New House, New State

August of 2021 brought a lot of new changes and challenges. We had been looking for a place to buy that had plenty of land to do some farming in Oregon but we were having a hard time(like most people) finding anything in our budget. Just the realization that we live in a time where half a million dollars might get you a 3 bed 2 bath house in a subdivision in the middle of town, and if your lucky a small piece of grass is a little dis-heartening. When we finally realized that we were not going to get the amount of land we wanted or the house size we had always dreamed of, we started to really ponder whether or not we even wanted to live in Oregon at all. we made the notorious list of pros and cons to help decide our next step.

When we realized that maybe looking at another state was the best option for us it was a little scary. Jacob and I were really hoping to be in one of the states that doesn’t have income tax and has our same conservative values. When we realized that none of the states that have those characteristics like that would be close enough for family to visit we opted to take a trip to Idaho. We quickly fell in love with the state. Even though it is much drier here than I am used to, I love the amount of sun that we get here.

Idaho is a very family/kid friendly state and I felt like we were going to fit in to this new place. We quickly booked another road trip to start looking at houses. To our dismay as most of you know, Idaho housing market is just as high as everywhere else so we were having a difficult time picking a place that was affordable that wasn’t a huge money pit. Yahweh answered our prayers because when we were looking for a place to buy our offer was declined on a house that we really wanted but we decided to check out a listing that really didn’t seem like it had much promise. But the prices had been lowered a couple times and it was on 3 acres. Not the 10 or 20 I was dreaming of but enough to get us started for sure. out of all the houses we looked at this was the first one that I could imagine the family living in. plenty of space for the kids to run. lots of places to garden and raise a few small farm animals. The biggest downside is that the house still only has 3 bedrooms no garage no fencing none of the stuff that most people who farm or have businesses need. But we decided that those things could be added much cheaper than trying to buy a place with everything all set up. It’s just like Yahweh to meet us halfway. He provides whats needed but we are going to have to put a little elbow grease into it to meet our needs for our tree business. and even though the house is not as big as I hoped(was really hoping we would have space for an office) it still fits all our family in it. and at the end 0f the day most of us spend our time outside anyway.

The hardest challenge now that we are moved in and living here is that our 3 acres of land needs SO. MUCH. WORK. we found out from our neighbors that the old couple that lived here before us sprayed the bottom 2 acres yearly with pesticides to keep the weeds down. Now NOTHING grows out there. We now refer to it as “The Badlands”

This year our primary goals are going to be trying to get stuff to grow out in the pasture that is not just goat weed and tumble weed. To Get a Garden planted even if we have to truck in some extra soil, put in some more trees, and to get our chicken coop built. Other things that would be bonus projects will be to get the outer fence put up so we can get some more farm animals and to also get a green house built.

This spring and summer is going to be a lot of work, trial and error and hopefully a little success a long the way.

Cheers to new life, love, living and learning!!