June 4, 2023
I've been keeping up with a lot of you through your posts, and continue to be surprised that so many of you are still out on the road, full-time RVing. I think about all my years out there pretty often, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that so many of you aren't ready to hang up the keys yet.
I'm thinking of publishing a book with all my blog posts, not for sale, but just to have a physical record of the great times - the places I've been, the people I've met, all the experiences I've been so fortunate to have had. I started this blog on August 8, 2010, and the last post before today was March 26, 2019. Eight years and 7 months. 829 published posts. That's a lot of text and photos, and it would cost me a fortune.
Have any of you published a book of your blog posts? I'm curious about which companies did the best job for the best price. Please leave any information you have in the comments below, I'd really appreciate it.
And now - to the rest of the story... (Thanks, Paul Harvey!)
Of course, a lot has happened since I moved to Truth or Consequences, or TorC as we locals call it. It took me a while to start using TorC, but honestly, the whole name of this city is so long to write and type! Expediency won out, finally.
I've lived here now for over five years. I moved into a local RV park in early 2018 so that I would have a legal address to use for becoming a resident of New Mexico, and then I was able to get a NM driver’s license and register The Palms in this state. I can’t believe that was over five years ago. Seems like yesterday.
The idea was to become a resident, and then start looking for a house to purchase. I was ready to put down roots again; I wasn't sure about keeping The Palms or selling her, but that decision didn't need to be made until I was ready.
I looked at a bunch of properties, a single-wide trailer (mobile home) that I loved in Elephant Butte, but I couldn't get a loan and didn't have all cash to make the purchase. I didn’t realize banks don’t make loans on single-wide trailers. The next place I really wanted was in TorC, in town, and again it was a trailer, but a double-wide, and so nice. On a really nice lot. But the title wasn't "real property," it was shown as "personal property," and I couldn't get a loan on this place either until the seller did the paperwork to change the property status. He refused to do so. I even offered to pay for the documents to be done, and he still wouldn't. Obviously, he wasn't a motivated seller. My realtor and I decided I'd only look at sticks and bricks, and I did view a few more houses. Then, just as I was leaving town to visit my family in Lake Tahoe, my realtor called to see if I wanted to look at one more house before I left, and I said, "Sure." And that's the house I've been living in for almost five years now.
I really think this house and I were meant to be together! It's so perfect for me, so solid, a perfect size, I love the area I'm in and have great neighbors. Just outside of downtown, I'm close to everything, minutes away. I can't believe I've been here almost five years, usually about two years into living in a house, I'm already planning my move to a new town, but this time, I haven't even thought about moving. Anywhere. And after buying the house, I refinanced it a couple of years later, so my interest rate and monthly mortgage payment are so low, I'll never be able to have a house payment this low again. It was just meant to be.
In addition to my house, I have Charlie, of course, my great dog who will be 5 in July, and as of March 2022, we have four new additions to our little family. Four Black Australorp chicks, who have grown into beautiful egg-laying hens. They are a great breed; I had Australorps before when I lived in Camino, CA, on the western slope of the Sierras. They were great hens, so I chose that breed again. My four hens have a coop with a fenced yard, and I've also put a new X-Pen around that, so they have an enclosed coop, an inside fenced area, and an outside fenced area.
They free-range in my backyard from morning to night, and then walk up their ramp into the coop every night at dusk, where I "put them to bed," by securing their coop door, and the doors in their inside and outside fenced areas. You'll be hearing more about them as time goes on, for sure! Their names are Annie, Betsy, Coco and Daisy.
Thanks for stopping by. See you next time!
❤️Barb, Charlie, Annie, Betsy, Coco and Daisy
