TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NM

February 23, 2010 to July 30, 2010.  Rocky and I found an ad on Craigslist offering a house for rent in the hot springs district of Truth or Consequences, complete with a well that pumped 97 degree natural mineral spring water into a tub on the property.  We were due for a change from the chicken farm in Deming so we called only to find out that the property had already been rented.  We left our name and number anyway.  A month or two later, we received a call from the landlord, Tisha.  Tisha had been renting to a woman who was trying to make a living selling her art.  The woman was having a hard time collecting rent from this woman and asked for our help.

We eventually agreed to buy this woman out of her lease, giving her $500 and Tisha the remainder of the agreed upon rent.  We even offered to help her move and ended up doing all the work.  After about a year, Rocky bought the house and we’re currently renovating it.  The once back shed (studio) is now Rocky’s very cool bedroom, complete with both standard air conditioning and swamp cooler air conditioner, large flat screen, wireless internet access, built-in queen size bed with 8 inch memory foam mattress, soon-t-be half bath, and more.  He even bought a new door and moved the entrance from the east side to the north side, facing the house.  We even built a greenhouse on the west side of the small 12’x16’ building, and hope to extend it to the south side.

Inside the house are more renovations, including my built-in 8-inch memory foam bed, new doors, new living room ceiling, and soon-to-be new large bathroom with brand new shower unit.  We’ve spread 23 tons of pea gravel over the dry dirt backyard and planted bushes, tress, roses and more.  A few stray cats began visiting so we let them lick our pots and pans and dinner plates clean.  Toonces is the matriarch cat, Chief Kitty Whiteface is most likely her offspring.  Then came Rover and Tigger, two new kittens that we assumed were more of Toonces’ offspring.  These are all golden colored kitties.  Blacky (or Crazy Eye Scaredy Cat) is the black sheep, with a long black coat.  Tigger just had a kitten that we named Conan.  Tigger and Conan are currently the only two felines welcome near the back door.