Posted on 11/06/2021 7:20:23 PM PDT by dynachrome
She thought of the 40 acres Ed had bought two years ago outside Colorado Springs — “for retirement” — which had an unfinished house and … not much else. She booked a ticket out west anyway.
A year and a half later, it turns out life on the Colorado Prairie isn’t quite the vacation they anticipated. “It’s brutal!” said Kate.
The couple — along with their friend, musician Mary Ann Ivan, who has spent much of the pandemic with them — immediately got to work transforming the barren property into a home. Ed, 55, designed a garage and finally put down floors in the house.
Ed and Mary Ann planted trees (half of which died), dug out a pond (involving a backhoe almost tipping over and “their lives flashing before their eyes”) and built a vegetable garden while braving 60-miles-per-hour winds, dust storms, hail and more.
“We’re on version 14 of the garden hutch,” said Ivan, 56, adding that the harsh winds kept destroying their plants. “One day it was going to hail, so we got a clothesline and we were putting the clothesline through the grommets and trying to tie down the tarp so the plants wouldn’t be killed. … It looked like we were on a sailboat trying to get the sail down in the midst of a hurricane!”
Meanwhile, Kate, who has had steady remote work as a life coach, takes care of the brood’s two dogs, cats and seven chickens — down from 11.
“Chickens are surprisingly cuddly,” she said of her new pets. But prairie life has been hard for those creatures as well. “My favorite chicken, Squiggles, became a prairie snack for some kind of bird of prey.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Yeah, we had that experience, too. Planted a bunch of stuff rated for Zone 5. Check out the maps and that what it says we are. Most of it didn't survive the first winter after planting. After talking with the local nursery(and I mean local, not in town), we learned that our area is optomistically Zone 4 and occasionally Zone 3. Microclimates and all. 4 miles away, if you're on or right near Priest River, you could manage Zone 5 stuff.
“Kate, who has had steady remote work as a life coach,”
OMG & LOL!
I’m just thankful they moved to CO, and NOT to TX.
Home inspector of 20 years in a rural area here:
For the last 2 years my area has been deluged with suburban refugees. All of them full of themselves and ready to tell all us rubes how life should be lived.
3 months post-closing and my phone starts to ring off the hook...the well doesn’t work....unless you maintain headspace in the storage tank and don’t drop prime.
The septic system doesn’t work.....it was 3 months past it’s service date when I did the inspection and you haven’t had it serviced yet as recommended???
I can’t find contractors to work at my house.....because you don’t realize there’s fewer of them out here and they cover a significantly larger geographical area. If you want a good one you have to get on his/her schedule, no the other way around. Too bad you’re not motivated enough to learn a little DIY.
My neighbors won’t help me.....yeah, didn’t take long for them to tire of your condescending arrogance and besides, you didn’t care enough to eet them much less help them.
Their best bet is to hammer another for sale sign in their front yard, eat their losses and go back where they came from.....
Home inspector of 20 years in a rural area here:
For the last 2 years my area has been deluged with suburban refugees. All of them full of themselves and ready to tell all us rubes how life should be lived.
3 months post-closing and my phone starts to ring off the hook...the well doesn’t work....unless you maintain headspace in the storage tank and don’t drop prime.
The septic system doesn’t work.....it was 3 months past it’s service date when I did the inspection and you haven’t had it serviced yet as recommended???
I can’t find contractors to work at my house.....because you don’t realize there’s fewer of them out here and they cover a significantly larger geographical area. If you want a good one you have to get on his/her schedule, no the other way around. Too bad you’re not motivated enough to learn a little DIY.
My neighbors won’t help me.....yeah, didn’t take long for them to tire of your condescending arrogance and besides, you didn’t care enough to eet them much less help them.
Their best bet is to hammer another for sale sign in their front yard, eat their losses and go back where they came from.....
Home inspector of 20 years in a rural area here:
For the last 2 years my area has been deluged with suburban refugees. All of them full of themselves and ready to tell all us rubes how life should be lived.
3 months post-closing and my phone starts to ring off the hook...the well doesn’t work....unless you maintain headspace in the storage tank and don’t drop prime.
The septic system doesn’t work.....it was 3 months past it’s service date when I did the inspection and you haven’t had it serviced yet as recommended???
I can’t find contractors to work at my house.....because you don’t realize there’s fewer of them out here and they cover a significantly larger geographical area. If you want a good one you have to get on his/her schedule, no the other way around. Too bad you’re not motivated enough to learn a little DIY.
My neighbors won’t help me.....yeah, didn’t take long for them to tire of your condescending arrogance and besides, you didn’t care enough to eet them much less help them.
Their best bet is to hammer another for sale sign in their front yard, eat their losses and go back where they came from.....
Home inspector of 20 years in a rural area here:
For the last 2 years my area has been deluged with suburban refugees. All of them full of themselves and ready to tell all us rubes how life should be lived.
3 months post-closing and my phone starts to ring off the hook...the well doesn’t work....unless you maintain headspace in the storage tank and don’t drop prime.
The septic system doesn’t work.....it was 3 months past it’s service date when I did the inspection and you haven’t had it serviced yet as recommended???
I can’t find contractors to work at my house.....because you don’t realize there’s fewer of them out here and they cover a significantly larger geographical area. If you want a good one you have to get on his/her schedule, no the other way around. Too bad you’re not motivated enough to learn a little DIY.
My neighbors won’t help me.....yeah, didn’t take long for them to tire of your condescending arrogance and besides, you didn’t care enough to eet them much less help them.
Their best bet is to hammer another for sale sign in their front yard, eat their losses and go back where they came from.....
Or Arizona
That could be fun! Have a Go-Pro on.
Tell them you are wearing it for Bear defense.
Cause after you shoot the bear who is trying to eat you, you have to prove to the feds it was a real defense....
Coloradans’ mistake:
Letting New Yorkers in in the first place. Same thing with us Californians.
You need to have the pore key first or you can’t paint the house.
Love it !!!
All of that. If they make it five years around here they are veterans. Most don’t. It’s been below 20f at night here all week. We had a great Indian summer but reality is setting in. We won’t see 40s again until May. Good times.
Free range chickens without a rooster and places to hide are fast food for varmits and birds of prey.
What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. So they say.
These are the folks who had the common sense to leave NYC and seem to be sticking it out. Give ‘em a few years and you may well see them at the range.
The winds do howl furiously on the Colorado Plains. 100 years ago, people were diagnosed with “wind madness.”
The winds do howl furiously on the Colorado Plains. 100 years ago, people were diagnosed with “wind madness.”
Understand that all to well; I’m supposedly zone #7 here on my farm, since when does it get to 14* BELOW ZERO in zone 7!
Took me about 2 or 3 years but I learned and adapted; my tree types, vegetable types, and planting seasons.
Takes work but it is doable.
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