A visit to Creede, and other goings-on

Just beyond Creede is a 17 mile loop mine tour. Darrell wanted to take it, but I felt the truck was too big. We'll come back when we have the smaller car.

The local birds have finally discovered the feeder we put up.

Darrell and Luna went for a short hike on nearby Coyote Hill, about a mile up the road from our house.

Finally getting some pictures hung.

The local garden club, Mountain High gardeners, put on a spring expo. We gathered info on high elevation mountain gardening...lots to learn about this!

A day off

We decided a break was needed, so did some exploring downtown, and took a trip up the road north of our place to Williams reservoir. Ice was still on the lake, but we found an open area for Luna to swim.

The painting is going well, just need time between coats. Meanwhile, Darrell has assembled our closet organizers, and we have a home for our clothes.

Organizing and painting

 Our bedroom is now the hub of activity in our house.  After finally getting parts re-ordered and brought to us by a rep of the moving company, we have our bed assembled and sleep-ready.  Darrell is "assembling" another Ikea closet organizer, and re-configuring the closet so that things have a better place to hang.

As you can see, our Ikea Hemnes dresser fits perfectly into the cubby that we didn't know what to do with.  But......now that we look at things, our bed does not go.  With anything.  Much discussion, weighing all the options, has left us (me) with a new task.  I will paint the bed to match the dresser.
Onto the computer I get, and am amazed at the ingenuity of many young women out there who have painted their Ikea furniture.  A trip to the hardware store, some experimental paints, and I think I can do this.  Stay tuned.

TIMBER!

 Now in the state of Colorado, due to all the wildfires in previous years, in order for us to get homeowners' insurance, we had to comply with "defensible spaces" as dictated by our insurance company's underwriters.  That meant that we had to have the beautiful pine tree right outside our bedroom window taken down, along with cutting back 30 feet of Gambel oak.  Through this process, we have met a series of really nice people.  First, Chris, the arborist, who is an expert at doing this, and also Jack, a gnarly Coloradan in his late 70's, who comes and gets the downed wood for his own use.  Jack is very talkative, and he has familiarized us with several of the neighbors we haven't yet met, and has related at least one epic story of a camping trip where his buddy slept in a shower curtain.
As I write this, a few days after the tree event, most of the snow you see is gone with just a hill in front of the house where it slides off the roof.

Darrell took a quick video of the giant going down.

We now have a sizeable pile of wood mulch next to our house.  I had thought it would be good to spread in our landscaping efforts, but it is full of pine needles and not pretty stuff.  So much for my idea. We went out and bought a rake.......

The view from our front window, and things we have come to know.....so far

 Before we left Tucson, we visited Ikea in Phoenix and brought a truckload of "stuff" home with us to be moved along with everything else, knowing that shopping opportunities are limited in Pagosa, and even Durango.
Darrell has been assembling furiously since we landed, among his projects an entertainment center, under-counter lights, an 8 drawer dresser (which fit in its spot perfectly), and others too numerous to list.

Today we decided to take some time off for fun, and attended a local church (St Patrick's) parade and event.  We met and talked to some very nice local people, and enjoyed the good-natured, small-town hospitality.

More snow and a moving van

 So we got the keys on Friday, the day the storm began, and after retrieving and putting away our stuff in the trailer, waited til Tuesday, when the driver could make it safely up the road to us.

Yay, our worldy goods have arrived!
And so begins the task of finding just the right place for everything.  Footage-wise, our new home has about 400 more square feet....the kitchen seems to have the same amount of storage...or more, but just different.
As I sit typing this, we have the furniture pretty much arranged and most of the kitchen is put away.  We are still missing the hardware to put our bed together, so we will be in the guesst room tonight.  Good way to try out the new mattress.

A long-awaited journey

Luna makes herself at home

We finally got on the road by 3 and made it to Deming NM by around 8. Next day we stopped in Albuquerque at our cousins' wonderful b and b.  One more short day of driving got us to Pagosa. Had a quick walk-thru of the house with our realtor, closed the next day, stored the trailer nearby, did some grocery shopping (with the rest of the town) and headed home. I should mention there was a winter storm watch for 3-4 feet of snow over the weekend. As of today, Saturday, looks like about 6 " or so. Feels great to be in our new home.

Overhang of snow from the roof looking out our upstairs window.

Moving Day

Everything went smoothly, the movers got done in about 4 hours and we were on the road by 3-ish. Luna is settled in for her new adventure.

WE ARE MOVING TO PAGOSA SPRINGS, CO!

 Our house has finally sold!  I guess we expected it to go more quickly than it did, but everyone tells us it took about the average length of time, 93 days.

How can 2 people accumulate so much stuff?  We have been making regular trips to Goodwill for 3 months now, and our garage still looks like this.  We are lucky to have the trailer to toss in our closet full of clothes and last minute items.

We will spend the first night in Deming, NM, unless the mover arrives really early and we get done....everything is very "fluid" at this point. And we are watching the remote webcam in Pagosa as it snows and snows and snows.  This will be another excellent adventure!  Stay tuned!