A Brushing Time - Saturday

April 21st. It was a beautiful day. It would have been just like summer if the breeze from the northeast hadn't tempered the warmth of the sunshine. I took Sean out with me to help brush the horses. I had hoped that he and I could brush our Paso Fino, "Rosa", because her winter coat still has a woolly mammoth appearance. But Rosa was not interested.




Instead, "Moon The Magnet Horse" came over to greet us. I don't think we could have kept her away with a cattle prod - (not that we have one or would never use one!!) Moon's just a people-loving horse. While she munched on some hay, Sean got a lesson in using a curry comb. A curry comb, for those not familiar with horse grooming tools, is a round, hard rubber disk with a textured surface. The handle is a strap through which you fit your hand. The strap holds the curry comb in place as you groom the horse in a fairly firm circling motion so that the dust and dirt and undercoat of the horse get loosened. The wind takes care of the masses of fur and dust that get packed into the disk after a few strokes this time of year.

It was a hand-over-hand lesson. Sean's beefy hand fit well into the curry comb, and together we gave Moon a much-needed grooming. She is shedding her winter coat without any help, but it's a great thing for a horse to get rubbed, scratched and generally groomed during this itchy time of shedding.




Sean is not exactly enthusiastic about doing the work but we do try to keep him out there and around us and the horses so that he is involved.

House hunting - part deux..

You know, just when you think you have reached rock bottom on the house search front you find out that the Realtors in Colorado have managed to tunnel out beneath you.

We found a listing for a property just north of Hudson, Colorado. around 40 acres, fencing, some horse set up, and the house looked great - brick finish, huge garage. It's a little bit out there but its a great location.

So yesterday I had the day off and nancy and I decided we would swing up there (its about 45 miles from where we are) and, even though we would not be able to go inside, we could look at the outside and see if it was even worthwhile going for a full visit.

The first inkling of trouble was that when we used the mapping function we got directions to totally the wrong place. We phoned the listing agents office and gave the girl who answered the address and MLS number and asked for directions. After much back and forth we finally managed to get some workable directions and trundled off - 15 miles north of where we were.

We find the huse - it looks OK from the outside - the property looks a little rundown but that's to be expected. The brick exterior of the house is unusual out here, it looks solid and impressive.

OK, we decide that this is worth a good look and Nancy calls up our Realtr and asks her to arrange a showing.

On to today. nancy and Sarah drive out to the house. When they get to it Sarah cannot find the lock-box and phones in to the selling agent.

It is the wrong house. The house they have for sale is actually down the road.

The wrong house? The picture of the house on the flier is the one that Nancy and Sarah are at, the description of the place is the property they are standing on. So they follow the directions to the other house which is just down the road.

It is a complete tip. It is a run down modular that looks like it has been trashed.

The picture and description that the selling agents have up on the web site and for the listing - is for the wrong house.

Another great day in Realty in Colorado.

Trying to find a house

We've alluded in a couple of posts that we are looking around to buy a house out here on the plains.

We have been looking, on and off, for months. I never thought how difficult this process would prove to be, we got qualified with a good lender, we know our budget and we have a good idea what we want. Given the very soft housing market we figured it would be a snap.

Oh, how wrong we are.

I know we have some conditionals when it comes to the house. It has to be big enough, 1,700 square foot or bigger. It has to be a ranch style house because we don't want Sean having to negotiate stairs, it has to be commutable for me to get to work. but more importantly, it has to be commutable for Doc to come and pick up Sean. I am willing to commute quit a distance but we do have to take into account Sean's travel and transportation needs,

The house also has to have land - we want our horses with us - and, if it does not have fencing and a barn then we will need to be able to afford to put the necessary stuff there which reduces the overall amount we can pay for the property.

Well OK - we have been searching. I guess I should put in a plug for our realtor - her name is Sarah Sell and she works for Look East Realty in Bennett Colorado. Sarah has been with Nancy all over this area arranging showings, taking us to properties - this lady has worked hard for us. If you ever have a need for somone to work with out on the Eastern Plains - look her up.

Anyhoo - Nancy has searched the various listing services, identified likely places and gone out on many, many visits with Sarah. We have looked at places as far south as Kiowa and as far north as 128th avenue - as far east as Deer trail and west to Watkins.

Now that may not be familiar to all of you - but its a big area.

And I have learned some things about real estate .

Some advice for sellers - free:

1) If you are planning to sell a house that you live in - clean it. Nothing kills interest faster than the first thought you have on entering the house is that you are going to need a shower. Yes, this has happened.

2) If you have done some extensive Do-it-yourself on the house - get it inspected. It may be a good idea to find out that you have installed stuff backwards or done stuff that does not come up to code. Most mortgage companies require inspection reports. And yes this happened to us.

3) If you say that it is a horse property it had better be fenced or the horses wont be on it long.

And for the banks out there that currently have a boatload of foreclosures on their hands.

Learn to negotiate on price. There are tons of properties out here that have been on the market for a year or more.

The sound of one boy laughing

Well it's Friday. Nancy is off to the Great Western Paso Fino Association General Meeting in Grand Junction and I have the day off so that I can get in some serious Sean hogging.

So I figured it was about time to get something up on the blog.

This is a little something about Sean - I have written about it before but I cannot remember whether I put it up here or not. Well if I did - oh well.

When Sean was very small - a few months old I guess - he was in his crib one evening and nancy was bending over him undoing the snaps on his baby clothes she ran her finger over his ribs - you know, as Moms do with their babies - and Sean, who had always had an enchanting grin, let out a shriek of laughter.

Nancy jumped up in the air in surprise. Sean lay there with a happy grin on his face and Nancy and I looked at each other in complete surprise. It was the first sound I ever remember him making.

Nancy , of course, could not resist trying again. Sean shrieked with laughter. He has the most amazing laugh.

The sound of Sean's laughter, music to the ears.