Advice: Looking to retire in Idaho (Boise, Nampa: real estate, mortgage, houses)

[russman]

Hi All,
My wife and have been looking at retiring in Idaho but aren't familliar with the state. Our Daughter lives in Boise (Merridian) but we are really drawn more to beauty North or North central.
We are currently in Western Washington. We both grew up rural (my family is pretty much all loggers) but have both worked as professionals and just want to be done with the I-5 corridor and the politics of Washington and Oregon.
We are looking for a nice rural lifestyle where we can get along with our neighbors, join the community and just sort of live and let live.

The winters don't scare us much, we are smart enough to stay out of trouble, but a decent growing season would be nice... We currently have fruit trees, berries, grapes, a garden and chickens and we raise and can a lot of our own food now just because we enjoy it

We really like the Elk City area but my concern up there that I don't want to get caught up in a bunch of radical lawlessness and racial tensions...... I grew up in rural logging towns and I know full well that some people live in those areas because they just can't live anyplace else without going to jail....

Advice?

Thanks
Russ <><

[Sage of Sagle]

Originally Posted by russman

The winters don't scare us much, we are smart enough to stay out of trouble, but a decent growing season would be nice... We currently have fruit trees, berries, grapes, a garden and chickens and we raise and can a lot of our own food now just because we enjoy it

"Decent growing season" and "North idaho" are rather contradictory until you get WELL south of Lewiston.

[elkotronics]

I would suggest St.Maries, ID, or Rathdrum, ID, or Coeur d' Alene, ID. I just moved all the way from Coeur d' Alene, ID, to Alamogordo, NM. I really liked Coeur d' Alene, ID, but did not love it. I don't like how hard it is to find work in Idaho. I really struggled in finding my line of work. I am a Respiratory Therapist. I eventually found work in the New Mexico desert. To me, that is not a downtake, it is an uptake. I'm happy as a clam down here. But I am originally from Seattle, and really wanted to score an RT job in Washington State somewhere. Try as I might and try as I may, it just did not happen. So here I am. I've started working here and I think it's gonna be a good gig for me.

But I just remember good farming around St. Maries, I tried to find a job at Benewah Community Hospital there in St. Maries. Got an interview, then the Manager gave the job to a woman whom he had previously interviewed. Thought I had it scored after the interview but to no avail. But it looks like a real down-home, Mayberry RFD kind of community. I think that my wife and I, our Chow Chow, Pomeranian, orange tabby cat and grey tabby cat would've all liked living there. Lots and lots of greenery, very grassy, it used to be a logging paradise and still gets a fair amount of logging activity going on. The people of the region grow apples, potatoes, green beans, etc. Check it out and see what you can find out about the area, russman.

There is a video you can Google from the real estate people that is worth watching. I watched it back when I thought we might be moving to St. Maries, ID. It's a small town, BTW, around 2,800 people.

[lovecda]

Growing seasons can be very short. I was just looking at data the other day which said, that virtually anywhere you go in Idaho, you can expect no more than 150-160 frost-free days in the areas with the longest growing season. Nonetheless, if you carefully choose which varieties of plants you use and you make a few adjustments to what and how you grow, you can have a very successful, sustainable garden. An orchard might be a little more problematic.

One family I know successfully grew peas, radishes, green beans, carrots, red potatoes and tomatoes this year, and the temperature is routinely about 5 degrees or more colder than it is in town. (To prevent frost they covered the tomatoes with plastic nightly when it was cold.)

Fruit trees are do-able, lots of people have them, but I'm not sure how successful they are. I know some varieties of apple do well, but I've heard that cherries are hit and miss. Perhaps an Evans/Bali or an Early Richmond would do well. You'd probably also have luck with some of the more hardy berry plants. There are some strawberries that do very well around here. Again, it's a lot about carefully choosing which varieties to go with. Most (all?) of the local nurseries around here are closed for the winter, but come spring, they could be great resources for you when you have questions about specific things to grow in the area. As long as you're not planning on growing coconuts and bananas, I think you'll be able handle growing food around here.

[banjomike]

You may want to look around the Boise area. The surrounding area to from Boise west, to the Oregon border, and northward, along the Snake River, is called the banana belt. It's the warmest spot in the state and grows everything. There are many orchards, a couple of wineries, and lots of crops of all kinds. This area has the longest growing season in the state, and the mildest winters. It typically has hotter summers as well.

There are a lot of small towns, too. New Plymouth, Weiser, Fruitland, Wilder, Greenleaf, Emmett, Marsing & Homedale all lie an hour or less away from Boise, and are close to Caldwell and Nampa, both larger cities. Nampa is growing these days especially. Small acreages are pretty easy to find.

[russman]

Thanks for the great replies
Work isn't the biggest concern for us, if we move it will be with no mortgage and pensions coming in. As for growing, I hear you on the short season, I have good luck with hoop houses for getting early starts. We are pretty self reliant (even after years in management ) I have built everything from race cars to guns.
We (O.K. "I"...) prefer evergreens to the desert. Boise is a really great area but if you lost the irrigation, you'd be in a world of hurt...

[javatom]

In Coeur d'alene the elevation of your house & garden has a lot to do with it. I live downtown and have a garden without too much worry about frost. Even 10 minutes out of town in some areas above 3000 ft, the growing season is considerably shorter. It is still possible there as well. You just have to cover the garden at night starting in mid October or so.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by russman

Thanks for the great replies
Work isn't the biggest concern for us, if we move it will be with no mortgage and pensions coming in. As for growing, I hear you on the short season, I have good luck with hoop houses for getting early starts. We are pretty self reliant (even after years in management ) I have built everything from race cars to guns.
We (O.K. "I"...) prefer evergreens to the desert. Boise is a really great area but if you lost the irrigation, you'd be in a world of hurt...

S. Idaho has major reservoirs everywhere. The Snake is dammed from stem to stern, and the river's first waters all originate in S.E. Idaho. Boise has both the Snake and the Boise river as water supplies, and the Lucky Peak Dam is a very large reservoir. The Snake is the largest river in the intermountain west at it's confluence with the Columbia, which is only half as big as the Snake.

The area south of Boise also has the Snake River aquifer, which is the size of Lake Erie. This aquifer stretches from the eastern boundary all the way across to Twin Falls, which is close to the western boundary. The aquifer drains at the 10,000 Springs area, just north of Hagerman back into the Snake.

Our population would have to increase over fourfold to present a threat to irrigation down here, but the last drought did lower the aquifer's water levels. For the past decade, however, it has been re-charged yearly by the spring runoff, and it is back up to it's pre-drought levels.

Due to the lava flows and the ancient limits of the glaciers during the ice age, S. Idaho has a high number of springs everywhere. The glaciation didn't reach S. Idaho, but it created much subterranean rock fracturing deep in the earth, which in turn created thousands of micro aquifers here. N. Idaho was glaciated, which resulted in the glacial lakes there, and similar micro aquifers. S. Idaho may look dry from the highway, but there's plenty of water once you get off the Interstate.

Drought hits the entire state in cycles. Right now, N. Idaho is slightly more droughty than the south, and the entire state is officially in mild drought, but Idaho hasn't been hit as hard as the areas eastward, into the Great Plains and beyond.

[Native Idahoan]

Years ago my folks had a lovely place in Deary. I don't recall much in the way of flowers, but they did have a huge garden as well as a small greenhouse. Definitely a lot of snow in winter, but that's what gives you the stunning greenery!

[jadbad2004]

I agree with elkotronics, as we moved to St. Maries last January and found the seasons to be great, with the exception that last June was so wet that it did delay some of the planting but it was a rare occurrence from what I have read. The town is located a mere hour drive from CDA where there is a lot of shopping and dining to choose. The town is friendly, and there are many events through out the year that give it that neighborly feel, we have grown to really like it here, plus we are not right off a main highway, I-90 runs about 30 miles north off Rt 3, and you can take Rt 5 to Plummer and get on 95 which runs north and south, so we are not totally isolated but off the beaten path a little. The greenery is amazing here, I have never seen so many flowers and trees, we moved here from the eastern side of the state where it is quite brown. The chain lakes begin here in St Maries and go all the way up to Coeur d'Alene, and then you have Lake Pend Oreille. It is a gorgeous area.