Idaho, Part 1

As I mentioned last time, I wanted to leave New Mexico as soon as we arrived. Pretty much the whole time we were there, I wanted to leave. It did not matter that I met some really nice people there. It did not matter that there is beauty there. We were far from family and friends and due to circumstances, I felt like I was being sucked dry.

While we were there, a very good friend of mine who had moved from Scott Valley to Utah while we were still in Scott Valley, moved to Idaho with her family. She said we should visit because it reminded her a lot of the valley. We did. Amazingly, Dan even liked it. We visited in February, we moved in March.

Moving was quite an adventure and I'm not sure I'm really ready to talk about it much. The fact that it was an adventure is enough.

The place we found to rent was about fifteen miles north of Bonners Ferry and about fifteen miles south of the Canadian border. It was beautiful! Notice all the green? Oh, my goodness! I loved it. I'm pretty sure I'd have been happy to stay there if we could have bought the property and built a larger house. The location was lovely and remote and there was room for a garden and chickens and goats.

There were mountains and lots of farm land and water. That lovely snake on the left is the Kootenay River. Anhueser-Bushe has hops farms, which are very interesting, there. We tried growing some and what an amazing plant. It will grow up to twelve inches in a twenty-four hour period--you can almost see it growing. And goats love it.

Lots of places to explore. We walked up and down the creek and generally had a good time. The only drawback was the driveway, which was about a quarter mile long, in mud season.

The house, slightly off center here, was just an old trailer that had a decent add on. The three other houses you see here were not there when we were. The two in the upper right were under construction when we moved. The only reason we moved when we did is because the property had sold.

When we moved here, one of the first questions we were asked is, "Will you send your kids to Mt. Hall School (which was just down the road a bit)? Or do you homeschool?" Homeschool was a big deal--lots of families did it. It was nice to fit right in that way.

The second place we lived in Idaho was actually in Bonners Ferry. Even though it was in town, it wasn't a bad location. I mean, it could have been worse. It could have been better, too, but it wasn't bad. One drawback was lack of a fence. Cedric was almost twenty months old when we moved and one day he decided to take off walking down the street. NOT a good idea. Very indicative of Cedric, though.

Anyway, this first image of Bonners Ferry includes more of the Kootenay River. It liked to flood and there are dikes built up on either side through town. While we were in Idaho, they were almost breached at least once.

This also has a 2000 feet scale but shows from the river south which is the area in which we lived.

Obviously, a town. Still lots of green.

We lived in the house just slightly off center. The building just to the north is a church. I watered the front lawn for them for $50 a month. It wasn't a bad deal although it looks like they put in a parking lot since we were there. I don't blame them--the town put in water meters while we were there and began charging for water.

There is a garden still behind the house. There wasn't one when we moved in but the landlord said it was fine if we did so of course we did. Along the south side of the house I had a pretty cool little flower bed that continued up to the side of the porch. On the north side of the porch I put in some shade-loving plants and that was nice, too.

It was in this house that Seth was born before Denise could get there and then Joseph was born in a tub of water in the living room. One of the first things we did when we moved somewhere new was find out where the library was. The Bonners Ferry library is one of my all time favorites just because the people who worked there were wonderful and the building was in a unique location and when we lived in town, we could, and often did, walk there.

It was in this house that the idea of becoming a midwife first entered my mind. My only regret is not taking myself more seriously.

It was also in this house that a seventeen year marriage finally came to an end and seven children and I needed to find a new place to live, not to mention Alisha and Becky. In many ways, it should have been Dan moving out but he was difficult and I didn't really want to stay in that house, anyway. It was full of mold and much too small. It was also in this house that a very toxic relationship developed and that relationship is really the only thing about Idaho that I regret.

More Idaho next time.