New Mexico here we come! My husband, Jim, and I are born and raised Texans. Even though we live in far west Texas and are on the border of Mexico and New Mexico, we are diehard Texans. However, last month, we purchased 3 1/2 acres in Capitan, NM, a village in Lincoln County, New Mexico located north of the Lincoln National Forest between the Capitan and Sacramento Mountains at an elevation of 6,530 feet and a population of about 1,500. This is the home of the one and only, Smokey the Bear who was found burned as a cub in the Capitan Mountains, was rescued and became the symbol to prevent forest fire. He lived his life at the National Zoo in Washington DC and is now buried in Capitan at the Smokey Bear Museum. The landscape is grassy ranch land with pine and juniper trees. Our view to the south is the popular ski resort mountain of Sierra Blanca located in Ruidoso and to the east are the beautiful Capitan Mountains and to the west is a grassy valley with horses. To us it is breathtaking. We looked for over a year and a half to find the right property with the right view and God sent us to this property.
Now our work begins!! What do we do first? Fortunately, the property already had a well, a septic tank and electrical hooked up. Jim was able to get the well going with the help of one of our new neighbors who just happens to be an electrician. But now we must figure out if the water is drinkable or do we need a filtering system. We have time to get things figured out though. This is where we plan to retire in a few years. So while we are figuring things out, we have brought our small travel trailer to the property to be our weekend getaway.
We love getting up in the morning, opening the curtains and enjoying our coffee as we search for the location of the seven horse that graze the adjoining property. They seem to take the same path every day. So we know exactly where to look. It is very reassuring.
After getting the well running, we have now started cleaning up the property by cutting down some dead trees, trimming up trees and clearing out the underbrush. This will be a job that will probably take a long time. We started with an island in the middle of a dirt circular driveway. We removed a dead Juniper tree, cut the underbrush and trimmed the remaining trees. We gathered rocks from all over the property and outlined the island and then set up an iron and wood bench that Jim refurbished. The bench had belonged to a customer and was to be thrown away. Jim knew immediately it would be a fun refurbishing project and a great addition to our property someday. We then added his small windmill, a solar light in the pine tree and 12 solar lights around the rock edge. Already the place is beginning to look like home.
I hope you will join Jim and me on our new adventure there is so much more to come.