Geof and Skippy,
Really appreciate the cautions. I won't get into the details, but she and I have an unusual and very strong relationship. Last marriage lasted 18 years with lots of troubles. I know this one will go the distance.
I've always loved Australia, and came close to moving there in the 70's when the government was looking for skilled welders. I did see a fairly wide cross section of Oz in 2 weeks. Some things suck a bit, like the scarcity of surplus tools and tooling I've grown used to. But people are friendlier, real, down to earth. My kind of people. I've always longed for a simpler country lifestyle. I am confident I have a good grasp of the changes I'll be facing, and my ability to fit in. Heck, everyone in her family says I'm already more Aussie than Yank, just my accent gives me away.
That and I keep looking the wrong way when crossing streets...
And the reality is, if I stay here, I risking losing it all. The local county has been unfriendly to manufacturing for years and it shows. California too, has not been business friendly. Have lost a lot of work to China, and some customers have closed doors. Meanwhile cost of living keeps going up. Where to move to here? Nevada maybe, Texas I hear is doing reasonably well. But to move anywhere in the USA puts me all alone in a strange town/state where I don't know anyone. In Coota at least, my wife has lots of connections due to years of working at the hospital, volunteer fire fighter, and 'ninja carrot' as she calls it, emergency rescue services (not sure of the official title down under).
I do have a shot at a job with a defense contractor via a friend that took my resume straight to his boss, and perhaps a recent new customer will ramp up fast enough to make the difference. If either comes to pass, I'll be here for some years to come and we'll visit back and forth as much as we can. If neither comes to pass, I'm more than willing to gamble everything on a new life in a new country. No guts, no glory, or something like that... My ideal timeline is to move in 2-3 years. Economy goes down the crapper here though, and I'll shorten that quite a bit.
There is there, what my wife calls "fair go", and maybe it's an artifact of country life there, but people in the smaller town pull together and help each other out. There are more than a few opportunities for me there in differing fields, all I have to do is want to give them a try, and they'll give me a try. Not like here, where you need at least one degree to get your foot in many doors. I most certainly am not counting on setting up a machine shop in a rural town and making a living right off the bat. Plan is to get a job, then find a place for my shop, then start off part time. If the job goes well, maybe my machine shop can once again become what it started out as, my hobby!
I'd love to get into restoring old motorcycles, antique tractors, and maybe build a small steam locomotive....
Jon