We bought a tract house in 1991 in Temecula to ensure our three daughters had great opportunities. Dusty worked at the Naval Aviation Depot (now Fleet Readiness Center Southwest) in Coronado CA. When our last daughter graduated in 2001 we looked at options to buy a comparable house closer to Dusty's work or property that would give us peace.
We opted to buy property that would give us peace, provide us with the opportunity for self sustainment, and allow for our children, grandchildren and future great grandchildren to have the same peace and self sustainment, via the property, that we would enjoy.
Our focus was to find property in the Riverside or San Diego County region. We looked at property across the region to include Rainbow, De Luz, Lake Henshaw, Anza, Sunshine Summit and several remote unincorporated areas. We hiked over each piece of property and after five years of searching we realized that Chihuahua Valley was the location that we'd call home. We finally found the one piece of land that we both instantly liked.
Purchasing the land proved to be a challenge due to county provisions. The seller had subdivided the land into three parcels and imposed a road development condition. We had put in our offer on two of the parcels. After six months, the seller withdrew the sale as he decided to sell the land as one sale, giving us first opportunity to purchase. We scrambled and with every mean possible, we were able to purchase the entire piece of land.
Tina redirected her income to a savings account to manage the land costs and we learned to depend on Dusty's income for everything else. Initially, we put in a water tank and had water trucked in. It took a bit, but after three years we were able to successfully dig and install a well. Since we would not be able to put in any electrical until we had a building permit, Dusty put his handyman talents to work and installed a solar pumped system. We were finally getting somewhere!
With only hand tools such as shovels and rakes, Dusty worked to hard to dig the primary drives, clear a spot for our RV along with an area for a small orchard and Tina's much dreamed of bramble patch. Seasons would come and go and so would the weeds and the endless task of Dusty hand clearing of the endless weeds in his hard cleared areas. In 2006, instead of purchasing a new car, Tina decided to make do and put the money into a Kubota tractor for Dusty, instead. A new car would come later, but the tractor expense was well worth the wait. It provided Dusty the means to prepare for our future in Chihuahua Valley.
We opted to buy property that would give us peace, provide us with the opportunity for self sustainment, and allow for our children, grandchildren and future great grandchildren to have the same peace and self sustainment, via the property, that we would enjoy.
Our focus was to find property in the Riverside or San Diego County region. We looked at property across the region to include Rainbow, De Luz, Lake Henshaw, Anza, Sunshine Summit and several remote unincorporated areas. We hiked over each piece of property and after five years of searching we realized that Chihuahua Valley was the location that we'd call home. We finally found the one piece of land that we both instantly liked.
Purchasing the land proved to be a challenge due to county provisions. The seller had subdivided the land into three parcels and imposed a road development condition. We had put in our offer on two of the parcels. After six months, the seller withdrew the sale as he decided to sell the land as one sale, giving us first opportunity to purchase. We scrambled and with every mean possible, we were able to purchase the entire piece of land.
Tina redirected her income to a savings account to manage the land costs and we learned to depend on Dusty's income for everything else. Initially, we put in a water tank and had water trucked in. It took a bit, but after three years we were able to successfully dig and install a well. Since we would not be able to put in any electrical until we had a building permit, Dusty put his handyman talents to work and installed a solar pumped system. We were finally getting somewhere!
With only hand tools such as shovels and rakes, Dusty worked to hard to dig the primary drives, clear a spot for our RV along with an area for a small orchard and Tina's much dreamed of bramble patch. Seasons would come and go and so would the weeds and the endless task of Dusty hand clearing of the endless weeds in his hard cleared areas. In 2006, instead of purchasing a new car, Tina decided to make do and put the money into a Kubota tractor for Dusty, instead. A new car would come later, but the tractor expense was well worth the wait. It provided Dusty the means to prepare for our future in Chihuahua Valley.