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I registered a month or so ago and prior to registering I believe I have read just about every thread on the Idaho forum. I really want to thank all who have posted information about all aspects of Idaho, it has been a great help in educating me about your state. Answers to questions were answered that I did not even know I had a question about....
I currently live in the dreaded state of California up in the Sierra Nevada Mtn's west of Lake Tahoe in a small town called "Pollock Pines", I'm at about the 4000' elevation. It's nice here, it's a conservative county as are most counties along the foothills and mtn's along the Sierra's but it's still Ca. We've been in our home for 20 years, own it and are ready for a change of scenery.
We have the usual wild critters running around here, deer, black bear, Bobcat, coyote, mountain lion plus an unlimited amount of skunks and raccoon's.
We are going on our second year of no snow and not much rain in the area where I live, I should have snow on the ground now and we have nothing. Normally prior to 2013 you could count on 2 to 3 feet of snow at our house for the season sometimes more and all at once.
Me and my wife are planning on relocating to northern Idaho and have been window shopping for homes for the past year and are hoping to make the move in a year or 2, sooner if my wife lands a job up that way.
Prior to discovering the city-data Idaho forum I did a lot of research to see if it would be less expensive for us to live in Idaho and for us it is much cheaper. I've read on some threads where people felt that taxes and such were high there, but hey, not compared to Ca.
Here is a list where I will save on: property taxes, sales taxes, state taxes, car and home insurance, vehicle registration, fuel and energy costs.
Plus I have to pay an extra $115 to the California Department Of Forestry for fire protection, this is new, it's in it's 3rd year......just another way to squeeze money out of us. Note, we do have our own fire Dept, always have.
My buddy moved to Tennessee and keeps trying to get me to move there, sends me pics and real estate listings but I don't see any mountains and besides that, living in the west and having high mountains is in my DNA, could not imagine living anywhere but the west.
We are going to go look at Priest River, Clark Fork, Sagle and outside Sandpoint. Have a few homes that are on the market that we like if we were actually moving now and are just going to drive to the area of the home to see what the areas look like, don't want to waste a real estate persons time going in to to look, just want to see the area, to me location is real important. The forest is real thick here where we live, no view, only trees and neighbors are too close, though there is nothing behind my house but forest.
Google Earth is a great tool for getting a good look at a piece of property, you can see where the neighbors are, move the cursor over the property (or anywhere on the image) and you get the elevation as you move the cursor, also lots of other information. It also gives the date the image was taken, to me this is important because if I see green foliage (besides trees) and the image has a date of say, 7/25/2014, I know the area gets some rain during the summer. Summer time is very dry here in the sierra's except at the higher elevations with summer thunder storms.
Actually we will visit a few people while we are in NID, have never met them personally other than on another forum of like minded people. Dinner in Sandpoint and coffee up in Bonners Ferry, was surprised at how many members live in Idaho.
One of the things I do is run around the area where I live and get aerial video of scenic areas at different times of the year, I used a radio controlled aircraft called a multirotor otherwise known as a drone. The word "drone" gives people the wrong impression. Those of us in the hobby have always called them "multirotors", been flying them going on 4 years now, you have your quadcopter, hexacopter and octocopter and a few other variations. I'm looking forward to be able to do the same in Idaho, you get such a different perspective of the natural surroundings filmed from the air as a bird or bug would fly. When I come up for my visit I'll be bringing my quadcopters with me to get some vid of my visit.
I also work for a wedding videographer doing my aerial thing during the wedding season, the guy does outstanding work incorporating my aerials in the customers video, did 20 weddings last year, that's about the only time I leave my rural setting and and head to populated areas.
We are really looking forward being in NID this month and once again thanks to everyone who contributes to the Idaho forum, it's good to read what real people have to say about a place. You can only get so much from articles and statistics, nothing like real people, well sorta, it is the internet after all.
Oh, and don't worry I won't be bringing any California or as I like to call it "kommiefornia" ways with me because I don't have any.
Welcome to the Idaho forum, Don! My late father and I spent many a day exploring the Sierra Nevadas, so I am familiar with Pollock Pines. Lovely area, but OH the fire risk! We fled California (Central Valley) over three years now; like you, we lived in a conservative area and got tired of paying for all the stupid and ineffective liberal policies. We don't regret the move. At all. We live between Sandpoint and Bonner's Ferry, so it sounds like you will be in our general area. If you have any questions that your friends in the area can't answer, feel free to post them and the Lion Family will do our best to help. In any event, enjoy your visit and good luck!
Same thing goes for the Clark Fork area--we're only there during the summer season for now, but we're building a retirement home outside of town. We know the area pretty well, so I may be able to answer some questions. Have a great time visiting NID!
Google Earth helped us zero in on Clark Fork. It's a great tool. You probably know that you can mark each property with a digital "push pin," and print the image out, so you can use it when you're in the area, checking out the properties.
About your photo drone: It sounds like a lot of fun! But don't be surprised if somebody uses it for target practice... Not sure what I would do if a drone hovered over our property, unannounced...
About your photo drone: It sounds like a lot of fun! But don't be surprised if somebody uses it for target practice... Not sure what I would do if a drone hovered over our property, unannounced...
Welcome. Enjoy your look around. We also came from the California mountains (high in the San Gabriels).
One thing you REALLY need to look at is "WHERE ARE THE RR TRACKS?" when looking at any parcels. So if you're looking at Google Earth, then look at the map to see if you see RR tracks. Remember that this area is a funnel...75+ trains a day. So being a few hundred yards from tracks can be OK or an annoyance (if you're near a crossing where they'll blast the horn), but being a mile or two from the tracks is pleasant (distant rumble, distant whistle, etc).
Being country people, you'll already fit in quickly up here, like we did. We're here to help with your questions as you come across more specific inquiries...
Thanks everyone for the welcome and reading my post.....
LionFamily: We lucked out this last September, had a big fire Named "The King Fire", started on "King Of The Mountain Rd.", it was arson. Not many structures lost but about 100,00 acres of forest was burnt, had jet tankers flying 300 feet over my house for 4 days, put up some friends and their animals that were under mandatory evacuation at our house. That was the only close call in the 20 years we've been here.
Clark Fork Fantast: I've been following your posts on acquiring your property, lucky guy to be able to build a home to your specifications. I use the push pin feature on GE also, have lots of properties marked. The only problem I have found is the the push pin does not always stay, sometimes it will disapear after saving it unless I save it, exit GE and the go back in.
That's one thing I don't do is go flying over other peoples homes, I prefer to be out in the forest by myself, when people are around they tend to ask lots of questions and I would rather be flying.
elousv: I've seen some of the vids where guys are using drones for target practice, the drones had small explosive charges on them that would be set off if hit. There has also been a number instances where eco-freaks were try to spy into a private hunting area with a multirotor and the good ol boys shot it down, good for them. Also been lots of people trying to use them for good stuff like search and rescue and the FAA gets right in there and shuts them down.
Sage Of Sagle: I am really familiar w/San Gabriel Mtn's, spent many years gold dredging on the east fork of the San Gabriel river, would spend all my weekends with my gold mining buddies up there, dredging for gold during the and drinking beer around the campfire at night. Had my 1st on only face to face encounter with a Mountain Lion back up in the narrows of the east fork. Me and a buddy were on a week long mining trip and one morning I am down at the river sluicing and a small herd of Bighorn Sheep go running through the camp followed by a very large Lion. They all go across the river, the sheep go vertical up the cliff on the other side and the Lion decides to perch itself on small cliff and sit there and watch me from the other side of the river 15 feet above me, was a bit nerve racking. After that time I decided to always keep my pistol on my side when back in the narrows. Heck, I sill have some equipment and 1/2 5th of Jack Daniels back there, been 22 years or so, someone will have a nice little find some day, it's in a small cave.
Thanks to this forum I am familiar w/the trains running through the area so I will for sure keep aware of that. Sound carries real well in the countryside, I can hear the neighbors talking in their yard 150 feet away, the hiways is a mile away as the crow flies and you can hear the cars going by.
Native Idahoan: I'll for sure be posting how things are going on our quest to re-locate to NID and how this upcoming trip goes. We are heading out Thurs. night, I was really hoping it would be cold and snowing when we go but it only looks like warm and rain this weekend. We are supposed to get a lot of rain here starting tomorrow night thru Monday, supposed to get about inches. Now if only we could get some snow.
I do have one question at this point, I am a cigarette smoker, how are smokers treated in Idaho? I am used to being a second class citizen being a smoker here in Ca.......I am a polite smoker and I don't even smoke in my own house, except when I have my face and cigarette in front of the wood stove with door open, sucks the smoke right in.
Welcome Don! We are soon coming upon our 1 year anniversary of our move to Idaho. We love it and often remark on how glad we are to have made the move.
We came from GA so I was close enough to TN to spend some time there over the years (east and central TN). TN, IMO, is nicer than GA. Though I went to Memphis once - I'd never go back there. TN has a lot of the same climate drawbacks as GA. Coming from California, you probably wouldn't be very happy there. The humidity is awful.
I also do videography and would love to do aerial work but the price of a decent copter is a little steep for me. Perhaps one day...
I posted this before in the Front Porch thread a few months back but I feel its appropriate to repost here. This is an aerial video of different parts of Idaho. The filmmaker is a Boise resident and shot the video on a family trip exploring Idaho.
Welcome Don! We are soon coming upon our 1 year anniversary of our move to Idaho. We love it and often remark on how glad we are to have made the move.
We came from GA so I was close enough to TN to spend some time there over the years (east and central TN). TN, IMO, is nicer than GA. Though I went to Memphis once - I'd never go back there. TN has a lot of the same climate drawbacks as GA. Coming from California, you probably wouldn't be very happy there. The humidity is awful.
I also do videography and would love to do aerial work but the price of a decent copter is a little steep for me. Perhaps one day...
I posted this before in the Front Porch thread a few months back but I feel its appropriate to repost here. This is an aerial video of different parts of Idaho. The filmmaker is a Boise resident and shot the video on a family trip exploring Idaho.
Hi Publius4, After watching the video it really makes me want to be in Id. that much more, he did a really good job putting it together.
I figured the humidity would be quite high in the south, no humidity or heat for me, for the most part there is little humidity here at 4000', great for a swamp cooler in the summer though. In all the time I have lived here there has never been any dew on the plants or cars, only time anything gets wet up here is if it is foggy, raining or snowing, sometimes I feel like I will dry up and blow away.
Coming from Ga. had to have been quite a big change for you and it looks like it was for the better.
You can actually get started with one of the DJI Phantom quads for under 1000 bucks, there are a number of different variations of the Phantom at different price levels. A good unit to start with and learn to fly and capture video that you want. The multirotors these days are quite easy to learn to fly, just be prepared for a few crashes when 1st learning. All my equipment is DJI, I use both their Naza and Wookong WK-M flight controllers.
I also do a lot of photography, like doing nature stuff but also did a lot stock images of food that I sell at the stock photo agencies......he is a slideshow video of some of my nature type stuff....
Hey Don. You will love it in N. Idaho. We are in the process of moving back once I get my final retirement orders.
A few of us on base go to Kona to fly multi-rotors. Lots of fun and there are endless areas to explore with these in Idaho. I got the chance to go out with a friend up in the Coeur d' Alene's who does stock videography and some stock photo work a few months ago and all I can says is wow. Its was something else watching him and his wife do their magic with the 8 rotor "tugboat" he calls it. Makes my phantom look like a child's toy. There are a lot of guys doing this and for the most part they are just hobbying it when they get together. If you land in Idaho, I will get you in touch with him. There is a group of 4 of them that just hang out and do their thing.
The difference between N Idaho and Pollock... My wife grew up in a small town called Grass Valley to the north but her folks still own a small orchard in Diamond Springs. So she has more insight than me. I was born and raised in N Idaho and only visited the areas she grew up in. Though the climate is not real close, the terrain is. The weather is more like the crystal basin than the HWY-50 area. Not as much rush and stuff. Her brother and cousin moved to the area (Hayden and CDA) a few years ago and love it. Did not take them long to adjust.
Costs: We are selling one of our rigs just so we dont have to pay the 1k shipping fee to get it stateside. We just paid $2.90 a gallon and thats the lowest we have seen it in a long time. looking forward to that 1.80 per gallon my dad just paid. Houses are a lot cheaper in Idaho than here, and I am sure cheaper than Cali.
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