When I got back to Vallecito last Monday night (Nov 9th), the cabin I'd been sleeping in was frigidly cold. The pilot
light was out on the propane wall heater so I pulled the foam pad
from the RV into the house and slept on it on the floor in the big
carpet-less den. At least it was warm. The next morning I checked
the propane tanks and the cabin's tank was empty. Even though the
walls in cute little cabin #2 are insulated, the pipes are not so I
decided to once again move the things that I had moved from the Navi
into cabin #2 into the house. The good news, it's not a lot and now
I'm not wandering from the cabin and the Navi and the house looking
for things.
The big issues were to get cabin #2
winterized along with the Navi and to try to find a place to store
the Navi down in town (Bayfield or Durango) before it gets snowed in. There is an RV park 20 min south in Bayfield that will let me park it there and
when/if the weather is too nasty to drive up the mountain, I can stay
there for the night and plug into electrical. It's not covered but
the price is right at $50/month and the Navi gets to stay with other
RVs so there will be someone looking out for her.
After pulling up the nasty shag carpet
in the den of the house some time ago, I painted the floor yesterday
while it snowed outside. I used muscles I forgot I had. To all my
friends who pay for gym memberships, try manual labor—you get a
workout and get to see that you've accomplished something. I'd say
it's free but that's not exactly the case but at least it's cheaper
doing the work myself and I have a feeling of accomplishment.
I know there were plenty of days at
work where I would have liked to have finished something without all
the drawn out meetings and decision makers who had to give their
approval.
While it was a dreary snowy day
yesterday, today the sun came out and because my internet was not
working well, I decided to drive into town. While I was hopeful that
my internet situation was improving by living in the house by using
my ATandT hotspot on my iPhone, it's back to working about 25% of
the time.
My brother Kent said it was difficult to understand the importance of the internet considering he works with his hands. After thinking about it for a while, I decided that for him, it
would be like not having electricity. He could still do his work (he
owns a roofing business) but it would have to be done by hand. For me, I can pick up the phone and call people or drive into town but sending a quick email is so much faster.
Things do take longer here. You call a
plumber. He doesn't return your call. You call someone you heard
was reliable to deliver firewood and are promised delivery on a
certain date and it doesn't happen. I guess it's the price to pay
for living in the boonies.
I joined the Vallecito Service League
and met about 20 women at a luncheon last week. It was a mix of
women young and old and big and small. Just about everyone I've met
so far is very friendly. What a rare treat to be able to have a long lunch in the middle day and not have to worry about getting back to the office.
The family who runs Pine River Lodge across
the street are tutoring me when I drop by for visits. From what to
do when deer jump out in front of me, to how to drive in the snow,
how to shrink wrap your windows for insulation, how to respect propane, how to treat
service folks so they'll treat you right, etc.
After one of my visits, the previous owner (Mary Green) stopped by to meet me. She was staying at the Lodge across the street. She's full of
good information and a real delight. I was wondering why so many
people knew her and it turns out she's a business banker at Wells
Fargo...plus she's lived in the area for 25 years and it's a fairly
small community.
I was surprised when I drove into
Durango to switch propane service into my name, the girl there knew
the property and the situation with the cabins. I tell people that I
bought the old “Durango Resort on Lake Vallecito” or some know it
as Rainbow Lodge or as Lakehaven. Just by mentioning one of those
names, most people know the property.
Unfortunately I didn't find a 4WD in
Houston nor have I found one up here yet. So this morning I backed
out of my covered parking space and promptly got stuck. While one of
my neighbors plows the road in the subdivision leading up to the
county road which is plowed daily for the school bus, the 10 feet
from my carport to the subdivision road was not plowed. There was
probably 6 inches of snow with some ice mixed in. I backed out with
intention---of not getting stuck but it was not to be.
When I got out to size up the
situation, I noticed that my right front tire was flat. I got my
small air compressor out of the RV and aired up the tire and checked
all the others too. I found some flat pieces of lumber and stuck them in front of the 4 tires and struggled some more. I decided to back up
and try again and finally made it to the subdivision road where I
could get some traction. I have to drive up a 12' section of gravel
road to make it to the county road and then take a sharp left turn to get
on the pavement. I got a running start and drove quickly (but not
too quickly because I could slide off the top of the road when I got
there) and damn it if a truck wasn't coming on the left so I had to stop and risk
getting stuck again. Rather than making the hard turn to the left, I
drove straight out in the opposite direction that I wanted to go and
found a dry spot to turn around. I stopped a time or two to make
sure the flat tire was still inflated for the 40 mile trip to
Durango. I was either going to buy snow tires for my Jeep 2WD or an old 4WD Subaru whichever materialized first.
I drove to Discount Tires and they
installed the best winter tires they have called Bliz mates or some
such things. After a late lunch in town, I picked up some snow
cables at Auto Zone and got instruction on how to install them. Once
again, I think I'll be using some muscles I didn't know I had and
developing some skills that I didn't know I needed until now---in
search of a simpler life.
