Rural Cottage Grove Living
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11/8/2018
Cottage Grove vicinity, not the city of.
The area is beautiful. There are a lot of accessible parks, trails, and the like. The spring and fall are the best seasons. That’s when you can enjoy the outdoors. In winter it rains nearly nonstop and everything is wet and slippery. In the summer the rains stop entirely. It gets so dry it becomes illegal to cut grass, bbq, or even drive on unimproved roads without water and a shovel. Plus we get temperatures above ninety and zero breeze. Very miserable for man and beast. Thankfully it cools off each evening.
Most people are friendly and recognize each other’s right to privacy. But there are California transplants with control issues here and there. Most people here are great folks.
In Lane County you will find that you have little to no services. No county sheriffs deputies available for assistance. You have to haul your own garbage and pay a fee to dump it. Electricity is guaranteed to be down several times each winter, sometimes for days. Cell phone service is spotty and a land line quite costly.
The local news paper isn’t worth subscribing to. The roads are only fair. All dogs require a license every year. Shopping is extremely limited but Eugene/Springfield are close enough. There are two theaters which deliver a good show. Good tradesmen are available, but you must be selective. Some are criminal.
Property (land) is hard to find and the prices are extremely inflated. Not even fixer uppers are a good deal here. But if you like to grow things you’re in luck, as long as you can water throughout the summer months. Wells here can have arsenic, so have any well that you will depend on tested.
This past summer was crazy bad for yellow jackets. I mean traps were filling completely. The summer prior it seemed that house flies were everywhere, the summer before that elm seed beetles. Mosquitos are always thick every single summer.
All serious health issues have to be treated in Springfield. There are clinics and a tiny hospital here. Haven’t used them, you’ll need Yelp for that information.
Restaurant offerings run the whole range. Some nice places to eat, but I haven’t tried them all. Grocery shopping is either Safeway or Walmart. Safeway has the better produce.
Cheapest fuel would be the mobile station. You cannot pump your own gas in Oregon. Weird, I know. Getting a drivers license and registering a car is expensive. No driving test required though.
Jobs are not plentiful nor are they high paying. Probably make more money begging, which many people do here. Tax free after all.
Guess that’s about it. I wish I had this info before I moved here.
Stacy | Cottage Grove, OR