Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikeg05
I would love a secluded area with acreage, but still close enough to town. Coeur D' Alene would be amazing!!! But the wife wants amenities and loves Meridian and Eagle, suburbs of Boise for the amenities and schools...so there is that lol
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The notion of owning an acreage has always been one of the most popular reasons why folks look at Idaho as a place to relocate.
I think it's a part of the basic American dream; America was always the place immigrants looked to the first for land that was plentiful and cheap, a place a man could own with enough room he could do anything he pleased on it. If that place lay in beautiful surroundings, so much the better.
This dream hasn't changed, but our lives have changed drastically. Moving to the suburbs was a great achievement when most new immigrants were confined to the life in cities, and when Americans who wanted a little piece of that dream wanted land they owned, not just occupied.
A suburban house surrounded by a relatively large expanse of lawn really satisfied that hunger for a long time. It also satisfied the need for some isolation from humanity too.
After all- mowing the lawn and planting flowers is just the same as mowing hay and planting a crop. When suburban living became so common, the urge for more space did too.
More than half an acre cn be a real pain in the butt for someone who doesn't want to spend much time hobby farming. That amount of land is just enough to grow a huge garden or create a nice landscape, and when the house is located toward the middle of it, it's also isolating.
Here in the Idaho Falls area, there's an older subdivision that was originally all on 1-acre plots. After a decade, very few of the back yard areas were cultivated; half or more were nothing but overgrown weed patches. In 20 years, the residents wanted an a new street going down the backsides, so they could sell the half they never used, and they got the street.
In Iona, all the lots when the town was platted were 3 acres. That allowed the folks, who were all farmers/ranchers, the room to pasture their animals in town during the winters. Only a few of those lots remain too; most have been sub-divided. The ones that remain are still used to keep a horse, or some other critters.
So the dream can be achieved here, but when it happens, it comes with a lot of maintenance work, and in most places, keeping animals on it isn't allowed any longer. Not everyone who lives in the country wants to put up with the smell of manure and the flies coming from the next-door neighbor's place.
And 3 acres isn't enough land to feed a large animal year-round. So even then, feed has to be bought and stored on the place. 3 acres also demands equipment; a small tractor, a trailer, and other expensive stuff that's only used a few times a year.
The more acreage, the bigger the implements needed. A person has to really like to be a farmer to care for it all well.
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