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 ...
Now I want spaghetti. :)
What’s that ya say?
Two rules:
If all you have is a hammer - everything looks like a nail.
and
If a hammer won’t fix it - it’s electrical.
For the newbies - call the electrician.
Living off the land is hard. This is why Milton Friedman wrote about how the move to the cities in the 1700s and 1800s was all about how capitalism made people’s lives better, even if working in a factory seemed like it was brutal work. Living and working on a subsistence farm is worse.
This is why I am a huge fan of capitalism and of human greed. It seems like a paradox but human greed by some makes life better for many.
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,"
A liberal life coach. Meaning having no kids while addicted to The Pill (asides from infections, never before has something so small had such massive effects).
Our last home we had that issue. We and one of our neighbors had land, and farm animals, and of course dogs and donkeys to keep prey away from our animals, and roosters. They built subdivisions around us and and then the calls for noise complaints started. These folks were half a mile away. It was so bad even the folks responding to the calls were getting annoyed. We moved a few years after.
We still have neighbors but they are old school and they have told us several times they do not mind the noise. They also get fresh eggs, milk, veggies from my garden and help with various projects from us. We maintain our other neighbors property (a widow).
It is not quiet in the country unless you are going to buy 100 acres and live away from civilization.
My reaction too. Who pays people to be their life coach?
A mother-in-law will do it for nothing.
“Patrick McManus wrote a humorous story about farming...”
Very funny man.
Modified Stationary Panic anyone?
People think that job is easy, until they do it. Media portrays them as idiots but farmers have to be astute business people or they won’t be farming long. If a task has to be done, it has to be done. You can’t wait for the illegals, you have to get your city ass out the sack and deal with it. whether it be livestock or in the fields, or plumbing or vehicle related, you gotta get it done or you can’t keep the money flowing and you can’t make the payments and you can’t hire more help.
We live way out in the sticks in high elevation (CT).
The suburbanites who move out here are usually fine for a while—until we have a nasty winter with a lot of snow and cold.
They are gone the next spring.
;-)
The choice of that place is very interesting. Surely they researched it first.
This reminds me of an old appraiser friend who used to say:
“If you see a vacant lot that was never built on before, you can be sure there is a very good reason—stay away!”
Here in CT it turns out that the carpenters, plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters, and a variety of other blue collar trades are folks who live out in the small towns.
At first I thought it might be to save money or because they enjoy privacy, but it turned out the real reason was that they worked out of their homes and needed to be able to store lots of vehicles, tools and machinery without worrying about snotty suburban zoning.
They are very happy when other locals seek their services—less drive time.
I loved that one too. Hard to say which of his many stories was my favorite but Shooting the Chickenout Narrows is one. The Bicycle is another.
But at least they’re sticking it out and not running back to the Big Apple.
I grew up in rural Idaho and still have family there. Urbanites are attracted to the “quaint” feel of farm areas there and then begin complaining almost immediately and trying to zone their definition of “quaint.”
““If you see a vacant lot that was never built on before, you can be sure there is a very good reason—stay away!””
Across ‘the street’ from me (this is in Montana outside of town) some folks are building on the land they purchased for $115,000 about 15 years ago.
It’s a nice lot at 6+ acres and has a wonderful view of the valley. One nice thing I always appreciated about the lot — as it was presented 15 years ago — was that it had a driveway and a well.
I know wells can go bad if not used but they have been drilling for over two weeks where they ‘wanted the well near the house’ (I’ve seen this multiple times - 600’ dry, hire a Water Witcher find water at 110’).
Drilling is $40.00 a foot and they can drill 200’ per day.. x 10 days works out to $80,000 and dry so far. I think they needed to get a Water Witcher about $65,000 ago...
In New England a long history of industrial waste (1800s!) is often hidden just a little beneath the surface....
You would have to drill the well to find out what is in it.
;-)
40 acres. In that country did they get a permit to build a pond? All rain water is not allowed to be captured but is supposed to run off so the people of Kansas can have irrigation water.
My Dad and Great Grandparents moved from the Plains of Hobart OK to South Colorado at Branson. Later down into North New Mexico way back in 1918.
I lived at Gladstone NM back in the 1950s. Middle of no where with nothing between you and the North Pole but a barb wire fence.
New Yorkers aren’t the only ones with that mind set last week on channel 5 news they did an item on almond milk and the female anchor though almonds grew on bushes.
You would be amazed how clueless so many in Los Angeles are.
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