Advice

I've been perusing the BlogHer list of posts for NaBloPoMo.... apparently I'm supposed to be linking my daily posts.  Oops.  I wonder if I should go link each day from the last three weeks... Engineers are not good at following directions.  ;-)

Anyway I've found a few new blogs to follow.  A recent one is Retired Ruth.  I tend to enjoy school teachers and this post about advice hit a chord for me.  She started with a quote she had read recently...

"When you feel like quitting, think about why you started."

Definitely worth thinking about.  Sometimes there are reasons to quit, as noted in The Dip by Seth Godin.  He says, if you're going to quit, quit early... for example, my basketball career.  I sucked... Big Time.  But don't quit just because it's getting difficult... most things worth doing are going to be hard at least some of the time.  So the point is... when the going gets tough, think about why you're on your path.

The piece of advice that came to mind for me was...

 "Stick your finger in water.  If the hole remains when you remove your finger, only then are you irreplaceable."

That was tough to hear put so clearly, but the reality couldn't be more true.... as I'm in the midst of my 5th lay off.  :-/

So when the going gets tough, and you are replaceable, what are you going to do?

I've been searching for a new day job and working on the farm's business plan.  In both cases, I've been refining my focus on what I want to do and what value I can provide as well as attending classes and networking sessions.

In Pursuit of London

I dropped Hubba off at the airport today.

He's on his way to the USA Track and Field Trials for the London Paralympic Games.

If you happen to see or talk to me over the next several days, don't be too concerned if I seem to be pre-occupied.

Three Years

Three years ago today we sold our cute, little house in a hip, Albuquerque neighborhood and headed north for "greener pastures."

We hadn't heard back on the place we wanted to buy, but had been assured the bank would accept our offer.  The place was a short sale and our agent told us that they can take some time.  So Hubba rented a small house about a half-hour away.  We payed way too much, but the owner agreed to three dogs, a cat and month-to-month rent.

I would be fired a few days later.... for moving... even though we had discussed it during our interview and the job required 90% travel to locales other than the city I moved from.

Naturally,  it is difficult to secure financing when you don't have a job.  :-/  It took several weeks, but I did secure another position.

We never heard back on the first house and we made an offer on a second place.

It turns out that neither of these were actually for sale.

Yes... in 2009, when all you heard about was that people couldn't sell their houses, we had a difficult time finding houses that were actually for sale.  Even when they had a sign out front, were listed in the MLS and were willing to let people look at them, houses weren't for sale.  It was the strangest feeling.

So we stayed in that rented house for much longer than we would have liked.  Until we found (and closed on) the place we currently live in.

We then built loafing sheds and corrals, moved alpacas, found LGD's one and two, birthed cria, built a garden, and did a whole lot of other things.  We have so much more to do in order to fully realize this dream, but we have already achieved a great deal.

Technically our pasture is more brown than green right now, but our future is very bright.  :-)

The Pre-Game Show

By most accounts, I'm not much of a girly-girl.

I can count the number of times I've had a pedicure (2), manicure (1), massage (about 20) and other-wise spa day (0).

I don't care much for dresses although my mom tells me I liked them as a little girl.  I do wear them to things like weddings and Mass, but I don't believe I've ever worn a dress to work.

... Oh, I take that back.  I did wear a couple of skirts when I had an internship in a down-town office building when I was a graduate student.  I remember resenting it at time.  It was clear we were expected to dress up, but I spent my entire time in an office... by myself... doing research.  So, apparently the books, papers and periodicals had high standards for the people who were reading them.  :-/

The evidence that I'm not really a girly-girl continues with (1) I love math and I'm really good at it, (2) I'm a mechanical engineer and actually miss it a little, (3) I love building things and working with my hands and (4) we are building a farm for ourselves.

But all of this not-girly-girl stuff goes out the window when it's red carpet time.

I like the Oscars because I enjoy movies, but I LOVE the pre-game show.  :-D

I love watching the celebrities go up the red carpet and seeing what they're wearing... mostly the clothing but also the jewelry, shoes and hair-dos.

I almost always pick up a copy of People Magazine and try to catch the appropriate episode of Entertainment Tonight... I'm such a little girl about this stuff.  Hubba thinks it's pretty funny.

I don't really know most of the designers very well... I mean, I do know some of them.  Oh, alright fine, I know who a lot of them are.  ;-)

I dream of creating my own line... and when they ask, "Who are you wearing?" Sometimes they'll say, "Kathryn Ray."

Following Your Dreams

You may not have known that today was the US Paralympic Marathon Trials at the Chicago Marathon.

I can't find any information about it on the US Paralympic Team website or the Chicago Marathon website and unless you were lucky enough to catch the interview with Tatyana McFadden, the women's wheelchair winner, I would be surprised if you had heard anything about the importance of this race today.

The reason we know, is because the US Paralympic Committee sent Hubba an email and arranged for his trip.  They know about him because he has met the qualifying time and was named to the US National Team earlier this year.

With as frustrating as I find the lack of publicity and information about this race, I am still amazed that we were allowed to be part of it.  Maybe it's just crazy (or perhaps arrogant) to decide to try for a spot on any Olympic Team, but he did the work and found himself with a realistic shot at making that dream come true.

Alas, it was not our day.  In our estimation, about 10 guys had a realistic shot at the two positions on the team.  Hubba was the 6th American and therefore did not make the team today.

The Point of it All

There has been a lot on my mind lately.  So why has my Brain been so quiet?  Well, I think it's because the lot has been about the why, the point, the bigger meaning and I don't have all the answers yet.

The last few weeks have been especially challenging.  Many, many things have not gone according to plan.  I plan projects for a living, so I know things don't usually go according to the plan, but these last few weeks have been especially challenging.

The interesting thing about all of these set backs and challenges is that the outcomes have been generally positive.

• Emergency surgery on Noodle saved her life.  She gets her stitches out tomorrow and can go back to being the full-fledged puppy and protector that she wants to be.
• A hail storm took most of the fruit from our new trees and shredded much of our veggie garden.  There was no property damage, the peach tree still has enough fruit for eating and the veggies seem to have recovered.
• My combs and cutters were "lost in the mail" on the way back from being sharpened in Oregon.  I was able to replace them with new sets prior to my shearing appointments and found a local resource for sharpening.
• Equipment failure during shearing, twice. Yes, twice.  The switch on my 4-year old handset failed halfway through shearing an alpaca.  We finished shearing her by hand.  I bought a new handset, which failed on it's second alpaca.  Again, we had to finish shearing by hand.  The second handset is undergoing warranty repairs now, so hopefully I'll be back in business next weekend.  The good news is, that we've been able to reschedule and I may have a new mentee.
• Compiling the technical requirements for my day job project and the subsequent fit/gap analysis have taken a lot longer than anticipated.  I don't think the overall impact will be significant but it will be nice when we're in the throws of development.
• A family of raccoons tried to move to the farm yesterday.  The dogs and alpacas were not pleased.  While I went out to see what was going on, The Alpaca Dog pushed by (or maybe over) me, went behind the hay pile and came out with a raccoon.  He killed it and promptly went back for the next.  When it was over, he had killed three raccoons, my neighbor and I killed the fourth and the momma raccoon has not been seen.  The good news is that The Alpaca Dog has no wounds from the incident and is now current on all of his shots.
• Flight delays.  Ugh.  While not causing a significant impact, they have caused me to miss my shuttle home several times.  This has me looking for a day job that is not only interesting and meaningful, but also allows me to sleep at home every night.

So, what's the point of all of this?  To show you how good I am at seeing the bright side of things?  No.  I think it's to remind me why we're doing what we're doing.

It would be pretty easy to take each of these challenges as a reason not to do what we're doing.  But I've been trying to think of them as hurdles in a foot race.  Hurdles are meant to slow you down and help you focus on what you're doing.  They're not meant to trip you up, even if they do sometimes.

So I've been journaling.  A lot.  Refining the vision.  How it feels.  What it looks like.

Change is never easy and we are changing the way we live our life.  We have big goals and are making progress toward achieving them.  There are gates to navigate and milestones to hit, but the point is to make a difference and achieve a dream... actually the point is to achieve a couple of dreams.

Project Relocation

We're moving.

Last Fall, my husband and I decided it was time to move back to Colorado. We had been talking about it for years, but for many very good reasons we had stayed in New Mexico.

The Beginning of the Story

We started raising alpacas about 2 years ago; agisting them at nearby ranches. Agisting was great for getting started. It is a low risk way to learn more about the alpacas and gave us time to find a farm of our own.

We considered moving outside of town and had a loose agreement to buy an existing alpaca farm. Then my company layed off half it's staff. I got nervous and backed out.

The company appeared to become more stable. I was outsourced.

The outsourcer said it had more SAP work than people to do it and that I could work remotely. So we made plans to sell our house in Albuquerque and started earnestly looking for a new home in Northern Colorado.

My former company, the outsourcer's and my customer, filed Chapter 11, then Chapter 7 and layed of the remaining staff. I was furloughed, then layed off.

We sold our house and moved to Colorado.

We are staying in a rented house. I have a new great consulting job with a great young company.

I've lost track of how many houses we've seen, but we've made offers on three houses.

The First

The first was an amazing farm house at the base of the foothills, built in 1895 on 5 acres. It was a short sale and the owner did not want to sell. It is a beautiful property. The owner clearly loves it. The bank was forcing the short sale.

We made an offer. The listing agent called right away and said the bank's bottom line is a little higher. 'If you change the offer, it will be accepted.'

We changed our offer as suggested. The seller refused to acknowledge, counter or sign the offer. The selling agent did not return phone calls or emails. We never heard from the bank.

We decided to leave the offer on the table and started looking again.

This house is now listed with a new agent for the price we offered.

The Second

The second house was also an amazing farm house. This one is a little closer to town, near a lake, built in 1905 on 2.5 acres. It was completely set up with barns and fencing. A better set up for us and listed for less money.

We asked if they would be interested in an offer contingent on my having a job. They were not. I secured my great job a few days later.

Since we had now been looking at houses in earnest for 7 months and were living in a short-term rental. We made a clean offer. They countered.

They are trying to buy a short-sale and have decided if it doesn't go through, they are not selling. We told them we definitely wanted to buy a house and to call us if the short-sale was going through.

They called us a week later saying it looked like it would be done in the next day or two. We scrambled to issue a new offer. The countered the same a few days later, but rescinded it almost as soon as they submitted it. They stopped returning phone calls.

We've since learned they accepted another offer.

The Third

It's 1974 and it's awesome. 3.2 acres just outside of town. Barn, shop and pasture. Great house in great condition. We are under contract. The inspection was completed last week. We close in five weeks.

I'll write more about this house as we move through the process of purchasing it.

Lessons Learned

• Horses Allowed does not equal Alpacas Allowed
• Most Real Estate Agents identify every place as residential. Even if it's 40 acres way out in the country and actually zoned open.
• It's very easy to call the county and find out what the zoning is by address.
• Zoning that allows alpaca are Agriculture, Farming and Open.
• Alpacas are usually considered livestock and rarely identified separately when considering zoning.
• Each county has different zoning laws for the same zoning rating.
• Three adjacent counties allow for 20, 50 and 4 alpacas per acre if zoned Agriculture.
• Yes, I meant 50 and 4.
• A single story house usually has a bunch of stairs to the front door and a basement.

Questions

• I don't understand why selling agents don't check the easy data.
• I don't understand how stairs and a basement qualify as single level.

Our search would have been easier if could have reliably searched on zoning and number of stories.