Seasons Greetings

I had the opportunity to spend 10 days in Kona Hawaii with a lovely couple that I befriended very early in my intentional community exploration--Greg Sherwin and Chris Elkins.  They were on my first stop at Boulder Creek Co-Housing Community.  As you recall, they joined me for a week in my RV to attend the to the Co-Housing Conference in Durham, NC back in May.  We spent 10 lovely days together at the Kona Tiki Hotel and Reid got to join us for 5 of those days.

Kona Hawaii Dec 18th

Being from Houston, I rarely thought of a sunshine destination for vacation but am so glad I accepted their offer to join them.  The Kona Tiki is a small, mom and pop hotel right on the water.  There's no air conditioning but the weather was so nice that it wasn't necessary.  It was great to be able to re-connect with them and just kick back and enjoy life during what is normally a stressful season.

After that, I flew back to Durango, spent one night, unpacked and repacked and headed to DC to spend a week with Reid and his 3 youngest boys.  It was his Xmas gift to them.  His twins had never flown before so that was an adventure.  We rented an Airbnb and visited museums.  They spent one day traveling the metro out to the burbs for lunch with family while I took it easy around the rental unit.

Here's a photo of Reid and the boys on Xmas day:

The Tatge boys on Xmas day

and another of Reid and I:

Having fun on Xmas day in DC

The day after Xmas, we flew back to Houston where Kent picked me up and we drove to Lake Livingston to visit my mom for her birthday.  After an overnight stay there and some catching up, we drove back to Friendswood and I stayed with Kent and his family.  After all the trouble that goes with trying to sell your home, they got an offer and are expected to close in the next few weeks and join me at the lodge on Lake Vallecito.

I'm in Houston another week or so in an effort to get some annual Dr visits in before heading back to the cold north.  

Life is good and I'm looking forward to seeing what the new year brings as I continue my search of a simpler life.

I'm at the San Jose, CA airport waiting on Reid.  He's flying in from a weekend visit with his boys in Houston and I flew in from Durango this morning having gotten up at 3:30 am to do so.  His flight is a bit delayed so I thought I catch up on my blog in the land of the fast internet.

I've been on Lake Vallecito for almost 2 months now.  I've made some improvements but they're coming along slowly since I have more skill using a computer than a saw or hammer.

On my sabbatical, I wanted to visit intentional communities across the US and I did so traveling around in my tiny house/RV.  I like the model of living with like minded people sharing and leveraging resources rather than being wed to the idea that we all need our own stuff.

I know I need my own space but it doesn't have to be big.  I just want it to be cozy and warm and if it happens to be in a lovely place--all the better.

My RV provided that experience except staying in a lovely place required that I do so crammed in next to a bunch of other manufactured homes.  That wasn't what I was going for.

Given the fact that I live and breathe by my ability to connect with the world via my phone and the internet, I also found the places where I stayed didn't offer that.

None of the intentional communities that I visited appealed to me enough that I wanted to move to any one of them but all had a quality or two (or many) that I'd like to replicate.

I liked the Twin Oaks community in Virginia who had a huge shared clothes closet.  As a person who shops at consignment stores and recycles my clothes often, this had a real appeal to me.  Twin Oaks also requires communitarians to work 38 hours a week in the community in exchange for the opportunity to live there.

We might use some of their practices up on Lake Vallecito as we begin our own new community there.

Can't Wait to See My Sweetie!

So I've been on my own on the lake for two weeks now.  While I consider myself to be an introvert and actually enjoy (and need) quite a bit of time to myself, even I have reached my limit.

In talking to Kent yesterday, he recommended that I go to Walmart and buy a volleyball and marker and create my own "Wilson" like the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away so I can have someone to talk to.  It's good to have a sympathetic brother.  He and Lydia are trying their darn-dest to get their house sold in Friendswood so they can join me in this winter wonderland.  I think it will be much more fun when I have some company to experience this with me.

I was warned that 75% of the population in Vallecito leaves for the winter and many of those who stay have jobs so they don't have a lot of time to hang out and play with me.  I think I'd feel better if I had internet and my furniture was here.  I don't have much furnishing-wise in the house.  Even still, I'd probably want to drive the 20 minutes south to the library in Bayfield or 40 minutes SW to Durango for some sort of human interaction.

I told Reid I was getting lonely and he said it MUST be serious if I'm getting lonely.  Being the extrovert, he doesn't always see things the way I do.  Thankfully, he's flying in today to spend the week with me including Thanksgiving.   He's got to work a few days so I'm going to take him to the Durango Co-working space (DurangoSpace) where we can both get a good strong internet connection and he can connect with his team via teleconferencing as he so often does.

I had a 10 day trip planned to go to Kona, Hawaii in early December with my dear friends Greg and Chris from the Boulder community but it appears that Reid's custody trial is scheduled for that time so I'll be back in Houston for that on Dec 7th.  I'll forgo the Hawaii trip for now.  Reid promised he'd take me there another time when we could both go and have fun.

So any of my friends who want to come for a visit in a beautiful albeit primitive place....come on.  You may have to sleep on the floor but the heat works and I'll make sure you get fed.  Those who have carpentry skills or just a bunch of energy or ideas for painting and other improvements are especially welcomed.      

So this is what it's like when it snows

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.

Celebrating the double nickle

This is the second time that I've been back in my hometown of Houston after leaving on my RV adventure last May. I had nine days to spend with my favorite people and to celebrate my 55^th birthday. Reid and I found a four bedroom house to rent in Sugar Land on Airbnb so he could spend some time with his boys on the weekends. He was able to work from the house and I spent a good portion of the week in search of a used 4WD vehicle to take with me back to CO.

While I was in Houston, I heard that it had snowed a foot at the lake in Vallecito so I'm looking forward to getting back to see what that looks and feels like.

It was interesting being back in Houston. I've never thought of Houston as pretty but you get used to where you are living. Having been on the lake in the mountains surrounded by beautiful trees, I'm reminded why I was keen to leave.....not just to find a simpler life but also to find a more beautiful place to live it. Whether or not I'm tough enough for the cold weather and the snow or not is yet to be determined.

I had a great birthday. Reid took me to Hugo's on Westheimer for a romantic dinner—just the two of us. Also, I got to visit with my friends from Chevron over a long lunch at the Raven Grill near my old stomping grounds near the Museum District. Kent and I drove 90 miles NE from Houston to Livingston to have a home prepared lunch and birthday cake with my mom and her husband on a wet, rainy day.

Happy birthday to me!

I was sad to hear about all of my friends who have been affected by the reduction of what Chevron likes to call human energy. Many have selected to take a package or else they had to apply for and compete for fewer positions and/or risk losing their jobs altogether. I'm glad I wasn't there to experience it. I can't imagine going to work every day wondering whether or not you're going to have a job and/or for how long. My heart goes out to my friends and colleagues during these turbulent times.

Loving the beautiful fall colors

So I came up with a name for the property---Views of Vallecito.  It's descriptive but not too pretentious.....sort of rolls off the tongue.

I left Vallecito last Monday morning heading towards Angel Fire, NM for a two day visit with my friend Kimberlee Acker and her parents at their lovely home in the mountains.  As I left, it was rainy and cold.  Right before I got to Pagosa Springs, I saw an oncoming car swerving, a handful of deer scrambling on the highway and a pick up truck driver pulled over inspecting his bumper.  Thankfully I was able to slow down and avoid a collision with the ever present deer who seem to be popping out of no where on a regular basis.  It's for that reason, that I prefer not to drive at dusk or in the dark given the potential for a collision on the skinny, winding mountain roads leading up to the lake.

Speaking of wildlife, I saw a slew of wild turkey on Kimberlee's parent's deck and a herd of elk surrounding their property.   The lovely views, warm hospitality and a gorgeous home in the mountains was a nice diversion from perhaps a little too much solitude in Vallecito.....No actually I don't mind the solitude, if I could overcome the internet dilemma which makes it difficult for me to take care of lodge business.  

The pull off on Lake Vallecito where I stop to access internet

Anyway, following my short visit in AF, I drove to Taos to see a stylist who does a great job giving me that short, spiky haircut that I like so much.  With all my years in Houston, I was never able to find a stylist who mastered that cut.  Now, Amber is just 4.5 hours from Vallecito when I need a good cut.  We talked about how I could determine if there might be any stylists in Durango who could do the job next time.

Following the salon visit in Taos, I made my way back down Mora, NM (45 min south of Taos) to visit one of my favorite intentional communities--Hummingbird.  It had been 3 months since my last visit and it was good to get caught up with everyone.  I shared with them my adventures at the Tiny House Jamboree, my surprise at seeing the BIG prices that tiny home builders are charging in CO, my visit to see Holly's tiny house (built by the Hummingbird company in Canada) in Golden and my overnight stay at Wee Casas in Lyons where I got to experience one night accommodations in the tiny house built by Durango's, Rocky Mountain home builder.  And, of course, we talked about my recent purchase of the property in Vallecito.  I always feel so warm and welcome and I value the opportunity to visit them and learn more about how they make community not only work but thrive and grow.

I got a late start leaving Hummingbird because I hung around to participate in Ami's yoga class for the community.  By the time I got on the road, it was starting to get dark and it was raining.  I drove an hour and a half to a cozy little place I found (in the middle of nowhere) on Airbnb.  It's in Glorieta, NM on the way to Albuquerque where I'll fly home to Houston on Friday to meet up with Reid who is flying back into the US f
rom Sydney.

Oh what fun it is to get to experience the fall colors in the Rockies, to meet new friends and to catch up with others I've known for a while and to fly home to Houston to re-connect with Reid and my family and friends.    

 

Views of Vallecito in early Fall

I closed on the property that includes a 2200 sq ft, 2 story house with 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths and a huge basement along with 7 summer cabins on Lake Vallecito NE of Durango, Colorado on Friday, October 9^th. It's a beautiful spot and Kent and his daughter Sarah and Reid and my mom and stepfather all came up to see and experience it with me for a few days. The fall colors and lovely weather brought big smiles to all of our faces. We have lots of ideas about what we can do to improve the property for our own use and for potential rental income. However, I'm here by myself at the moment. Kent and his wife Lydia need to sell their house before they can move up from Houston and partner with me on the project. Reid has his job in the Silicon Valley and a pending custudy case which will hopefully be resolved by the end of this year so we're all in a holding pattern.

While I got a fair price with my cash offer on the property, I don't want to invest any more money into improvements until after Kent and Lydia can move up and help and until after the winter season passes to ensure my thin Texas blood is up for the challenge. I'm six months into my sabbatical and am excited to see how this new endeavor works out.

Six of the cabins are furnished with passable furnishings, dishes and appliances as long as renters are as mesmerized by the lake and mountain views and don't look too close. My mom said, "Trina they've been rented for the past 50 years in this condition, there will probably be people who'll be happy to rent them just the way they are."  I'm not so sure. I need to do a market analysis on Airbnb and/or VRBO in order to see what other cabins in the area look like and the rental prices. My understanding is that May-October is busiest with many businesses closing down in the fall and winter while some do a marginal business up to the first of the year then wait until the snow melts to get back into full swing again.

I've found that it's like stepping back in time here. I discovered that one of the cabins has a TV with a VHS player. There is no TV reception but I'm assuming the player works---I just didn't know VHS tapes were even still available.....but it appears they are in this part of the world anyway.

I met my neighbors across the street who run the Pine River Lodge. Others in the area call the women who run the property “the sisters” since it's a family run operation lead primarily by two sisters Donna and Debbie both in their sixties. Their family has been operating the lodge for at least 50 years so they have lots of stories to tell and they seem to be quite helpful about what works and what doesn't work. Right now, my life feels like an episode out of the old Green Acres sitcom or perhaps the sitcom that Bob Newhart starred in when he and his wife ran an old New England Inn and had frequent visits from brothers who were both named Darryl.

I asked Donna if anyone does yoga in the area and she said some women get together for Tai Chi once a week. She gave me the name of the woman to contact to learn more about it. I asked if I should “google” her phone number but Donna said no, I can find the number faster than that. She opened up a local phone book. I haven't seen anyone use one of those in years. She didn't find the number there so she called the local country market and asked the owner for the number. It turns out this was faster than I could have found the number on Google. That's because, I've discovered, that a fast internet connection will be out of the question in this area. Currently, I can't make or receive calls on my iPhone with my AT&T service. I've spent hours researching internet, phone, and TV options and hope that the Century Link land line, Verizon jet pack for internet and the DirecTV bundle will work. I didn't think I'd ever be buying a cordless phone again but it may be the only phone service I can get here.

People ask me if I plan to live here full time. I'm honestly not sure if I will make this my home or if it will become investment property where I visit on a regular basis while I give the Silicon Valley a try with Reid.

I'm happy to have such a lovely place to call home right now as I winterize the Navi for safe keeping and try to decide what to do with myself and the property in preparation for the first snowfall. Kent brought my Jeep up from Houston but I'm told I'll need a four wheel drive for the 7700 foot elevation in this part of Colorado. So, I'm thinking about trading it in for another used vehicle with the proper equipment for this area.

After 3 days of chasing my tail with internet and cell phone issues and the 20 mile (30 min) drives into Durango to take care of business that I'm so used to handling on the Internet, I got home tonight before dark and decided to tackle pulling up the 18 year old stinky, shag carpet in the den of the house. If I'm going to have my furniture shipped up here or if I find furnishings nearby, I'm going to have to replace that before it will feel inhabitable to me. Right now, I'm living in one of the cozy,one room cabins near the house with my Navi sitting nearby. The belongings that came with me on this trip are now divided between the Navi, the house, and the cabin. My goal this week will be to get what I need out of the Navi so that I can winterize it and put it under cover somewhere close before it starts to snow. I have a neighbor who has a large covered area that I'm hoping I can use (I'm waiting to hear back on my request). I'm told that if it works out, the Navi will be snowed in for the winter so there will be no escaping in it until the spring.

So many decisions to make but what a beautiful part of the world to do it in.