Journal
Notes from the field.
Occasional writing on land, the market, and what we’ve been learning while walking it.
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The five-acre catch in Idaho's timber exemption.
There's a property tax program a lot of Idaho landowners never hear about, and the acreage rule inside it is one of the reasons every homesite at Clagstone is sized the way it is.
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Not how many lots fit.
Most subdivisions start by asking how many parcels you can squeeze out of the ground. Starting from a different question changes the lot lines, the infrastructure, and what the place feels like to live in.
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Hayden Lake has two public access points. Here's what that means.
The shoreline is mostly private. If you're moving for "Hayden Lake out the back door," it's worth knowing exactly what that means before you tour.
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Documenting the 400-acre build.
We're recording the Clagstone build as it happens. The parts that show up in the aerials, and the parts that don't. Here's the first short.
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The Spokane Valley pencil-test, and what a WA-to-ID move actually costs.
The pitch you usually hear about moving from Washington to North Idaho is "lower taxes, lower cost of living, better lifestyle." Two of those are true. One of them is, for a working-age Spokane Valley household, mostly false.
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What changed about wells in Idaho on July 1, 2025.
A six-acre buyer asked me about an apple orchard last summer. Two years ago that was a routine question. Last year it became a complicated one, because the law changed.
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Where the eagles come in November.
Most relocators worry about the off-season. North Idaho's secret is that the off-season has its own headline events, and you can stand on a ridge above one of them.
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What six acres actually feels like.
The difference between a five-acre lot and a six-acre lot doesn't sound like much on paper. It's the difference between a neighborhood and a homestead in person.
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A new large-acre subdivision, coming to North Idaho.
First public look at what we've been quietly working on outside Athol. Fifty-eight homesites, six acres give or take, twenty-some minutes from Coeur d'Alene.