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Let me preface this by saying i'm posting it on a few more western states' city-data forums, so you'll see it there too.
We're, quite frankly, at our wit's end. We like NM, but it sure isn't a two sided love affair.
We've been struggling pretty much ever since we unloaded the horses at the end of May and now we're goin' down for the last time.
What we are:
family of five who love the country life and equine events- be it a rodeo or just a group of friends riding out for a while
horses, cats, dogs, kids
southern accents (so please, don't make fun of us, or our kids, for not sounding like you. A little ribbin' is one thing, blatant disrespect is another. )
not at all high maintenance- a country store or, *shudder* WalMart is all it takes to keep us in the necessities. I.hate.malls. Internet orderin' suits me fine.
simple, drama free and would like to be much more self sufficient
What we want:
a friendly area. No, we don't want to change you and we don't want things how they were where we come from. If it were all that great, we wouldn't have left. We just want to be accepted by you and maybe even make some friends. Drama free, that is.
clean air. I have a respiratory issue that was thought to be totally humidity adverse. Turns out that I can take some humidity, as long as the air is not so polluted it stirs crap up.
four seasons. Snow and cold weather is okay, as long as it doesn't extend to six months of the year and we're not stringin' rope between the house and the barn.
within an hours drive to a city (or town) with a cell phone carrier. That's what my husband has almost 15 years experience in and it's what he'd desperately like to go back to.
I can't think of anything else, so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away. Is there anywhere in Coloradowhere we might fit in and begin to have the resemblance of an actual LIFE again?
What about south-central Colorado? Westcliffe ... Alamosa ... Walsenburg ... Land and real estate isn't very expensive, relatively speaking, and I see plenty o' horse farms/ranches in those areas. Similar climate to northern New Mexico. Plus you'd be close to Denver's National Western Stock Show ... and Cheyenne's Frontier Days would be just a half-day's drive away.
My first question would be why New Mexico is not working for you. Although the ethnic mix is different from New Mexico in much of rural Colorado (though not much different in the southern third of Colorado), the underlying economics are not that much different. The big difference is that more of the mountain areas of Colorado are hideously expensive, with local salaries that are little better than New Mexico's. Some of Colorado's eastern plains towns might suit you, but they are not that much different from eastern New Mexico in climate--just a little colder in winter.
Fact is, your horse-centered lifestyle is not a cheap one anywhere, but especially in the Rocky Mountain region. And, the closer you get to a metro area with those horses, the more expensive that lifestyle will be to maintain. A veterinarian friend of mine was telling me how horrified he is to see the number of malnourished and starving horses just about everywhere around Colorado these days--their owners simply can no longer afford to take care of them properly in this economy.
I'm afraid that you have some hard choices to make--choices about what you are willing to trade off in your lifestyles (horses, location, climate, career options, etc.). You sure aren't alone--I think we are all going to have be making some hard choices pretty soon.
Canon City and thereabouts might work really well for the OP. Four seasons, mild winters. It's 30 minutes to Pueblo (100K people), an hour to Colo Spgs (400K people) and not more than 2 hours to Denver (2.5M people). Lots of horses in that area.
The malnourished horse problem Jazzlover mentions is at least two-fold:
- Some people cannot afford to feed horses, partly because of the recession and partly because the price of feed has gone up. The insane ethanol subsidy actually made corn more expensive, according to the ranch operator down the street from me, whose feed prices nearly doubled after the ethanol subsidy went in.
- The wife of T. Boone Pickens politicked Congre$$ to outlaw horse slaughter in the USA; now there is no place to send horses unless you ship them to Mexico or Canada for slaughter. For sure it's not a pretty thought, but we seem to overlook a lot of realities in our nation these past few decades. Sad part is that if you have enough money, you can have Congress write whatever law suits you, the rest of us can go pound sand.
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I agree with you on both points, Mike. The ethanol subsidies are one of the worst pieces of government policy enacted in the last 30 years. While they have temporarily helped some grain farmers, I agree with the expert who opined that growing corn for ethanol was merely "burning up the last 3 inches of Midwestern topsoil in our gas tanks." Meanwhile, the livestock people have been hammered by high feed prices.
My vet friend also mentioned the horse slaughter ban. While no one likes to see horses slaughtered, at least it's done humanely in a packing plant, rather than letting horses starve in pastures. I spent a number of years in the livestock business, but I abhor neglect and cruelty to animals, especially when people do it knowingly or out their own selfishness.
Finally, one of the most huge problems this country faces is both the general public and our leadership failing to think about the broader and long-term consequences of policy decisions we are making right now. That tunnel-visioned, myopic nearsightedness is going to come back to haunt us savagely (well, it already is). There is just an absolute appalling lack of basic logic, common sense, and well-informed clear thinking in this country, from Everyman and Everywoman clear up to the President. You have to wonder how we have gotten so "dummied down."
of five who love the country life and equine events- be it a rodeo or just a group of friends riding out for a while
Plenty of that in Colorado.
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a friendly area.
In my opinion, colorado is one of the friendliest places I've been. My co worker (who spent 25 years in southern California) and other people I work with and hang out with, agree.
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clean air. I have a respiratory issue that was thought to be totally humidity adverse. Turns out that I can take some humidity, as long as the air is not so polluted it stirs crap up.
Seems to me most of Colorado has good air. I don't spend a lot of time in Denver, so I don't know what its bad days are like.
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four seasons. Snow and cold weather is okay, as long as it doesn't extend to six months of the year and we're not stringin' rope between the house and the barn.
Here's the thing. Winter is very different from one part of Colorado to another. Winter is definitely long and cold and snowy in the mountains or mountain valleys. Less so out in the high desert. For example, in Grand Junction where I live, it's fairly mild, we don't hardly get any snow. On the other hand, just ten miles away up on the Grand Mesa (big mountain) the upper parts of the mountain are basically snowed in through May and snow is still present in June.
Quote:
I can't think of anything else, so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away. Is there anywhere in Coloradowhere we might fit in and begin to have the resemblance of an actual LIFE again?
Hard to say what you mean by this, since you haven't explained the problems with where you're at. But basically Colorado is a real nice place to live. Other nice places that come to mind are:
1) Provo Utah. Seems to me like one of the most peaceful, safest places in the whole country. with incredible scenery to boot.
2) Idaho. Different towns scattered around Idaho next to the mountains seem pretty good.
3) coastal california around Santa Barbara. This area has the luxury of being next to the mountains and national forest too.
4) Oregon. I've never been there but I've heard it's very "horse friendly." My mom and aunt went out there last year to scout it out as a possible place to relocate.
Wanna come with us Wed. to Colo.? We're going to check out Woodland Park/Divide and towns in that area. We don't want to be in a city but these are between Colo. Spgs. and Denver. I was raised in Colo. Spgs. most of my younger years and I did horseback riding so they're are horses.
We've been in NM for a little over a year and even though there are things I like about Timberon, there are also things I don't like.
I don't like being so isolated and it's starting to get to me so we are going to look in Colo. and see how it feels for a few days.
Thanks for weighing in, y'all. Oddly enough, i'm one of the only horse rescue people (trained cruelty investigator, former rescue owner and certified field agent back in TN) that is FOR horse slaughter. I personally think anyone who voted to end slaughter should have a few of the horses they *saved* delivered to their townhouses, suburban McMansions, or what have you- free of charge and theirs to care for PROPERLY until the horse expires of natural causes. That aside....
We've been struggling since arrival in NM. The company my husband works for (or the rep who hired hom, anyways) did some heavy duty lying. One result of that is that we are putting 800 bucks a month into his fuel tank, and that's if he only works five days a week. And he's working these massive hours because people in the area he works in apparently put employment at the low end of their priority scale- four weeks of ads in the paper and no applicants. Week before last, he logged 91 work hours, 21 drive hours and dropped almost 250 in his tank. He's applied like a mad man for positions in his chosen field (not what he's doing now) but, despite having almost 15 yrs experience and a list of accolades and awards longer than my arm- he's got nothin'. And this is after four months of trying.
Wanna come with us Wed. to Colo.? We're going to check out Woodland Park/Divide and towns in that area. We don't want to be in a city but these are between Colo. Spgs. and Denver. I was raised in Colo. Spgs. most of my younger years and I did horseback riding so they're are horses.
We've been in NM for a little over a year and even though there are things I like about Timberon, there are also things I don't like.
I don't like being so isolated and it's starting to get to me so we are going to look in Colo. and see how it feels for a few days.
Aw, Song I wish I could, but i'm working Wednesday. Thanks for asking me. Will you let me know what you think, though?
I'll let you know what happens. We're leaving Wed. and returning Sunday and staying with some friends in Divide (Colo.)
I already know it's beautiful and where I'd like to live. I've been trying to convince my s.o. of that and he's finally agreeing. He doesn't care that much for cold weather. We're going to check out some real estate and get a feel for the area. See if it feels right. i feel Colo. is more of the land of enchantment than NM.
Has hubby checked jobs in Albq. or is that where he's working now? My s.o. has an aunt in Moriarity and we went there for a family reunion last year but that's all I know about it. I think anytime you're in a smaller town and you move from somewhere else, you're an outsider until you can prove yourself.
I don't have an accent but when I lived in E. Tn., the people at first made fun of me because I didn't have an accent and called me a northerner, even though I'm not anywhere from the north at all but after a while, I was accepted and made friends. Some people have never outgrown the high school thing of making fun of others. Personally, I think southern accents are cute. I've had to ask a few people to repeat what they said sometimes but we'd usually end up laughing it off.
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