A Study of Walsenburg Colorado

June 9, 2015June 9, 2015 / Laura Lee Carter / 6 Comments

I’m in a holding pattern right now, waiting to see if Mike will need neck surgery. He is still in terrible pain 24/7. The house we are having built is moving along now, with new charcoal gray tile being installed throughout to absorb the sun’s heat in the winter.

I am waiting, waiting to see how things turn out.

In the meantime I have been taking my morning walks around Walsenburg, thinking about its history and the families who have lived here forever. After one year of living in this small town 50 miles north of the New Mexico border, I have a much better sense of who lives here.

The City of Walsenburg traces its history back about 150 years when it was first established as La Plaza de los Leones, named after the Leon family on the north side of the Cuchara River. In 1870, Fred Walsen settled nearby and opened up a large mercantile, making the town a place that attracted German settlers.

After Walsen assisted in the incorporation of the town, he was honored by formally naming the new town “Walsenburg”. In 1876, Walsen opened the area’s first coal mine, and coal was king here for nearly a century.

Called the “city built on coal,” an estimated 500 million tons of coal were mined here, bringing the total county population to its peak of over 17,000 in the 1930s. But as our country began to switch to other forms of energy, Walsenburg’s population fell precipitously to the present number of around 3,000 people.

Many of the families here have a long history of calling this place home. Many of the homes here were built in the the early 1900s. The rental we presently live in is well over 100 years old, the oldest abode I have ever lived in.

On my walks I see a town that has certainly seen better days, but there is still much pride in ownership here. This town and county needs more gainful employment, and I hope that will be arriving soon!

Are You Willing to Fight For Your Dreams?

May 13, 2015March 3, 2018 / Laura Lee Carter / 3 Comments

One of the most important lessons I have learned from my midlife struggles, is the need to be willing to fight for my dreams. This journey began for me back in 2004, when I lost my job and then spent months in introspection.

I focused on this question: What do I need to happen before I die?

I concluded that for myself I needed to find ways to believe in love again. I so wanted to find one genuine love in this lifetime. This book is a summary of what I learned in this process. I fought through a lifetime of tragedy and disappointment to change my perspective and find new faith in the power of love. Then I found a great new partner within a few months.

With Mike I found true partnership where we are able to work successfully together towards shared goals. One of his lifetime goals was to build his own solar custom home with an incredible view. This is the goal we have been working on for over a year now.

So many obstacles have arisen in this process. Leaving behind our life of 20+ years in Fort Collins was our first challenge. I wrote about that extensively in my memoir of this entire experience. Suffice to say this kind of change is never easy.

We moved into a 100-year-old little house in Walsenburg and put much into storage last June. It took five months just to get a proper slab completed in this rural Colorado county.

We noticed every step of the construction process was costing much more than we had budgeted. We found that our contractor was not taking bids for work, but simply using his regular sub-contractors. At that point Mike decided to take over the contracting part of the process. He took bids from both local and Pueblo companies and cut over 30% off the cost of the electrical and stucco work. Our builder was not happy.

This week, after almost a year of struggle, we were finally ready to complete the inside of our home. We have collected everything we need to complete the kitchen, baths, trim, etc. The response from our builder? I may be able to get to that in a few weeks. I went ballistic! In response he hung up on me.

Luckily Mike apologized profusely, and so we’re back on track again. It will all get done, and we will move in sometime in July, more than a year after we moved here.

I tell you this NOT to discourage you from pursuing your own unique goals, but to warn you that pursuing dreams can get ugly sometimes.

You must be willing to fight for your dreams…

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!

Remember: WHATEVER YOU’RE NOT CHANGING, YOU’RE CHOOSING.

Figuring out where you belong

October 28, 2014March 3, 2017 / Laura Lee Carter / 5 Comments

Just took a quick trip out to our building site west of town… Every time I do, I feel even more certain that this is the place in this big, wonderful world that I belong!

I know we all have our own opinions of the most beautiful places in the world. Some can’t live without the ocean, others love the plains, but I am perfectly sure that this semi-arid piece of land close to the high mountains suits me just fine.

It’s hard to say what it is that makes me so certain. The absolute silence is very important to me, especially after listening to the relentless traffic noise in Fort Collins for nine years. The natural beauty and wide variety of birds, plants and wildlife also help… This is simply my place.

This setting makes me feel like I never want to leave. I feel gratitude that we can finally live our dream in our very own place in the sun… solar-powered, of course!

I’m a newcomer to rural southern Colorado. After two years I decided to compile a short journal about the ups and downs of moving from a good-sized city to rural America to build a passive solar retirement home in the foothills:

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

Please share this information with your friends if they are considering similar life changes. Feel free to contact me directly to discuss any of these challenges, and to order your own signed copies of any of my books! Cheers, Laura Lee (email me: MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com)

Our solar home is FINALLY taking shape!

October 14, 2014December 27, 2022 / Laura Lee Carter / 4 Comments

For those who are new here, my husband Mike and I sold our perfectly good suburban home in Fort Collins Colorado four months ago, to move 225 miles south and build the home we have always dreamed of.

When I first met Mike at age 49 in early 2005, we fell in love quite quickly. He told me then that he wasn’t moving again unless he got a great view, and could design and build a passive solar home outside the city. Nine years later that dream is coming true!

This is the view from our foothills land three hours south of Denver, a fantastic view of Spanish Peaks! A few weeks ago we got the trenching done, and watched them put in the footers… We are ecstatic!

This process has been painfully slow! But we know it will all be worth it in the end. The silence, the views, and the many different birds and wildlife up there, this looks like the perfect place for us… and check out our future commute home!

Adventures of the NEW??? Old Farts

Beauty is the garden where hope grows

choosing rural

A Study of Walsenburg Colorado

I’m in a holding pattern right now, waiting to see if Mike will need neck surgery. He is still in terrible pain 24/7. The house we are having built is moving along now, with new charcoal gray tile being installed throughout to absorb the sun’s heat in the winter.

I am waiting, waiting to see how things turn out.

In the meantime I have been taking my morning walks around Walsenburg, thinking about its history and the families who have lived here forever. After one year of living in this small town 50 miles north of the New Mexico border, I have a much better sense of who lives here.

After Walsen assisted in the incorporation of the town, he was honored by formally naming the new town “Walsenburg”. In 1876, Walsen opened the area’s first coal mine, and coal was king here for nearly a century.

Many of the families here have a long history of calling this place home. Many of the homes here were built in the the early 1900s. The rental we presently live in is well over 100 years old, the oldest abode I have ever lived in.

On my walks I see a town that has certainly seen better days, but there is still much pride in ownership here. This town and county needs more gainful employment, and I hope that will be arriving soon!

Are You Willing to Fight For Your Dreams?

One of the most important lessons I have learned from my midlife struggles, is the need to be willing to fight for my dreams. This journey began for me back in 2004, when I lost my job and then spent months in introspection.

I focused on this question: What do I need to happen before I die?

With Mike I found true partnership where we are able to work successfully together towards shared goals. One of his lifetime goals was to build his own solar custom home with an incredible view. This is the goal we have been working on for over a year now.

So many obstacles have arisen in this process. Leaving behind our life of 20+ years in Fort Collins was our first challenge. I wrote about that extensively in my memoir of this entire experience. Suffice to say this kind of change is never easy.

We moved into a 100-year-old little house in Walsenburg and put much into storage last June. It took five months just to get a proper slab completed in this rural Colorado county.

Luckily Mike apologized profusely, and so we’re back on track again. It will all get done, and we will move in sometime in July, more than a year after we moved here.

I tell you this NOT to discourage you from pursuing your own unique goals, but to warn you that pursuing dreams can get ugly sometimes.

You must be willing to fight for your dreams…

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!

Remember: WHATEVER YOU’RE NOT CHANGING, YOU’RE CHOOSING.

Figuring out where you belong

Just took a quick trip out to our building site west of town… Every time I do, I feel even more certain that this is the place in this big, wonderful world that I belong!

I know we all have our own opinions of the most beautiful places in the world. Some can’t live without the ocean, others love the plains, but I am perfectly sure that this semi-arid piece of land close to the high mountains suits me just fine.

It’s hard to say what it is that makes me so certain. The absolute silence is very important to me, especially after listening to the relentless traffic noise in Fort Collins for nine years. The natural beauty and wide variety of birds, plants and wildlife also help… This is simply my place.

This setting makes me feel like I never want to leave. I feel gratitude that we can finally live our dream in our very own place in the sun… solar-powered, of course!

I’m a newcomer to rural southern Colorado. After two years I decided to compile a short journal about the ups and downs of moving from a good-sized city to rural America to build a passive solar retirement home in the foothills:

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

Please share this information with your friends if they are considering similar life changes. Feel free to contact me directly to discuss any of these challenges, and to order your own signed copies of any of my books! Cheers, Laura Lee (email me: MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com)

Our solar home is FINALLY taking shape!

For those who are new here, my husband Mike and I sold our perfectly good suburban home in Fort Collins Colorado four months ago, to move 225 miles south and build the home we have always dreamed of.

When I first met Mike at age 49 in early 2005, we fell in love quite quickly. He told me then that he wasn’t moving again unless he got a great view, and could design and build a passive solar home outside the city. Nine years later that dream is coming true!

This is the view from our foothills land three hours south of Denver, a fantastic view of Spanish Peaks! A few weeks ago we got the trenching done, and watched them put in the footers… We are ecstatic!

This process has been painfully slow! But we know it will all be worth it in the end. The silence, the views, and the many different birds and wildlife up there, this looks like the perfect place for us… and check out our future commute home!