What a Year it's Been

Yesterday (June 25th) was our Colorado anniversary.  One year ago, we sold our house in Albuquerque and moved to Colorado.  A lot has happened since then...

• We moved everything we own in a U-Haul truck and put it in a storage unit off the freeway somewhere in Northern Colorado.
• We stayed in a scantly furnished, small, rented house in Greeley while we searched for our new home and farm.
• We "enjoyed" the wonderful "aroma" that Greeley is known for.
• We found, purchased and moved into our new-old home and farm.
• We've learned about feed and tractor supply stores.
• I bought hay.
• We un-finished some of our basement, repaired the sewer line in the front yard and sacrificed an apple tree in the process.
• We built corrals and loafing sheds.
• We built ramps.
• We moved our alpacas to our new farm.
• We've learned about caring for a lawn.
• I've sheared 28 alpacas, 17 of which belong to people other than me.
• I've improved my knitting skills tremendously.
• I've changed day jobs.
• I've travelled to MSP 27 times.
• We've taken three long weekends.
• We put one alpaca down for behavioral issues and one due to age.
• We put a dog down due to age.
• We lost our kitty to the food chain.
• Hubba buried a rabbit the dog finally caught.
• We bought a truck, ATV, lawn mower, freezer and washer/dryer.
• We used a laundromat for four months.
• We expelled bats from the space between our ceiling and roof.
• We saw owls and a bald eagle
• Hubba saw elk for the first time ever.
• We went skeet shooting.
• Hubba raced in 7 marathons, 2 half-marathons, 1 10k and 1 2k.
• We've made new friends and reconnected with old ones.
• We shoveled snow.
• We registered to vote
• I've made blogging a regular activity.
• We've had dinner with my parents just because we're close by.
• We went to Wyoming for lunch.
• We disassembled a deck and hot tub.
• We took a walks along a lake and a river.
• I entered a smackdown with a rabbit.
• We had an Alpaca Naming Contest.
• We Halter Trained alpacas.
• We repaired a fence.
• We pulled off a major surprise for my sister.
• We found out my other sister is expecting a baby.
• Two cria were born and we re-bred two dams.

We've got a ways to go for Alpacamundo to be self-sustaining and to be fully living our simple life.  But sometimes I think it's good to stop and think about all that has been accomplished and experienced.

Here's to an even more exciting and productive year ahead.

Happy New Year - 2010

Today, is New Year's Day.

Today, we begin the first day of the new year with a new task... feeding our alpacas and mucking the corrals.

Today, is the first day we can say, "We are Full-Time Alpaca Ranchers."

Today, is the first day the Ray Family and Alpacamundo are in one place.

Today, if I want to visit my alpacas I can walk across the back yard.

Today, Project Relocation is complete.

Today, a new year and a new life begins.

Happy New Year!

The Alpacas are Coming - part 2

With the alpacas on their way today, I've been reflecting on the last couple of years...

We bought our first alpaca in September 2007.  His name is Charlie Brown and I was in love.  He was 2 weeks old and oh so cute.  I had intended to name all of our cria after other Peanuts characters because I have loved them since I can remember. 

Of course, two years and five cria later, not a single one has been named after anyone in the Peanuts gang.

We named our first Augustus.  He was a strapping boy, screaming white and born in August 2008.

Then came Daisy, named for my mom's favorite flower.

Frieda was our first 2009 cria.  My husband named her after a favorite artist of his sister.

Eduardo was born during Senator Ted Kennedy's funeral.

Our most recent cria is Captain Jack who's name was chosen as the winning entry in our Name the Alpaca contest.

We have two cria due in 2010.  One maiden will be coming of age in the spring.  We also have an older dam who we are slowing down to be bred or nursing, but not both.

Our herd is now a baker's dozen at 13 alpacas.  They will be here in a couple of hours.  We are ready to receive them. 

Loafing Sheds and Corrals are Complete

Finally, we are ready to receive the alpacas.  All that remains is paint, which may not happen prior to the alpacas arrival next week.

Corrals and Sheds for the Big Boys and Little Boys.

Corral and Loafing Shed for the Moms and Crias.

The Alpacas are Coming

The health certificates and transport are scheduled.  The loafing sheds and fencing are nearly complete.

We have been dreaming and working toward this day for more than 2 years.

The alpacas are coming home the week after Christmas.

Some of our girls at their current home: Blue Mesa Alpacas, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Loafing Sheds - In Progress

Last week we finally started work on our loafing sheds and corrals.  This week, the sheds are nearly framed out.

For the moms and crias.

Two seperate corrals and sheds for the big boys and little boys.

Since one of our herd sires can be aggressive when there are open females around, we decided to seperate the boys and girls with the hay barn.

The girl's corral is also closest to the house so we can keep an eye on any near term mothers when the time is right.  Though, our next cria aren't due in September 2010.

Broken Ground

We have (finally) started work on our alpaca loafing sheds and corrals.

Before we started.

   

Our neighbor has a bobcat with an auger.

22 holes in one hour.

Setting the posts.

Installing gates.

Two gates and all posts set by afternoon.

The framing of the loafing sheds will begin this week.

October Blizzard 2009

Today, we've been in our house one Month.

It's been an exciting month with the flu, a broken sewer line, international travel and a blizzard. The good news is we are healthy, the plumbing is working and the sun is shining.

The day before the blizzard started our plumber removed the rest of the culprit apple tree and trimmed the sewer clean-out.

The two-day snow storm yielded close to 14 inches. Hubba was concerned that he would be stuck in the house most of the winter, but the sun has come out and most of the snow has melted.

Next up is to (finally) start building our corrals and loafing sheds so we can move the alpaca herd up from New Mexico.

Adventures in Sewer

Last Friday hubba and I were both home and finally feeling well so we started some serious unpacking. It was that afternoon that I took some items to the store-room in the basement and noticed a strong "musty" odor. I told my husband about it and headed to town to address my growing list of required supplies.

He called a little while later to inform me it was not a "musty" odor but that there had been a flood and there was "black stuff everywhere."

Long story short: the flood came from the shower drain and had occurred sometime within the previous 10 days. We spent our romantic Friday evening at home removing carpet and scouring the bathroom. Thankfully there is a 24-hour super store close by so we did not have to dig a latrine in the middle of the night.

Our neighbor, the plumber, lent us his wet-dry vac for the night and came over Saturday morning to help us solve our problem.

After a while of looking for the sewer clean-out outside and rooting through a couple of the drains in the basement he called a buddy who came out to feed a camera through our lines. They discovered a broken fitting that was full of tree roots. Now this part is magic to me. They decided the fitting was close to the apple tree in the front yard and that's where they would dig. Here's the magic part... that's exactly where the problem was.

This missing clean-out was under the apple tree... about a foot under-ground. The tree had grown (or was planted) so close to the clean-out that it pushed it down enough to break the sewer line at the fitting. With the broken sewer line, the tree was able to find the moisture and roots into the pipe.

We had our washer and dryer delivered a little over a week before we discovered the back-up. So we think the flood happened then because I did about 10 loads of laundry in quick succession.

We called a professional cleaning service to remediate the damage in the basement. They came out on Saturday to assess and offered us a couple of scenarios. We opted for the do-it-during-regular-business-hours option. There was mold and it's impossible to know how big the problem is until you start opening walls. They sealed off the area and took samples for asbestos testing.

The tests came back negative and the destruction began on Wednesday afternoon. They removed 1-2 feet of dry wall across the entire flood zone. The mold was quite extensive in some areas and the steel wall studs are rusted in the same areas. This indicates there has also been a long-term leak from the shower.

In addition to the drywall, the crew removed and hauled away the bathroom door, jam, vanity, toilet, shower door, tile, carpet and padding.

All that remains is to finish removing the apple tree, trim the clean-out a little closer to the ground and add clean-outs to the basement bathroom.

Hubba and I have decided to leave the basement as it is until we have completed the remodel we have planned for the main floor. It would be a shame to repair the basement then have to open it up again to correct anything else we might run into.

If you're in Northern Colorado I highly recommend Advance Plumbing Services of Loveland and SERVPRO of Fort Collins. Both companies were incredibly professional, helpful and down-right nice to work with.

The Hay is Here.

-- Post From My iPhone

Progress

My friend Roci gently reminded me today that we've been in our house more than two weeks, therefore it's time to update my brain.

Both hubba and I have had the flu or something like it for the last couple of weeks, so the moving in has gone slowly.

The washer and dryer have been delivered and are working. They have space-age dashboards and ding like Mr. Rodger's Trolley. At first I thought it was kind of silly and could not help but smile, but now we've had it several days and the dinging is not nearly as cute.

I've learned it's possible to overload the washer. It will continue try to spin the water-logged load without giving an error message. It's not as quiet as the salesman said, but it's not loud either.

Two of three ramps are built.

The second needs to be screwed down and have the railing installed. The weather has delayed the completion of the second and third ramps, but it's very nice to have two in place and usable. Once the second is complete, we will paint the first two. The third will be outdoors, and mirror the existing deck.

We've found our winter clothes but still have much to unpack.

We Bought a House

We bought a house last week!

My husband and I have been working to move to Colorado since November 2008. We listed our house in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March, sold it in June and finally closed on our farm last week.

We are slowly unpacking. Most of our things have been in storage since February. So it's like Christmas in almost every box.

Our new place is significantly larger than our old place. So a few rooms will be vacant for quite some time. The good news though, is that the guest room and the office will now be different rooms. In fact, there is room for each of us to have an office. My loom room is in the basement and hubba's gym/man cave is off the garage.

We will build three corrals and put up loafing sheds in this pasture before we move the alpacas up from New Mexico.

It is simply wonderful to be able to drink my morning coffee and look out beyond the back yard to this pasture and know that a dozen alpacas will be living there shortly.

Project Relocation: Update

We're down to 12 days before closing on our new place.

Everything is ready to go, we're just waiting for closing day.

Actually, that's not quite true. Everything is ready to go with respect to closing on the house. I still have a list of things to do before we can call this project complete.

1. Put utilities in our name
2. Reserve moving truck
3. Finalize corral layout for alpacas
4. Schedule fence installer
5. Schedule heath certificates for herd
6. Schedule alpaca transporter
7. Order hay and feed for winter

I know there are many details that need to be addressed before we will feel settled but once the herd is on our property, Project Relocation will be complete.

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.