So far the life in Idaho has been busy trying to settle in on no budget at all. The cost of coming up here followed by the cost of the time spent packing rather than working has been a swift kick in the butt, precisely where the wallet resides. It’s all work, work, work… I have a few jobs to do to keep my grandmother happy, and some jobs to keep my immediate family happy, and so far I have not been able to settle into a routine that allows me to post on the Prospering Peasant, or on here, or to get some photography started. There is just too much to do. I have not brought my camera out with on many of the drives we have taken locally, but in the weeks to come, I certainly will.
What I have not been shooting photos of has been the many routes around here that lead up and down the valley, and eventually into or through the mountains that surround us on all sides. Really, we live in the mountains, but in a large valley on a flat floor of fertile land waiting for the seed, and for the irrigation pipe. Irrigation was installed here by early pioneers in the area, and for that I am thankful.
Our set up here consists of one acre divided into half for lawn and house and out buildings, and half for grazing, but with no irrigation on either side, except where the neighbor allows us to run a hose under the fence from his lines, so when he waters his field, we can water our lawn.
On the other side of the street there is six and a half acres of grazing field, half of it irrigated, and all of it growing nicely. A local guy puts cows on this field and usually arranges something like a cow for us, however, this year he is paying property taxes and for the water shares instead, as the cows he has cost so much that he only has a dozen for the season.
All of this is on fairly flat land, apart from the back three acres over the road, which slants slightly downward to a drainage ditch that is always full of standing water in the guise of a long, narrow pond. The irrigation canal runs right through the center of the property across the road, so there is a bridge over that.
The barn as I call it is not really a barn in the normal sense. Instead it is a very large shed made of wood, and it is pretty old. It has a main room, which could easily serve as a barn, with a dirt floor, and another room which will serve for now as a chicken coop. It would one day make a lovely canning kitchen though as the vegetable patch is just outside the door to that room.
There is a separate one car garage that is oversized, and could serve as a two car if the door were big enough.
The Granary is a building built of 2×4’s laid flat and put together kind of in the fashion of a log cabin. All of the buildings need some freshening up and cleaning out, but they are all in good enough condition to serve well to their purpose.
The house is a two story, and is typical in its design, so much so that I have seen a few similar enough to convince me they are built to the same plans.
More will follow, of course, and especially in the form of photos, once I get all caught up on the settling in part. There is more to do around here than I care to talk about. Till then…
Kelsey J Bacon / The Prospering Peasant