Nickel Farm

The story begins with my longtime dream of creating Nickel Farm, a self-sufficient family retreat/refuge, which I would someday bequeath to my children. I wanted a place where we could have reunions and bond as a family – a place where the grandchildren could come and feed the chickens, milk a goat, pick a tree-ripened peach, play horseshoes, and camp in the pasture. Another goal of mine was to provide a “bug out” place where family members could come for a period if beset by economic, relationship, or health problems.

I consider everything that the Lord has blessed me with as a stewardship. Aside from intelligence, experience and good works, there is nothing that I can take with me when I depart this world. Nickel Farm is my earthly stewardship from the Lord, which I will increase and then leave for the use of my posterity. As a Greek philosopher once said, “Let death be daily before your eyes and you will never entertain any abject thought nor too eagerly covet anything.”

My oldest daughter, Becky and her husband, Russ, had been feeling the same needs for preparation and self-sufficiency as I had. Together, we had spent a considerable amount of time dreaming of and investigating Idaho as a place to establish family retreats.