Category: Blog

Gary’s Post: Haven’t been posting in the last few days – vicious cold (or whatever) clobbered me thanks to my wonderful wife sharing her version with me. I think there should be a new phrase when it comes to germs – “NOT sharing is caring.” Lordy. Two days of sleeping on the movie recliners so my coughing doesn’t wake up Wendy is enough!!!

Yesterday the foundation crew started their work. We stringed out the outside of the house, made sure the pad was 2′ 4″ from the original grade (which it is, but it seems high for sure). They dug out all the footings yesterday. We have a general idea of how the outside of the house looks. The interesting thing will be how the floor plan room sizes translate to reality. The house is 2650 sq ft, which is about 1,000 sq feet smaller than our last house. And we designed it with 4 bedrooms, which I think might have been a mistake because I think the bedrooms will be small. But it’s too late to change it. Our Texas house was 2,500 sq ft, but three bedrooms, so each bedroom was bigger.

Today, the weather will be crappy from noon to 6pm, so winds with dust. Our schedule is to have the framing done by Thursday with plumbers coming in on Thursday to lay the rough out plumbing. That makes any changes inside permanent. Wendy did a high pressure pick for her soaking tub last night as the plumbers needed to know where to put the drain. We could still eliminate a bedroom as the inside floorplan can still be changed. I don’t think we’ll make any changes inside unless they are small.

The goal is to pour concrete next week. Then there is about two weeks of cure time until we start putting up the frame. Things are moving faster. Need to pick out cabinets, bathroom fixtures, appliances and all the other stuff. I think we’ve picked out the doors and windows so now it’s about stucco texture and final colors. Next will be carpet and tile. Crazy how much work we still have to do as the clients.

With the foundation, the final grade is going to be 36″ above grade, so that’s pretty high but generally what everyone is doing here to use gravity septic. Where it’ll be interesting is the garage and driveway. I left 60′ between the house and the workshop. Looked like a lot on paper, but it’s not really a lot of space in the real world. We’re going to have to be creative when building out the driveway. In retrospect, it might have been better to flip the house as then the garage would be directly in line with the access road. But then we’d lose the views of the mountains from the living room and patio. I’ll just have to use 4-wheel drive to get the truck into the garage.

Alright, need to med up today to keep the cold under control. I’m getting better, but I still hate being sick. Need to prep for the crappy weather today and keep things from getting to dirty with all the blowing dust. Hoping for rain this weekend to dampen the soil and keep the dust down. In NM, the windy season is March – June with April being the windy month. Our version of the rainy season in Washington.

Happy April Fool’s Day. Enjoy the pranks and silliness that should lighten your day. This will be a busy month, travel, home building, recreation and I get too semi-retire on 4/11. Lot’s happening.

Take care and be safe today. Take time to let your loved ones know that you love them.

Blog ya later!

Gary’s post: I didn’t post yesterday as I’ve been down with a really nasty cold that my lovely wife shared with me. Still not feeling great today but better. Worse part is the watery eyes and trying to sneeze but can’t. Makes it hard to see the computer screen. Was hoping to ride the Can-Am today, but I don’t think that going to happen today. Just want to sleep.

They finally finished with the dirt work yesterday, everything is ready to start laying out the foundation. Monday we’ll string out the foundation and start with the framing for the concrete pour. Once the framing is done, then the plumbers do the rough in, and the electrical outlets in the floor. Then we’re ready to pour concrete. Exciting. I’ll post more pictures as this develops.

Jaret is getting ready to ship out to North Carolina for the big fire there. Hoping he’s trained enough. He still has gotten paid yet because of all the crap Elon Musk is doing with DOGE. It’s infuriating that an idiot who has not understanding of how government runs is allowed to affect millions of people who rely on timely payments from the government. You cannot run a government like a business. Business can fail and come back. Governments collapse and it’s a revolution where people die. Alright, enough I don’t want this to become a political commentary on the self-serving idiots running our administration.

I’m going to keep this short today as I’m still working on getting better. I should be better by tomorrow – today still isn’t great.

Hopefully everyone will have a good weekend. I know weather is going to make the East Coast difficult.

Take care.

Gary’s post: Yesterday they finished the dirt pad for the foundation. Now it’s time to fine-tine the height and leveling of the pad. The plumbers will start the rough in of the plumbing and one electrical socket in the living room floor. Not sure exactly how all that will happen. I’m assuming the surveyor will come back out and plant corner stakes and key outlets that need to be buried but I’ll have to ask and get and adjusted timeline.

Spent the day working on the Can-Am yesterday, putting in blinkers and horn to make it street legal. I also redid some bolts and torqued them down so that things wouldn’t come “undone” while out in the desert. Everything works, so that’s good. Now for fine tuning and getting some lighted whips installed and we should be done. Still waiting on the tags and plate, but that will take some time.

Today, I’m in the middle of fighting Wendy’s cold. She claims she didn’t infect me, but I don’t deal with people all day, just dogs. So, she DEFINITELY got sick at work and passed it on to me. Gotta love germ sharing. The fun of being a loving couple – germy kisses… I’ll spend the day blowing nose and doing inside works. I think I’m going to try and get my NM licenses fixed today – the local MVD (really not good service) managed to miss my motorcycle endorsement and restrictive lenses requirement from my Washington license. I’ll go to the MVD Express place, they are better and faster. Worth the extra $10 to get it right.

Jaret, our youngest, is getting shipped out to North Carolina next week to fight fires there. He’s excited, but nervous and needs some things he forgot here. I’m shipping them today since yesterday got away from me.

It’s Friday, thank goodness, one week closer to semi-retirement. I can’t wait as I’m just not engaged anymore with my real job as it’s so superficial and doesn’t use any of my skills. I’d rather be playing golf, driving my Can-am or riding my mountain bike. I’m close to getting off the blood-thinners, so I’ll be able to do more active events without bruising or bleeding. Looking forward to that. Speaking of Can-Am, I do need to get a first-aid kit. Costco run.

Well, I feel like crap today and my nose is running faster that I can, so the Kleenex box is almost empty. I’m going to suck down some orange juice, take some airborne and load up on meds. I hope everyone has a good weekend. Enjoy!

Later!

Gary’s post: The dirtpad for the foundation is taking shape now! Yesterday the contractors managed to build it to around 2′ 6″ which is where the dirt will stop. They will compact the pad more today and smooth it out. Then an insulation blanket will go on the pad and 6″ of gravel fines will be compacted on top of the blanket. That brings the pad to exactly 3′. Then plumbers and electrician rough in and the foundation is poured. Exciting stuff!

I have some bill paying work to do today, so that’s going to be boring. But necessary. In addition, I’m going to start looking for utility trailers to haul the Can-Am around and other items, such as my father-in-laws tractor and stuff to storage for the kid. Debating if I get a normal steel version or do an ultra-lite aluminum trailer. There’s about a $500 difference. I don’t really need the ultra-lite as the truck doesn’t care because it’s a diesel and can haul the 5th wheel (13,000 lbs) just fine. So a 1,250 lbs UTV + trailer isn’t a lot of weight. I’ll sort it out when I go look.

Wendy is finally starting to feel better. Hoping it was just a bad allergy attack with all the wind and dust. We have lots of Juniper here, and she has issues with that plant. Weather is going to be hot today for spring, 80 degrees again. We still need some moisture, which should happen tomorrow. While she’s getting better, I’m fascinated with my Oura ring. It’s showing me data that my Garmin watch didn’t. For my sleep, my recovery rate isn’t good. What that means is that when I go to sleep, instead of my heart going to resting heart rate (which most people do), my heart rate rises until I hit deep sleep. That means my metabolism rises and makes it harder to get to sleep, which is weird to me cuz I feel like I fall asleep just fine. I need to talk to my cardiologist about this and see if there are lifestyle adjustments I can make to help mitigate this anomaly. And the ring catches my naps, which my watch never did.

I’m working on getting all my health stuff moved to New Mexico which will make things easier. It’ll help reduce my travel to Seattle to a couple of times a year. I am looking forward to going in April to see Lauren and Matt. Speaking of kids, Jaret is going to get his “red card” next week for the Forest Service, which means he’s now available to go fight fires. He has all his equipment. He thinks they are going to send him to Virginia to fight a fire there next week. So, his season is starting now. He’s going to be a busy, busy man the next few months. He’s excited.

Today I have a few more Can-Am parts coming to install. Turn signals and mirrors which will make the Can-Am viable to drive on streets when I have to. In NM, you can use paved roads to get from one trail to another but not for general transportation, like going to the store. It varies from state to state and city to city. Generally, the law enforcement doesn’t bother you as long as you’re not being stupid, and people don’t complain. I still need to add another rack to the back for a spare tire (Utah and Moab) and lighted whips for safety and visibility. Then we SHOULD be close to done. Wendy wants to add tunes to the UTV, and that’s expensive stuff so we’ll see if we do that. Frankly, I think that invasive and we don’t need tunes because you can’t hear them anyway. We’ll probably add an upper windshield for dust and window nets too. That’ll be about $5k worth of accessories… crazy.

Okay, time to start the day. Need to exercise today to keep the body from falling apart. Have a great day, stop and enjoy the day, it only comes around once. And try and ignore the political stupidity that our ridiculous administration is creating. Where’s common sense and respect in our society gone?

Take care.

Gary’s post: Another evening post. Today was dirt day. Met with our general contractor and our dirt team. We agreed that the soft spot was a vein of iron rich clay that had gotten moist from the south neighbor’s field flooding. They dug out the vein and replaced it with engineered soil. Now they are starting to level out the dirt and build the pad.

Is it wrong that I want to fire up the Can-Am and do donuts in the pad? Tempting…. Anyway, there’s been one of those long trucks that hauls dirt and gravel coming and going all day. Dumping a lot of engineered fill (looks like sand to me). I think the term “engineered fill” is another marketing term to allow them to charge more money. It’s all a racket.

I was totally stoked today to find the gas cap on the Can-Am. They hide it under a movable panel. Good design but terrible user interface. I could have looked for days and not found it. Finally had to deflate my manhood and read the manual to find the gas cap. Such a humiliating moment. And my Oura ring came today. I bought it for my 72 birthday present to myself since everyone else thinks I’m dead and never buys me presents anymore…. probably because I really don’t need anything, but I like guilting them. And I have a 25x30x10′ workshop full of crap that I hardly use. I figure after 8 months of not using anything in there – we can take it all to the dump. Live the minimalist life in our new house.

Anyway, the Oura ring. I got it because I was tired of my Garmin watch telling me that I’m always stressed and never sleep. So, the ring is my backup. If it ends up telling me the same stuff, then I have a problem. Might be a little late to fix it but worth a shot. And I want to stop wearing a smart watch and go back to good ol’ fashioned regular watch. Part of being retired and not worrying about emails.

Painful thing about relocating is finding good medical care. Albuquerque isn’t known for its amazing medical care, so you have to be selective in your choice of doctors. Found my dentist today, hopefully he will be as good as my last dentist. I do need them to figure out my jaw issue. Tomorrow I’m going to make a cardiologist and endocrinologist appointments so that I’m in the system down here and can stop going to Seattle. Too darn expensive.

Starting to get excited (and a bit nervous) about my looming retirement. It’s a week away. As I said before, I’ll go to 25 hours a week, 1/2 the pay but 3/4 less stress. And I’ll have more time to relax and get things done around the “farm”. With the warm weather coming, the weeds are starting to take over. I need to spray, which is my plan for tomorrow. Clear out the weeds under the trailer and around the living area. I’ll also spray the North fence line to kill those weeds, so they don’t overgrow the fence again. Probably will have to make a run to Tractor Supply to get more herbicide and ground clear.

Weather on Thursday is supposed to be a bit crazy. Thunderstorms and some rain. I’ll need to adjust my Tempest weather station so it doesn’t vibrate in the wind. That makes the rain sensor crazy and misreport rain. I’m going to put it on a metal post eventually – just haven’t done that yet.

Tomorrow is more dirt for the house. Hopefully, they will be done by Friday and starting next week the plumbers can start the rough in for the plumbing, then the foundation is poured. I have to remember to get the one in-floor outlet set in the foundation also.

Well, enough for tonite. I need to take care of Wendy. She’s been sick with a cold or allergies for the past two weeks. Nasty cough and runny nose. She’s taking a bunch of natural remedies from the company she works for – it’s pretty interesting. Hopefully things pass in the next few days. NM is one of those places where dust, pollen and pollutants blow all over the place in the spring. And with 128 days of no rain, the air needs some rain to clean it out.

Anyone reading this – have a good evening and sleep well. I’ll report out on how the Oura ring does tonight. And who knows, there may be some donuts in the house pad in the morning!! NOT!

Take care!

Gary’s Post: Late day post today. Busy day with our normal breakfast with Wendy’s brother, then up to Albuquerque to grocery, shoe and part shop. Had to move some gravel with the tractor, then took it back to my father-in-law.

Went riding in the new Can-Am yesterday with Wendy’s brother leading the ride. Freaking dust everywhere. I had dust caking my face, cloths and the vehicle. I was blowing dust out of my nose this morning and was beat up. I’m not sure which is worse, take a 40 mile ride in the desert or drinking and entire bottle of wine. Either way your feel like crap the next morning!!

I spent last night until 9pm wrenching on the Can-Am, putting on some accessories. Finished this morning. Hands are sore from holding bolts, moving the shell and generally being a mechanic. Been a long time since I’ve done that. It’s pretty clear why getting a college education is a good thing. You’re not completely debilitated the next morning when your done working your normal day job.

I think I’ve decided that when I retire, my role in life will be to pick up dog poop. With two dogs, I go through a role of poop bags in week. Talk about a shitty job… Lordy, these dogs poop more than Jaret (our youngest) after 2 cups of coffee. Thank goodness for our local garbage pickup.

Well, it’s late Sunday night and I’m tired which is why I don’t write these posts in the evening – I’m generally brain dead and tired. So, I’ll keep this post short. Have a good evening and Monday is tomorrow – which sucks until next month!

Take care.

Gary’s post: Yesterday the dirt guys hit a soft spot while building out the pad. They are concerned about the location that it may impact the foundation and cause settling. I’ll meet with them and our contractor on Monday to discuss resolution of the issue. Frankly I don’t think it’s a problem but I’m not a soil engineer. More to come on that topic.

Today, my bro-in-law are going to pick up our new toy, the Can-Am off-road vehicle. We’ll pick it up and then probably go for a ride today to break it in. I do need to get a different helmet for it as the one I bought rips my ears off when I try to take it off. I’ll probably change it out for a Shoei or Arai dual sport that is easier to get off. love the helmet though. Carbon fiber and so cool looking. I’m looking forward to using the vehicle a lot this year and getting it fitted out for us. I do need to get a spare tire holder at some point and a trailer to haul it. I really hope Wendy drives it and enjoys it a bunch. I know my brother-in-law is pretty excited about us having one. And it’ll be good to get him out and with friends.

Got more gravel yesterday. Spread it around to keep the dust down. I do need to get it finished this weekend and get the tractor back to my father-in-law so he can replace the drain field. I’ll get that done Sunday.

Weather is finally starting to get warmer. We’re going to hit the 80’s on Monday and the evenings are now in the 40’s. Of course, that means the bugs and weeds are going to come out – not looking forward to that. Wendy is getting some of the ultrasonic pest deterrents for the workshop to keep the spiders and bugs out of our stuff. Personally, I’m going to buy some pitcher plants for the RV to eat the Flys. We have a lot of Flys from the cattle ranch next door. I’ll start treating the weeds next weekend.

Flying back to Seattle on 4/16 to meet with Cardiologist. I’ll spend some time with my son’s cats and hopefully some quality time with my daughter. I do miss both of them a lot. It’s hard to be this far from them even though we didn’t see them a lot when we lived in Seattle. I think it’s knowing we don’t have the ease of access to just meet up. I do need to get into a rhythm and talk to them every weekend. Video calls will make a difference. But nothing compares to being in person with them. See, feel and hug them means everything.

Okay, I’m going to run to the local deli and get some coffee and a breakfast burrito this morning. Take care and have a wonderful weekend. I’m going to try and not hurt myself on our new toy.

Later!

Gary’s post: Friday, thank goodness. Our 16th dinner was wonderful last night. We went to Season’s Grill in Old Town, the site of our first Valentines date. We attended a Spanish Wine dinner event, which was a ton of fun. Our table was the wine rep and salesman for the distributor that served the restaurant. The wine pairings with the food were amazing and great wine.

Today is all about the house and MORE DIRT. The dirt truck just keeps coming!!! We picked out windows last night, made some changes to the window package. We’ll go through the order, mark it up and also mark up a set of drawings with the new windows. Going fiberglass windows and traditional doors. The package comes with Pella, so we’re working with the Pella rep to get the package put together. Wendy also picked the Stucco colors, so now the house is coming together. We’re doing a sage color that blends with the topography and blends with the outbuildings we have on the property. We’ll do brown windows on the outside and white on the inside. Makes it easy to match paint colors.

Then it’s off to pick out tile and kitchen cabinets …. the list is long. We’ll get most of it done, but it’s going to take a bit to get things picked out.

The Can-Am is ready for pickup. I have to do it on Saturday as I asked my brother-in-law for his help. I need to swap helmets too. I tried on the helmet I ordered. I can get it on but can’t get it off without bruising my ears. Not a good thing. So, I’ll go do that today and hope Wendy’s helmet fits. We can’t ride public lands without having a helmet and eye protection. We’ll need to get all that sorted out before end of next month.

I’ll need to get a trailer. My father-in-laws offer is a trailer that’s been sitting in the sun for 20 years, so it’s rotted out. Cheaper to get a new one with LED lights and such. I’m not crazy about spending 2k but it’ll finish out the Can-Am stuff we need.

I REALLY need to get focused on finding health care here. I’ve been procrastinating and need to stop. I go to part-time in two weeks so that will give me a bit more time to work on finding health care. In the meantime, I need to book my flights to Seattle to see my current cardiologist and get off these darn blood thinners. I also need to find a good dentist to sort out my jaw issues. I’m freaking falling apart!!!

Lots to do today and I’ll probably not get any of it done. That does seem to be the direction I’m going. I’m kinda waiting on some gravel delivery to happen this morning. Then I can head to ABQ and do the helmet swap thing and get some diesel for the tractor. I hate to leave the dogs in the RV, but they seem to do fine. I like to let them run when I’m in the yard working, but I have to watch as we leave the gate open for the construction workers to come and go.

Alright, gotta run. Glad I had time to blog a bit this morning. Therapeutic and good to document stuff.

Hope everyone has a great weekend; I’m going to try. Getting excited to start my new part-time hours. It’s semi-retirement!!

Take care.

Gary’s post: Happy 16th anniversary to myself. It’s been an amazing 16 years with lots of ups, downs and sideways events that have made for an interesting and incredible marriage to my wonderful, amazing wife, Wendy. Who know that we started our relationship when she was living in a trailer in Albuquerque and now we’re living in a trailer in Los Lunas after 16 years. Life has come full circle for us.

Spring is here and winter isn’t letting go. It was 18 degrees this morning while I was taking the garbage to the curb (about 1/4 mile). F’ing cold!!! I had to warm up fingers and toes afterward because they were starting to turn blue!! Worse part is that there is humidity this morning, so it makes it even colder!!! Well, at least it’s not the northeast where it’s still cold and snowing.

House construction. Dirt, dirt and more dirt. It’s crazy how much dirt we have in the yard.

And they keep bringing in more dirt. Actually, it’s sand. They are mixing the sand with the dirt and then spreading it. It compacts more evenly and won’t move once it’s compacted. At least, that’s what I’m told. We’ll see how this all plays out since the foundation work starts next week – maybe. Organized chaos.

Well, time to get Juni to the groomers today. And I’ll get more gravel ordered so I can finish spreading the gravel for parking and dust remediation. And KILL THE DARN WEEDS that are starting to come up. It’s supposed to warm up next week. I’m thinking that I get some pasture grass, spread it around with a rake then water a bit and see if it’ll grow around the trailer. Give the dogs something to kill when they pee.

Everyone who might be reading this, have a great day. I’m going to take the day off and spend it with my wife when she comes home this afternoon. Looking forward to that!

Later!

Gary’s post: Late morning post today. Had a lot of bill paying work to do this morning. It’s a beautiful, cold morning in NM today after a really crappy day yesterday. We had 50-60 mile an hour winds which picks up all the loose dirt from the farms and blows it everywhere. It was a Haboob, which almost never happens here normally. We’ve had two this month, which speaks to the climate change happening – even though Trump has forbidden anyone to talk about it. Kinda feels like we’re living in North Korea….

Today is more work on the dirt pad for the house. The contactor managed to hit the internet cable for my brother-in-laws house which was buried 5 inches below the surface and run right where the house was going to be built – inspite of telling the cable guy not to run it there. Gotta wonder what the IQ level is of those people. Thursday Centurylink will be back out to reroute the cable and probably charge us more money to correct their mistake. Loving free enterprise.

Taking Harp to the groomers this morning to get the dirt washed out of him. Juni will have a fit, but she’ll survive. She and Wendy have a lot in common, both need to be the center of attention… LOL. Speaking of Wendy, Thursday is our 16th wedding anniversary. That woman still gives me goosebumps every day, and I can’t express how much I love her. She’s my rock and keeps me sane, my partner in crime and best friend. We’ve been living in a trailer for 2 months now and still are talking to each other. Amazing!

Not much else happening on the house – just getting the pad ready for the foundation. That’s supposed to happen next week and that will be a party when it is poured. Then we’re moving toward a house!! With spring coming, I need to get on the weeds and start considering planting some trees for wind breaks. We’re going to look at windows on Thursday for the house. And this weekend is the home show in ABQ, so we need to attend that for ideas. A lot of things to settle on for the house!!

I’ll keep it short as I have work to attend to today. Have a wonderful day, enjoy every moment and keep positive thoughts alive. Every little bit helps in this crazy world.

Take care!