First I’d better do today’s events…the wind woke us up around 6:30…it was strong, but as the trailer wasn’t shuddering it wasn’t bad enough to worry about and I went back to sleep. We’ve been in
winds so bad that I’ve wondered how we stay on the landing gear!We had another day of exploring our options for a winter home down here and yet again we had no success. We did learn more yet again. All of these pictures were taken during our explorations today, Sierra Blanca is the snowy white mountain.
Today we were exploring finding maybe a nice property but with an old mobile or tear down with the utilities etc. on the land and removing the old stuff and putting something new on, but on every piece we looked at the septic would have to be redone, the power would have to be redone…most are 100 amps or less and we would want 200 and the property would get torn up with removal and rebuilding etc. anyways, so we are thinking starting from scratch would suit us better.
In two weeks we have looked at all the possibilities and explored all the different areas and at least we have narrowe
d down our choices to a couple of areas. There were two that we might have settled on, but one was at the top of what we wanted to spend, it’s a 12 year old beautiful manufactured home and when Larry called the power company and learned that the place cost over $300 in electricity in the winter…we decided it would need insulation upgrades and more. It also has water egress issues under the stucco in places, has no garage or workshop for Larry and the beautiful from a distance large carport has a leaky roof and wood damage…and it has an above ground pool we aren’t interested in. The home inside and property are gorgeous though.We found a site built home way at the other end of the terrain spectrum (the first was up in a canyon with great views), this was on 5 acres (oh, the other was 3) of level land, but had a lot of weeds and was on a main road, had no garage or outbuildings and was about 20 years old. It needed all of the windows replaced and a ton of cosmetic stuff done inside…kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, walls retextured etc….it’s biggest drawback though was it had about the teeniest master bedroom/bathroom we have ever seen…outside of a home from way back in the 40’s. The other issue with this particular area is there is no zoning and so the empty lots on either side of us could have anything from a business to apartments, to a cattle feed lot and you would have no control over it
We also have to consider security/safety of the area because for the next couple of years at least we will be gone at least 6 months of the year and wouldn’t want to come back to all our stuff gone or squatters in residence. So we have had a lot to consider. We also have to consider our time frame…it would be weird to find something, fix it up, move all of our stuff in only to hit the road right away. So we are considering that if we find something this winter/spring that we’ll just take our time with fixing it up, if it’s needed, while living in the trail
er and move our stuff down next fall when we are back down for the winter.Anyway, after our look-de-looing of three properties today with our ever patient real estate agent we headed back home. Then we decided to go to Casa de Suenos to try their lunch buffet…it was pretty good. After we left there we drove up highway 70 to see how much snow was still sticking around up there and then we did the same and drove up into Laborcita Canyon…we’ll also hunted down a piece of property that was for sale and it was way too remote with a scary road. In a little aside here, someone needs to invent a pee shield for us women who pee out in the wild so our shoes or pants don’t get splashed on…the wind makes for a big problem too…laugh!!!
My cousin Pat called from YUMA today to wish us a Happy New Year and to tell me how much she enjoyed reading my blog and how my Aunt Millie and Uncle Marty read it religiously every morning. It still amazes me that anyone finds what I talk about entertaining enough to read every day….smile. A few months ago I entertained the idea of retiring the blog, but you all were saved from that when we sold the house in Fallon and hit the road again! When we are home doing everyday things I just can’t imagine anyone wanting to hear that I did laundry, or went to town, or crafted something! AND, you all are probably about 10 people, but for you I keep writing….laugh!!!!
This past year we started in Yuma for the first three months enjoying sunshine and friends, we made a trip to beautiful Palm Desert from there to visit some other special friends. We spent time in California and Oregon visiting our kids and other family and friends. We shoveled tons of rock ourselves and re-landscaped the front and backyards of the house if Fallon in less than a month. We went back to Oregon to visit Larry’s aunt and uncle and saw an amazing hail storm. Then we took a trip up to Washington from Nevada and passed through Oregon and Idaho and had a peaceful time camping out in the middle of nowhere. We had both of the grandsons for a visit for about a week each. I spent time home alone while Larry was off working and found that while doable, we didn’t like being weeks and weeks away from each other…I don’t envy our Armed Service families! Larry got in a little trip to Utah too. I spent the summer learning a new craft…mosaic tiling and how could I forget…I turned 50.
In September we decided to sell the house and in a week’s time of being listed we received an offer so the month of O
ctober we spent packing and moving to storage and then we were on the road again. Up to Oregon to see Michelle’s family and had truck trouble on the way up, but was fixed and then down to meet our third grandson Connor and hang with Andrea’s family for a few weeks. A week before Christmas we headed south for the winter to escape freezing and snow….but NOoooOOOooo, it has snowed twice since we’ve been here (we have heard repeatedly that it never snows here!) and frozen at night for about a week. Our past year condensed into two paragraphs…wow I didn’t think I could do it!We are grateful every day for our time together, for our healthy family and friends and that we are able to live our dream and even though sometimes we are frustrated with ourselves because we can’t seem to figure out what we want to be when we grow up we still love that we are doing IT! Whatever IT is. I just feel our lives (mine and Larry’s) are about learning and exploring and maybe in the future if all that we’ve discovered will help even one person we have done okay.
Hard to believe that an entire decade of the 21st century is gone already…and what a decade of change it has been…can’t wait to see what this next one brings! I hope we all can find the good in
all of our experiences this next year…even those that make us unhappy. My love and hugs to all of you!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
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