Wow!  When I said our next home was an academic pursuit at this point, I was mistaken!  Meet the newly christened Hare In The Moon Ranch.  It’s 180 acres of pure heaven with commanding views of Mount Blanca and the San Luis Valley.  We are pinching ourselves with the velocity of this dream manifestation!

I started having the feeling we needed to start seriously looking last Spring.  We took the Egg out on an exploratory trip to Colorado in June and hit all the national parks and just had a jolly good time getting a feel for the very different mountain areas.

Feverishly searching Zillow and other sites, this property popped up with another that was a strong contender.  Our major requirement was a live year round stream–gold in CO where water rights are hotly contested.  That requirement, alone, brought up few possibilities.

This property became available after a failed contract.  We saw it on Thanksgiving Day.  We made an offer that day, but complications existed with the International estate and the estate needing to close by year’s end.  It was a mad scramble to hobble together a cash offer so we could close the deal (while another bidder was doing the same).  It was a nail-biter to the finish!  But, as of Dec 23rd it is ours.

When we first drove up as owners, we were greeted by this magnificent duo!  Can there be a more auspicious sign that we are moving in the right direction?

 

They say luck is opportunity meeting preparation.  No truer statement could be said about this purchase.  Lifelong savers, we have long valued the concept that wanting what you have is far more freeing than having what you want.  Choosing not to buy into time and money consuming items like TV or fancy phones and electronics that just need updating and expense was freeing for us and allowed extra savings.  Honestly, we never had time for much TV so there was a gift to be rid of it.  This philosophy of really knowing what we like allowed us a long slow accumulation that made this dream a reality.

Over the Christmas Holiday we camped out in the home, taking water from the pond and heating with the woodstove.  What we found is that dry high altitude cold is nothing like flat land cold.  We were out in shirtsleeves during the day when it was in the 20-30’s.

Given the velocity of the aquisition, and needing to stay in Saint Louis just a little while longer,  we are working on an almost non-existent budget to transform the 1980s home.  We spent the holiday suited up in white “hazmat” suits pulling really nasty orange carpet, a bucket of nails and staples and ugly wallpaper.

Now, those of you who have been on this journey with us longer know, this is not new to us.  We transformed our Saint Louis house in much the same way. (You can read about it here: http://www.studio3magazine.com/issues/5/pages/237)  we are no stranger to creative transformation with good ole fashioned elbow grease.  In fact I love the creativity born out of necessity! The ideas in my head are bursting at the seams at this point.

Ours will never be a HGTV style of living because ours is not a look that can easily be re-created.  Uniqueness is far more important to us that open concept–I mean seriously, life should be open concept–not houses!  In our way of thinking, a home should be filled with quiet introspective places where the heart can rest and plan it’s next adventure!

That being said, I am hoping to get the inside of the home transformed by 2017’s year’s end.  I expect many of the murals won’t be finished (and hardly any exterior updates) but I am already starting to dream of a labrynth on the property and a meditation path as well as greenhouse and an art studio/building for the Casita.

Because I have decided to let my rabbit freak flag fly again (I curtailed it for the last 30 years because, you know, rabbits have a way of multiplying), I plan on making rabbit sculptures and hiding them all around the property. Why not, I say.  The last half is going to be filled with joy, whimsy and sharing.

Driving home yesterday, I started to ponder the acres we own below our gate.  It’s flat but with a good view of the mountains.  What to do there?

A Casita Diva Crafts Festival!

I am envisioning a circle of Eggs and a craft exchange–all on the barter system. An “I’ll give you two Broadway songs” kind of trade!  One needn’t be a musician, artist or singer– baked goods, sewing pieces–anything that comes from the heart will do. I would put up a tin for a free will anonymous donations that we would give to the local county group that feeds the less fortunate or something because I believe in the Karma of sharing.

So, I ask you ponder the Eggs and Crafts meet up and envision what would make such a thing fun for you.  It would be boondocking but we could bring down water.  There is an RV park 5 miles away for the less adventurous, too.  We are close to Great Sand Dunes, as well.

Ah, to live perchance to dream.  And dreams really do come true!

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