Free Range Kids: Unwanted

Feb 2022

We had two 40 ft shipping containers moved onto our property earlier in the month. We had to have 6 ft of snow moved from the entrance and 4 ft from the container's spot.

Gratefully, we were sent lots of pictures during the whole process, since we couldn't be there for it.

Snow blocking entrance

If I had been there I don't know that I would have ever asked anyone to get these monsters on our mountain...in the snow! But I wasn't there, and I didn't get the gravity of what I was asking, and miraculously they made it!

March 1, 2022

We had arrived in Sandpoint the night before and we were excited to finally show the children the property. Peter went ahead of us in the truck and I got a desperate call from him. "I got stuck in the snow and now all our neighbors hate me!" He explained that when he got stuck in the snow he trapped our elderly neighbor who had just had a tooth pulled. That neighbor called another neighbor to use his tractor to pull Peter to our property. That neighbor resented it and his last words to Peter were, "You better buy a tractor."

"Honey, I'm sure they don't hate us," I reassured.

Then I got a little taste of my own. I pulled off at the turn-out at the end of our road, 0.7 miles from the entrance to our property. I needed chains before proceeding, but I didn't know how to put them on. Peter had planned on helping me, but we were running late for our scheduled appointments so he had gone ahead and now was stuck on our property. There was no phone reception were I was, so I couldn't call Peter to coordinate.

While I was trying to decide what to do, one of our neighbors was parked waiting for his two children at the bus stop.

We were obviously in distress, but he never offered any help. I finally went up to his window and told him about our plight.

"I can't call my husband who is stuck on the mountain." No offer to help.

"I have chains, but I don't know how to put them on." No offer to help.

"Maybe I should walk up the mountain," I suggest. Still no offer to help. Instead he said coldly, dripping with irritation, "Why'd you move here?"
Once his kids arrived they piled in and he drove up the mountain without a backward glance. It turns out his place is only 0.2 miles from ours, but he didn't offer to even take me that far and would have let me walk 0.7 miles uphill, in the snow.

At one point, "the tractor" neighbor came down to pick up his kids, (I knew him from the vehicle description from Peter) and I went to his window and thanked him profusely for helping us. He scowled and barely nodded acknowldgement. Our neighbors were a salty bunch.

Thankfully, someone from our church (the one who had helped coordinate the shipping containers) showed up and brought Peter down to help me with chains.

We made it to the property, but were feeling deflated after our neighbors made it very apparent they were not happy to share the mountain with us. Earlier that day, we hired a kind neighbor to bulldoze a small area so we could get onto our property. It was now a giant mudpit and the logs and snow surrounding it reached up to 8 feet. The muck, constant rain, and winter gear made me feel claustrophobic.

I sucked up the tears that I wanted to shed, because now was not the time. Instead I met face-to-face for the first time with "the dozer" neighbor and "the church" friend and his friend. At the same time those introductions were happening, we also met with a well driller and the electric engineer. Everyone was being very nice, but it was very overwhelming to be asked where I wanted the power to be and where the house and barn were going to go. I had an idea when we came in the autumn, but now it was all covered in snow, except for the mudpit we were standing in, and I struggled to make a decision. I eventually chose a spot, but called later in the week and asked them to put everything on hold so that I could make an informed choice once the snow had melted and I could see the actual ground. It was frustrating to know I was delaying the project by months, but in retrospect it was the best decision.

After a few hours it was just our family on the mountain and I helped the children get their winter gear and snow shoes on so they could play. I was too dejected for frolicking. Instead I was inspecting our over-priced shipping containers that were almost blocking our entrance and dripping with condensation, and wondering how...how we were going to do this.

Drive to Fox Glen