SUMMER LIVING

by with No Comment Mountain Gaitway

Most mornings lately have been sunny, warm and beautiful. Yesterday I went for an early walk, and loved seeing the morning sun shine through these fresh aspens near our property. The quiet is so restful, with only the sounds of birds singing. Very often there are times when nothing motorized can be heard! (Click on photos to view larger size.)

I went on to our “south hill” and enjoyed this view of our recently completed barn and home site. Plans for the house are in full swing, as Tim gets estimates from electricians, plumbers, etc. Excavation for the house and septic system should begin soon!

Here’s a closer shot of the barn, now with its siding completed. Tim also put up this nice, buck & rail fence with some posts we had brought with us from the Shoofly house. It adds a nice touch, and gives more of a “ranch” feel.

 

 

 

 

While Tim is busy with the construction work that requires brains and brawn, I am busy with other chores more suited to my abilities. I scoop the horses’ poop, lend an extra hand when Tim needs it, cook, clean the house & do laundry. A lot of my daily chores haven’t changed all that much.  I’ve discovered that our little combo washer/dryer washes the clothes ok, but takes a long time to dry them, and then they come out quite wrinkly, I think due to the small size. I’ve begun to hang things out on the line, and find that they dry quite quickly in this dry climate–at least in the mornings before it rains! The sheets come out particularly nice after hanging on the line. Not too long after I shot this photo it did start to rain and I had to bring these clothes in.

We picked up our ducklings at the post office last week (June 4) and they’re growing fast! They are currently living in a brooder box in our storage room, under a heat lamp. Meanwhile, Tim is building a duck house for them, and they should be able to move to that sometime next week. Here’s a shot of them the day after we brought them home. 

We truly enjoy being here. A few days ago Tim & I took the horses out for a ride around the neighborhood. We went six miles by the time we returned home, after doing one big loop. We saw some beautiful scenery along the way. Somewhere along the route I asked Tim, “do you ever miss Wellington or the Shoofly house?” His quick response was, “No, not at all.” My sentiments exactly!

RETIRED? WHAT’S THAT?

by with No Comment Mountain Gaitway

Last Friday (29May2015) was my (Tim’s) last official day of working (and getting paid for it). They call it retirement. I’m starting to wonder where that word came from. “re-tired” – does that mean tired all over again? That’s how I’m starting to feel. Working on the barn, putting up fence, working with the horses, plowing my way thru a 700 page code book (acting as my own general contractor, I have to understand all the code requirements), getting permits, meeting with subcontractors to get estimates, building a duck brooder, making plans to build a duck house, helping a neighbor dig up and repair a water leak that was flooding his house, helping another neighbor unload a semi full of metal roofing, fixing a flat for a young lady passing by our property, the list goes on. It seems like I’m busier than I have ever been. And, I’m definitely tired!

But, it’s a good tired. We get to enjoy God’s handwork all around us while we’re working, we’re developing good relationships with neighbors, and I have even lost a little weight.

By the way, retire has a French origin and it means to “withdraw (to a place of safety or seclusion)”. When you look at it that way, it makes more sense. We have withdrawn to a place of seclusion (and beauty). But, we didn’t do this to become hermits. We did it because our Father led us here. We still have much to learn about His Kingdom and for some reason He brought us here to continue our “training”. We fully expect to find ways to serve people here, even though it seems like we’re out in the “boonies”.

The barn is coming along nicely. I’m not completely done with the metal siding yet, but it’s taking shape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we frequently get visits from our “wild” neighbors.

A herd of deer “share” the pasture with our horses.

 So far, retirement is hard work, and yet, relaxing and refreshing. For any of my former coworkers reading this, if you are wondering if I miss my job, take a guess 🙂 .

LOCAL CRITTERS

by with No Comment Mountain GaitwayWildlife

Daily we see these beautiful, vibrant Mountain Bluebirds. It’s quite a delight to have them around. This photo is the male, the females are more brownish with just a little blue.

We also have many of these Pinyon Jays around. They’re larger than the mountain bluebird, and not as vibrant blue. They have quite a loud, distinctive CAW–CAW that we hear over and over.

Last, but not the least, we are over-run with these squirrels. They are called Wyoming or Richardson’s Ground Squirrels, and they are everywhere. They must have extensive tunnels underground; we see holes in the ground all over. KK enjoys chasing them and trying to catch them. She seemed to catch one by the tail or foot one day, but most of it disappeared underground while she chewed on something leftover. My concern about these guys is that when we get around to gardening, we’ll have to line the undersides of our raised beds with something to keep them out: probably chicken wire or hardware cloth.

Other than these, we often see deer, sometimes elk, there is a den of foxes near the road not far from here, and we frequently hear coyotes in the distance. (This afternoon I saw one just outside our RV.) It’s nice to be surrounded by so many critters.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

by with No Comment Mountain Gaitway

We continue to make progress, little by little. The barn is getting closer to completion. The storage/workshop area is mostly done, with its SIPs walls and roof; the doors and window are in and the roof is mostly completed now with metal roofing to match the main barn. The lean-to is well on the way. We had someone come out to do a site inspection of the property in order to do the engineering necessary for our septic system. When the engineering is completed, we can submit that to the county for our septic permit. Then we can  move forward on that, plus approval for the home plans and excavation for the house.

With the storage room enclosed, we were able to get our belongings delivered after being stored with the moving company for almost 3 weeks. It’s good to know everything is here, safely in our possession.

Tim has just less than two weeks left with HP, and is looking forward to his retirement, so he can work on completing many of the projects we need to do here. There are so many things to do!  In addition to requesting permits and moving forward with the house, we still want to put up fencing as soon as possible, so the horses can roam the property. Soon we’ll have the roof done on their lean-to, so we’ll be able to put up fence around the area that will be their paddock and a larger area for them to enjoy on a regular basis. Later, we’ll fence as much of the 40 acres as we can for them to roam.

In all of this, we don’t want to lose sight of seeking God’s Kingdom and following Him in whatever He has planned for us. Sometimes we feel so self-focused, working on the house and property, but want to see His purpose in this move. We just want to remember that this life isn’t just about us, but about Him and His Kingdom.

MOUNTAIN LIVING, MAY 2015

by with No Comment Mountain Gaitway
Living in the mountains sure is different from the lowlands! We have been here almost 4 weeks now, and have had quite a taste of our new life here. We’ve had a couple of good-size spring snowstorms, which left roughly 10” of snow each time. Now we’re in the middle of the third since we arrived full time. At one point we were without power for about 4 hours, and another time it was out for about 34 hours. Today it was real glitchy, going off and on all morning. The internet has occasionally been down, which means we not only can’t get online, we can’t use our phones, since all we have right now are internet phones.
 
We’ve contacted the phone company about getting a land line. At first, they couldn’t verify our address, since the county hadn’t put us into their E-911 registry. We got that taken care of with a few phone calls, and after a couple of weeks waiting, the phone company came to discover the nearest junction is across the street from us; they will need to bury a line to our house. They’ll put it where the house will be, and we will need to put our own line from there to the RV. That should be done by early next week. Then we won’t feel quite so stranded when the power and internet are down.
 
Between the snowstorms we’ve had some rain & hail, and a few nicer, sunnier days. The roads get quite muddy when it rains or the snow melts, and are a bit difficult to maneuver. A few neighbors get out with their snowblades or a drag to even out the ruts, but other than that there isn’t much done for the roads. We had thought that the local association would maintain the roads during bad weather, but we haven’t seen them do that yet. We definitely don’t see as much traffic go by when the roads are bad. The horses’ pen gets quite mushy, too, and it’s difficult to feed them and impossible to scoop poop. The poop will wait, the food gets thrown over or under the fence.
 
Yikes! It’s 2:20 pm and I just saw a coyote about 100 yds from the house. We do frequently hear them in the evening/night, but I don’t like seeing them around during the day. Perhaps the snow brought him out. Fortunately, KK (the cat) is inside curled up on the sofa, and not out roaming around!
 
That’s what we’re dealing with here these days.

NEIGHBORS

by with No Comment GuffeyMountain Gaitway

Now that we’re here full time, many neighbors have been stopping by to say hello. If they don’t stop, they often drive by slowly, curiously looking at the property and waving. It’s been great to meet friendly folks and discover where they all came from and what brought them here. Many are retired; some are snowbirds, spending winters in warmer climates and summers here. Everyone seems to love the mountain lifestyle, getting away from cities and their escalating problems. Some have been here many years, others a short time; one is still building and not sure if or when they’ll come full time. Some are second-homeowners who only visit weekends or for vacations.

One neighbor who stopped in a couple of days ago brought us a dozen of his duck eggs! It’s sure nice to have those duck eggs in the refrigerator again! Our ducklings (to arrive the week of June 1) won’t be laying eggs until at least November or December, so it’ll be nice to have a local supplier of fresh eggs until then.

We’re enjoying getting to know the neighbors little by little.

WELCOME TO THE COLORADO MOUNTAINS!

by with No Comment Mountain Gaitway

There’s an expression around here: “If you don’t like the weather in Colorado, wait 15 minutes”. OK, things aren’t quite that extreme, but we certainly do get a variety of fast-changing weather.

As if to underscore this point, here’s a pic from our “move in” day (Thursday, April 23) sitting on the swing in the evening enjoying a glass of wine:

and here are some pics after a snowstorm 3 days later:

Today, the temp will be back up in the 50’s and in 2 or 3 days the snow will all be gone. Of course, then we have to deal with mud until it dries out. We love it!

Fortunately, we got most all of our unpacking done before the storm so we were able to stay inside, read and relax while watching it snow outside. We had a power outage for about 4 hours. Tim got out the generator and tested it just in case, but we didn’t need it.

Tomorrow (Wed) we should get the barn extension framed in. After that, we put on the metal siding. Once that’s done, we should be able to get all our stuff out of storage and put it in the barn extension. We will be glad to get that phase done.

We met with the excavator and have started on the process to get a septic system put in. After that’s under way, we will submit the house plans to the county for approval and start scheduling all the construction activity involved with building the house. It’s going to be a very busy summer!

WE DID IT!

by with No Comment Mountain Gaitway

Laurie has a beautiful Down Syndrome great-nephew named Charlie. When Charlie does something that he is especially proud of he smiles from ear-to-ear, raises his hands and proclaims “I did it!”.

<Missing Photo Goes Here>

You can just feel the accomplishment!

Well, we feel like doing “a Charlie”. We moved all our possessions, closed on the house, loaded up the horses and cat, left Wellington for the last time and arrived at our new Golden Gaits Ranch yesterday (Thursday, April 23, 2015).

WE DID IT!
We’re living in the RV and starting to make plans to build the house. There’s SO much to do, but it’s a huge relief to just be here and not have to run back and forth (200 miles each way) anymore. 
Tim still has to finish out working for HP (thru the end of May) and then will be retired. He will be working on finishing the barn, getting people lined up to start excavation on the house, fencing for the horses, etc. 
Laurie is busy unpacking and organizing the RV as efficiently as possible, doing address change stuff, getting new bank account set up, etc. She ordered new ducklings which we will be receiving the 1st week of June. Of course, she will be making plans and starting on the new garden as time permits. 
We are so truly grateful to our Father for the years we had at the place in Wellington. We are also grateful for this new chapter near Guffey, CO. We are looking forward to learning more about His Kingdom, forming relationships with new neighbors and seeing what Father has in mind for us here. We know that this whole thing isn’t about us, it’s about our Father and what He is doing not only in our lives but in the lives of others whose paths we will cross. 

I guess it would be more honest to give God the glory and to say:

 

HE DID IT!

UNHAPPY WITH THE “HAPPY HOUSE” PROCESS

by with No Comment Mountain Gaitway

In a previous post, we mentioned that we had found a local company to engineer our Happy House using SIPs. Unfortunately, our experience with this company has not been very happy. They are frequently not responsive when we need questions answered or have to supply something to Park County for the permitting process. In addition, Tim has spent a lot of time reviewing their plans and finding mistakes that need to be corrected. We noticed that they can’t seem to keep a secretary to answer the phone. We always get their voice mail when we call. Their office is in storage facility behind a locked gate. You can’t just drop by and expect to find someone there who will open the gate and let you in. The owner/engineer just went thru a divorce and is living at the office in the storage facility. There are just a lot of warning flags about this company that we wish we had paid attention to earlier.

This is all really unfortunate, because we really liked the engineer and thought he had a lot of great ideas. When we tried to express our concerns to him, his response (when he got around to responding) was essentially to blow us off. He would not admit that their quality was inadequate even though Tim has pointed out multiple mistakes that they had to correct on their plans. And he said he had been trying (for several months) to hire an engineer to improve the responsiveness but hasn’t yet done so. And he actually wrote this: “You will feel better when the commotion you are personally going through is resolved.” So, he essentially said that I was the one with the problem. In psycho-babble, I think they refer to this as displacing blame. One more thing, I initially expressed my concerns in an email and suggested that we get together to talk these thru. He responded that he preferred to write instead of actually talk. How’s that for personal customer service?

Another impact of this has been that the Park County planning inspector is now on “high alert” to anything related to this company. He spends extra time going thru their plans and the required on site inspections are done with a very critical eye. This is just making matters more difficult for us.

We have stated that this new adventure is something that God has led us into. And we have been amazed by the way things have all seemed to come together and work out so well. This is our first real negative experience on this journey. It certainly hasn’t shaken our confidence in God’s leading, but it does force us to keep pressing forward by faith and trying to figure out how to graciously deal with challenging relationships and to see what our Father wants us to learn from experiences like this.

We know it will all work out in the end. I guess if the journey was too easy, there wouldn’t be as much of a sense of accomplishment when we get to the end.

BTW, if this post seems to have a bit of different “flavor” to it, it’s because Tim wrote this one 🙂 .

HAPPY HOUSE AND BARN

by with No Comment Mountain Gaitway

Things have been moving right along as we proceed with our move to Guffey.  The main part of the barn is done, and Tim is now working on the extension at the side, which will be our storage area for our furniture while we build the house. The sale of the house on Shoofly continues to move along smoothly. We’ve gotten an extension on the closing date, which will now be April 23. That will give us an extra weekend plus a few days, to finish our storage area and move our stuff.

Storage/Workshop area extension on the West side of the barn.

Tim has been working on the foundation for the storage/workshop extension (and I’ve been helping!).  We passed the interim county inspection on that. Now Tim has some more work to finish the floor before we get the panels for the walls and roof installed.

We are using SIP’s for these (same as for the house), which are being prepared by a local company and will be installed by them. Hopefully, everything will be done in time to move! Installing the SIPs on this area should be great practice prior to building the house.

Last week we spent about 5 days at the property, and enjoyed our time there. Since our phones only work in the RV, near the internet router, we’ve gotten in the habit of using the walkie-talkies for communicating from the barn to the RV. Whatever works!

Here’s a shot of the property with the barn, the RV, and a sketch of the future “Happy House” on its spot at the top of the hill. This was taken pretty much from the east side, looking to the west, maybe WNW.

I’ve been sick with a cold the past 4 days, and now Tim’s got it. We’ve been doing a lot of sitting around not doing much, and with so much to do, it’s kind of hard! Now that I’m better, we’re gonna go into a higher gear and get packing.  We’ll live with minimal stuff and out of boxes until we get things moved. (Good luck with that, Laurie!)