It's September already!

Greetings from the forest

Can you believe it is September already.  Christmas is just 15 or so weeks away.  Seriously!  The mornings are now crisp and you can almost feel the leaves starting to change color.  Pretty soon we'll be in a sea of orange, yellow and rust colors and I can't wait.  Unpack the sweaters because in Colorado you really do need them.

This morning it is 36 degrees in Trinidad.  The air is clean and clear.  The clouds are low so you can't see across the canyon.  Today's high is to be around 50 but tomorrow will be 80.  Yup, that's Colorado.

Having never really experienced the change of seasons, well I guess summer to winter (for what it was worth) in Phoenix was a change.  Air conditioning off, air conditioning on.  Anyway, I love watching the change from summer to fall and then to winter here in the forest.  The first snow will chase away the bugs (mosquitoes) and I'm looking forward to that!  Soon the holidays will be upon us and I for one am happy that my pal Austin is close enough (what - 15 minutes?) to celebrate with us.  It'll be fun and festive.  But seriously that is another blog isn't it?

Isn't this a pretty little cow?

Ok, moving on from the weather and holidays, life has been great!  I'm about to change doctors and will be going to Rocky Mountain Cancer Center in Pueblo.  An hour and 15 minutes compared to a 10.5 hour drive to Arizona.  It's been a really touch decision to change oncologists but one that had to happen eventually.  So, I'll keep you posted.

Work has been busy.  A couple of closings and a handful of showings which will soon result in closings so no complaints here.  Listing houses and land like crazy.  Must be something in the air.

Made refrigerator pickles.

My sister Linda arrives today.  She called me yesterday to tell me she was coming. LOL.  I'm happy she'll be here for a few days.  I've missed her.

Max is so handsome after his grooming!

Oliver showing off his new hair cut

Traffic on the morning commute

Drove through McDonalds for a soda and saw this!!

No other news from here.  Thanks for letting me share another day in the forest with you.

Love and chilly mornings!
Lanae

Do you feel the momentum change?

Greeting from the forest

That title is something we've been saying in our office the last few weeks.  It's been crazy that for such a super slow beginning of 2014, we all of a sudden are so darned busy.  Life is a whirlwind.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I had no clue how much work being a realtor is!  Showing property in our area is a very time consuming event and you have to know your county roads or you could be lost with your clients.  Yikes.  It is nice, however, to have a little money coming in. Considering the slowness of the first 6 months of this year I say keep this momentum going!!

Old yet new news is that my pal Austin has moved back to Colorado.  He bought a great little old house in town (Trinidad) and it is just perfect!  Turquoise metal kitchen cabinets, red counter tops, soft yellow walls, orange bedroom walls and an incredible claw foot tub - just like Austin - colorful.  He had been staying with me and it was nice to have him as a roomy again.  But alas, it was time for him grace his own casa.  The boys, Oliver and Max, miss him already but I am thrilled to have my friend close again!

I went to Nashville a couple of weeks ago for a hospital trustee conference.  I drove - whose stupid idea was that?!  I did have the opportunity to visit my friend Lori and her husband, Warren, in Oklahoma and had a great time.  They were very kind to put me up for the night and we had a wonderful time staying up late and kibitzing.  Here are a couple of pictures of Lori and Warren's menagerie -

Ozzie the llama

Grandma goat

In other news, someone was eating the garden!  Caught him/her red handed on the game camera - a bunny!  I added screen around the garden and it stopped the bunny from entering!  Because of schedules I haven't gotten to replant much so the garden this year is very sad.  But there is always next year!

Besides being a busy girl, life has been great in the forest.  Here are a few photos.

While I was out showing property these two were being nosey

Sometimes you can't decide in or out

Lots of people have llamas to protect their herds.  This one was watching yet resting.

Oliver is always waiting for company on the front deck

Max is never without his keys

Why yes, I am handsome aren't I?

Mom and baby just below my house.

Obviously this lil guy needs a crosswalk

So thats all for now from the forest.  Thanks for letting me share.

Love,
Lanae

Baby horses, bears and a happy forest

Greetings from the Forest,

Life has been a whirlwind of late.  Seems I just think I'm in control and poof I'm out of control.  But, its all good.  I'd rather be busy than bored and quite honestly it gives me an excellent excuse to have a messy house with fur balls!

The biggest news is that Scenic West Properties (the company I am a realtor at) has opened a property management division.  The local bank asked us to manage an apartment property they took back in a foreclosure.  We said sure.  Oh my, what a dump. Yes I'm serious. Oh my, what a ton of work.  Yes I'm serious about that too.  But I love a challenge and our goal, Rick and mine, is to turn it around, make is pretty and get it rented so we can sell it.  

Seems starting this division has changed some momentum.  We got five listings last week.  We decided that Rick and I would co-list everything and boom here came the clients.  It was a hell of a week last week but its all good.  Now, bring on the buyers!

So with the change of spring in the air, so are the babies.  While going to a new listing last week there were two momma horses with their babies.  It was cool cuz I stopped to take a photo and the momma's surrounded the babies along with the other horses in the herd.  Protecting their young.

I also saw my first bear recently.  He's probably 2-3 years old and his momma most likely booted him out to be on his own.  

This is the time of year for Elk to foal.  I haven't seen any babies - yet.  But this big guy was proud to pose for a picture.  Usually they take off but he was strutting his stuff.  So handsome.

The garden is planted but it is struggling as we have had a lot of rain and hail the past few weeks.  Crossing my fingers that my veggies will flourish soon.  In the meantime, the forest can use every bit of moisture so I'm happy that it's happy.

That's all for now.  Thank you for letting me share another day in the forest.

Why yes we are up to something!

Love and the pitter patter of baby animal feet -

Lanae

Spring is in the air

Greetings from the forest

Spring has sprung and the weeds are growing!  In the last few weeks we had sloppy wet snow and some rain so the forest is very happy.  The weeds are flourishing.  The animals now have lots of grass and vegetation to munch on.  It's a happy place, the forest in the spring, but we could use more moisture, of course.

Max on May 1st - yes it was snowing

I've been told by several people that the bears are out.  My neighbor said he had a big ol bear on his deck the other night.  A little to adventurous for my liking but honestly they're hungry and looking for food anywhere!  I'm am sure my time is coming and I'll see a bear very soon.  I hope to heck I have my phone handy so I can take a picture to share.  It was recently turkey mating season.  Lots of gobbling and the male turkey strutting their stuff.

Isn't she just cute!

Tom strutting his stuff

A couple of weeks ago I went to Arizona for my 6 month doc/chemo visit and to empty my Arizona office.  It was sad, I've had an office for 26 years and now I don't.  Its ok though because I still do work from Colorado, which is a good thing because the real estate business is not going to make me rich!  Its very slow.  I'm hoping as we get further into May and June we'll have more people wanting to come here and make this gorgeous place their home!


While in Arizona I stayed with my dear friend Diane who is always so hospitable!  I got to see others like Art and Lynne Powell, Lindy and Zuez who will soon be moving to Cottonwood! Adam and Nancy who I hadn't seen in ages and I got to catch up with Julie.  I then popped up to Prescott Valley to my sister Linda and her husband's house.  It was a whirlwind of a trip, whats new?  I was glad to get home to see the pups and sister Deb was ready to go to her own home!

Sometimes you must bask in the sun!

I've been told the last frost of the season will be Mother's Day and not to plant before that.  I've checked the forecast and it looks like its clear sailing so on Mother's Day weekend I will plant my garden!!  I cleaned it out the other day and its ready to go.  Here is a picture of all the plants ready to go.  Thanks to my sweet friend Lanette for giving me a ton of seeds I will have a gorgeous garden!  Next blog I'll tell you all that is planted and share a photo of the garden in its glory.

So life if the forest has been great!  I am grateful for the peace, the clean air, the great friends.  I hope you are all well.  Thanks again for letting my share - another day in the forest.

Love and May flowers!
Lanae

It's almost spring

Greetings from the Forest

As the title says, it's almost spring but not quite yet.  While the days have gotten warm and sunny, it is said that April is a very snowy month in these parts.  It's hard to believe when its 69 degrees outside but I have to trust the weather gurus. Our forest is so very dry, as many places are, so if it does snow I won't complain.  That said, I must say I want to plant my garden so very bad.  I've started seeds and have more to plant to get going but the packages say to sow 4-6 weeks before planting.  Is that long enough that there will be no threat of snow?  No freezing?  I wish I knew for sure but I'm so excited that I think I'll plant the seeds and hope that May is warm and has no more freezes.

Life has been busy, as always.  Let it be said that real estate is not easy and you must work hard.  I always thought it would be cool because you could make your own hours.  Well let me tell you, if  you want to eat (sell houses or land) you have to bust your butt.  So far this year I've listed several properties, which I'm very proud of, but sold nothing.  I am trying to cut myself some slack as its been winter and not very busy.  I'm hoping now that spring has sprung, in some parts of the country, the traffic will increase.  One can only hope.

Over the last month I've had some mitigation done on my property.  There is a matching grant and so I took advantage of it.  I have to say it makes a big difference and the forest seems very happy now.

The east side before mitigation

The east side after mitigation

The weather, as I said, has been warm and windy of late.  A few weeks ago we had a great wet snow and I thought for sure I would be able to use my new plow.  But sadly by noon the snow was melting so fast that I never got to use it.  Maybe in April -

It's turkey mating season.  The male turkey get all fancy with their feathers trying to impress the ladies.  This is a bit of a blurry picture but you can see this guy's tail feathers all fanned out and he was strutting.  Hope he got lucky!

This little deer was just watching me as I drove slowly by as if to say "what are you looking at?"

And of course, in closing, it would not be a blog from my forest with the boys -

See the blurry tail, its wagging!

Love and spring time breezes,

Lanae

Before the end of February

Greetings from the Forest

I said I was going to try to write two blogs a month and this one is just squeaking in before the end of February.  Perhaps that tells you I've been, well, busy?  Life is good, weather is too warm and not enough moisture!!

So what is new in the forest.  Well, I have a new plow on my 4 wheeler.  I'm just waiting for enough snow to plow.  Not sure that's going to happen this winter and that makes me sad.  But, my plow is very pretty thank you Mr. Rick Kinder for installing it!  We did get an inch or two a couple of weeks ago but we need more!

I went last Saturday and picked up my Bountiful Baskets order.  This time I tried Colorado City and it was much easier.  Although the truck was late because of high winds on the interstate, the process went smooth and the volunteers were really friendly.  I got lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, tangelos, leeks, spinach, apples, pineapple, bananas, carrots and red potatoes all for $15.  Even with the gas it is worth the drive considering our produce in town is pretty bad.

Oh the beauty of fresh produce!!

I got some lovely flowers for Valentines Day from a client/friend.  Made my day!

I volunteered to take breakfast goodies to the group doing forest mitigation work.  Friday morning I took sausage in crescent rolls, apples, muffins and string cheese.  This morning I took cheese, sausage, egg mini burritos that were a huge hit, apples and banana bread.  It is nice to do something to help out when these folks are working so hard to make our forest safe and healthy.  Just as I was leaving the work area I drove past a meadow that was the site of the previous weekend mitigation and saw these deer.  Seems they were very happy with the mitigation work!!

So all is well in my little corner of the world.  We are happy and healthy and I hope you are too!

In serious need of a bath!

Goofy little guy!

Love and happy days to you-
Lanae

Heading Home

Greetings from Kansas City, Missouri

Its been a few weeks since I've written and I think that's a barometer of how busy life has been.  It's all good, just busy.

I have been in KC since last weekend at a United Country Real Estate class.  It was, without a doubt, incredible!  So much to learn, so many new things being offered to the agents and franchise owners. We were in class for 5 days from 8 am to sometimes 8 pm.  I'd get back to my room and felt I needed to remove the sponge (my brain), wring it out of all that it absorbed during the day and then pop it back in ready for the next day.  I am ready to get home and get started using some of the tools I've been taught to help list and sell real estate!!

View from my hotel window this morning

I had the fabulous opportunity to see my dear friend Stacia.  She drove up from the Springfield area to see me after my class ended Friday.  We drank wine, laughed and caught up on 7 years of happenings.  Yes we stayed up way too late and just had such a great time.  Isn't it interesting that you go through life and you don't talk to someone for years, because life got in the way, and when you see them it is like you were together just yesterday.  That is, to me, a great friend.  Thank you Stacia for showing me just why you have been such a special part of my life.

I board the train back to Trinidad tonight.  Will ride all night to get home to my sister, the pups and my forest.  It will be good to get home, back to my own bed, back to my routine, cook my own food (!), and get to work.

I think I've missed them as much as they've missed me

I will do my best not to wait a month to catch you up on the happenings in the forest.

Love and toot toot of the train,
Lanae