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Idahome
Joined: Wed May 2nd, 2018
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Living in the mountains of Colorado I never thought I would leave......but CO has been in a drought for many many years and the threat of fire was getting pretty nasty. CA and New York has decided that CO is now a great place to stop and live, so the boom was on and our property values were skyrocketing so we started to look for a place that had mountains (snow), wilderness (4x4ing, snowmachines), and water.....WY is out, only a few mountains and less water, Montana similar any water is super expensive.....this search led us to the panhandle of Idaho! I too thought "Idaho? WTH, potatoes right?" LOL WRONG!!
Now South Idaho and the Boise area is the fastest growing city in the US.....but that's a whole other world from where we live
Don't you lump us in with those southern Idaho people!!!
We are NORTH IDAHO! (I am 60+/- miles from Canada)
Did you know North Idaho tried to succeed from the South? There is a large mountain range right down the middle of the state, in fact if you want to travel to South Idaho from North you leave the state to do so, there are no really good roads through so you either go into Washington or Montana and then South......North Idaho is a whole different place. They say its the last great wilderness, it's either North Idaho or Alaska left in the USA. They are right..... I live at the base of the selkirk mountains and 18 miles to the East is the cabinet mountains, Washington is 35 miles away, Montana is 35 miles away.....we are between two mountain ranges and there is a huge lake to our South, one way in and one way out so to speak.........If you come to North Idaho looking to be outdoors you will throw rocks at everywhere else...this place is amazing. Now it takes a certain kind of crazy to want to live up here, we get short short days in the winter, sun up at 7am and down at 4pm during the winter solstice....but in the Summer time sun up at 5 and down at 11 pm!! Want to talk about being able to get alot done?
We have Eagles that fly over us daily, I have river otters that swim past I can see from my desk. We have some very very large cats back here, lions and bobcats, we have few different types of bears, even grizzly are around here. There have been wolves spotted around here too in the last few years, although those sightings are rare. We have lots of white tail deer, tons of ELK and of course the MOOSE. The moose are the most dangerous animals, yes that is true.
Their legs are long and they are heavy so when they strike a vehicle often they go through the windshield, this is very dangerous! Way worse then hitting a deer.
So some fun facts about moose I have learned, more then one Moose is "Mooses" lol moose are interesting creatures due to their diet of ruffage their digestion systems produce alot of heat...so a moose is always hot. During winter they are in their habitat loving life, nice and cool, less predators to worry about less people...the roads are easy travels so we get to see Moose alot during the winter. In the summer time when the temps are hot the moose are already pissed off due to overheating, and during mating season you just don't want to have anything to do with a male moose. The last thing we want to see in the summer is a big boy standing in the road. You could be sitting there waiting for him to move for a long long time....you do NOT want to press them with the ATV or whatever, they will charge you and it can take ALOT to stop a charging moose....like a shotgun type of alot they will stomp your machine, rip trucks apart with their rack, stomp you to smithereens, etc........When we come across a moose it is best to just let them run off or do their thing, you do NOT want to push a moose or get between mama and he calves....mama moose will take on your vehicle and stomp you to pieces. They have even been known to turn around and take on a train locomotive....seriously!!!!!! Moose are not to be messed with. I carry a sidearm for protection back here for cats and for bears but mostly for the moose. It is best to carry a revolver with rubber bullets in the first two chambers, sometimes the rubber rounds will be enough to stop a charging moose and sometimes (often) it is not, so the rest of the rounds would be lethal. Now your in big trouble if you have to stand your ground and take down a moose its time to call it in... do not make it a habit there are big punishments for taking out wildlife even if it is to protect yourself.
So yeah we live with the moose daily, I love them, they are awe inspiring animals.... we have been lucky just to observe them, no encounters yet. My neighbor has been back here 13 years, he has had to shoot two moose because they were charging he, his wife and young kids on the atv. Not fun.
Such is life back here in the forest on a river where man has never really cleared the land or built infastructure and roads, our property has never been logged, we have cedar trees that are 7-8' around at the base, we are on the river at the base of a mountain in a river valley that gets tons of snow. I have access to thousands and thousands of acres of un touched wilderness out my back door and there is water all around. This is EXACTLY what I was built for...I grew up in the suburbs but always felt like I belonged in the woods, it must be the boy scout in me :) We used to spend all of our time trying to get time and prepared to go camping, just to be able to spend 1.5 days in the woods.....now we live where we camp, dream come true!!
Oh FYI I'm a vegetarian although I do eat fish from time to time (pescatarian they call it), it has been over 5 years since I ate meat, the moose, elk, deer are in no danger of being hunted here at our house and they seem to know it!!
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I build custom RBV, specializing in drivetrain conversions, wiring, suspension and complete custom trucks