MOVING FORWARD

by Mountain GaitwayWellington
Now that the barn is well along the way and we’ll have a place to store things while we work on the new house, we’re putting the Wellington house on the market.    After debating whether to try to sell it ourselves or use a real estate agent, we decided it would likely sell much faster with the marketing an agent will provide, and we won’t have to deal with all the paperwork, etc. 
We interviewed a couple of different agents to get a feel for them, their marketing plans and suggested listing price. It was interesting that both agents we interviewed came very close in their suggested selling price–good confirmation to us that we would price it in a good range for selling. Both agents indicated to us that we should be in a good position to sell quickly. There isn’t much inventory of horse properties like ours, and a lot of demand. Apparently there have been “bidding wars” on some properties like ours, and some have sold recently for more than the listing price. Maybe ours will fit that category! The way things have been going for us, we won’t be surprised at all if it sells right away. We plan to be ready to move by April 15th if everything goes that fast.
Either of these agents would have been a good choice, but we had to choose one. We decided on listing with Tom Hoffner, with C3, in Fort Collins, who presented an extensive marketing plan and other services available through his company. He seems excited to have this listing, and we’ve been happy with his work so far. 
The listing goes live on the MLS on Thursday, the 26th. I’ll pass along that info when it’s online. Yesterday, Tom put up a couple of “Coming Soon” signs out on the roads leading to our house, and already several cars have driven down our lane or stopped by the sign, presumably to write down Tom’s phone number.  One agent stopped by with her client wanting a preview, but we won’t be giving anyone an unfair advantage by allowing them to preview prior to listing.  We expect there will be several showings over the coming weekend, and will stay out of the house much of the time. (Weather permitting, we will go to Guffey.)
We spent the week cleaning and removing clutter in preparation for the photographer, who was here yesterday morning, both inside and out. A “stager” came Wednesday to offer suggestions as to how to set up the home for marketing photos, so we did most of what she suggested, to show off the home, rather than the furniture or decorating style. In addition to the indoor shots, he took several aerial shots from a tall tripod, 50′ up. Clouds were rolling in, and we couldn’t view Longs Peak, but the view should show the possibilities for a better day, and there are several shots including the horses in the pastures. He even got a video showing them running from the back to the front pasture–we look forward to seeing how that turned out.
I have the coming week to do more deep cleaning inside cabinets, drawers, closets, utility room and storage room prior to having people poke around and look inside. I anticipate another long week of cleaning. I figure if everything is super-clean it’ll make a difference. (It would matter to me!) While I’m at it, I’ll begin packing up stuff for storage and putting things aside to sell or donate to Habitat. It’ll be good to get a head start toward getting ready to move. 

WE’RE GONNA HAVE A BARN

by Mountain Gaitway
The barn is in process!  We went to Guffey for the weekend to be there while the crew got started.  The posts were already up when we arrived Friday, and as the day progressed, more work was done.  We had planned to stay through to Monday or Tuesday, and see more of the work done, but with a storm brewing we felt it best to leave Sunday morning.  It was a short weekend (Friday morning through Sunday morning), but we had a nice time and got a lot done.  Friday we went for a walk, walked up Buck Drive and met some neighbors at the end of that street; Al, Dawn and their son.  We had a nice time chatting with them.  This photo was taken from somewhere along Buck Drive.  Look to the left near the bottom, and you’ll see the barn posts in place.
On Saturday, Tim worked on putting up some shelving in the shed.  I went for a walk, scooped poop (a lot had been left on the last trip), dug up some soil samples, and various other odds and ends.  By the end of the day we were both pretty tired!
Our trip home Sunday took twice as long as it should.  When we got to Fairplay we realized we’d forgotten something important in the RV, so drove all the way back to get it.  That was two hours.  Just after Conifer, we got stuck behind some accidents on the icy roads and sat in traffic for 2 more hours.  Finally we made it back home.  It was a long day in the truck.  We felt badly that the horses were in the trailer that whole time, but we couldn’t really do anything about it and they were fine.  Soon we’ll live there and we won’t have to do that drive back and forth!
Here’s a barn shot that the builder sent us to show the current status. Tim and the architect are busily finalizing the plans for the lean-to (which will be to the left on this photo) and the workshop area (to be on the backside of the barn, or the far right). Tim will complete the lean-to and workshop himself, after the builders have completed the main portion of the barn.

TIMELINE

by Mountain Gaitway

As things are coming together, we are putting together a timeline, as best as we can without having the proverbial “crystal ball”.  It’s pretty sketchy at this point, but gives us something to shoot for.

Feb 19 or so: The crew arrives to build the barn.
At that time, or soon after, we plan to put the Shoofly Lane home on the market.
March: After the barn is in place, Tim plans to add a storage/workshop section onto the barn, and a loafing shed area for the horses.
Soon: Hopefully the house sells and we go into escrow!
When that happens, we move to Guffey.  This may be before or after Tim’s retirement.
May 31: Tim’s last day of work at HP.

THE “HAPPY” HOUSE

by Mountain Gaitway

The house plans are coming along, and we’re excited about it!  We’ve been calling it the “Happy” House.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we liked what we saw on the Smiling Woods Yurts website, and were thinking we would get one of their kits.  Throughout this process, Tim kept forgetting their name and calling it Happy Woods or Happy House…the name stuck. From now on, it’s our Happy House.

We really liked a lot about what Smiling Woods provided, in particular the “kit” approach where they delivered all the components for the shell and we could do the actual labor of putting it up. However, more research led us to the concept of building a house using SIPs (Structure Insulated Panels). SIPs provide a much more efficient home and have other environmentally friendly benefits. 

We went back to some of the other websites we had found previously for round structures, and found an engineering company that had designed round houses using SIPs. It turned out that they were also located in our area, so we were able to meet with them and engage them to engineer our Happy House. 

Tim designed the home using Sketchup, and taught me to use it as well, so I helped!  The Happy House will be about 35′ in diameter, 988 sq.ft.  We want an open interior with few walls, and don’t need or want a lot of unnecessary space.  A utility/storage room and bathroom will be behind walls, but those walls will not go all the way up to the domed ceiling.  It’ll look something like this (north is up): 


The front door will be at the west side, with the parking area adjacent to the deck.  The panels will be 8′ wide, so there will be nearly 24′ of viewing from the south-facing windows.  We’ve put in all the furniture we currently own and plan to keep, in the approximate locations where we think we will put it. The kitchen cabinets and the desk will be custom designed and built by us. Here is another view, with south at the top.


Our plan is to have this house accessible for us into our old age. With that in mind, it’s one story, without steps. We are thinking it’s likely that one of us may eventually require a walker or wheelchair, so the hall, doorways and bathroom will be large enough for wheelchair access, and we plan to custom-design a roll-in shower.

Tim had fun overlaying the house onto a photo of the property, and here’s how that looks. Under the deck there will be a crawlspace about 6.5′ high, and we plan to put a greenhouse out from that deck, similar to the one we have at our Wellington house.  The RV (our temporary home) is currently parked to the right (east) of the house, and will stay there as our guest house.


That’s the plan for now!

WE HAVE WATER!

by Mountain Gaitway

Well, well, well…we now have water on our property! Wahoo! On January 20th, the well drillers came. We were there to watch while they drilled for water, which was quite an interesting process. Tim took lots of photos. Boy, it was noi-zee!

The well depths in our neighborhood range anywhere from about 150-700' deep. Needless to say, we were hoping ours would be in the 150-200' range to keep costs down. The well is located on the hill just behind where the house will be, not far from the power pole, so the electricity is close at hand.

We were delighted when the first muddy water began to ooze out at just 60'! The well was drilled to 100' total. That's a big plus.

The following Monday we went down just for the day, to meet with the pump guy, Rick. He installed the pump, and a temporary fix for us to get water for the RV. This will take care of us until we are ready to get the water to the house.

No more trips to the fire house for water! Up to this point, we've been a bit stingy with water while we are at the property, hoping we won't run out and have to go get more water. (The gauge showing how much water remains in the trailer doesn't work well, and we're never sure.) From now on water will be plentiful!

RV HAS A SKIRT

by Mountain Gaitway

We took advantage of MLKJR day and planned a trip to put up skirting around the RV, to keep the underside warmer and hopefully prevent freezing issues. (See Winter Camping)  The weather was beautiful most of the time, and we got some nice skirting up.

The people we bought the RV from had some pretty nice skirting, with wood frames, foam insulation and plywood all around, and when we bought it we also brought home all the pieces of this skirting, which Tim had helped to remove.  It was a lot of puzzle pieces, and would have been a lot of work to replace just as it had been before.

Tim decided to use an easier method for a quicker fix. Perhaps in the future we’ll do something more permanent. For now, he just used the foam insulation, cut to fit around the edges, and we taped it on with cold weather insulating tape. It worked quite well, and it already seemed warmer, as the furnace didn’t seem to come on as often. Nice job, Tim!

2015 BREAK FROM GARDENING

by Garden-WellingtonGuffeyWellington

I’ve been getting catalogs and emails from several of the seed companies I’ve ordered from in the past, and it’s sure tempting to take a look! Normally this time of year I’d be spending hours planning my garden and deciding which seed varieties I’d like to try. Not this year! 

Even  before we decided to buy our new property we had decided to take a break from gardening in 2015, our seventh year of gardening. It seemed an appropriate time for both ourselves and our soil to rest and replenish. As it has turned out, yes, the soil is resting, we are resting from gardening projects, but not exactly resting! We are now busy planning for our new home and our move to Guffey this spring.

Today we are at the property, staying in our new (temporary) future home, the RV. Tim’s project for the weekend is to put skirting around the bottom to protect it from freezing. It’s nice to be here, and we sure look forward to being here permanently!

WATCHING THE WEATHER

by Mountain Gaitway

We are currently in Wellington, and it’s been interesting watching the weather from our weather station in Guffey, which broadcasts to Weather Underground. (WU)

The forecasts from WU tend to be incorrect, and during these winter months the highs are forecast 10 or more degrees lower than what actually happens. That’s a bonus for us! In fact, the past several days it’s been warmer there than here in Wellington. The lows in the mornings are often lower than the predicted forecast, but that’s not quite as frequent. The lows have varied a lot; sometimes a bit lower than Wellington, other times Guffey’s mornings are warmer than here. 

It will be interesting to see whether these trends continue. I’ve begun to keep a log of the forecast temps in Guffey, compared with the actual temps, to watch for trends. I’m also logging Wellington, to compare the differences. It will also be interesting to see whether in time, the Guffey forecasts might become a little more accurate, based on the readings from our weather station. 

What’s nice for us is that the Guffey winters appear to be not too different than Wellington–perhaps even nicer, especially considering it is less windy there. And the summers are most surely cooler than Wellington, which is another plus for us.

This week we’re wishing we were in Guffey!

WINTER CAMPING

by Mountain Gaitway

We came to Guffey for a few days over the holidays, and are sitting here on the love seat we brought from home. (It’s awful nice to have this comfortable reclining sofa–the one that came with the RV was a rather uncomfy sofabed.)

This trip has been an adventure for sure. First, we came down for a day trip last week, to bring the loveseat. It had snowed the day before, Kenosha Pass was reported closed, so we took a different route, through Canon City. It was nice to know we have that option, and easier traveling to avoid icy roads.

It snowed again, Christmas Day and the day after, so we waited until Sunday the 28th to come stay for a few days. We were expecting the propane company to bring our tank on Tuesday and needed to be here for that. We also wanted to be here to relax a bit, read, enjoy some time away.  Monday was cold and snowy; we spent the day indoors working on various projects. We got our new roll-up window shade installed as well as some for the smaller windows that attach with velcro. 

Since then, it’s been COLD! Frigid, I would say. Monday topped out at around 15, with a low of -9. Tuesday morning was around -15, and we woke to discover that the freshwater tank must have frozen–we had no running water. In expectation of receiving the propane tank around noon, we ran the furnace a lot, hoping to thaw the tank. We followed the water lines, trying to find where the freeze might be, we pointed an electric space heater toward the pump and water lines in attempt to thaw. There is really no way to access the freshwater tank without cutting a hole in the underbelly or removing a large portion of it. This RV is supposed to be the “arctic package”, but I guess there’s only so much cold it can handle. When we bought it, the former owner had built insulated skirting around it which we took apart and brought here, but haven’t had time to put it up yet. 

Tim is dunking a bottle into the tank to bring up water.


Tim managed to thaw the frozen water in the water tank we use to haul the water here with a submersible water heater (another story) and draw water out with a bottle tied to some twine, which I heated on the stove. We dumped hot water into the fresh water tank to try to thaw it, but that didn’t help either. 

Eventually, the propane delivery came, we managed to get the tank set up and the propane flowing, Tim helped the driver get his truck out of the snowy driveway, and we were back to working on the water situation. We actually reached a high of +13 at one point, but most of the time when the guys were out installing the propane, it was around 0. Later, with a 200 gallon tank of propane to use, we turned up the thermostat on the furnace, and Tim redirected one of the ducts to blow hot air down toward the freshwater tank. We’ve got heat, electricity, a stove, oven and microwave to cook with, plenty of food, jugs of water, and we’re fine.

Resourcefulness!

Around 6 pm, the temp dropped to a whopping -23! Yes, that was a minus in front of the 23. We’ve got plenty of propane, so left the furnace on, with the duct pointed toward the fresh tank. It was on all night. This morning, we still have no running water. At this point, Tim brought in a cooler full of water, which he managed to draw through the pump. At least we now have running water! (All the way to the potty 🙂 The water heater is full and hot, so with the pump functioning, we even have hot water. (Time for a shower??) 

With a little snow predicted for tomorrow, we think it’s best to pack up and go home. The exit tube for the black & grey tanks are frozen, too, so we can’t dump them. They are minimally full, we can’t completely winterize the RV, but we’ll do what we can. We will put antifreeze though the water lines, and leave the tanks as-is. There should be plenty of space in them for frozen water to expand, so hopefully they won’t crack or cause problems. Tim hopes to get back here on a warmer weekend to put up the skirting, and hopefully get those tanks emptied. Now that we have plenty of propane, we’ll leave the thermostat on to around 50-55, and hope for the best.

It’s surely an adventure!

GARDEN REFLECTIONS

by Garden-WellingtonSpiritual Truth

I have noticed over the years (this was our 5th year of gardening!) that my attitude about the garden is more relaxed.  If something doesn’t make it, I’m a bit sad, but shrug my shoulders and think, “Oh, well…”.   Tim and I have an acronym we say, OWIIWII.  We pronounce it, Oh-wee-wee.  It stands for, “Oh Well, It Is What It Is.”  Some years are better than others, some vegetables do better than others in different years.  

There’s more of a letting go on my part, more peace about what grows and what doesn’t.  There is more trust in God, that I will have what I need, and if I don’t have it I must not need it.  We just take what we get and appreciate what we have. Learning this in the garden transfers to the bigger issues in life as well.  

It certainly is amazing to watch things grow from such small seeds.  I keep thinking about the parables of Jesus, when he talked about seeds, soil and gardens.  Here’s one:

“He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.'”  (Mat 13:31-32)

It is so amazing to see these little, tiny seeds and watch them sprout and grow into such huge plants that make more seeds, which make more plants…..  It is like God’s Kingdom.  He does the planting and watering in it, and as we cooperate with Him (obey Him), the Kingdom grows and grows as He desires.  There is peace in knowing that He really is the “vinedresser” with all His wisdom, carefully tending and watching everything work together for His purpose.  He cares about us and His world much more than we do.  We continually look forward to see what all He does with His Kingdom all around us.

If you’re interested in more of our thoughts about His Kingdom, please go to our website, Listen To Him.