Ive not been able to find any...and the ones on fb are all advertisers and sellers. Ive been away from home for 11 years and intend to return soon God willing with my family.

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone! I’m super excited to share that I’m planning to move to your beautiful state very soon!! I’ve never been but I’ve seen a lot of TikToks and it looks magical. The trees! The vibes! The… artisan pickles???

A little about me: I work remotely as a boutique crystal energy alignment coach (I help brands align with the Moon Cycle to maximize ROI). My partner is a professional plant-based cheese sculptor. We’ve been feeling really called to the PNW lately—it just feels so authentic, you know?

Anyway, we’re looking for a cute little fixer-upper farmhouse or maybe a modern glass cabin in the woods, ideally walking distance to an organic butcher, a dog psychic, and a community kombucha exchange. Budget isn’t really an issue—we’ve got $10 million cash from selling our 0.25 BD condo in the Bay Area (and a separate renovation fund, of course).

A few questions for the locals: • Which town has the best mix of crunchy/witchy/twee but still has fast internet? • Is Portland safe now or are the riots still happening? • Does it snow in Bend? Like, “Instagram snow” or like, real snow? • Why are property taxes a thing here? Do they go away if I compost? • Is it true Eugene has the best crystal grid energy? Someone on TikTok said that but they were from LA.

We’re super respectful of local culture and traditions (we loved Portlandia), and we can’t wait to be part of your community. Just looking for that chill Oregon lifestyle: forest hikes, mountain views, and a few chickens named after astrology signs.

Thanks in advance for all the help! Manifesting our Oregon dream!

Does the Oregon state government monitor people’s bank accounts? Because the very day I got some money deposited into my online account they sent me a letter reminding me that I owe money for back taxes, insisting on payment. My deposit wasn’t nearly enough to even pay my rent, let alone my back bills. I’m going to pay them back now that I’m getting a little bit back onto my feet, though not at the monthly rate I apparently agreed to a couple of years ago. (I don’t remember.) But I think it’s very curious that they wrote the very day I got a little bit of money deposited into my account. I couldn’t pay all of that payment, but I did pay 60% of it.

What gives them the right to monitor my bank accounts?

Spring is here in the Willamette Valley and that means so are morels, oysters, turkey tail and wild onions! Our lakes and ponds have had trout stocked a few times now and the bass are starting to bite pretty hard.

We get a lot of half-free morels here in Salem (Morchella populiphila) and yellow morels (Morchella americana). Oyster mushrooms and turkey tail grow on our hardwoods like alder, oak, maple and cottonwood. We have two regional variants of turkey tail - an almost white version with red and blue bands, and an entirely blue version with very little white at the margin.

Half-free morels grow on the outskirts of Verpa bohemica habitats. You can differentiate Morchella from Verpa because morels will always be entirely hollow. Verpa bohemica is filled with a white cottony substance. Both are edible and fine to eat.

We also get Morchella norvegiensis around conifers and Morchella importuna in landscaped beds and trails that have fresh wood chips.

Trees from Willamette National Forest die and get eaten by morels and then fall during winter storms. They're chipped and spread across the state. Ordering wood chips from chipdrop every February is a free lotto ticket and the prize is your own personal morel patch.

Happy hunting!

Although this doesn't address Oregon specifically, it applies so much. Who has set an alarm for 11:55pm on the day before the next batch of camping reservations opens up? I hate being in the campground seeing TONS of empty sites but knowing that they're just place holders for the people who reserved them but won't show up for whatever reason?

https://open.substack.com/pub/morethanjustparks/p/reservation-gods-who-stole-our-campsitesand There’s something deeply wrong about driving past an empty campsite and being told to keep moving.

The fire pit is cold. The tent pad is bare. No one came. No one will.

But a sign says “Reserved,” and that’s all it takes to turn you into a trespasser. This isn’t about overcrowding. It’s about exclusion. Not about stewardship. About gatekeeping. The system isn’t full. It’s fenced.

We’re watching spontaneity die of bureaucracy poisoning—except it’s not bureaucracy. It’s privatization with a badge and a booking fee. It's the quiet conversion of public land into private logic. And the cost is everything that made this land feel like it belonged to everyone.

Because camping—real camping—isn’t something you should have to apply for like a mortgage. It’s a thing you do. It’s the freedom to follow a road you weren’t planning to take. To arrive late. To stay longer. To change your mind when the weather shifts or a stranger tells you about a place they love just two hours up the road. That kind of access isn’t a perk. It’s a promise.

Right now, that promise is being broken by a system that values transactions over trust, software over stewardship, revenue over rights. Click the link for the whole opinion piece. Thanks.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — A new proposal to raise $2 billion for road maintenance and operations is now on the table. If passed, almost half of the money would go to counties and cities for transportation; a little more than half would go to the Oregon Department of Transportation. The money would be raised through an array of taxes related to transportation, including an increased tax on fuel.

The thought of having to pay more at the pump is not exactly good news for a lot of folks.

https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Measures/Testimony/SB723

Hey fellow Oregonians —

SB723 is taking public testimony. As someone with family members who work for Union Pacific in Oregon, I definitely suggest giving it a read and lending support to this one. This would push back against federal deregulation that wants to allow single man train crews.

It may seem obvious that a single person running a mile long several ton moving vehicle is a massive safety issue. These are 12 hour shifts with lots of moving parts. When my brothers were training for their positions, they were held to stringent standards. We need a two man “check and balance” team on every freight train — especially over passes and through populated areas.

UP is always looking for ways to cut costs, usually at the expense of its crews and sometimes safely running their trains. (The stories I’ve heard…) We need this to pass, not just to save train crews but to keep freight trains running safely through our state.

Thanks for the time, friends!

It’s Local First Thursday! If you have a small business and you’re in Oregon, give yourself a shout out! Even if it’s just an Etsy store, we want to hear from you. And it doesn’t have to be your own personal business, it can be any small, local Oregon business you want to help promote.

This Local First Thursday I wanted to bring attention to some Oregon cheese makers. I know there are some heavy hitters for BIG CHEESE in Oregon, but if you haven’t heard of them, check out Face Rock Creamery. They’re located on the Southern Oregon coast in Bandon, an area where they’ve been making cheese since the 1800’s. There’s a little bit of drama with Face Rock Creamery and BIG CHEESE because back in the year 2000, the Tillamook County Creamery Association purchased the Bandon Cheese Factory, closed it down, and demolished it (RIP).

Face Rock Creamery was founded in 2013 to revive Bandon's cheesemaking tradition. They focus on producing handmade cheddar and other artisan cheeses, and they’ve even won some awards for their cheeses. And the current head cheese maker is actually the son of the former owner of the Bandon Cheese Company.

They even have a Creamery location in Bandon where you can buy their cheeses, watch the cheese making process, and have a nice meal.

You can probably find their cheeses at your local grocery store but if not, they do offer online shipping. If you love great cheese, give them a try!

https://facerockcreamery.com

You have to buy online and pay extra fee of $5.28... We are going to pass.

This is my first time being unemployed, so I'm not sure how normal this is. But I have followed all the steps in their self-service system (Frances Online), despite its unintuitive UI. And everything seemed to be going well - I signed up for their dated, government-version of LinkedIn (iMatch skills), I verified my identity in person with my license and passport as instructed, and every week I apply to at least 5 jobs and fill out their claim form meticulously.

But I got a letter stating that my verification was denied, even though I did this step in-person with no issue. They gave no reason why. Every week, I get a denial of claims letter.

I have called the number they instructed me to call dozens of times, and I've only managed to get through twice because of call volume. I have been on hold collectively 8 hours now. I have called and opening time and I still ended up on hold for multiple hours. I have sent messages through their contact us form and have not received any responses.

This seems broken. I'm lucky to have a cushion saved, but I feel a lot of empathy and concern for anyone else who falls on hard times and can't get the unemployment money they need to keep themselves afloat. No wonder it's so easy to slip into homelessness - a big issue in Oregon! But also this is just plain unacceptable. I have paid thousands of dollars in taxes and I feel my trust broken that the government can't do a critical job effectively. We are relying on this to help us pay our mortgage until I can find employment.

Curious if anyone has had similar experiences and if you ever got your issues resolved. I have seen several posts about similar issues over the past year. You'd think things would have improved by now:

- Reddit thread on long call wait times

- Sep 12, 2024: Oregon Employment Department resumes taking Monday calls; hold times ease

- May 16, 2024: Oregon employment officials promise more effective service with reduced phone line hours

- March 20, 2024: Oregon unemployment claimants report long phone hold times 2 weeks after new site launch

- Phone frustration mounts even as oregon makes progress on backlog

So i owned my pistol before the high capacity ban, it holds more than ten rounds, do I have to go buy 10 round magazines now or am I still allowed to still go practice shoot with what I have?

Distorted because I was maxing out the zoom on my iPhone :P