October in Southern Colorado

IMGP4241

This morning we woke up to heavy fog and 44 degrees outside.
IMGP4246

But, per usual, the fog burned off to reveal a great view of the Spanish Peaks and the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.

IMGP4206Up high the leaves are changing quickly and falling down, but at 7,000 feet it is still cool and beautiful.

IMGP4257In the small town of La Veta, the first Saturday in October is reserved for Octoberfest! The whole town shuts down with Main Street closed to cars, so vendors from everywhere can sell their wares…

IMGP4258   ….to the tune of a German band, the smell of freshly roasted bratwurst…

IMGP4251….and a darn good antique car show!

What’s not to like about that?

IMGP4237Looking forward to another amazing light show tonight, like the sunset we had here a few nights ago.

To learn more about how we ended up here, living in a solar home in the Colorado outback, check out: A Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar in Southern Colorado…                     Also, please follow me on Twitter!

Life among the birds, the bees and the bunnies!

IMGP4096

Can you spy the camouflaged bunny in the photo above?

IMGP4148Oh! There he is!

Since my last (AND FINAL!) concussion this past Tuesday, I have had the time and proper disposition to sit and look out of our south-facing doors and windows quite a bit. In this process I have observed many small bunnies crawl up through our sunflower bushes and peek in. Then they run back down the hill as fast as they can!

IMGP4114For unknown reasons, the disturbed ground around our new home has harvested hundreds of sunflower bushes, some over six feet tall! This ground cover attracts an assortment of insects and birds, especially some tiny yellow birds. The sunflowers are the perfect cover for small bugs, birds, etc.

IMGP4136Then this morning we had a new visitor, a Road Runner…up-close-and-personal! They are bigger than I thought, and quite blue when seen up close. Mike says this one seems to be following him around. I guess that explains why they are in the cuckoo family…

IMGP4115

I am filled with gratitude that I can now live like this forever.  Please go learn more about our move from Fort Collins to here in my new memoir and follow us on TWITTER! 

Photo credits to Mike for these great close-ups!

Oh no! Not again…

Unfortunately, I have history with brain injuries. Then yesterday, while trying to hang a picture, I fell backwards off a short stool, onto our stone floor and yep, a whole new concussion.

So it was off to the ER, because my head was bleeding badly. You know what they say about scalp wounds? Well they really do bleed a lot! But an attractive, young MD and a few staples in my scalp did the trick.

Yep, another case of feeling stupid, ever since I did a face plant off my bike in 2008 and sustained a TBI, fractured ribs, etc.

I’ve been very careful… really! I don’t know how this happened. Well, actually I do. I remember the accident this time, especially the cracking sound as my head hit the floor!

My advice, always use those short ladders with a handle up top, and don’t move anywhere that is so rural that you don’t have a good ER nearby, for those messy situations we can get ourselves into at any age!

BTW, my cute MD who looked a tad bit like the young George Clooney in the TV series ER agrees with me. 🙂

I discover one wish I have for retirement

The signature of all thingsA few years ago I read a marvelous book: “The Signature of All Things” by Elizabeth Gilbert. I was so impressed with it, I wrote about it on my former blog. One image in this book struck me.

The main character Alma’s father was an international trader and ship’s captain. He enjoyed inviting interesting people from around the world to share his dining room table in Philadelphia.

I loved the idea of this. I see the same in our new home in the foothills of southern Colorado. Granted, rural Colorado is not the same as Philadelphia, but I enjoy meeting others and learning about their lives.

I don’t really know how to make this happen, besides inviting my friends from elsewhere. If you know a good way to make this happen, please let me know.

Click on photos for full-size views, and follow us on TWITTER!

When did you first begin thinking about retirement?

IMGP4000Mike and I had an interesting conversation yesterday about retirement. I was talking about how strange, but wonderful it is living here in the southern Colorado foothills, when I said, “This was really your dream, but I love it!” So he turned to me and asked, “What was your dream?” I was totally stumped.

When I met Mike over ten years ago, I was unemployed after an unfair firing at age 49. I was actively worrying about my next house payment. I don’t recall ever thinking about retirement! In fact, I had only thought so far as to put away as much money as I possibly could. That was about it.

IMGP4056So I asked him when he started thinking about it. He said he began dreaming about it in childhood. That was when he first imagined having a tremendous view in a rural mountainous area. The man has always had so much more vision than myself.

I’m not completely sure why, but I have always had trouble fantasizing something better, and in this way I now see how I have severely limited my options.

Why bring this up? Because I now think it is so important to teach your kids to continue to visualize a better life. If you can’t visualize it, you probably won’t be able to create it. These are the words I live by now:

Abundance is how we live in each moment – the choice to be open, the choice to entertain the possibility that we can have, create and attract what we truly want.