The Slow Motion Retirement Plan

[dhagood]

i don't really mean to dribble pictures into this thread, it just seems to be happening this way. anyway, i found some aerial shots that might prove interesting. the first is an overview of the general area with our lot roughly marked in. these pictures were taken on december 28th of last year.



and a couple of other views giving a slightly different perspective.

 

[mojoinco]

The photos (and the weather this past week) are helpful for siting a house. You can look for drainage, drifts, and the dominant wind patterns (likely mostly North/South). The wind can really blow, and blow, and... out there. Nice to have trees. I believe that is the fringe of the Black Forest (from Monument/Colorado Springs). When you are driving around with the drifting you can see the terracing that was done post-Dust Bowl era. Amazing how much work was done then.

There are coal seams at ground level in the area. Go to the Colorado Oil & Gas Commission interactive map. Lots of info here, but it takes some surfing time. You can find a lot here. The coal in eastern Colorado is too low grade to mine and sell. I know a rancher (ok, did -- now passed) that told a story of his uncle in the late 40's being killed while they watched from blowing up a seam on the family ranch (like any interesting event, all the kids were watching -- him being a kid then). Lots of interesting info & history in the area. Stop off in Simla some time and talk to the Dad at the meat locker. He has interesting stories he has learned (they are from Denmark I think). A lot of the land was settled by Russian/Slavs. Last to the party I imagine.

 

[dhagood]

during this cold and snowy spring, i started to level a pad for the tent we will use to spend some time on our property before we start constructing living quarters.

in addition, this weekend i will hopefully install a vehicle gate into the property. currently the only way in is by crawling underneath the fence, which is getting a bit old.

i believe this little flower is a columbine, which happens to be the colorado state flower.

 

[dhagood]

it's interesting how often doing work on a piece of property begins with somebody digging a hole.

i'm using the old school post hole digger (you rotate to dig) as i really, really hate the more common "plunging" style of post hole digger. i went down a little over 36 inches. here is the completed post:

other than a temporary tent pad, this is the first tangible thing we've done, and it's the first "permanent" improvement we've made. i'm finally starting the vehicle gate into the property.

in other news, it has been a very late spring in the eastern plains of colorado. we finally have some color:

and we have a yellow flower i don't recall ever seeing before. the one of the left is your common dandelion, and i have no idea what the flower on the right might be. any ideas?

 

[GLyford]

Is it a type of Queen Anne's Lace, maybe? Nice place.

 

[vtsnowedin]

The one on the left doesn't look like the thousands of dandelions I've mowed off this week. So it must be a "Uncommon Dandelion".

 

[dhagood]

i had to make a quick run up to montana to see what was going on with a house my wife and i have been trying to sell. we got a very low offer, and the writeup accompanying the offer was really disturbing. i hotfooted up there to find that while the house was rather more shabby than i had expected (we've been renting it for several years) it wasn't in terrible shape. somebody was just trying to see if a lowball offer would succeed. my wife and i decided to pull the house off the market and spruce it up a bit, but another offer came in that was pretty reasonable. so, the house is now under contract. not having that mortgage payment will help quite a bit.

so, being back in town, i went out to the property and started working on our vehicle gate. i got the gate holding post for one of the h braces set this afternoon, and was pretty happy with how i got it set. then i went to set the horizontal member, and...

i'm going to have to dig one of the posts out and reset it. i hate myself :ashamed:

 

[dhagood]

well, ok, i don't really hate myself. i don't know exactly what the issue is, but i really struggle with accurately measuring things. i cut can to measure relatively well, but i can't measure to cut for beans. anyway, i finally got around to digging on my errant post.

and got it moved to where it should have been in the first place

a long journey can be completed with a bunch of little steps. here is a very small step, but i'm that much ahead.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Wow seven bottles of water for one post hole? Must have been a hyot day.

 

[MacLawn]

I was think the same about all the water bottles! And that's in dry Colorado! Dh, I was in Colorado Springs one time, beautiful country there! Can you grow a garden there? Soil looks kind of rough. We stayed at that catholic camp near garden of the gods, and man, that place is alive with mule deer! Them rascals need killin!! And eaten.

I'm nearing retirement meself, actually, could retire anytime, but, my self employed work is so little and stress free nowadays, I'm going to hang on a couple more years to maximize SS, and pay off remodeling on our house, which has been paid off for many years now. Adding an office for wife, expanding living room and bedroom. Bedroom was so small you couldn't cuss a cat without getting hair in your mouth. Ok, enough of my mess. I love your place! Keep us posted on how it goes!