Lisa in North Idaho

[mom25kiddles]

Hi ~

We are getting ready to move to North Idaho this month and would love to hear about your experiences in moving to Idaho from Arizona. We are in So Cal mountains currently, but are originally from KY and WA... the winters I'm sure will be a bit of a shock to us!! Also, reading your post to the gal looking for television *off the grid* stars... you mentioned living that very lifestyle when you initially moved. I would love to hear your *real life story* when/if you have the time/desire to share!!!! We aren't quite that adventurous (off the grid, building our own home, etc) but LOVE to hear the stories!!

Thanks much ~
Carmen

[Cabin Fever]

Lisa, could you also post those photos of the snow up to your roof? And, the ones of the snow tunnels from your house to the shed?

Thanks!

[PNP Katahdins]

Or maybe Lisa could volunteer for Everybody Has A Story on Melissa's forum. We'd get more Windsong photos that way.

Peg

[partndn]

Is that a doggie trying to leap throught the snow?

[partndn]

oh my!

I hope we get at least one good snow this year. It's been a slim several years for the flakes here.

[Michael Kawalek]

Hi Carmen

Where in N. Idaho? I went to school at U of I in Moscow, so I know the area well. Well, winter is approaching so make sure you've changed the antifreeze in your radiators and get those plug-in engine block warmers. I still remember parking my car away from the house in winter at the top of a hill so I could kick start by dropping the clutch!

Hope you have a wood stove. You'll be close to a national forest, so you can cut almost free firewood at any of the clear-cuts in the forest. Just go to your nearest Forest Service station and get a firewood permit. The best woods in N. Idaho are Douglas Fir, Larch, and Birch if you're up by Sandpoint.

Once you get there, I'll give you my recipe for Huckleberry pie.
Good luck
Michael

[LisaInN.Idaho]

Hi Carmen, I would love to tell you what we've done and post the horrible snow pictures from the last two winters, but it might take a few days. Apparently my daughter downloaded the youtube equivalent of War and Peace in silly TV shows and really exceeded our allotted bandwidth on WildBlue so my internet speed has been throttled WAY back for the next few days. She must not have enough stalls to clean.
It took forever just to download this thread. Hopefully, I can post this.

[uyk7]

Lived in the Silver Valley for awhile. Called a lot of real estate companies, businesses, etc... prior to moving from Florida. We were told that there were a lot of jobs, reasonable rent, etc... Get to Coeur d'Alene and found out that reasonable rent was $1000+/month and the jobs were fast food. Make sure you have a source of income (my Navy retirement wasn't enough).

.

[mom25kiddles]

Ha ha... the thought of the first winter is making us a touch nervous... here in So Cal mountains, we only get about 4 or 5 big storms per season... and the word *big* is relative!!!

I'm looking forward to hearing your story, Lisa, as soon as you have the time and your internet is back up. I do much of my work via the internet, and my husband gets all his job requests and such via email... so one of the biggies in our quest for the perfect property was the ability to have a decent access to high speed internet. We were sure satellite was going to be our only option but there is a *radio wave/cell tower* ???? type internet that is available at our property. In fact, the old owners of this property were employed by the internet company so everything is already wired and ready to go!!! Hooray!! I'm thinking we would be "slowed down" on a WildBlue service constantly due to our usage.


Michael ~ We purchased our home on a little over 9 acres in Careywood, ID... right between Coure de Laine and Sandpoint. Hubby's truck is a diesel and has a block heater/plug so he is ready to go... I'm the one with problems!!!! We looked at one property about 10 minutes from us that bordered forest lands... and there were TONS of huckleberries just down the road in the forest... everything we could do to convince the agent who was with us to keep looking at properties!!! He was a bit of a *foodie* and we had to make one stop at the local butcher to get his order for elk... he doesn't hunt but he loves game!!

Thankfully, our work travels with us. The job market is not great up there. I'm a bookkeeper and work from home for my husband's business and a few additional clients. Roger is an independant service technician for barfeed and cnc equipment, church bells, carillon systems and street clocks. He services the 11 western states for the most part... so as long as there is an airport around, and Spokane is about 1.25 hours away, he is good to go!! Well, as long as the work holds out... things are S L O W... but we are not complaining and just feeling blessed to have *any* work.

Well, I'm sure that was more info than anyone needed!!! Looking forward to more North Idaho stories, fun facts and scary horrible winter pictures!!!!

Carmen

[bill83]

I used to live in Latah County for several years. Winters there are easier to put up with than here although they last longer there. Less wind and dryer air there mostly. Better logging in the winter, no sweat.

[SASSGlock2]

My cousin has been around Couer d' Alene all his life, and I used to spend summers there in the early 80's with my grandparents. The Mrs. and I visited a couple of years ago and I could barely recognize the area it had grown up so much.

But, get 15 -20 miles out of town, and it is still nice and rural.

Beautiful country up there, I hope you love it!

[LisaInN.Idaho]

Well, it's been a week since our hand-slapping by WildBlue and our service it still not back to full speed, but I'll go ahead and hope this posts.
We came here seven years ago to build a summer cabin on property that we had bought a year before: 35 acres along the Priest River in far north Idaho. We left suburban Phoenix on June 1st hauling our 4 horses, dogs, kids, tools, a generator, a freshly built outhouse and an unassembled wood-fired hot tub. At least our priorities were straight.
I'd never built anything in my life, but my husband taught me as we went and after a few weeks we knew we weren't going back to AZ. We lived the first 18 months in the main part of our off-grid cabin, a 20X24 foot rectangle, with the kids in twin beds in the loft, the "master bedroom" a corner downstairs. We used an outhouse, heated water on the stove for baths (DH and I used a health club shower) lit with candles and Aladdin lamps though we had a small solar system for DC power, and hauled clothes to a laundromat. It wasn't nearly as hard as I would have thought. When you live in paradise, small hardships like outhouses aren't much of a problem.
The second summer we added a bathroom/laundry room and a good sized barn as well as a couple of storage sheds. The following year, a wing with bedrooms. We've upgraded the power system all along and last year, connected to the grid. We produce most of the power we use but it's very nice to be able to use unlimited electricity when we really need it.


The last two winter have been the worst, as far as snow. But they aren't the norm...they've been record breaking. We've had really cold temps a few times since we've been here...below -15, but we've never really had a problem with vehicles starting. We've had to put a block heater on our tractor only a few times.
Snow removal is important. We have a very long driveway cut into a hillside and we use a tractor or skidsteer with snowblower and plow.

We used to have a poster here (ThreeJane) who lives in Careywood (or right near) who is also from SoCal. She moved here right around the same time we did and she is great to talk to. Here is the link for her blog: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/threejane/
I still can't get to pictures but I'll post some later. If you have any questions...ask away. And welcome in advance to Idaho!
Oh yeah...another good source of info: http://www.city-data.com/forum/idaho/

[Firethorn]

so, why you movin? Always curious to know what "moves" people.
Lisa, cant wait to see pics!
How is that Wild Blue? Are there any other options for you?

[ronbre]

I believe that your climate will be somewhat similar to mine in Michigan..i have a friend in Idaho south of you..Midvale..and she is a tad warmer and drier than we are here in North central Michigan..there area a lot of us on here from Michigan.

maybe a little house on the prairie rope from the house to the barn or garage might be fun..just in case of one of those freak blizzards..tee hee..a friend of ours did that here in Michigan..but she was a little OFF..

enjoy your move

[LisaInN.Idaho]

Ronbre, Michigan is much damper and more humid than any part of Idaho.

[mom25kiddles]

Lisa ~

Thanks so much for taking your *limited* internet use to answer my post!!! Your story is wonderful and we can hardly wait to see your pictures. We can already envision it a bit because Priest River is our very favorite part of North Idaho and we looked at several homes in the area before settling on Careywood. My literal *dream home* was an early 1900's log cabin on 20 acres on Mud Gulch Road in Priest River... absolutely the most beautiful place I could imagine. Unfortunately, it wasn't practical because of how far out it was. My mother lives in Careywood and grandmother in Cocollala and *one* of the reasons for moving is to help them as they are getting older and in poorer health. So, we have a steel pole building turned residence on 9.2 acres in Careywood. It isn't at all what we went up for... but apparently God had very different ideas than we did!!

I plan to post a message on the blog you linked... Careywood is a small place... she may just turn out to be a neighbor!! Looks like a fun gal with a sweet family... and a fellow homeschooler!!

Carmen

[Terrabus]

I had a chance to get a job in Spokane with a buddy, who lives in CDA. All he talks about is how expensive it is to live around there and how hard it is to find a job that pays enough. He also talked about crazy the land prices were. Good luck.

[LisaInN.Idaho]

Originally Posted by mom25kiddles

Lisa ~

Thanks so much for taking your *limited* internet use to answer my post!!! Your story is wonderful and we can hardly wait to see your pictures. We can already envision it a bit because Priest River is our very favorite part of North Idaho and we looked at several homes in the area before settling on Careywood. My literal *dream home* was an early 1900's log cabin on 20 acres on Mud Gulch Road in Priest River... absolutely the most beautiful place I could imagine. Unfortunately, it wasn't practical because of how far out it was. My mother lives in Careywood and grandmother in Cocollala and *one* of the reasons for moving is to help them as they are getting older and in poorer health. So, we have a steel pole building turned residence on 9.2 acres in Careywood. It isn't at all what we went up for... but apparently God had very different ideas than we did!!

I plan to post a message on the blog you linked... Careywood is a small place... she may just turn out to be a neighbor!! Looks like a fun gal with a sweet family... and a fellow homeschooler!!

Carmen

If you at Mud Gulch, you probably passed right by my place! When were you there last?
WE've been homeschoolers too for the last 4 years. My oldest daughter started in 8th grade here in the local school and the youngest in 2nd. The oldest graduated in 207 and is thriving in college; after 4th grade for the youngest daugter I decided to homeschool and we did but TODAY she starts at the local high school. 9th grade. I'm SO nervous.
As far as jobs...my husband was/is an electrical engineer who worked for 20 years in the high tech/software industry. He did that for a while up here too, but gradually morphed into commerical construction management and as the economy failed, light construction projects and now has a thriving small fencing company that keeps him and his small crew very busy. He's taking welding classes this winter to add one more skill to the mix. It's kind of the north Idaho way it seems...you do what you have to do to stay here.

[LisaInN.Idaho]

Looks like our internet is coming back!
Here is the cabin the winter before last.

The windows from the inside:

The cabin, barn and outbuildings:


Looking upstream from our porch:

Downstream from porch in summer:

[LisaInN.Idaho]

Young grizzly across the river:

Moose: