- Tulip, at Sustainable Settings Farm and Education site
So our “Quest for Land” has somehow landed us in Northern Idaho in a town called Sandpoint , just 60 miles South of the Canadian border. Collin Duke and I started our journey on August 31st from Sustainable Settings in Carbondale, Colorado. Sustainable Settings , run by Brook and Rose Le Van, is the farm/education site where Collin and I first met and fell in love (awww). I was working there as a volunteer liaison between Sustainable Settings and a Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) Course run by the Permaculture Institute. Collin was a student in the PDC, a course I had completed last year in Costa Rica. Our instructor, Scott Pittman is the founder of the Permaculture Institute. He lives with his wife Arina and son Sasha on a Farm and Education site in Santa Fe, New Mexico called “Lots of life in one Place”. It is here, where we made our next stop for an educational, open house before heading back to Collin’s home town of Fort Worth, Texas. After a few weeks stay in Ft. Worth to visit with family and to put Collin’s condo on the market, we were on our way to Montana to find our dream parcel of Land.
Biodynamic Winery – The Permaculture Design group
Our travels first brought us to Colorado Springs where we visited my dear friend from back East, Kristen and her lovely family, husband Marc and two super cool daughters, Peyton and Justine. Xoxo. Then a short visit for a breakfast of buckwheat pancakes with the very blue, Heather Hava. Literally, everything she owns is blue (see above). Heather is from our Permaculture course. She and her husband live in Golden, Colorado where they have built a geodesic dome in their back yard. Very Impressive. Sorry I have no pictures. ;( I know!!!
Justine, ME and Peyton
We spent several exhausting, 10 hour days viewing parcels of land in the St Regis area of Montana. St. Regis is just north of Missoula with a population of just a few hundred people. The last parcel of land we viewed in Montana happened to be in a very small town called Heron. Here we could find no Inn, so we had to move on to the closest populated town, which was, none other than, Sandpoint, Idaho. As soon as we arrived in Sandpoint we parked right in front of the bi-weekly Farmer’s Market. It was love at first sight. We talked to a vendor selling raw, goat’s cheese and after chatting for a while we decided that we had come to the right town. He gave us the name of a realtor who walked a few properties with us the following day. We then took root in Sandpoint, finding a temporary condo on the lake, we continued our search. The next day as we were walking by Sotheby’s International Realty we noticed a foreclosed property at a great price. We decided to venture out on our own, now that we had become accustomed to viewing plat maps and finding corner property markers. The next day we called the realtor for the official plat map and info on the property…we went back and found an even better parcel and put an offer in the very next day……after several back and forth offers and counter offers….we are now under contract!!! Whoo hoo!!! More to come on our reasons for choosing this parcel and how we intend to use the land………..Thank you to all who encouraged us to move forth on this great adventure…You are a BIG part of the reason we are HERE!!!! Love, Diana & Collin
Collin with Lady Liberty in Sandpoint, Idaho
View from one of our building sites
The Organic Cyclist 