We arrived in NM on September 9, 2019 and here it is June 14, 2020 and I am just now getting this blog up to date. A lot has happened between Sept and June. If you will recall back in early May of 2019 we visited
The Ranch in Lakewood, NM. with the express idea of looking into a lifetime lease on one of the sites. Somewhere that we could use as a home base. Well, we found one that we liked and we acquired the lease. Closed and signed the papers on Cinco de Mayo. 75 Quail Trail was our new "home".
And are we ever glad that we did. More on that later, but for now the most important thing was being in an area for a while so that Mary could get treatment for bowel problems that plagued her our entire trip east and again back west. Don't know how she managed it. Soon after arriving she did her homework and scheduled an appointment with a General Surgeon in Artesia. The result of this was a colonoscopy and a referral to a GastroEnterologist in Roswell and a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. A little geography lesson- Lakewood is about 15 miles South of Artesia, 57 miles South of Roswell and about 22 miles North of Carlsbad. Just so you have a general idea of where we are located.
To make a long story short, the Gastro Enterologist in Roswell wanted to do another Colonoscopy plus Enteroscopy - a look at both ends. Prior to doing this she had to visit a heart specialist in Roswell and have an Echocardiogram done. And then she was admitted to Roswell's Southeastern Medical Center where they could focus on getting her electrolytes back in balance.
Poor M was in the hospital for almost a week before they performed the procedures.
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| A place she won't soon forget.And neither will I. This was her home for almost a week |
When all was said and done, extreme ulcerative colitis was confirmed. But more importantly, they found NO cancer. She came home a little tired, a little weak, but with restored spirit. She had a few more visits with Enterologist in Roswell with the end result being a prescription for Humira to treat her condition. How to pay for this drug or rather getting the financial assistance to pay for this drug is a whole other story, but suffice to say, she persisted and got the drug and the assistance. Things are SO much better now compared to a year ago or even 6 months ago.
On the brighter side - Roswell is an interesting area:
The Alien theme is everywhere. Including the RV Repair Service that we use:
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| One of the best RV Tech's I've come across. |
OK, back to Quail Trail. We both decided that we didn't like the color, so we repainted.
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| Our screened in porch. Lexie kind of likes it out here. |
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| Inside my little "room' |
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| Can't have enough fishing stuff...... |
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| Tools plus more fishing stuff |
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| Mary's sewing, painting, drawing area |
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| Our Pantry |
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| More of Pantry/Storage area |
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| The door on the left takes you into my area |
Like I said previously, Lexie sure likes the porch area
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| Lexie eyeballing one of the many rabbits we have in the park |
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| Eyeballing mother and baby Roadrunner. They are around all the time, and don't seem to have any fear. One day I caught one up on our grill looking in the porch area at Lexie. |
Right after we got here I signed up as a volunteer for the Water Committee. Being in the desert, water is something special. The park has 2 wells with all pumped water going through a Reverse Osmosis system(to remove unwanted elements from the water)before being distributed to the park.
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| Left the door to the pump room open while I recorded well readings in R/O room. Guess who showed up? They are curious! |
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| The R/O System |
Each member of the committee volunteers to monitor the system for a particular week. This involves getting and posting readings for the well generating water for that particular week(we have 2 wells), ie, water pumped, R/O system waste water, and water distributed to the park. It is kind of an interesting job that I enjoy doing. When the park is full we'll pump about 4000- 5000 gal a day and distribute to park around 3000 gal.
Some more about 75 Quail Trail:
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| Yes, we do get snow here. Fortunately not too much and not too often. |
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| The park is surrounded by an electric fence and cattle guards to keep these guys out. |
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| Not unusual to see when entering or leaving the park |
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| Yes, we do have hummingbirds |
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| A view up Quail Trail from the roof of our trailer |
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| A view to our waste water evaporative pond |
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| Claret Cup Cactus in bloom |
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| Our Desert Willow |
One last thing that I should mention is Brantley Lake, which is located about 5 miles south of us. Like most impoundments in the west, large dams hold back water for use in the dry periods. And all water is subject to rights. In the case of Brantley Lake. the State of Texas holds the water rights. I have been amazed at the water fluctuation. Between October and June, I'll bet the water has dropped 25'. Still, it is convenient and nice to put my little pontoon boat on the water- when the wind isn't blowing. Which seems to be most of the time.
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| Fishing with my buddy Eli |
Back in the beginning I mentioned how glad we were to acquire the lease on the lot. Never was this more apparent than during this Covid19 lockdown. Every morning during this period, Mary and I would look at each other and comment on how lucky we were to have this place. We really don't know what we would have done. The park itself has been on lockdown mode since mid march. Nobody new in. It is still that way now. The only ones allowed in to the park are lease holders. And the lease holders that leave for a period of time and then return have to self quarantine. All in all, the Covid 19 crisis has not affected us as it has others. We happen to be in an extremely low population area with low infection rate. This is a good thing.
One thing that it did affect was my cataract surgery in Roswell. On March 18 I had my right eye done and was supposed to go in on March 25 for the second one. On March 24 they stopped all elective surgery, so it was not until they lifted that ban in late May that I got the second eye done.
Hopefully we are getting back to normal. And I sure hope so.
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| And we've seen 104 already too |
With things getting back to normal, we are planning on finishing up our medical stuff - I have an appointment on 6/30 with the cataract surgeon for final checkup. And sometime in between Mary has a session with her enterologist to review Humira results. After that we are hoping to get to South Dakota to spend the rest of the summer. So that gets us up to date. Hopefully we'll have more good stuff to report as the summer proceeds.
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| Here he is walking right up to me |
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| Off to find that coyote........ |
