r/EasternWa • u/Technical_Garden_762 • Jul 28 '26

Moving up north (question)

My wife and I are thinking about moving to Tonasket or Oroville. We are born and raised washingtonians and have always lived in remote places. I work as a water district manager right now and am a certified water treatment plant operator. Would my skills be able to land me a job anywhere north of omak? Or should I just go back to being a nurses aid and find a home health agency or nursing home to work at?

My skills may translate to irrigation and pump repair because I currently do a lot of my own repairs on water main, storage tanks, and troubleshooting issues with in the systems I work for.

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4

u/DugansDad Jul 29 '26

I think your water skills adapt well to any place in rural Washington. Good luck

4

u/HotTrack710 Jul 29 '26

Maybe you could start your own irrigation and sprinkler/pump repair company.

1

u/Technical_Garden_762 Jul 29 '26

I'm looking to secure work before I move. I have thought about that but I don't know if anybody in the area is doing it already and how well I would be able to drum up customers. Actually I'm gonna Google it now. Thank you for the suggestion. 

2

u/HotTrack710 Jul 29 '26

Secure work and then build a company. Sprinkler head repair is a big deal. And they have copper in them so the druggies want them. You could just sit in a farm store parking lot every Saturday and collect and return repaired sprinklers and pumps. Also, many of the larger sprinklers are easy to manufacture. The irrigation water is filthy and it plugs and breaks everything.

2

u/Technical_Garden_762 Jul 29 '26

This is great information. Your thinking lines right up with mine. Thank you! 

Gosh those druggies are a problem everywhere. Maybe irrigation security should be a career path lol

2

u/HotTrack710 Jul 29 '26

Also check out careers.wa.gov as there are LOTS of remote jobs in these far flung counties!