real estate – The Hermits' Rest

Fun times with black rocks

Ha ha. I must start with the fact that yesterday’s post about looking at houses has had WAY more views than anything I ever posted. Now, the number of visitors was normal, just everyone looked at all the house photos. I don’t blame any of you. I also love sneak peeks at houses.

Martha and Mike left this morning so they could take two days to get to Cameron. Lee stayed at the cabin to await real estate news. Anita and I took the opportunity to drive through the beautiful scenery between Ruidoso and Capitan, New Mexico on our way to see my favorite National Treasure, the Valley of Fire. I couldn’t take pictures from the car, since I had to drive, but we did stop at a viewing spot for some viewing and photography. it isn’t the most spectacular view, but I enjoyed looking at the scenery, and it was incredibly quiet in between the few passing cars.

After making sure I wouldn’t die from eating a barberry fruit, we continued on through Carrizozo to our amazing destination. I’ve written about the Malpais (badlands), which are an ancient lava flow, before, but I’m sure a refresher won’t hurt.

These “badlands” are a kind of rock formation where lava is right at the surface. The geological name for the area is the Carrizozo Volcanic Field. It’s the result of many years of flow from Little Black Peak, ten miles away. You can see this area from the air on some flights. If you see White Sands, look north. The following is from Wikipedia:

See how close it is to where the first atomic bomb was set off!

Okay, enough geology. The place is simply wonderful to see. There are many plants and animals adapted to the terrain. We saw a lizard, bees in a hole, and many birds. The Rock Wren was new to me and we heard it lots. The Green-tailed Towhee was also a new one.

As for plants, early autumn brings much color to the black landscape. There were yellows, pinks, and purples everywhere, along with cholla, sotol, and yuccas. These are a mere few.

I was able to stop looking through binoculars or the camera lens to enjoy the lava formations and mountains in the distance. It’s an impressive site. As Anita said so eloquently, “Nature, she crazy!” It’s hard not to be overwhelmed by awe as you look at the chutes, flows, caves, and crags. New Mexico has so many geological wonders!

We enjoyed talking to the park volunteer, who had been many fun places with the park service, and who also happened to be an expert on homosexuality/transexuals and the Bible. She’s one of those trans pioneers who educates others kindly and politely. That’s got to be so hard sometimes. you just never know who you’ll meet!

We were hungry, so ate in the diner in Carrizozo. It was American Mexican food, not even Tex Mex. Oh well, it was food!

The drive back was through different scenery, which is always fun. We briefly stopped in Ruidoso to get Anita a sweatshirt. I got one, too, and these cute Zuni dragonfly earrings that will match my bumblebee jasper pendant I got earlier. It will be fun to wear to the Master Naturalist meeting in a few weeks.

I guess we’re ready to go home. Lee has been assured that any real estate business he needs to do can be done electronically, so we can go home. Things have gone a bit haywire there, so I need to check on stuff! Kathleen has been handling stuff like a superhuman!

Real estate can be exhausting

Today it was darned chilly here in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. Thus, I only took one brisk walk.

As long as I got to see a mule deer, I was okay.

Most of the afternoon was taken up with riding around with Alison the real estate gal, fresh back from her honeymoon in Costa Rica. The cold weather surprised her, too! But she put together some houses to look at, and off we went (with Anita). Let’s go look at houses! You may or may not find it more interesting than plants and birds.

I did see another White-breasted Nuthatch at a property.

The first house we looked at was mainly because it was right nearby. We called in the red house, because it was sorta red. It wasn’t really what we wanted in location or use of space.

Then we went on to the green house, which I had high hopes for. This house has decks galore and borders on the National Forest.

This deck wraps around to the front. Note the two-car garage!

The house is listed as having 5 bedrooms and two baths, but the whole upstairs space is just a warren of little rooms that only sort of count as bedrooms. However, one of those rooms has a door leading to a deck all its own, looking into the woods. My office, for sure.

Random hallway space with daybed. They could sleep many grandchildren

The rest of the green house is very nice, though the kitchen is small and has extra-blue cabinets. The living/dining area and decks were great. It is on a secluded street, too, but close to town. This is a house we could do lots with.

The next house we called the old man house. It had my favorite interior, with such homey rooms and a cool enclosed porch with really good blinds. There were only two bedrooms, but a nice Jack-and-Jill bath.

What was wrong with it? Well, the laundry room was hilarious. I could not reach the washer to empty it. And while the yard was nicely landscaped, it was very sloped. Finally, there were so many stairs! Once inside, it was fine. But outside would get harder and harder as we aged.

After this one, we set out to see a house that only had 9 photos online. That’s always suspicious. This house was on a downslope, but not hard to get in. The neighborhood was pleasant. Its main feature was a wall of windows overlooking beautiful trees. If you could ignore the rest of the house and the fact than it overlooks a highway, the view could sell the place. However, the tree house had mirrored walls, a sad kitchen and some bizarre downstairs plumbing. Not quite right.

We had enough of Ruidoso and set our sights on Alto, the neighboring area with no infrastructure other than a post office and a fire station. It’s where the house I liked so much last time is located. We did visit that one again, just to remind ourselves of it. it’s still nice, but Lee is hesitant to buy a manufactured home.

We went to another house in Alto, in a different neighborhood. This has fairly nice houses and good-sized lots. The house we looked at is not fancy at all, but is really cool. Though it’s rough-hewn, Lee and I both liked it. I liked the space around it, with lots of wildflowers.

Inside, the rustic house is very rustic. It has fun light fixtures, lots of quirky shelving units, a beautiful main room and a weird but fun kitchen/dining. There’s also a huge deck. The bathrooms were “recently remodeled” and are quirky, to say the least. The main toilet faces a window. but the floors have radiant heat!

I didn’t get any photos of the cute sunroom in the front of the house. It’s very tempting to just sit there!

Picture from outside showing the view of the main toilet. Curtains are a must.

We may try to get this last house. I like how unpretentious and rustic it is. Lee and I both feel comfortable there. If we can’t get this one, we may try for the green one as our summer escape house. We will have to see.

We had a nice meal this evening in a good Mexican restaurant. My chiles rellenos were wonderful and everyone else’s looked great. It was just a bit chilly inside.

Enjoyment overload?

We were ready for fun and frolic today, well, what passes for it in people of our age and interests. I’m now quite zonked out, but it was all good. The Ruidoso, New Mexico area has seen us quite enough for one day.

We started out having breakfast, but not where we intended to have it, because that place was doing Oktoberfest (not my first experience with September as an Oktoberfest time). So we went to a different restaurant whose name I do not remember (how tired am I?) and had quite good food.

The men then went back to the cabin, so Anita, Martha, and I could look at shops. I remembered where to park and everything!

We looked in many places, but mostly stared at Native American jewelry in the trading post. I scored my desired bumblebee jasper and a silver beaded chain, plus a couple other items for reasonable prices. None of it is heirloom stuff, but I’ll enjoy wearing it. Everyone else also found a few treasures of their own, and I got Anita some earrings for her birthday on Tuesday.

We also enjoyed chatting with a young man in another shop with a lot of opals. I got a small Wild Horse stone ring (not turquoise but I like it). We enjoyed looking at soap that smelled really good. Then we had great conversation and purchased some beautiful herbal tea at a natural healing shop. The owner was such a helpful kindred spirit.

These ravens were also kindred spirits. The closest one had found a shiny piece of glass to treasure, much like our jewelry.

Of course I had to drag my friends to the Noisy Water member lounge to relax after all that shopping. I really enjoyed the vintage reds I sampled. I may have one of them waiting for me at home, if I remember right.

We dragged ourselves back to the cabin, and soon embarked on a property tour. Lee led this one, and Mike and Anita came along. We visited both houses we are still thinking about, as well as some others out near Alto and Nogal.

I took pictures to remember this one’s exterior.

The drives were lots of fun, since it’s so darned scenic and there are so many animals. In addition to wild horses and dozens of elk, we got to see a mule deer doe and twin fawns at the other house we are considering. I mostly took pictures of views from there.

After a lot of driving and looking, we needed a break, so we stopped at the Alto location of Noisy Water to sit outside and relax. I enjoyed the Bushtits flying around the pine trees. (The bird phone found 49 species at the cabin today!)

After enjoying views and searching for empty lots in a fancy and very remote neighborhood, we headed back, got groceries, and ate pizza. I didn’t help much with that, because I didn’t feel great (running around at high altitude will do it), so poor Lee wrangled the oven, with Mike’s help. It was fun comparing frozen pizzas. A very interesting thick-crust Detroit-style offering was deemed the best. No photos. We ate it all.

Instead, here’s a native southwestern cosmos flower.

Tomorrow I hope we can go find some nature. No need for more shopping!

Negotiations are no fun

Most of today was work. The rest, many long hours, was taken up with the dreaded condo meeting which we have skillfully managed to avoid for a few years. Today, though, we had something we wanted to do with our ownership.

Most of the time these salespeople make you sit around and stew while they write up presentations. We confused them, because we had specific information we wanted to find out. I just kept asking my questions.

Eventually we negotiated to close enough what we wanted, which will set us up nicely to sell the thing next year or whenever I stop working. But I’m wiped out. Lee is exhausted from not yelling and making a scene. I’m proud of him.

The nice condo we went to had some good decorative elements. Here are nice lamps.

There was one highlight, which was having a good talk about politics with our salesman, who was our age. We told him we have some hope for Texas in November. He told us one reason he lives in Hawaii is it’s so red.

So, no anecdotes or bird stories today. I’m thinking of the tropical storm than has crossed into Texas and hoping it sends rain to the ranch.

Looking and learning

I’m pretty much wiped out, but today was extra, extra fun. I enjoyed listening to and watching birds behind the hotel. I got to watch Lesser Goldfinches eating thistle seeds and the happiest Raven, who had scored an entire biscuit. I also saw unidentified animals in the hills.

Hard to believe this is behind the business district.

Next we met a fun young woman named Alison, who showed us some representative houses here that might work as summer homes. Alison was a lot of fun. We met in a restaurant where her fiancé painted a cool mural.

There was quite a collection of properties to see, ranging from sad small condos to rustic cabins to a house nicer than ours. It reminded me of the good old days when we bought houses and fixed them up.

Of course, I also found flowers that elk hadn’t eaten. This is scarlet cinquefoil.

I didn’t think anything would match all my criteria:

Not too big
No close neighbors
Space to park an RV
Lots of nature
Attractive view

Two did. One rustic place in need of some TLC near town, and one doublewide in a more rural area in really good shape. (There are so many well preserved mobile homes here.) They both are quirky, which I like.

The lady who owned the rural house had taken great care of the yard, which I liked. It was very low maintenance. The other one needed occasional weed whacking. Anyway. Here are a couple things I enjoyed in other houses.

Upstairs family room in a house that was too big

After a lot of driving around, we dropped Alison back off at the restaurant and went back to look at the area where the rural house is. It’s a big, green high mesa with a mix of double wides and nice traditional homes. There are also many horse properties nearby. However, the most interesting thing is in the middy of the neighborhood. A rock shop. Not just a shop, but the place where miners of fancy rocks with geodes and other beautiful formations inside process the raw material!

We got to see all the grinding and polishing stations. It was fascinating! We got to look at beautiful examples of the finished products and watch a slideshow of how they mine the rocks (almost all in New Mexico). after mining, they put back all the dirt they dug and seed it with appropriate plants. I was impressed.

After that, Lee took me to the Noisy Water winery outdoor gathering place, where we sat under trees and drank wine and ate charcuterie. I also listened to birds. Of course. They had a petting zoo, so I went over and said hi to the goats and other residents.

This one licked my hand clean. Yes I washed it.

But wait, you ask. Did you see any interesting mammals? Of course I did. Many elk, of which I just share a few, and a herd of wild horses serenely grazing next to a parking lot. Apparently that’s common. That was the last fun wild animal I was looking for, so yay. No bears. That’s fine.

This was a fun whirlwind trip. I’m glad we are coming back in September so I can do non-real estate activities.

I want to look at more flowers like this Rocky Mountain zinnia

I have no idea if Lee intends to buy a property. I understand why. Texas is getting more scary to us as time goes on. But we love our ranch and don’t want to go away from our family there. A summer getaway would be ok.

It’s a wild life!

Today I did my best to fulfill Lee’s goal of looking at every neighborhood in and around Ruidoso, New Mexico that might contain a residence that fulfills his dream of a summer getaway in a cool Mountain climate. Of course, it was hot today, but ten degrees cooler than home.

Since we aren’t remotely thinking of relocating, the beautiful horse properties and mountain estates we saw were just eye candy. We looked at the other end of the scale, too, such as numerous creatively updated 60s and 70s mobile homes. Mostly we looked at small cabin-like houses.

As Lee evaluated property, I took every opportunity to spot wildlife and look for birds. In fact, between listening at the hotel and looking in trees, I got five new life birds! One was a favorite, the Acorn Woodpecker. Here’s the list. I wish I’d seen that Lazuli Bunting!

My eagle eyes were on the lookout for others, such as these beauties. Poor Lee had to stop and back up.

I was excited to see deer a few times early in the travels. They have Mule Deer here, which are larger than white-tails and have large, expressive ears.

As it got later in the afternoon, I started seeing even larger deer. But, no, I figured out all for myself that they were elk. The first ones I saw here resting in the shade, and none have antlers right now, so they did look like deer.

I did get some plants, too. I’ll share them later. I should tell you our eating adventures. I had to stop with the driving and looking occasionally, because my eyes got tired. So we had an early lunch at a great place called Casitas. There was healthy food and much charm. Probably not to Lee’s taste, but I loved my fancy avocado toast and my dulce de leche latte. Mmm.

After a few more hours of going up and down mountains, being saddened at flood damage, and being jarred by potholes I requested my treat of the day, which was to visit Noisy Water Winery and cash in on my wine club membership perks. Wow, the club members’ lounge was nice, quiet, and beautiful.

I tried four different wines, one that just launched (2022 Demi goddess), one older white that had aged SO well, and the members’ exclusive, which was a rich dessert wine. Oh, and a red varietal I’d never tried, I liked it liked more than I expected. I did come home with three bottles of white wine. As I am the only wine drinker in our household, it will last a while.

The final place we stopped was a park we visited years ago with Anita. It was not great for birding, since a huge motorcycle group went back and forth while we were there. But I enjoyed the scenery and Lee even said my hair looked good. Wow!

Whew. So much mountain beauty, wildlife, and interesting homes. I’ll sleep well tonight.

Dream Home Thoughts

Write about your dream home.

I’m surprised the prompt writers don’t have me down as having responded to this one. But I’ll give it a try, with a bonus.

So my dream home is probably right where I live now. At least I have all I really ever wanted here, though I could dream of being somewhere with less cow poop and more forest. But I cannot complain about this house I helped design and picked all the materials for, inside and out. I have an office, a den, a yarn closet, a big bedroom, a kitchen with red tile, and a screened porch. Outside I have my very pleasant swimming pool for hot summers, a birding hut, a hut for actual birds, and a pasture full of beautiful horses. Plus we have plenty of dogs and space to house family members.

I’m very privileged. And oh yes, there aren’t other houses crammed all around me. I mostly see fields, trees, and a couple of neighbors.

I admit my house in Austin on the hill surrounded by greenbelts was sort of a secondary dream house and I really miss it. But you can’t have two at my pay grade.

As for the bonus, I wanted to talk about the avian dream house where the fowl here live. I think they don’t realize how lucky they are to have a hen house, a turkey hut, and a big run where someone tosses fresh greenery to them daily.

These gals love greens. And chicken scratch.

But I do know that Darryl Junior, my favorite pecker, thinks his water dish is a dream come true. That giant white behemoth can’t stop himself from poking it, stomping on it, and trying to break it.

Today I finally got the hose unhooked from it and replaced it properly so the automatic waterer feature would work again. That’s no thanks to Darryl and his “helpful” urges.

Clinton eating dinner next to the functional water dish.

At least the horses didn’t bust out again like they did yesterday. Someone undid the chain holding the gate shut! I’m pleased that they’re so obedient that when I call them and look like I might have a food dish, they gallop right back into their pen. See, this ranch is a dream come true.

Three Weeks of Retirement Left

I’ll try to get as much horse riding and swimming pool lounging in as I can for the rest of the month, because I accepted the offer on the job I was debating and it starts June 30.

The Pacific Time hours will be a bit of a challenge, because I’ve never worked in a time zone later than mine, but since it’s relatively cooler in the mornings in the hot months here, I may find doing horse stuff and other ranch chores more pleasant. I can adjust!

I’ll still have time to look for birds at my birding station, which was sited today.

Theoretically, I’ll retire again in 6 months or so. I did like the main interviewer a lot, so I think I’ll enjoy making a few more handouts and answering a lot more questions about project and portfolio management software. I’m sure glad I didn’t entirely flush that knowledge from my brain in March.

Looks like plenty of space for rainwater capture here.

In the meantime, Lee and I are taking a short drive around our area, first to close on a property sale in no-longer-scenic Cedar Park, then spending the night in Waco and going to the zoo we didn’t get to go to when storms came after Lee’s canceled jury duty. Just some couple time.

I may be a little slower, but I get there.

It’s a nice reward for making it through all the interviews and paperwork. I’d suspected they’d choose someone young and energetic. Well, my friends keep telling me I’m energetic, so I’m passing as the elder statesman energy bunny.

Animals’ Behavior – Good and Weird

I thought today would be uneventful but there were many events, many, all of which involved our precious animal friends. Let’s enjoy the fun one first, shall we?

No carpenter worm moths are part of this story. Other than this one.

I was up nice and early to meet Sara and her horses. I got to go with her for her and her filly Jhayati’s last lesson with Tarrin. She also brought Aragorn, to practice for them all driving to their new and beautiful pasture in Wisconsin. Want to follow their journey? Sara has a blog! Learn all about their regenerative farm there.

Jhayati is so big! She will be two in May.

Anyway, it was a joy to watch the young horse wearing a saddle for the second time like she’d done it for years. Then she wore a bit for the first time, and she explored it but did fine and followed all her instructions fine. This is a smart girl.

I e learned so much from these two women. I’ll miss my horsemanship friend so much, but look forward to hearing about Sara’s new adventures.

Meanwhile, Aragorn wasn’t acting like himself. He did not like being tied to the trailer. Much pawing and agitation occurred. This is more than his usual opinion. But I’m not worried. Sara is well prepared for travel, and Tarrin shared lots of travel tips. This was the only first animal oddity of the day.

I got home, and Lee told me Carlton was acting strangely. He would not eat his food and was limping. He’d needed help getting into the bed to go to sleep last night. It turns out he hurt from having two of his nails trimmed too close yesterday. And to top it all off, Harvey picked fights with him all day. He seems better after some pain medication, though.

The chickens are acting oddly, too, and I found feathers in the henhouse. Has Connie gone broody? She has nothing to brood though. It seems our egg thief has been so well fed that she had to shed. It’s longer than my height.

Things were calm until I went to feed the horses. They were very well behaved and I was happily watching them eat when I realized Mabel was not eating. She was sticking her tongue out and then yawning. Her food was no different from any other day.

Eventually she knocked all the food out of her tin and kicked it around. I caught that in 27 seconds of cinematic drama.

Mabel expresses her opinion of food.

I got really worried. I went to let the other horses out, but when I let out Fiona first, I realized that she hadn’t touched her food, either. She just walked away.

As soon as Fiona left, Mabel marched over to her food dish, sniffed it, then kicked the tub over. As an added flourish, she stomped on the tub. Here’s a video of that.

You will note in the video that she cones over to me at the end. She kept doing that, coming over to tell me something I didn’t understand. I worried that she was colicking. So, I called Tarrin.

Luckily, as I dialed, Mabel went to the water trough and drank. That made me feel better about colic (very dangerous horse issue). Tarrin suggested I see if she’d eat a horse cookie. I was relieved to see she would. Fiona reluctantly ate one, too. Whew.

The theory we came up with is that Mabel and Fiona were reacting to their vaccinations yesterday. That makes senses

I do wonder if they ate something less than ideal down by the pond. They were all chomping away there, too.

I watched the horses a long time after they ate the treats. I was relieved to see Mabel nibble some hay and Fiona grazing.

More horse surprises coming this weekend. Stay tuned.

I Guess It’s Good News

The Hermits’ Rest is smaller today. We sold half our property to the nice folks who’ve been leasing the land for hay and cattle. We also sold them our part of the rest of the ranch, which we’d partnered with Sara next door on.

It had to happen, since Sara is moving to a beautiful farm is Wisconsin to engage in a regenerative agriculture project. We couldn’t afford to buy her out, and besides, now seems like a good time to liquidate assets. So much uncertainty.

I can still do my iNaturalist stuff and ride on the land, as I may have mentioned before. They won’t cut down the woods, they said. It’s still hard to sell part of my home. You know how attached I get to land, even over-grazed former post-oak savanna. Yes, yes, I’m not good with change.

On the other hand, there will be no more owing anyone money. That will help me sleep at night. I can pay off my debts and easily live within my means. What a weight off my mind. The unexpected expenses of the last couple of years messed me up!

There have also been pet expenses. Good news: Goldie found a bed she can get in and out of.

So yeah, that was good news. Tomorrow we get the bad news about Goldie. Her biopsy results came in. But she’s still having fun and we will let her do it as long as we can.