Summer Breeze

July 14, 2024

Hello again,

Well, we have even bigger news for everybody than we had last week.  Last week was simply letting you know that we were trying to get the website caught back up.  This week we have the news that we are going to be moving!  Now, before anyone starts worrying about us and wondering what's going on, this has been the plan for us for the entire time that we've been here.  We never knew exactly how long that we'd stay out here on this ranch, but figured that the absolute longest scenario would be five years; this year at Christmas will be four years.  The boss has lived here since the 1990s and has had caretakers here for most of that time and they tended to only stay for about 1-2 years each.  We've blown that out of the water by now being here for 3 ½ years while somehow still feeling like barely a year has passed.  We've talked with the boss and she's on board.  We think she kind of likes having somewhat of a rotation of people out here, so, while she's grown really attached to us, the right people should be able to pick right up where we left off.  With a nice transition.  We have no hard date in mind and luckily the boss seems alright with that, too.  It being mid-summer, we really feel that it would be unfair to everyone involved to try and rush this before winter sets in.  We're at 6200' with tons of animals that need to be taken care of here and we're looking at moving about 100 miles to the north and another 1000' higher up in elevation.  Combine that with our mess of cats that needs taken care of and not really having a fixed shelter that we're going to be moving into, spring is looking pretty good.  For that matter, it might be summer or even later until we fully get out of here.  Our plan is to buy a piece of land within a half-hour of Taos outright.  No payment plan, no waiting for the deed.  That shouldn't take a pile of money to pull off.  Then, as we're looking at only getting an acre or maybe, at most, two acres, we'd like to fence it in with wooden coyote fencing and get ourselves a shipping container so that we can start bringing stuff up there and be able to lock it up when we leave.  Then, Erin wants to get a little camper that we can pull with her VW 4x4 and we'll use that to live in while we start building a house.  My adobe-building skills should get immediately put to use!  We think a plan like this could blend in well with us still living here in San Jose and taking care of the ranch, only disappearing on the weekends to go up to our little piece of heaven.  We're pretty sure the boss will let us use her truck and trailer, so many trips with that could happen to help us seamlessly get our stuff up north.

One of the fun things for me about all of this is that Erin is promising that I might never have to work again, if we do this and choose Taos as our base of operations.  We briefly considered Gallup, as it is seems to be an amazing crossroads between Native America and the rest of America, but the availability of jobs and the pay just isn't there.  Up in Taos even waitressing jobs are starting in the high teens, not including tips, and there seem to be more jobs available than you can shake a stick at.  Erin has her four year degree and has worked in law offices, appraiser's offices, elder care offices and also in restaurants, bars, private clubs, cleaning businesses and even had her own coffee and tea business along the way, too.  She's eager to get back out there after all these years of solitude on the ranch and is even talking about a regular day job with side gigs at night or on the weekend.  The tradeoff, as it's always been my role to work full-time, is for me to then stay home, build our house, grow a garden, take care of the animals, get supplies, cook, clean and all the rest.  I'm actually kind of excited about this myself!  I started working in our family's feed mill after my freshman year in high school, working full-time in the summer, and continued that for eight years before working in and then owning the mill for the next twenty-two years.  Other than a six month break for our last half year in PA, I've never had a break since I was a kid and have worked part-time taking care of the horses on this ranch since 2020 and also worked two years doing construction and now almost two years working right here on the ranch all day.  While I know that Erin does a mountain of work each and every day taking care of our place and all of the animals, I am really excited to switch roles with her and to try something new.  2025 is the year that we have in our sights to pull all of this off and are busy preparing our storage units and readying all of our gear.

So, here are some new pictures for everyone to check out this week.  First up, a discarded shot of flowers that I tweaked a little bit, followed by a selfie for my Mom that I thought made my eyes look quite mysterious.  Then, one of our little babies that we lost, Peanut, who we found dead one morning at only three months old...we've lost 25 of our barn cats in the last year, mainly to the coyotes, but also occasionally one to an illness or otherwise unknown reason; most we never recover, but some like her make it to the graveyard.  Next, a very small and very strangely-colored spider that I saw while landscaping one day.  Then, four shots of the flowers that are growing and thriving all around the boss's house...mainly the yellow Plains Coreopsis with lots of Blanket Flowers, too.  Next, two shots of the runoff pond behind the boss's house where we have bullfrogs every summer; it's currently choc-full of bullfrogs and tadpoles!  Then, four more shots from my brick raised beds that I made recently, mainly shots of the beds themselves, but the last one of the volcano and all my supplies.  And, lastly, the depot all filled up with my latest haul from town...we'll be set on bird seed, dog food, cat food, irrigation supplies and all kinds of other stuff for at least another month now!

See you next week.