Life takes interesting paths, most of which are not at all what we had planned. Well, as the saying goes, if you want to make God laugh, develop a plan. Our plan was to sell our Flagstaff house over 18 months or 2 years, and meanwhile slowly build our dream alpaca ranch on the 95 acres in central Montana that we purchased 12 years ago.
When our home in Flagstaff sold within 2 months of listing, we had to make a decision...move north without any facilities in place or move to a rental property. We could not find any rentals suitable for livestock within driving distance of Flagstaff, where Don's optometric practice is still open. Since we needed his income to pull this off, we opted to move the alpacas north with me as their caretaker, while Don was to stay in northern Arizona.
So in April of this year I headed to Lewistown, Montana with all 34 alpacas, cats and dogs. The plan was to live in a motor home while our barn, including the apartment, was quickly built. Unfortunately this was the most bizarre Montana weather year that anyone can recall. We had snow (lots of it) until early June, then rain until mid-July. The shortest summer on record ended with frost in early September and the return of winter October 1st. The strange weather created many construction delays.
Faced with a still-incomplete and untested facility and a serious Montana winter on the doorstep, Don and I determined that the safest course of action was to move back to warmer climes. In the best of circumstances, dealing with winter in the northcountry is no joke, but combine that with one person trying to handle over 30 head of livestock and there was a recipe for disaster building.
Fortunately, life presented us with an amazing alternative option. Our close friends, Mark and Rachel Hendrickson, had retired from the alpaca business a couple of years ago and their awesome facility was sitting virtually empty, along with a lovely two story home formerly used by caretakers.
While it has been an expensive change in plans, we now have the alpacas and the pets settled into their new accommodations in the rolling oak-covered hills of southeastern Arizona. Blue skies and sunny days have replaced gale force winds and horizontal snow. Living at Heartland Ranch is like having a spa-retreat experience while we wait for better weather to arrive in Montana - not in our original plans but truly the best of Plan B's.
Oh boy do I understand what you're going through. Our house in Salt Lake City isn't even on the market yet and we are living in limbo partly in Utah and partly in Oklahoma. The apartment above the barn should be liveable within the next couple of weeks so all we have to do is magically sell the Utah house so we can finish the house in Oklahoma.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you'll just settle in and avoid the harsh winters altogether? Best wishes from the Realtor who is glad we sold your home so quickly!
ReplyDeleteIf I could figure out how to afford it, I would gladly make this the first 'snow bird alpaca ranch' and head for Arizona every winter! But the price tag is a bit hard to handle, even if the weather is gorgeous.
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