Writings from North Idaho

Walked away from it

2004-11-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

Well, sort of walked away, sort of hopped. I had my first serious horse wreck today and I am none too happy about it.

My fjord horse, Shylo, was trained as a driving horse or so I thought. I finally had time today to put the harness on him and start driving. I longed him for quite a bit of time in the round pen, then I ground drove him. I hooked the cart up to him and led him up and down our long driveway numerous times. At last, I eased myself up into the cart and went for a short drive. Everything was going so well. I did it all just like the directions said! And then he spooked and he bolted. Now the excitement really began. I saw we were headed down the embankment back toward the barn. Unfortunately for both of us, there were a number of very solid pine trees and a 7 foot dropoff between the barn and where we were. I tried to stop him, but he ran right thru the bit. At the last moment, as I saw a particularly solid looking cedar stump coming at me, I jumped, tucked and rolled my way out of the cart. I stood up only to see him flying off thru the woods, dragging my cart with him. I hobbled down the road and saw him standing in our road with the remnants of my cart behind him. When he saw me, he then proceeded to drag the carnage further until Lisa caught him. We got him unwound from all of the tack and put away with two small cuts on him and no other noticeable injuries. I hobbled into the cabin to lie down with ice on my badly sprained ankle Or is it broken? I am too cheap to go to the emergency room to find out. My pride is probably bruised even more. I was so proud of getting that horse going under harness. Now I have to start all over with ground work and work back up to a cart.

So here I lie, on the bed, right ankle elevated above my heart, with a bag of ice Lisa put together, blogging.

2004-11-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

Late Fall day at the Ranch - Taken from the banks of the Priest River

2004-11-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

Snow on the River

Getting ready for Winter

2004-11-06T16:46:00.001-08:00

Winter is coming. No doubt about it at this point. The mountains are dusted with snow. Winter is kind of depressing and kind of exciting. I dread the cold when it comes to feeding and working outside. But, I love being in the cabin with my family watching the snow come down and reading. The hearty meals that Lisa makes fills the cabin with the aroma of good food. It can almost seem like we are the only people on earth when we are snowed in. The hardest part about this time of year is the sun going down at 4:30 in the afternoon. It means we have to work harder every day to get as much as we can done before the light is gone.

I was driving home with Caroline this evening and she remarked how much she loves living here. We had made our circle of trips to the feed store, hardware store, auto parts store, another hardware store and then a final stop at Mac's for gas. She seems to really enjoy living in a small town and enjoys all the space and the animals that we have.

Today we cleaned all the horse stalls and re-bedded them. Then I finished servicing my snow plow truck and got it all cleaned out. We also put straw around the outside water hydrants and the well head to try to keep the water lines from freezing. We use the soiled bedding from the horses to cover the water line to the barn to keep it from freezing as well. Most of the time, this area receives enough snow to insulate the ground from freezing very deep but I always worry since if the water line freezes, it is done until spring.

I met some interesting folks yesterday. I have an advertisement in the local paper for snow plowing services. I was called by one woman that lives near me so I went over to inspect her driveway. She was an engineer refuge from Intel's Hillsboro FAB operation. Since I worked at the Intel's FAB12 in Arizona and FAB8E in Israel, we had some things in common. She had had enough of Northern California and Oregon and decided to move to North Idaho, build a small cabin with her son and live a backwoods life. She had been reading Backwoods Home and posting on the Homesteading Today website for several years. She finally decided to take the plunge and make it happen. I am going to plow her drive just as a way of helping her thru the first winter here although it will be a challenge because it is steep and has a couple of switchbacks as it goes up to her cabin.

There are more and more people living here or trying to move here. The hardest part about moving here is figuring out how to reduce your expenditures so that the income and outgo are matched. It can be done but the first step is to reduce the your cost of living, figure out how to do things for yourself and what you can do without. Then, figure out how to create multiple streams of income so that if one fizzles, you have other ways of paying your bills. That is why I do everything from software consulting to plowing snow.

Randy and I are going up to Priest Lake tomorrow to take a look at a couple of trailers he may be hired to build a snow roof over. Trips like that are always an adventure. You never know who you are going to meet and how lost you are going to get. And, at Priest Lake, there is a resident pack of Timber Wolves so that makes it even more interesting!

Off to feed the horses and sheep.....

Great Day for America

2004-11-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

The sun is shining today in North Idaho. In fact, the solar panels are pulling in over 40Amps at 9AM in the morning so it certainly looks like a good solar day. It also looks like a great day for America and a malox morning for the liberals and the French.

The entire family watched the returns on FOX last night. Thank god for the Dish network! We were overjoyed to see Bush win, especially by a significant margin in both the popular vote and electoral college. The highlight of our evening was when Britt Hume on FOX called Idaho for Bush and said, quote, "It doesn't get any redder than Idaho.", meaning that Idaho is staunchly Republican. I am proud to be a Republican and proud to live in a conservative state that supports strong decisive leaders. Girly men are not welcome here.

I think Osama Bin Laden's video from last week worked heavily in Bush's favor. When it came right down to it, the American public decided that strong steady wartime leadership is safer than a "fresh approach" to Iraq. Putin was quoted as saying that the American public showed it would not be cowed by terrorists. I think Bin Laden thought he could push the US around like he pushed Spain around. But, he vastly underestimated the American public's resolve. American is not Europe and never will be.

I also am cheered to see President Bush win the election because I now feel confident that the 2nd amendment will be safe for another four years and that conservative pro-family values will continue to be part of this administration's plan. Also, we have some insurance now that the Supreme Court will remain conservative since Bush may have the opportunity to appoint four new justices. The less government intervention and growth the better for the country.

Finally, we now need to start worrying about four years from now. The spector of Hillary Clinton running turns my stomach as does the possibility, no matter how remote, that Bill Clinton might become UN Secretary general. However, Ms. Clinton inherits a party in tatters so she has her work cut out for herself.

Now, off to pop the champagne and tune up my chainsaw!

Rainy days at the Ranch

2004-11-02T11:33:00.000-08:00

Rain...Rain...Rain today. Last night was a light dusting of snow followed by rain. All the animals are snug in their respective houses. The sheep and goats are sheltered out of the rain and wind in the sheep barn, the horses are in their stalls and the chickens have found dry roosts in their coop. I am in a warm cabin with a fire going in the stove and a pot of hot coffee on. Doing a little client work and a little ranch business from the kitchen table and watching the mist in the pines and over the river. I never thought that I would be this lucky.

Since this is the first blog from our family, a little bit of background is in order. We are a family of four living in far North Idaho, near Priest Lake. We have a 30 acre ranch devoted to raising sheep, horses and our family (including our six dogs and three cats). We built our home ourselves on the banks of the Priest River. It is an all cedar cabin that started off with 480 square feet and has slowly grown to 1300 square feet. We are off the grid and depend on solar power, wind power and the occasional generator run for power. Today the generator is running to make up for the dark cloudy days and to keep all of my computers running.

We moved here from Phoenix three years ago. I decided that I could not take the gangs, drugs and crime that make up the Phoenix culture. I also was working as a software consultant and traveled over 100,000 miles a year. So, I left that job, and moved to North Idaho unemployed but ready to realize a life long dream of living in the backwoods, off the grid and out of society. It has become a dream come true. Our daughters love living here, love their friends, 4H, the school system and peace and quiet. We have more time as a family and we are healthier for all of the outside work we do.

It was hard at first since we depended on an outhouse, didn't have running water and took showers at the local health club or at work. That first winter was very demanding. But the second summer, we, with a lot of help from my parents, built a bathroom and laundry room addition so we now have indoor plumbing and laundry facilities. The third summer we added on, again with a ton of help from my mom and dad, 450 square feet in the form of two bedrooms for our daughters. That is still a work in progress but I am just about done with the drywall finishing and ready to move onto putting in the tongue and groove ceiling. My daughters have been extremely patient!

In between building our house, we have fenced quite a bit of the property, built a sheep barn, a 36x36 horse barn with hay loft, a machine shed and various other outbuildings. We also had a well put in and I put in my own septic system. There is never a dull moment here but, as I said before, the outside work keeps my healthy both physically and mentally. We certainly could not have done this alone. We had a lot of help from our families and we were fortunate enough to have neighbors that were willing to share their knowledge and labor.

Making a living up here is a challenge. Most of our income at present comes from my software engineering consulting work. Additional income comes from plowing snow for my neighbors and a few local businesses, selling some of the chickens that we raised and hopefully, selling lambs from our flock. We also so some selling on eBay. With high speed internet service readily available via satellite in rural areas, it is much easier to make a living from my home rather than in an office.

Moving here was probably the hardest thing I have ever done and the riskiest but it has paid off very well for our family and for our quality of life. None of us can imagine ever leaving this property or going back to civilization. My oldest daughter now says she plans to return to Priest River after college. If she does, 10 acres of the ranch is waiting for her to build on.