October Already

Gene arriving at his new house - Levi's Llama Land - and in the midst of painting the pink bedroom....is it pink or was it pink... we flew down to Albuquerque on Oct 5th taking with us clothes to paint and clean in and plans to start making the house ours. Our renter decided to move into town so we are now without her. But it gave us the time to clean and paint and see the house without anyone else's stuff in it.

The weather was wonderful all week - perfect for painting and for sitting on the porch taking a break now and then.

We left a bunch of money at Wal-Mart and at the appliance store. Bought new Frigidaire front-loading washer and dryer and had them installed in the laundry room which is right off the kitchen. And we christened them with our dirty clothes and came home with mostly clean clothes. Course there were some that were beyond cleaning!!

Got to really know my way around Wal-Mart, and Hacienda Home Center, and the Gambles Store, and many other places. We stayed at the Comfort Inn which was nice since there is no furniture in the house and we are getting a bit elderly to be sleeping on air mattresses. It was a relief each night to go back to the hotel and crawl (almost) into nice soft clean beds and have clean towels and a good night's sleep.

Didn't get to see everyone we wanted to on this trip but we did meet the next door neighbors and visited with the THompson's and of course our favorite real estate agent and friend, Marylena Melton. She is helping us still even though she's already sold the house to us. What would we do without her watching over the place.

Hopefully we'll get the house rented for the winter. But for now it's tucked away with the heat on and ready to be shown.

Land Barons R Us

So we now own our retirement home in Las Vegas, NM...not the glitzy, smoky, crowded Las Vegas in Nevada.....the quiet, laid back, slow, original Las Vegas. Found the property last fall on a "scouting trip" and never thought it would still be available when we wanted to buy. But not only was it available, it was lots cheaper. So with some urging from our financial and tax guys, we made a deal and the owners accepted. We are renting it to the lady who owned it which is a win-win situation for all of us. When will we move? Maybe late next summer....depends on Linda's retirement situation... but until then, we'll plan some changes to the house and Gene will ahve plenty of time of think about the yard....all 5 acres of it. Check out the slide show ...

Our New Mexico Home

Make a Smilebox slideshow

It's Been 2 Years

Oh my... just realized it's been two years since i wrote in this blog. lots of water over the dam, as they say.

Today is June 16th 2008 and we are fine here in Seattle! We have vacationed in Russia, gone home to Minnesota for visits, traveled to the southwest to look for retirement property and generally kept busy. In the days to follow, I will attempt to update you on our lives!

This is a photo of the Corps badge that is on the butt stock of Corporal Dow's Sharps rifle and which started the whole journey of discovery.

Our Book is in Print

"The Search for Corporal Dow" is now in print...We got the first copies a week ago and are thrilled with the look, feel, sight of this book that has been so long in the making. They did an awesome job with the cover and editing and we sure hope lots of folks will enjoy it and use it in their genealogy research. We'll have a web site this fall and the publisher will be starting the advertising shortly. In the meantime, I've published a copy of the cover and the introductory page....

Linda and Gene

Quilts

Life as a quilter is such fun...there is never enough fabric, never enough room to store it, and never enough time to get all the quilts made and finished. But it "keeps us out of the bar".... I will be posting pictures here from time to time of newly made, and works in progress.

This first one is of the baby quilt I made for my great-nephew David about 2 years ago. The pictures of David wrapped up in his quilt are proof that all the work was worth it. He is expecting a baby sister to arrive any day now (early March) and there will be a quilt for her soon.
L

Mountain Memories

Some pictures from our journey to the mountains on Feb 23. Levi got to play in all the snow. What a glorious day to be up there...sun, warmth, just gorgeous. Plus we came home with a wet dog!! Such fun.