We are moving again.

We are packing up our stuff and getting ready to move again and leave this wonderful Earthship in our past. The owner of the Earthship is coming over from Australia and wants to live in his house for a while. Like 6 - 8 months. So, we had to find another place to go with our little farmstead.

We thought about moving out to our land, and what that would entail...some sort of power, water, shelter, fencing for the critters and so on. A lot of work in a short time. We'd have to find an RV to live in and figure out how to make a workable office with power and internet for R's work-at-home, computer based job. Lot's to do and a lot of money to do it, for it to be workable.

Meanwhile, we kept our eyes open for rentals, and one lucky day we found it! A farmhouse with 25 acres and irrigation, a barn/garage, and a pond. Perfect. And affordable. It's across the border, back in Colorado and about an hour from Taos, although from where we are now, it takes us two hours to get there.

Farmhouse

We are excited and have already moved a few things up there and began fencing off a pasture for the llamas. There is enormous potential for a huge garden and we may be able to put in hay on 17 acres, which will keep our animals fed for the whole year. And, there are trees...big old Elm trees, which will provide lots of shade around the house.

Pond...Guadalupe the duck will be thrilled.

The house is small, with no bedrooms to speak of (there is a sun room and a living room that could be used for sleeping), but still bigger than an RV. And it has power and a well. I sooooo look forward to a long soak in the bath tub. And the kids can retire their bath tub/water trough for the real thing. It's a small house, but I think we will be spending a lot of time outside anyway. We can make it work, at least for a while. The kids are small enough still to share a room, and the era of the big house is out and the small/tiny house is in. This house is badly designed, but still a workable 900 sq feet, which is about the size of the house we are going to build on our land. Another experiment in living and learning.

Ute Moutain....defunct volcano....or is it?

The house sits on the Colorado/New Mexico border. Stick your hand over the fence and you are back in New Mexico. It's at the base of Ute Mountain, which worries me a bit, if that old volcano becomes active again. I'm sure it'll be fine.

This week has been crazy with packing and moving and we even managed to fit in a day trip over La Veta Pass to Walsenburg to pick up a stock trailer to haul the llamas in. It was a great deal and the trailer is nice enough. The trip over there, not so much, as we encountered a storm at the top of the pass that had me turned around, facing the kids in the back so I would not have to see our descent on totally iced roads. I hate  that mountain. That was the pass I hit ice on on our last move, and flipped the trailer. Horrid. But, by the time we had picked up the stock trailer, the storm had blown out, and the ice and snow had all melted. Our return trip was wonderful.

Happy Ass Stock trailer

We headed over to ALamosa to check it out on our way back home. There is a Big R there, which is handy, and the City Market has a few organics. We didn't get a chance to check out the Co-op store (it wasn't open) but I'm hoping they have even more organics and maybe even some of the specialty foods we buy for the kids' special GFDF, soy free diet. If not, Taos is still an hour from the farmhouse, and we know we can find everything we need there. Plus we can keep our egg customers and take eggs to town on our shopping trips.

There is so much to do still to get ourselves transitioned into the new place. We have to move all of the animals and take down the barns and chicken coop, remove our raised bed planters (R wants to keep the dirt) and move more household items, which is a lot easier with a 16 foot stock trailer. This time we will not be renting a big truck. But, that means more trips and more gas. Sure hope that income tax return comes in soon.

So tired of moving and moving. At least the packing and moving the "stuff." The adventure of a new place is always welcome. We just need less stuff.

The snakes above the door have been up to young snake antics. I swear these little ones learned from that adventurous Verdi, the little, wild green snake that wanted to do crazy things in the children's picture book of the same name. We have had to pick them up off the floor and put them back in their little crack several times now. No fear, these wee ones. Wish they were big enough to start taking care of the mouse problem. I like them, as much as one is able to like baby bull snakes. I am the snake handler, but I won't miss the snakes in the house one bit. I wonder if there will be any up at the farmhouse?

Baby Bull snake saying hello.

Now, back to packing....