Hello from SW Colorado!

[SimpleSarah]

Hi, I am new here and wanted to introduce myself. My husband and I live in SW Colorado on a few acres with four horses and two cats. I am a wheelchair user, but have been making a living, sometimes quite lucrative, with art my entire life. I am 47 now. My husband works at home with me, making the castings and doing the shipping of my sculptures. Since 2008 our income has dropped by half, and with my disability being degenerative I am looking into filing for disability and what that will take to get going. We are learning to get by with less, hunting for our meat, I cook from scratch and make things that we can eat for a few days, we don't have sat TV, but do have high speed internet with streaming Netflix. An old $10 a month cellphone for emergencies. Our main extravagance are four horses, we use all four to go on back country pack trips in the summer and I take a wheelchair. We also have a big horse trailer that is part camper and we use that, too, but only take two horses on those trips. We bought a big truck that is only for hauling that horse trailer. I am not yet willing to give up my camper trips or my two extra horses. But that is really the only major place I can see to simplify in a big way. I am sick of tires, for one thing, any of you bought tires recently? Ouch!

[razz]

:welcome: You have an interesting life so some extra frugality can only help.

[new2oregon]

​welcome to our simple lives

[KayLR]

Welcome, Sarah! Your life sounds very interesting indeed!

[pinkytoe]

Welcome! I have a lot of family in your neck of the woods and dream of living there when I retire. Art and horses....sounds wonderful!

[Float On]

Welcome. 2008 is when our income was affected too. We made our living by our art for 27 years (blown glass). Just closed our studio and sold all our equipment this past year. I had to give up the horses years ago for the husband's studio. Always resented that a bit - had horses my entire life. Life is always in flux....maybe horses will come back to me someday.

[Gardenarian]

Hi Simplesarah and welcome!
Your backcountry trips sound fascinating. I always dreamed of going off on the range with a horse (I've never actually had horses myself.)

I would love to see your scultpures!

It sounds like you and your dh are making a lot of hard choices. I hope you get to keep your horses!
And tires - I can relate! I spent extra to get the ones with the really long warranty, hoping it works out cheaper per mile - we'll see.

[SimpleSarah]

I think things changed for so many people in 2008. We used to make twice as much $$$, but we spent a lot, too. We went on a five week camper trip in 2007 with two horses, it was wonderful. Somehow we assumed that would keep happening every year, but then the economy crashed. I am very lucky to still have a market for my work, but the days of the deep pockets and crazy eBay auctions are over it seems. It is a small hobby market so there isn't really a way to squeeze more money out of the limited pool, and over the last decade a lot more people have entered it trying to sell their work, so the dollars available to any one artist are less, too. I think if worst came to worst and I did have to apply for disability I could sell one horse pretty easily, another could be sold but it would be tough, and the other two I would eat ramen noodles everyday to keep.

[awakenedsoul]

I love your story, Simple Sara. You sound very dedicated and disciplined. I look forward to reading more of your posts. Welcome to the forum!!!

[mtnlaurel]

Welcome! You are going to love it here. There are many horse lovers here on the board.
I have many happy memories of the San Juan mountains - one of my favorite places on Earth.

Re: 2008 - we were totally sucker punched too.
My husband was let go August 2008. Very first call was to realtor to get out of our house. Priced it to move and was out of it within 4 days on market.
We then bought a small camper and took extended trip from Colorado to California and up the coast - we had kids that were not in school yet and thought this would be one of the last 'blank' periods of our lives for a while... We had no clue what was on the horizon (and how 'blank' it was going to get). We had saved up the 6 month living expenses (at full house rate, not camper rate) and just assumed hubby with MBA would have no issues in finding next job. (took 19 months! - had to move to area of country we NEVER considered living in... and were damn happy to do it!).
It was totally surreal to listen to Market Place every day that fall of '08 - I have a distinct memory of driving through the San Juan mountains looking out the window at the amazing views as financial analysts were flipping out as the market was eddying the drain.

We have scrapped our way back though. DH starting new job in a much more reasonable cost of living area of country and getting significant raise - we feel like we've won the lottery!
Interestingly enough, he's going to work for what seems like a 1%-er -- to me being a barnacle on 1% is surest strategy right this second.

We are super glad you found the board.

[SimpleSarah]

The idea of selling everything and doing an extended camper trip is always appealing to me :) At what point did it get old? I also have living in an Airstream fantasies. These things are a lot harder to do with a wheelchair, though. I can still stand up and walk a few steps with crutches for now, that is how I can still use our camper.

I really don't want to move. My mortgage is quite small compared to most, I live in a very nice part of the country, I find it very difficult to make friends because of my disability and am so lucky to have two great girlfriends here, one just up the road. I love my small piece of property, with a small barn my husband and his father, now passed, built together. The deck that my mother, now gone as well, and I put the decking on. I don't mind the winters here, many people hate it and some spend part of the winters in AZ, but I am content.

It has been hard to adjust to making half as much money, but I am sorta into the whole frugal thing now. We can ride our horses from home to a few thousand acres of national forest. It is quiet and beautiful. This time of year the creek is flowing. Life is good, for now....

[mtnlaurel]

The idea of selling everything and doing an extended camper trip is always appealing to me :) At what point did it get old?

Me, just by myself, it would never get old... I suffer with wonderlust.
It did get worrisome from a family perspective when hubby had been job hunting in transit for 6 weeks and NOTHING was sticking... no solid leads....crickets. So not what we pictured as we struck out on the adventure.
And then when we got to southern Oregon as we drove past what were designed to be temporary campgrounds realized that those were people's permanent homes (there was recently a homeless thread here where a member shared their experience with this).
It was starting to feel a little too Grapes Of Wrath.


I really don't want to move.
I hope you didn't think I was suggesting that for you guys... your scenario sounds so wonderful. I bet your horses bring you much happiness and contentment and all the health benefits of feeling whole.

In our instance, we sold our house so quickly because we were hoping to get closer to family in another part of the country... it didn't pan out at that time, but now it is with this next upcoming move!!!!
Where we were in the CO mountains I was just done with the 8 months of snow and well paying jobs were not easy to come by - it just didn't seem sustainable to me.


I haven't read all of this thread yet, but I have been meaning to... it's on self-employment
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/showthread.php?3813-Self-employment-Support
maybe there are some additional income ideas in there ???

[RosieTR]

Welcome Sarah! I live in the more crowded part of CO, on the other side of the divide. But wow the SW CO is also so pretty! I hope this forum gives you ideas on how to keep your lifestyle and horses, esp since it sounds like they really help you get outdoors and do things you enjoy. Not sure what to say about the tires though-you do need good ones for the snow. I know some folks on here have dealt with disabilities, so there should be some advice around about that. Welcome!

[SimpleSarah]

We moved here from your neck of the woods Rosie :) I lived over there for 11 years, my husband was born and raised there. Funny but I have met more people who live over there since I have lived here than people who live here. Life sure is funny sometimes.

I am going to a neurologist soon to start getting my ducks in a row for when I have to apply for disability. It may be a few years yet, but it will be a few very difficult and emotional years for me, saying goodbye to something that took care of me my whole life and having to become depenent on others. Such is life I guess.

[JWtravels]

Welcome Sarah! That is really cool that you have horses, they are beautiful creatures! Hoping things are going well for you. I am brand new to the forum also