Welcome to Cactusweb...Home of Cactuslady Graphics and Web Design.

Cactusweb is a work in progress. Right now it is a place for me to post my portfolio and talk a little about starting life over. In the future, I hope that Cactusweb will be home to my own dream project - the New Mexico Elder Artists Cooperative.

I am a baby-boomer, but unlike the AARP version, I am single, have no investments to worry about, no retirement plan, no pension, no IRA's, no savings and no children or grandchildren to care for me if - or when - I get too old to take care of myself.

I am not the only one. There are a lot of us - maybe we are a little too different or too independent to make the couple-thing work successfully, maybe we are a little too off-beat or rebellious or alternative to work in Corporate America long enough to get the financial cushions mentioned above, maybe an injury or illness has changed us, maybe the money is just gone.

I know I am not the only one who wonders how I will live when I am too old to work or who will take care of me if I get ill or disabled. I think about nursing homes - even the "good" ones are dismal.

Well, my answer to that is to think creatively and to find a solution that suits who I am and how I choose to grow old. My solution is to live cooperatively and communally with others like myself. I am a child of the '60's, an old hippie who still wants to live free,breathe clean air, eat healthy food, play my music loud, smoke some good homegrown (legally and medically, of course) and be left the hell alone!

We are the most vulnerable when we are alone. Living alone is the most expensive and the riskiest way to live. If 5 people live alone, they have 5 mortgages or 5 rent payments, 5 washing machines, 5 cars, 5 cable tv bills and 5 of everything else. All they have is their own resources, which in uncertain times, just may not be enough.

Living cooperatively changes that - 5 people with some resources can buy a really nice property with space for everyone. Everything else can be shared. Shared living expenses are a fraction of what living alone costs and you always have someone there to feed the critters when you want to take a trip somewhere.

I have lived cooperatively with one person for 5 years. I hope to expand my intentional family in the future to include others who are looking for a cooperative way to spend the so-called "golden years."

All photos on this site were taken by Cactuslady and are of New Mexico - The Land of Enchantment