Affordable Colorado Mountain Property: Donations Greatly Appreciated

Affordable Western Colorado Real EstateWalking into a real estate office and meeting a new agent is akin to sitting your butt down in a dentist’s chair. It’s just gonna suck, whether you’re there for a root canal or just a cleaning.

Unfortunately, dealing with certain kinds of professionals that can rip your teeth out, make you bleed, and rob you blind, just seems like an evil fact of life.*

During our travels we’ve seen tons of great properaty listings, but we’ve never walked into a real estate office to learn more. Recently though, we got up the nerve to do just that, after learning that our neighbor’s daughter works for a Lake City broker. Thinking, “how bad could it be if we have an in with a local?” we went in.

We heard there was a 40 acre property just north of town, for sale at $200k, an unheard of price here. When we got to the office, we learned the property was actually listed at $299k, which is way over our cash-only budget, but still closer to it than anything we’ve seen for that many acres of western Colorado mountain property, with water rights.

We asked the agent if we could see it anyways (not mentioning that only a winning lotto ticket would give us a chance to buy it).

Oh sorry, you’d have to cross private property, only I can take you there,” he said.

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Ode to the Laborer

Workamper Jim Builds New Vickers Ranch DeckHere’s to the roofers, framers, and ditch diggers who think they have it harder than those who sit in front of a computer for a living.

They may be right. I know because I now have experience working in both worlds.

Having toiled at a desk, driving a mouse for most of my working life, I’ve had a chance this summer to live the life of a laborer, driving everything from nails to a backhoe.

For years, as a busy desk-bound graphic designer, I often wished I was outside just digging a ditch or something. Now, workamping on a busy guest ranch has taught me to be careful what you wish for. And given me cause to reflect on the intricacies of my life on the job, whether it be behind a desk or under a truck.

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This Texan walks into a bar …

Vickers Ranch Workamping RV SiteI overheard this Texan tell an Aggie joke about a couple guys framing up a building.

One reaches into his bag, looks at the nail he pulled out and throws it over his shoulder. He pulls out the next nail, looks at it and pounds it into the wall. He continues to do this until the other guy asks, “Why you throwin’ out half the nails?”

First guy replies; “They’re pointing in the wrong direction!”

“Dummy,” he says, “Save ’em for the other side of the house!”

It got me thinking to the workamping I’ve been doing this summer.

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Breakfast Ride Offers Best Biscuits, and View

Best Biscuits and Gravy on Breakfast Horse RideI might have said it before, but this time I believe I have truly found the best biscuits and gravy on the planet. I can stop looking now.

Perhaps it was the real cowboy coffee, cooked over an open fire, or the crisp rocky mountain air. Maybe it was the horse ride up the mountain, the breathtaking views, or all of the above.

But I can honestly say Carla and Paulette make the best chuck wagon team when it comes to a ranch style breakfast that would please any old cowpoke. Or workamper in this case.

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Just Call Me Lisa Simpson: Saving the World a Can at a Time

Recyclng program Lake City COFor as long as I can remember, recycling has been a way of life for me. Growing up on the left coast, I can’t remember a time when I threw cans or bottles in the trash. So imagine my surprise when we left our little Northern California cocoon, and got a reality check by seeing how the rest of the country approaches the recycling issue — or rather, avoids it altogether.

During our early days on the road, I kept getting annoyed at the number of RV parks that lacked recycling facilities. About the only places that did offer any kind of recycling were national parks, which only take aluminum cans. It killed me to toss recyclables, but in our little 5th wheel, I felt we didn’t have a choice.

For a while I considered being as green as my RVing friend Sara, and carrying around our recyclables and compost matter until we found a collection point. But honestly, I’m not that gutsy, and unwilling to put up with storing this stuff in our shower where she does. Also, with our big ol’ dog Jerry along, I don’t want our RV smelling any funkier than I think it does. I had to pick my battles, and into the trash went our recyclables.

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How Remote Is Too Remote, for Workamping, or Just Living?

Lake Fork Gunnison River Vickers RanchFind us a boondocking spot in beautiful country in the middle of nowhere, and we’re all over it. When we started looking for a summer workamping gig, we wanted a job in remote, mountain location. There were a couple of forest service jobs we could’ve taken, but we ended up here at Vickers because 1) it paid more, and 2) it offered us the chance to see if we’re resort owner material.

But the one thing we didn’t really consider, were the foodie sacrifices we’d have to make to live and work in a really remote mountain town with a year-round population of 500 people.

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Amarillo in August, Free Book Review


Amarillo in August Book by Jonathan MillerOne of the books piling up next to the bed in our RV was a free one I got as yet another perk workamping at Riverbend hot springs resort in New Mexico. Free books are great. They’re even better if you actually enjoy them.

And I enjoyed reading Amarillo In August by Jonathan Miller, author of Rattlesnake Lawyer – the book about which this book is about.

Amarillo In August isn’t so much about the Author’s first book, as it is about the book signing tour he embarked on throughout the Southwest to offload the cases of books his publishers dumped in his lap, almost literally. But it does hint about Rattlesnake Lawyer just enough to tease any legal thriller buff. Smart marketing. Something Miller should have thought of before publishing his first book. A book that cost him his public defender job and nearly got him disbarred.

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MotoSat: Keeping it local in Salt Lake City

F2 Cable Pinched in Satellite internet Dish Hinge Requires Re-Wrap The day before we were set to arrive at Vickers Ranch to settle in for our summer workamping jobs, our Datastorm F2 satellite internet dish stopped working. It refused to lock onto our satellite (91W).

We’ve experienced intermittent trouble and lengthy searches before getting online in the past. But this time it wouldn’t lock on at all. The dish went up, stopped at every bird in the sky attempting to identify the signal, only to continue searching. After calling MotoSat for help – and sending them a few photos of what we assumed was the problem – they determined that an “in house” repair was required to fix the issue.

MotoSat Datastorm F2 Cable DamageWith our online lifestyle, there was no way we could make it a week – let alone through the summer – without a serious hack job, and a way to find our satellite. So, we took a 900 mile round-trip detour to Salt Lake City for a factory repair at their headquarters.

The only other option was to remove the entire dish mount ourselves, get it off our roof somehow, and find a freight company to get it from Creede, CO to Salt Lake City for the repair. Not to mention re-installation. It was quicker and cheaper to just drive it there. And the trip turned out to be fun. Or at least interesting.

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But seriously folks …


Bookmark this post and set aside time to watch this entire End of Suburbia program about peak oil with people close to you. Pending or not, crisis or melarkey, what’s most important is to listen to and realize who is saying the enlightening if not disturbing things in this documentary. Read Matthew Simmons’ Twilight in the Desert book for more oil industry insight.

Click the bottom middle icon at the bottom right of the YouTube player to view at full screen. Better yet, get the End of Suburbia DVD and show it to everyone you know. Or give them a copy to pass along. Or email them this page link so they can watch it right here.

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Understanding the Locals by Bicycling Through America

Crazy cyclist on Red Mountain Pass near Ouray Colorado

On my criteria list for the ideal place to live and work: Must be bike friendly.

Bicycling has been a way of life for me since 1992, when I moved to San Francisco, got a bike and rode in the second Critical Mass ride, ever.

But trust me, I’m not a trendy gearhead. My antique 1992 Trek 7000 mountain bike is an unstylish hardtail, with an old Girvin Flex Stem, a precursor to modern suspension. But from San Francisco to Florida, Old Blue has repeatedly gotten me from Point A to Point B, and it’s all I need.

So whenever we arrive in a new place, I like to go for bike rides to get a feel for the area. When you ride, you can quickly judge not just the safety of the roads, but the attitude of the locals.

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Funniest. Comment. Ever.

Al Workamping at Vickers dude RanchWe just received the funniest comment on any of our posts, from someone named Harvey. (Sorry RhodesTer.)

It made me laugh. And it reminded me of fellow workamper Al, who we met working here at Vickers Ranch.

On the post I wrote about trying the NextGen Gallery Worpress plugin, Harvey said:

“You got a picture of canned pork brains, and everybody wants to comment on what program you’re using!”

ROFLOLFYIETATBD! 😆

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Our Radical Sabbatical: The Real Work Begins


Road Trip Stops at Capitol Reef National ParkThe idea of taking a long break first occurred to us in 2006, when some mindless channel surfing led us to the TV show, Radical Sabbatical. Each 30 minute segment would tell the story of someone who had suddenly woken up to realize they hated their career, life was passing them by, and they needed a change, fast.

While reality shows are generally crap, watching how these people worked to make their dreams happen provided much of the inspiration we needed to get moving on our own dreams (well, that, and Jerry’s illness).

Neither Jim nor I had ever taken an extended break. In my 20s, my friends went backpacking around Europe after college, but I had student loans to pay, so I took the first dumb job that I could get. By the mid 90s, I was handing over my paycheck to student loans and credit card debt. And as for Jim, well, he’s always been too responsible to slack off.

Now that we had paid some dues in life, we became giddy at the thought of reverting to slackerdom. But the more we thought about it, we knew we couldn’t just split without some kind of goal in mind.

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