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Read All About Us!

Why on earth do you want to know about us? Oh? Curiosity? Wondering who on earth is writing all this stuff about Durango?

Well, the who is mostly me, Susie. But the rest of my family is involved, at least in the pictures and trips.

See, I consider myself from Durango. Even though I was born in Michigan and lived there, Ohio and Minnesota before ever coming to Colorado.

No, I'm not a "native" (and you can bet the "natives" of Colorado are quick to point that out!). But the first time we came out, when I was only twelve, it felt like home. Mountains all around me (instead of flatlands), clear, fresh air (watch the sunburn!) and 2000 acres we were allowed to run around on, even though only 30 of it was ours.

That's heaven, in my book. No need for TV (we didn't have one until a year after we moved out permanently when I was 16), computers as we know them now weren't even invented, nor Playstations, iPods or any of the other technological interferences we have now. (Like the laptop I'm typing this on...)

So, ever since I was twelve, I considered myself from Colorado.


About The Rest of Us...

Not so the rest of my family. At least the other three can't claim they're from Durango technically, yet.

For instance, here's my delightful husband, Randy, a born-and-raised, true-to-the-core Minnesotan. Yet he wants to live in Colorado more. (Who wouldn't?) He promised me, when he picked me up twenty-three years ago (as I write this), that it would only be about five years until we could move back out.

Hmm... Five years times nearly five...which multiple of five do you mean, honey?

No fault of his. Durango is certainly not
about making millions easily. Much easier to be a Durango millionaire by bringing the money with you. But finally, after a very
long wait, we are moving out this year (2009)! Yippee!

Fortunately, we have our property out there bought and paid for already. Now, if we can just afford the house...

Here's one of the reasons we didn't move sooner, our lovely daughter, Jessi. She's our second child, and as far as she's concerned, she's a Coloradoan already, even if she's never lived there (yet).

Yearly trips out (or twice yearly when we could) since she was born made her a mountain girl at heart, too. She's excited to have a new room to decorate, and new
place to make friends, and that wonderful mountain air right outside her window - and great new ideas to write about out there. (Like me, she writes, too.)

Reason number one, our son, Kevin, who came first. Like his dad, he's a car buff and all around mechanic-whiz-kid. Great with projects around the house, too. He's looking forward to getting a 4-wheel ATV and tooling around out west. And snowmobiling in a lot deeper snow.

Jessi will gladly say it's his fault we're still in Minnesota till the end of the school year. Because he's about done learning automo-
tive technology at the local tech college -
as a senior in high school. Pretty cool.

We didn't want to make him try to transfer credits, so after we sold our Minnesota home last summer (can you believe it?), we decided to stay one more school year.

But come May, we're outta here!


If You Can't Move Out, Visit... a Lot

You can move a mountain girl out of the mountains, but you can't move the mountains out of the girl. Thank goodness Randy likes to drive.

Every year since we married, we've been out to Durango at least once. My family still lives there, so we always had a place to stay and a base to start from on our adventures.

Durango is all about adventure! Anasazi ruins, historic train rides, jeep trails, river rafting... you name it, we've done most of it on one trip or another. And taken scads of pictures while we were at it.

Even before we married, Randy came out a few times, so he was hooked, too.

The drive between Minnesota and Durango is only for the stout-hearted, though. Two days straight, cooped up in a van with two kids...

Yeah, we started them young. Kevin was nearly a year old the first trip he made. But he was amazingly good. He seemed to enjoy the music we played.

Jessi likes the drive now as much as getting there - she's our travel bug, I think.

So despite having two children to tote, we always enjoyed ourselves. And they quickly became first-rate travelers.

Now we're starting a whole new adventure in Durango. Living there! We can't wait!


Buying a Dream

Living in Minnesota is not all bad. The winters make you tough so anywhere else is a breeze (except maybe Antarctica), the state bird - I mean insect, the mosquito rarely gets bigger than a chihuahua (just kidding) and the people smile at you all the time because they froze their lips off at 30 degrees below zero last winter (kidding again).

But something about it just isn't as relaxed as living in Durango. The pace, the I've-got-to-get-there-now-so-I'll-just-cut-you-off-in-traffic mentality (we're talking Twin Cities area, not the quieter Minnesota countryside)... Ah, what's to miss?



Come to Durango for laid back living (and keep in mind that means when you're building your house and they promise to be out "tomorrow", tomorrow may mean next week).

The attitude in Durango is polar opposite to the one in the Twin Cities. It'll get done when it's done. It'll wait until tomorrow if the skiing's good today. You can't be in a hurry out there, it just doesn't mesh with the atmosphere.

That's a good thing. Good for the blood pressure, the relaxation. One of the main reasons we tried so hard to find a place out there long before we knew we could move out.

One of the best things about our stay in Minnesota all this time is that the house we built here paid for the property we bought out there. Thirty-five quiet, gorgeous acres of it! Away from town, away from traffic, away from 24-hour-a-day barking dogs, away from noisy neighbors building their kids' playset at midnight next door...

If you'd like to sneak a peek at the whole process, check out all the great pictures of our place .

Now, if only the economy hadn't fallen into the sewer, we could afford the whole house we want to build. (Don't worry, we can afford most of it with a few minor changes).

You can't really complain about a place that gives you that big of a gift toward your dreams, can you?


So What About This Website?

Well, we do want to make a decent living living in Durango. And that's about as easy as making a million dollars by doing nothing but picking up pennies others have dropped.

At least if you think "regular job". Which I never have anyway, so why start now?

A couple years ago, I heard about this "bootcamp" where you could set up a website that could make a second stream of income (or all your income, if you choose the right niche).

With expert guidance, we had websites created in just five days. (I do not recommend slamming one up that fast, however. It isn't a race or a get-rich-this-instant-scheme, if you really want to succeed.)

You were supposed to choose something you're passionate about to use as your website niche. And I'm very passionate about Durango! After some careful research, this website was born.

Between working full time (at home) and homeschooling the two kids in between, I haven't been able to put as much time as I'd like into this website. But it's growing despite that, and now looks to be a new part of our income.

If that isn't a reason to jump up and down in excitement...

So the biggest why of this website about Durango must be first that I love Durango so much, I want to share that with others. Reason number two is:

I can make money with this website.

Now, maybe you know next to nothing about the internet. Yeah, me too. But it didn't stop me, once I had the right tools. And the right tools?

Site Build It! or SBI! as it's more often called.

This is only the first website I created. I've since added two more to my arsenal, and soon hope to carry the bulk of our income with all three. What's not to like about that?

I work at home when I'm free to do so, not on someone else's schedule, I vacation whenever I want and still make money. The harder I work (and I don't consider it work because I think it's fun), the more I can make. When I need a break, I take one.

It's as simple as that.

If you'd like to learn more, check out my page that gives more details about how this website makes us money .

I'll be happy to show you around. And talk to you if you have questions. So go ahead and click that link just above.

See you in Durango!

June 2010.

I just thought you might like to see my new "office" this and my other two websites are affording us...

Nice, huh? And here's how I dress to go to the office...

If you haven't checked out the pictures of the house going up, do so. It's fun to see how it went. (Funny to write about how many things went wrong, too.)

I promise I'll have the latest pictures posted soon - probably as another slideshow.

Anyway, we made it; we built it; we're living in it and living "the life" of ease. Mostly.

If you'd like to know more about how we got where we wanted to be, and free of 9-to-5 jobs , just check out how I'm expanding this website to help others find the same security we've got going.

Cheers from Durango!