It’s been a year since we bought our property. We’ve achieved so much this year! A well, electricity, a camper, garage and cabin (art studio). We’ve learned a lot and I have cried a lot but am learning not to let things rock my boat so much. If nothing else, I’m learning to calm down and have some patience because issues always seem to work themselves out-or else we learn to make do.
I am in WA state visiting my Mom while Jeff works here for a few weeks. I spent all of December at Rancho Mañana and experienced the weirdest weather-not normal at all. First, it rained INCHES, twice. It snowed for days twice. The temp dropped to 9 degrees once. On the day I left for Albquerque to fly out, it snowed INCHES and covered the Florida mountains.
This picture was from the first snow. The second was much heavier but all I have is pictures our great neighbors sent us in an email and I can’t seem to lift those buggers out so I can use them here.
When it rains, I can’t get out for 3-5 days, period. I tried. I actually did get out and went to town but when I pulled back onto our back road, the truck stuck like glue in the mud. My neighbor across the street came over the next day and pulled it out with his tractor. I don’t know what I’d do without good neighbors.Our front road was entirely flooded, making me so grateful that after much consideration, we did decide to put in both a north and south gate, so that we could get out if one road was flooded.
After I got unstuck, I knew more rain/snow was coming so I HAD to park out on the graveled county road overnight or I would not be able to get out and head to the airport. It only rains like this a few times a year, but if you are one of the unlucky ones who don’t yet have their raised county road in (like us) then you are stuck until the roads dry out.
We got the electricity in pretty quickly, for an obscene amount of money. Obscene. Propane was way cheap by comparison.
The well going in was a nightmare. For real. It was supposed to take 3-4 days. It took a month overall.
The well made the biggest mess. There were trucks everywhere, parked her for weeks. Our place looked like a parking lot in a construction zone.
Our valley has “problem” soil. Some of the sand is micro-fine like baby powder and it’s so hard to get it out of your water. We used a great driller, D&J Well Drillers and are so glad we did. There’s another driller who did a neighbor’s well and it’s been an unusable disaster. D&J did a great job, refusing to give up until they’d gotten the water running clear. They’d come out and drill and work those bloody loud machines all day long, testing the water over and over. Some hours it was dark, dark brown, then the next hour would run almost clear, then back to black. After awhile I sort of lost hope and figured we were going to end up with a $10,000 hole in the ground and no water at all.
When they’d leave at 5 they’d run their generator all night long, pumping out thousands of gallons of water in an effort to clear it. And that’s when I’d cry and cry. All that lovely water that I needed so much! And the noise was so bad I don’t think I slept for more than a few minutes at a time for at least 2 weeks.
Between the well people and the electric people, they tore up all of my gravel, big time. So I have that job to take care of in a few weeks when I go back home.
This is 1/4 of our ditch for the water pipes, dug for us for free by the well people. (Their bill was the cost of a small car, so the gimmie was nice.) The electric people dug us a ditch 1/4 of the length of the water pipes, for which they charged us $1300. Apparently all of the issues in land developing are settled by whipping out a pen and writing a check for $1000, at least.
I’m at the property most of this upcoming year by myself, because Jeff has a really heavy-duty travel schedule this year. So when things happen I’m on my own and it’s a little dicey sometimes, but it’s getting better. Why? Because electricity and water make a world of difference! I have warmth in the camper and the cabin, a refrigerator, stove. I am civilized. And it’s good.
I’m able to turn on the space heater in the cabin first thing in the morning, eat, go run, and then in an hour or two the cabin is warm and I can go paint for hours. One little space heater warms up the cabin to 68-70 degrees. Not shabby! We can use 500 killowatt hours for our minimum and for the 3 weeks I was at home in December, I didn’t even hit 200 hours. I think I can afford to plug in the big fridge in the garage and use up a little more electricity-since we’re paying for 500 hours.
I do have a lot to catch up here on the blog. I keep saying we’re going to get internet but I’m/we’re never home long enough to actually follow through. Plus, we had to wait until the electricity was in place. So now it is, and when I go home, mid January or so, I’ll be home for at least two months and it will be the first thing done. The phone and internet is how Jeff and I stay connected. I’m tired of standing with my nose in the one corner of the camper where I can get 3 bars and only have dropped calls once or twice per call. So, it’s time to finally get the net in. And I cannot wait.
