5 things you’ll need living in rural North Idaho

I moved to North Idaho in 2017 with my wife and four kids. We were excited about this new adventure! In 2018, we bought a house on a nice piece of property and settled in. At the writing of this article we have lived in Northern Idaho for three years and six months, and I have learned a thing or two! I wanted to share the top five things I have learned that I needed to live here. So let’s take it from the top!

(Note: Some of the links in this article are to Amazon or other sites, where we are set up to be an affiliate. So if you do click and buy them, we might get a little bit of commission to help pay for our website, and what we are trying to do here. Thanks!)

1. A small yet powerful flashlight

I still remember that first night walking outside our rented house when we first moved to North Idaho, and realizing how absolutely pitch black it was. I could see a little light from the neighbor’s house, but generally, I could not even see my feet, it was so dark! This situation repeated itself and was amplified when the power would go out at night (lots of tall pine trees close to power lines is just a reality here). The bottom line is that you can end up in a lot of situations where it is very dark, and that light on your smartphone is not handy (it’s awkward to hold a flat device sometimes, and not possible when you need both hands), or not enough lumens.

2. A flipper pocket knife

You might already carry a pocket knife, and it might work perfectly fine for you. You might even have a multi-tool (this is the one I have) as your EDC, an acronym that preppers use which stands for “EveryDay Carry”. But I have personally found that having a lightweight and sharp flipper knife serves me best.

This picture compares the last knife I carried for quite a while before I got the “Little Fiend”. In full disclosure, a good friend of mine works for WEKnife and sent it to me to try out. It weighs quite a bit less than the knife on the right, and the blade is longer and sharper. What I like most about the flipper knife is how I can pull it out of my pocket and open the blade in about half a second. Literally. I would need both hands and a couple of seconds to get the blade out with my old knife, or with my multi-tool.

The need for a knife is so frequent when you are dealing with hauling your garbage to the dump, or dealing with any of the hundreds of little projects that are required with living rural.

If you want to check out the “Little Fiend” by WEKnife you can go here. It is often sold out, but I have found it on Amazon here.

3. Sunshine Supplement

One of the most drastic changes you will notice when you move to North Idaho is the length of sunlight for your days. If you are living in Coeur D’Alene or further north, you are above the 47th parallel (latitude), which means in the summer, you are going to have up to 16 hours of sunshine, but in winter, it gets cut almost in half (8.5 hours). You can check out a breakdown here. With so little sunshine in your life, your body can start to lose bone strength, and you can be more susceptible to illness. For that reason, you need to take a Vitamin D3 supplement since you are not getting it from sunshine for much of the year. Here is one of the most popular available on Amazon:

And don’t forget one for the kiddos:

Of course, if you already take a multivitamin, you should check if it has Vitamin D3. As always, check with your doctor about what is right for you!

4. “The Break Up” and Rubber boots

Northern Idaho is considered the Inland Northwest, which I have learned means you are close to Seattle. Which means you will have lot of Seahawks fans around, and which means rain is just a part of life. Where we live, we are quite fortunate because the soil is largely sand, which means the rain pretty quickly goes away.

But in many other places up here there is a good amount of clay. What happens in the rainy season is called “breakup” or “the breakup” by locals. It’s kind of hard to describe, but imagine the ground having a crust on top, but below the crust is a layer of earth more susceptible to liquefying with water. So you get this weird effect where weight and movement over the crust will “break up” the top layer and the sludge below will ooze out. I am hoping to capture this in picture and video this coming spring and will link to it here.

Because of “the breakup”, large trucks are restricted on many roads until things dry out enough. For those of you planning to have a house built, it has been as late as mid-June! It’s common that cars will get stuck in it, and often times even the weight of people walking over an area can cause it. I saw this happen at the local high school where there was a path to the football stadium stands, and there were multiple oozing bulbs coming up along the path.

Bottom line, if you are going to be out in this, you need a pair of boots. And I like tall rubber boots because you can spray them off easily. I bought a pair on Amazon pretty cheap (around $25) and they have worked fine. Here is a search to get you started.

5. Bear spray

Before I get into this, I want you to see this picture:

A Grizzly Bear’s traveling range can be anywhere from 70 miles to hundreds of miles. This picture was taken by a trail camera about 19 miles from my house. You do the math on this one. We are in bear country, but also coyote, wolf, cougar, badger, and wolverine. If you are going to go out on any hike or walk, it’s definitely smart to have protection.

Now I am not going to launch into some argument about why bear spray is better or more effective than carrying a firearm. There are plenty of rants online for both points of view. I prefer to carry bear spray or carry both depending on where I am going, and who I am going with. I don’t want to have to worry about my aim with a gun if some creature got a hold of one of my kids. So, feel free to do the research until you feel comfortable.

This is what I like:

I like this one because, like the knife, I can draw it and use it with one hand. I like to have it attached to my belt. I like how the holster is designed, and the glow-in-the-dark release clip stays on well. Even if I am wearing it and driving, I have never had a problem with it catching.

PRO TIP: to ensure that I could access it quickly, when I start my hike, I adjust the velcro strap covering the top so that it is only half way or so connected, like this:

By doing this, you can more easily grab it with your fingers because you have more of the edge of the strap to grab, and pulling it off the velcro is easier as well.

Conclusion

I hope this has been insightful and given you a sneak peek into what living in the more rural parts of North Idaho is like. Please subscribe, and don’t be afraid to reach out!