in CO they like skiing. Unless you can afford living in Jackson, there really isn't any skiing to speak of in WY. There is a lot of wind tho.

I would almost suggest trying out SE Alaska, better pay, great skiing, and all the perks of being an AK resident. It does rain a lot tho.
I would 1000% go there, will say you don’t get as good of hunting as interior, but the fishing is amazing!
 
To me it sounds like your wife is getting an advanced nursing degree (NP, CRNA, etc) and you plan on having a sugar momma.

My wife and I are both nurses, we moved to AK shortly after nursing school. Lived there for 6 years. Killed and caught everything AK has to offer. Enjoyed every second of it! My wife got knocked up and we decided to move home to be close to family.

My suggestion would be take a few trips west to some different cities/towns and see which one y’all like best then go for it. Can always move back home.

But if I was to move to Wyoming it would be to Sheridan or Cody.
Sugar momma isn't all it's cracked up to be. Every couple that I know that had a "sugar momma" is divorced.
 
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