The Desert Changed My Life. It Can Change Yours, Too.
It’s been almost a year since we moved to the desert. We have an amazing yard now, thanks to the sand. Although it’s still a work in progress, here are a few things that make it so lovely:
a well-designed, highly-insulated house (with a huge south-facing, sun-blocking wall on the west side of our bedroom),
a large and attractive yard,
a very well-designed outdoor kitchen, complete with a fully functional fire pit,
two fire rings, a large playhouse for our son (and a well used playhouse),
a beautiful swimming pool,
a massive deck and patio,
an excellent patio furniture set we bought at Lowes,
a large screened-in back porch that provides shelter from the sun for all but the hottest parts of the day,
a lovely, huge backyard, along with a fire pit for an extra-large party.
When we moved here to Wyoming, we had no idea about how much time and energy it would take us to get into our new home, but over the last two months, we’ve learned that this home is extremely special.
We’re not the first to have left it behind. It seems that nearly every winter a home in the mountains is sold and taken off the market. Once a person sees what a wonderful home has become, it becomes one of the things they hold on to. It becomes a family heirloom, a gift passed down from generation to generation.
The family heirloom has brought us to where we are today, and it’s inextricably connected to all the memories we have in the desert.
The desert has always been a home for me. It was my first summer in college when I discovered the area, and it’s where I spent my summers with my dad and my uncle. It provided us