Ode to our non human friends

I spent most of a long trip back and forth to the former homestead thinking about some friends lost.  Sometimes we takes friends for granted.  Usually the friends are human, sometimes not.  Most of us have had a friend who was not human, "pets" as they are called.  Our creator certainly knew we would need some unspeaking, loyal non-human companions.  While riding along on these trips, I have time to think and contemplate.  On this trip, my thoughts kept drifting to some of my furry friends lost to only my memory.

I had two friends who recently lost furry friends and when trying to offer my thoughts I always come back to the rainbow bridge poem I have seen many times before.  When I lose a pet, I always wonder if I did enough to meet their needs, gave enough love, paid enough attention to their acts of unconditional, selfless love for me.  When we had a death in our family of a furry one, after burial in the garden, I always told my children that if they closed their eyes and used their imagination they would see all of them in the garden playing together.

So today, going through boxes of old photos, I found one of our family's beloved dogs with my children long ago.  Again, I am brought back to the "Rainbow Bridge" poem.  So for Ol' Gal, Dollar, Goku, Rocco, Callie, Trixie and many, many other family members no longer with us:

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind. They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together.... 
Author unknown...

Driveway

Access is completed, we now have a decent usable driveway into our patch of desert.

 

We pulled our small camper down and made a four day working party to get it squared away.  Now we will place a container we bought and put up some shade.  Once we have shade in place, we will begin our cabin and be much more free to come and go.

I hope to keep this blog more active though not a daily blog by any means.

Our reward for the first few overnights were great sunsets and the stillness of the nighttime desert.

As always, Cheers!!

Snow on the Ocotillo

Well, it has been a crazy winter so far in west Texas.  I regret not keeping track of the precipitation totals.  I have lost count of the measurable snows and rains.  I hope we are done with it.  I am happier when there is no snow on the Ocotillo.

We rearranged some plans to help a friend today, left his place and went by the little place in the desert to do some more surveying (not with transit and rod mind you, just walking and absorbing) and we are finally satisfied with our choice for a permanent spot to live.  We have to now do some basic leveling and then we will bring in the transit and rod and bring it all into spec.  Our new dawn is just around the corner.

Cheers!!

Fits, starts and broken bones

Well, finally closed on our property in early December.  Had only enough time after closing to run down to the place and toast our success with a bottle of Riesling.  Went back to work and then went to Odessa for a supply run.  We had clutch troubles and had to get it replaced while we were there.  Stuck in the oil patch for three days...

While we were there we found out a friend from Brewster county had been in a bad accident while alone and he was in the hospital in Odessa.  When our truck was ready and before we came back to Alpine we stopped in and had a visit with him.  It is fortunate for him he is alive, the desert is unforgiving when bad things happen to folks while they are alone.  A stark reminder for us we need to invest in the air ambulance insurance just in case.

Well, we went back to the east coast for the holidays, bought a big flat deck trailer, loaded a small RV trailer we have on the big trailer and made it back just before west Texas was hammered by an unusual winter ice storm.

So now, we have some detail property surveying we need to do to see where we will place our cabin and other infrastructure, rent an excavator and a tracked loader and get busy carving out a place to resume our life put on hold since retirement in July.

As always, prayer is welcomed as we embark on this next phase of our lives.

Cheers!!

Under Contract

Well, our search is in the next phase, we found suitable land and have made offers.  Our offers have been accepted with a few minor changes to contract language.  So now we have a contract we think is suitable, we will need to review it with our adviser and determine whether we need to make changes or continue as amended.  What a relief.  Years of watching, waiting, planning are finally about to pay off.  Our little place in the big desert is about to become reality.  I feel a bit giddy...

 So about the big desert, as research will bear out, the Chihuahuan Desert is the tenth largest on the planet by size and we will own about a millionth of it size-wise.  We had driven 1500+ miles from our current home to our search area in west Texas.  While searching for property and getting more intimate with the area we drove an additional 1500 miles.

 We are now in tourist mode until our rented RV lot needs to be vacated.  During our month here we have met folks doing what we are doing, some folks who wish they were doing what we are doing and several folks we will be keeping up with in the future.  We are well on our way to permanence here.

 Once we have deed in hand and begin our project building permanent structures I will try to update frequently.  For now our prayers have been answered, keep yours coming for us, we appreciate them.

Cheers, life is good!!

Shopping around

Well, after several months we've made it back to the desert.  We spent a couple of days checking on some property here and there.  We have seen land that even in 4WD is a crawl to reach when dry.  We have seen land inaccessible when any rain is falling.  We have also seen some land that is perfect, scenic and quite not-for-sale...

We have the advantage of time, time to wait for the perfect site, deal and opportunity.  We can wait until we find that perfect spot it should not be an issue.

More to come...

Exciting times

I am retired!!  I have been retired for a little over a week.  Exciting times indeed.  My bride and I have been finalizing some things here and have a few appointments before we can head back out to the Big Bend and property shop.  Soon enough we can trade off our ten acres here for X acres there.  My high school algebra teacher would be pleased, for now we have the problem to solve for X.  And when we solve this problem it will be the correct answer.

We are looking forward to visiting again with old friends, and making new friends in Texas.  Our next journey is just about to begin.

Thanks for stopping by

Just moments after sunset in the Davis Mountains