A visit to the old Libre Community in Huerfano County, Colorado

May 8, 2015December 31, 2018 / Laura Lee Carter / 5 Comments

When asked about the best thing that happened to me this past week, I could only answer my introduction into a whole new world in the northern part of my new county.

Since moving to Huerfano County in southern Colorado last June, I have heard various references to the Libre Community, established here in the late 1960s as an alternative to traditional American life. Some call it a hippie commune, but Libre is a community of families or individuals who have been invited to build their own homes. These structures as well as the land they are built can never be sold. Which is why Libre has endured since 1968 while the communes of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado are long gone. New members were required to build their own homes and then homes were traded between members as needed.

Luckily I connected with one of the elder members of this community at a local function. Sibylla invited Mike and me up to see and learn more about the history of Libre. So last Saturday we took a drive up to see these rural dome homes built in the shadow of the Wet Mountains.

Sibylla now lives in what she calls her “hobbit house” which I found quite an apt description. Most of these dome homes started small and were added on to through the years. Sybylla is a transplant from Germany. She and her husband moved to Libre in the early 1970s and built a larger home for their family. Now she lives alone and so she has moved to the hobbit house.

We enjoyed her hospitality, wonderful stories and a cup of tea on her back patio while looking at tremendous views of the distant mountains. She referred to her bird feeder as her television as they have no TV or Internet up there, and the phone gets hit by lightening sometimes! Sibylla is an artist like many who came to Libre.

After a few hours of fascinating conversation, Sibylla took us next door to meet her partner Dean Fleming, a founding member of the Libre Community. Dean lives in a larger dome house which he uses as his art studio. The views of the Wet Mountains were amazing from here.

What a fascinating afternoon full of warm friendship, interesting elders, and local history…

We’re newcomers to rural southern Colorado, so after a few years I decided to compile a diary about my life after moving here from Fort Collins. We chose the foothills west of Walsenburg to build a passive solar home. Please share this blog with your friends if they are considering similar life changes. Contact me directly to discuss any of these challenges, and to order your own signed copies of any of my books. Email me at: MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com

A Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar in Southern Colorado

Paradise is Personal

May 4, 2015October 18, 2018 / Laura Lee Carter / Leave a comment

“Paradise is where I want to wake up every morning… where I can be the way I want to be.” — Huerfano: A Memoir of Life in the Counterculture

When we were certain we would not be able to work full-time again, Mike and I began considering our options back in 2013. Where would we find our own inexpensive paradise?

After a quick trip down to Cuenca Ecuador in September, we decided to take a closer look at southern Colorado. Mike had an idea that the Huerfano west of Walsenburg might be a good place to begin our search, so we came down here and camped at Lathrop State Park. As luck would have it, we drove right into our first Octoberfest that fall!

Between the fantastic mountains views, the friendly people, the mild climate, the dark skies at night, and the completely reasonable land prices, we decided to research Navajo Ranch further, and the more we learned, the more we liked this area. It had its own water district, electric and phone service already present, and lots priced between $10,000 and 15,000. We returned in December to look at specific lots.

We found it difficult to distinguish one lot from another and hard to tell which lots were for sale. But as luck would have it, the only one we got out to look at more closely was the one we ended up buying in January 2015!

Then all we had to do was go back to Fort Collins, sell our home, and say goodbye to our life of 20+ years up there, a task that turned out to be far more difficult than expected.

**To read the whole story behind our great leap of faith, check out my Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar and please follow us on TWITTER!**

Drywall, Thunderstorms and Libre…

May 2, 2015December 28, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 3 Comments

We experienced the most intense thunder storm yesterday in the foothills west of Walsenburg in southern Colorado. A half inch of rain in an hour and the lightening was amazing! We have lots of great progress up at our custom home. Who knew drywall could take a few weeks?

We found an excellent local man, Ron Pino, to do our drywall. He started out working with his Dad when he was only six! He works alone and is doing an incredible job for a very reasonable price. He’ll start texturing the walls today and then we can begin painting the interior.

Not the most exciting part, but it all has to get done!

We have been collecting all the parts we will need to complete the interior of the house. You try to sit down and think of EVERYTHING you need to finish a house inside. It’s tough! Luckily Mike is extremely detail oriented… thank goodness!

In the meantime we met a woman who is one of the original members of the Libre Commune north of here. Libre was established in the early 1970s as an artist community, with lots of unusual dome homes. There are still some members in the area. If you have any interest in this topic, check out the book Huerfano: A Memoir of Life in the Counterculture.

We are invited to go visit some of the original homes up there! How cool is that?

Yes, we are keeping busy meeting new people everyday, and enjoying a different view of life on the long and winding road into rural America…

Love has created a sacred space for us

April 19, 2015September 30, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / Leave a comment

Yesterday was a wonder! It started out so badly, with terrible dreams the night before of horror and torture, but I went back to sleep and woke up refreshed.

Since there would be no workmen up at our new home in the foothills, Mike and I took a bottle of champagne and a picnic lunch up to just enjoy the results of so much expense and stress over the past ten months.

When I finally had a chance to relax completely in the midst of the drywall pieces and dust, it hit me:

We are actually going to be living up here very soon! I am going to wake up everyday to look out on this amazing view, enjoying each change in the clouds and weather!

It started to snow a bit as we left. I have learned through a number of backpacking trips how quickly the weather can change at high altitudes. And sure enough we went from this lovely, snow-capped scene to a mini-snow storm in just a few minutes!

To give full credit where credit is due, Mike was the one with the vision and faith to pull off this amazing retirement coup. He noticed the Spanish Peaks along Highway 160 back in 2005 when we took our first road trip together to Durango. He remembers thinking even back then how nice it would be to live somewhere down here eventually.

The man has so much vision and faith in his own abilities to manifest his dream! If it had been left up to me, I would probably still be looking at the neighbor’s house across the street in Fort Collins.

Proving once again:

Up next: Insulation and Drywall

April 15, 2015April 15, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / Leave a comment

Things are looking rather chaotic up at construction central this week. We finished the spray insulation on Monday. Think of it as dried up marshmallows pumped into your exterior walls…

Now we’re working on the drywall installation, ceiling first. And yes, it is quite tough holding up those boards to secure them. Can’t wait until the drywall is up, taped and textured!

Then we can begin the fun part, finishing the kitchen and baths with cabinets and tiling!

We picked some nice charcoal-colored tile for the main floors. It should absorb the solar heat beautifully in the winter, and then our insulated 6 inch slab should hold the heat a long time.

As you can see, home construction is NOT for the faint of heart! Who knew there were so many steps and stages to this complex process? Certainly not me!

Health obstacles and home PROGRESS!

April 10, 2015April 14, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 3 Comments

In spite of two sets of back problems and two cases of bronchitis, Mike and I are still up to the task of completing this house! Mike is nebulizing here, with Rasta’s help…

Yesterday was my 60th birthday and yes, I know I look older than when we got married in 2005. Suffice to say I no longer believe that 60 is the new 40! We celebrated my birthday by clearing the land below our new home to mitigate fire danger.

Here are the men clearing the land down below. So sorry to see a few beautiful trees disappear… Mike even killed a pack rat as it ran out of one of the big old dead ones!

But we must have our views after going to so much trouble to get them!