After the fog clears in southern Colorado!

December 1, 2015January 4, 2016 / Laura Lee Carter / 4 Comments

“The sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses. Won’t you stay, we’ll put on a day, and we’ll talk in present tenses…” — Joni Mitchell

Yes, I know I’ve been talking about snow and fog quite a lot here, but the best part is after the storm lifts. The views are incredible from every room in our house!

This was the view from my bed this morning when I opened my eyes. Not a bad scene to wake up to, eh?

And the full view looked like this!

Even better than that is the wonderful sun pouring in to warm our home into the 70s within an hour or two. Natural solar heating is the best, and you can’t beat the price!

I have become the total sun worshipper living here. Where would we all be without it? I love to lay on my bed and simply soak it all in!

Living in this place is a great help to focus my mind on the present moment. To hell with all that stuff from the past or worries about my unknowable future. I challenge myself moment to moment to be present with where I am right now. What a blessing that can be!

Snowed in for days and loving it!

November 29, 2015November 30, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 3 Comments

“There is only one success, to spend your life in your own way.” — Christopher Morley

This is our first glimpse of the sun in a few days…

Since our foot of snow on Thanksgiving night, we have been entertaining ourselves quite well. In fact we have been totally fogged in for a few days.

But how can we be bored with fun photos to take, a good book to read, Netflix and lots of snow to shovel?

Not to mention one of my favorite new pastimes, coloring! I am presently coloring mandalas, which represent a microcosm of the universe.

Did you know Carl Jung used to have his patients color mandalas to help them access their subconscious? It works! When I’m coloring I completely stop worry shopping, and focus on my bright future:
Love what interacting with so many colors is doing for me. It sets my underdeveloped artist free! Everyone go try this! It’s wonderfully relaxing.

We have also been slowly getting out our Christmas decorations. This is exciting because last year everything was packed away.

Yes, we are finally home for good!

Our pets are very slowly getting used to each other, kind of…

Rasta’s still mad about that evil intruder Charlie. We joke about Rasta’s favorite present being the disappearance of said CAT!

The marvelous SUN came out this morning. It is glorious! I am a total sun worshipper! So now we are ready for some quiet holidays, watching our pets growl and chase each other around the Christmas tree…

Did I mention? The views are incredible up here, especially after a great big snow storm! We get a 180 degree view of the Sangres!

And BTW, I will be writing soon about that wonderful new book I’m reading…please stay tuned!

My Life in a Snow Globe!

November 27, 2015October 18, 2016 / Laura Lee Carter / 9 Comments

I’ve only been in a few blizzards, but last night was fantastic! Snow was blowing every which way, circling around the house… When I looked outside I found my precipitation gauge was almost buried in snow!

Here’s what it looked like this morning! Do you see that little bump in the snow out there? That’s it! We got around a foot of snow!

It’s never easy to measure precipitation under these conditions, so I measured all around my gauge and came up with close to a foot.

And the best part? The sun came out this morning to let us know we have not been totally abandoned out here.

This is my idea of a GREAT holiday gift! We’re doing WHITE FRIDAY at our house today, with nothing to do but decorate for the holidays!

Our passions choose us. We do not choose our passions.

How did I end up here, feeling so fortunate?

It’s a long story, one I can now share with you in my new memoir!

Passive Solar Heat & the First SNOW!

November 18, 2015November 20, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 2 Comments

Monday night was exciting up here! We saw first sleet and then snow falling, and it snowed all night.

As some of you may know, I’ve been recording precipitation data for the CoCoRAHS project since 1998, at the seven addresses I have lived at in that time. Yesterday’s reading was particularly difficult because of high winds and drifted snow, although I did record almost an inch of precip!

Let me put it this way, it was difficult getting out of the house on Tuesday morning. Some places there was almost no snow and it was a foot deep elsewhere. We live on a county road so they took care of the road plowing.

And our solar heating has been working great! For example, outside we got down to around 20 degrees last night and inside we were around 60 this morning, but as soon as the sun started coming in, we jumped up to 66 quickly. We do have supplemental electric heat, which we use sparingly, and I also have hot flashes, which help a lot!

The sunset was beautiful here last night, a constant reminder of why we choose to live up here!

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Life in a passive solar home

November 5, 2015September 6, 2016 / Laura Lee Carter / 7 Comments

This post is for those who are curious what it is like to live in a direct gain passive solar home. That included me until a few months ago!

For example, today the sun is out, but we had a high of 46 degrees outside. Inside we are toasty warm in the low 70s with no forms of heat needed.

To build a direct gain solar home you must first properly position it with almost all your windows and sliding doors facing directly south. And the windows and doors must be made of the proper kind of glass.

In addition, your roof needs just the right amount of overhang on the south side to keep the sun overhead and not shining into the house until around September 1st.

You must also start out with the right kind of insulated slab to hold the heat in the floor, instead of it leaking out into the ground. This is essential!

The walls must be well insulated, and then we chose dark gray tile throughout the house to absorb the heat as it enters the house from our south-facing doors and windows. Right now the sun is shining about 10 feet into our home!

You also need ceiling fans if you want to keep the heat down off the ceiling in winter.

At the time of building this house, I understood why we made these specific choices, but only now do I see the great advantages to living in a home that holds its temperature so well.

Yes, our home does cool down at night, but very slowly. The low temperature outside last night was around 20 degrees. With no inside heat on, the outdoors got down to 64 degrees. Then as the sun starts coming in to the house the morning, our home warms up very quickly.

Sometimes before I leave the house I think, “Should I turn down the thermostat?” But we have none…old ways die hard.

Fortunately we were able to find the perfect passive solar perch for our new home, one that faces south and also offers us a 180 degree view of the Spanish Peaks and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.

Now that I understand all of this, I am mystified why everyone doesn’t use the free solar heat of winter! Of course I never would have understood all of this without Mike’s expertise and education.

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Midlife change is so worth it!

November 4, 2015November 18, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 2 Comments

Although Mike and I did consider ending it all before we met in lucky 2005 (see previous post), we both agree joining forces has been the BEST thing that has ever happened to either of us!

Together, through a great love and stubborn persistence, we have assisted each other in attaining our most treasured life goals, goals we would not have attained without each other’s support.

Mine was to become a writer. So far I’ve written three books! Mike’s was to build his own passive solar home with a spectacular view.

Mission Accomplished! And, BTW, the passive solar is keeping us toasty warm this fall! More often than not we have to open a window to cool down our home. So far, so good. We have only needed to use our supplemental heaters on the coldest and cloudest days.

The sunrises up here are GLORIOUS!

And all in all, I would say we are a good example of:

“Don’t give up in midlife when things feel hopeless!”

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. If you can change your mind and change your priorities like I did, there are do-overs before it’s all over! That is the message of my books and blogs.

And, finally, the rat is dead! Mike found it in his car and killed it! He was so happy! We still have our new cat Charlie. He’s not so good with rats, but he’s great at finding bugs, and re-defines playfulness for us!

Rasta and Charlie are still not the best of friends, but we’re getting there…

still coloring mandalas, and LOVING IT! It’s so healing for my poor recovering brain…

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