The Start Of The Journey

It all started 35 years ago in 1972 soon after we were married. We wanted to create our own small sanctuary in which to live. We researched building materials and methods. I drew up plan after plan, adjusting placements of rooms and walls. I would always be searching for the "how to books".
Because of limited income and at the time living in New Mexico, the poor mans house was adobe. Cement was cheap and the dirt to make the bricks was in ones back yard. Well at that point we didn't even own a back yard.
So the children came and the plans were set aside. Our lives were focused on providing food , shelter and stability. We didn't have the time to raise a roof and a family at the same time.
Fast forward to 2002, our youngest was in high school, we became very practical through the years and knew what we could afford and build on our own. So we set out looking for the plot of land that contained our requirements: privacy, within an hour from a major city, lots of trees, water.... well you get the picture.
I searched the newspapers consistently for the perfect place. We would take day trips and hunt down properties that looked promising, we would visit others that had done what we were trying to do and listened to they're stories . It was always hopeful and we would go away with an idea on how we thought we could do it better ( in hind site we were very naive, It is one thing to imagine how one would do something and entirely a different story doing it yourself!)
In the spring of 2004 I called on an ad that was selling the land by assuming the original loan with some money down. Well that property sold very fast. I continued to talk with the guy and he was so friendly and gave me alot of good information , and then he said he knew of someone that was trying to sell some land in another county. He gave me the name and the rest is history (ours anyway).
We went out to look at the place and it had everything we wanted , well except for surface water, but it was all good anyway! We closed in the fall with a small down payment and assuming the loan. Thus we were at the start of the journey ........

On the way to the land at sunrise.