Pursuing a Master's Degree While Homesteading in Southern Idaho: How I Made It Work

Let me paint you the full picture of what our first year in Idaho actually looked like.

Thirty chickens. Five 4-H pigs. A garden we were learning to grow. A water canal to maintain. A horse corral to rebuild. A family of eight to feed and shepherd through a new state, new schools, new community.

And twice a semester, I loaded up the truck, took one of the kids with me, and drove to Ogden, Utah for my mandatory campus sessions at Weber State University, where I was working toward my master's degree.

I took this photo from the doorway nearest my classroom building — the view that greeted me when I arrived for that particular session. The mountains, the Utah sky, the campus that felt a world away from our Filer homestead. I'd driven four-plus hours to get there. I'd drive four-plus hours back.

And one of my kids was with me every time.

Why I Took a Kid on Every Campus Trip

This was intentional. Not just practical.

The drive to Weber State gave me four uninterrupted hours each way with a child — no chickens to feed, no canal to check, no evening routine to manage. Just a parent and a kid in a truck with a long road and whatever conversation developed.

I also wanted them to see a university campus. To walk around it. To feel what it felt like to be in a place where people were there specifically to learn. I wanted college to feel like a real, concrete possibility rather than an abstract future concept.

Every kid who came with me on those trips loved it. That wasn't an accident.

How the Online Format Made It Possible

The only reason I could pursue a master's degree while homesteading and working full time was the online format. Weber State's program required campus attendance only twice a semester — everything else was handled remotely.

When I worked nights at the hospital, I'd complete coursework during the quiet hours. When I moved to a day shift, I had to be more disciplined — homework became evening work, squeezed between the homestead chores and family time.

It wasn't easy. But the right things rarely are.

The Thesis I Was Dreading

I wrote in my blog at the time that one of those campus sessions was specifically focused on how to write a thesis paper — and that I was not looking forward to the thesis itself.

That's honest. The thesis is the part of a master's program that separates the people who finish from the people who almost finish. It requires sustained effort over a long period, independent research, and a willingness to sit with a large, complex project without the immediate feedback loop that coursework provides.

I finished it. Not without difficulty. But I finished it — while running a homestead, while raising daughters through high school, while selling real estate in Magic Valley.

If you're wondering whether it's possible to pursue significant professional development while building a life in southern Idaho — the answer is yes. The lifestyle here doesn't require you to stop growing professionally. It gives you the space and stability to do both.

What This Has to Do With Living in Magic Valley

Here's the thing I want people considering a move to southern Idaho to understand. This place doesn't ask you to slow down. It asks you to slow down in the right ways — to be present with your family, to be engaged with your land — while freeing you from the commute stress, the cost pressure, and the ambient noise of urban life that makes sustained effort on big goals so difficult.

I built a homestead and earned a master's degree in the same years. Southern Idaho made both of those things possible.

📞 Dr. Ron Jones | 208-712-8386 — Let me help you find the Magic Valley property that gives your family space to build something real.

Photo taken by Dr. Ron Jones at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, during one of his twice-semester campus visits for his master's degree program, spring 2015.

Dr. Ron Jones | Rim & River Real Estate | rimandriver.com | 208-712-8386