35 days as a New Mexican! We have finally gotten a lot of our stuff organized and put in its place. This is the smallest house we have ever lived in so we have learned to pick permanent places for our things, particularly in the kitchen as there are 2 total cabinets in it and it really is not meant for everyday use. The dishwasher doesn’t work so we are hand washing everything which includes lots of animal crap because we have 4 animals for some reason. We are using lots of paper plates and silverware. It took days and days to clean everything in the kitchen.
We have slowly cleaned every inch of this cabin. Think about it, the Cocanowers have owned this cabin for 50 some-odd years as a vacation cabin. When you go on vacay no one wants to deep clean the cabin so over the years the built up dust and debris is pretty Intense. We had a rat infestation so there was damage and rat poop everywhere. Everything that can be washed must be washed, sometimes twice. Clothes, gloves, skis, jackets, sheets, pillows, snow boots, hats, you name it, we had items that were obviously from the 70’s and 80’s and needed to be thrown away. We started in the bedrooms since we had to sleep in those. Bags of trash, bags of rat poop, literally sanitizing every surface including light fixtures, windows, walls, window sills, furniture, carpet, fans, we have literally touched every single surface in this house inside and out.
We have spent a fortune on Amazon to organize everything into the space. After about 30 days we have finally gotten to the end of this process. We have a couple of pictures to hang, a screen front door to stain and some items to place and that should make the inside of the cabin finished. I am so relieved to be done!
In the mountains, particularly in the National Forest, there is maintenance to do outside as well. When we were here in November we had 5 trees cut down that were dead and dangerous as they were above the cabin and a strong storm could take them down. Fire is always a concern here and you have to clear out the branches and debris on the floor of the forest to add some protection to the property. Brett did a majority of the work and, thank God, there is no way I could do it. He managed to clear all the sticks, pieces of bark, chopped down some trees, cleaned up the fire pit and added some seats. He even got behind our cabin which is an incredibly steep hill and got most of the debris out. He cut and bundled all the wood from the trees we had cut down for firewood, he mowed, edged and trimmed literally everything. He cut down thistle in our creek and made it so our dogs can play in it. He worked on the deck, dog yard, railings on the deck and the gravel driveway. He is my hero!
We brought 3 electric heaters with us and, since summer is coming, we bought an air conditioner for the cabin to keep us comfortable. We are prepared for any kind of weather that may come. Since the fire danger is so high and charcoal or pit fires are illegal we purchased a Weber propane grill so that we can cook outside and avoid using the stove. We fixed pipes that burst because of the cold, cleaned out debris from an animal living under the cabin and added motion detector lights to the corners of the cabin.
We had an incident last week where an elk was right outside the cabin and we did not see him in time and the dogs were out and circling him in our yard. That elk could have easily killed our dogs but luckily they are well trained and came immediately when we called. Brett installed LED lights around the entire deck that shine out into the yard so that we can see what is out there before letting the dogs out. The amount of animals in the forest is amazing but you want to know what is looking at you when it is dark outside. We talked to some neighbors who have had visits from bears recently and that is something we are trying to avoid. They cause major damage and could kill our dogs so we are very careful to not leave food outside. The elk and deer are not dangerous but can deliver a mean kick if they feel threatened. They just want to eat all our trees and grass. We saw a fox running across the road and countless other wildlife. It is actually pretty cool and the wild horses are the most fascinating thing to see since they are so beautiful and they have all their foals with them. Those babies are gorgeous!
Our plan moving here was to stay here while we looked for a home to purchase. We hoped this would be a short time period. The housing market here is so hot people are buying cabins sight unseen. Most cabins are selling in 24 hours and the prices are super inflated because of the demand, like by 50,000 to 100,000 dollars more for a shithole. There is nothing to rent and it seems foolish not to wait it out and hope for a change in the market. Building a new home is impossible because of shortages and the price of wood at this time. Once we realized that buying a home would be dumb we realized we would be in the cabin longer than we thought. That was not the plan but that is also why we have put so much effort and work into our cabin because we may be stuck here for a while.
We have been exploring the restaurants in Ruidoso. Lots of Mexican food and sandwiches. We have a favorite deli, a fave pizza place, our fave Mexican and a lovely steak restaurant. We have gone to the casino a couple of times, I went to a nail salon (which, quite frankly, sucked especially in comparison to FW), several ice cream places and I got a massage, which nearly killed me, she was a little to aggressive.
So next week we will be getting our NM drivers license. You have to make an appointment in order to get one and they want every document you can think of. Once that is finished we will be heading to Colorado to stay with our good friends Jason and Rose. We have never been to the area of Colorado they live in so we are super excited to go, it has been years since we have been in Colorado. So the past few weeks have been a whirlwind but it feels amazing getting settled in. I really haven’t had time to be bored so that is a great surprise!
May 17, 2021
I haven’t had a chance to finish this post, I could not figure out how to wrap it up and then, tonight happened. We had a late dinner and we let the dogs go out on the balcony like we do every night, there is a gate to keep them on the porch. I was sitting on the sofa with Brett watching television when something fluttered in the window next to the door. I just saw it out of the corner of my eye and I just saw movement, no details. It was weird because I can’t see the dogs through that window so the movement wasn’t them. I got up and let Baxter and Callie in.
Baxter ran straight for Brett and the sofa. All his hair was standing straight up as he cowered on the sofa trembling so badly he was shaking Brett, tail tucked, head down, huge wobbly eyes. I went to check him for injuries and his heart was pounding twice as fast as he tried to hide behind Brett and I. Baxter thinks he is the alpha male always, I have never seen him react this way with any animal and he has seen tons, huge animals like buffalo and elk. It took 30 minutes for Baxter to calm down. Callie had no reaction at all. Brett and I went outside with a spotlight to see what scared him. We didn’t see a thing but I had a funny feeling something was looking at us. It was super creepy.
So that was around 10 pm and now it is 3 am and I am still up. Brett and Baxter have been asleep for hours. I am freaked out that’s for sure. What scared him so badly? Why didn’t Callie react? Was it a bear? Are we all going to be eaten by Bigfoot? Will I ever sleep again? Fucking mountains! Ahhh!!!
The night is calling... 