An End To A Good Weekend

What a weekend, it went by way too fast.

Saturday morning was spent lounging around the apartment, looking at floor plans, talking about renting, buying, building, etc.  We had planned to go out and do a few things but we had a hard stop at 2pm to get ready for a group trip out on the lake.  Jennifer's employer has a yearly get together with the staff on a double-deck boat out on the lake for fun, food, swimming, and friends.

This is how we ended Saturday.

Sunday, Jennifer left for church early while I waited for the boy to get ready.  Once we were ready, I realized I left my keys in Jennifer's car.  <sigh>  After she got back, we headed out to the property to try and get a few things accomplished.  We met Judith and Russell out there...and Jenn's plants.  Ah, the plants.  As nice as the plants are, they somehow just don't seem to fit in with the existing natural fauna of the ranch.  Property, place, the land, the ranch, it's all synonymous.

Meanwhile, Jenn put the finishing touches on the address numbers for the gate.  Things are stating to feel and look official! 

This is how we ended Sunday, and our weekend.

Here Comes The Rain

Since doing a little land clearing not so long ago, life has pretty much slowed down on the property.  We've enjoyed meeting with some designers and builders to get ideas for a home, but as of now, I think we're going to slow things down a bit.  We're still anxious to get out on the property but want to do it without throwing caution to the wind.

Meanwhile, we've been given a picnic table as a gift and have been spending some time on the weekends putting it together.  Jenn's been staining it and prepping it for outdoor use so it will not only look good, it will hopefully last.

This past weekend brought several inches of much needed rain.  Note to self, install a rain gauge...oh, and call that guy about laying some new road-base.


The ruts you see here were from my father-in-law's truck earlier Sunday morning.  It had been raining non-stop for 24 hours.  Here I've just opened the gate to go in. 

I had to get a running start and though we made it, I think I widened the road just inside the gate by a few feet.  Yeah, I was grinning the whole time but nervous about having to call someone to come pull us out.

Good Times!

Blessings

Friday night was our first night out on the property.

Some time last week, Jenn had a talk with one of the pastors about the property.  He too has some land a few miles outside the Austin area so he finds the topic more interesting than most.  After some discussion about blessing homes and property, he gladly agreed to come out Saturday morning and bless the property. 

So, Friday night after work we gathered up some things, the kids, some pizza, a few DVDs courtesy of Red Box, and headed out to the property for Friday night family movies.  The four of us had a pretty good time just visiting and spending time together, something that Jenn and I cherish more these days as they're now both teens and the last few years have been rather difficult, but that's another story.

Saturday morning arrived early, partly cloudy, birds off in the distance, and the sounds of saws.  Our new neighbors were busy by 8am cutting stone slabs for...whatever it is they needed them.  Though this was unexpected, the noise wasn't really that bad given their proximity.  We knew that the noises out in the country would still be there but, that they were just different noises than in the suburbs.  For me, it was much better than hearing our current in-town apartment neighbor stomping around all night long or the sounds of booming car stereos driving by. 

Ah, booming car stereos.  My, how things have changed!

By 9am Jenn and I had been outside sitting on our "front porch" enjoying our morning coffee for a while.  By 10am Ryan and I were out walking around the RV area just visiting with each other and moving some of the broken limbs from last weeks cleaning into piles.  Not very productive but it was pleasant and yet, another memory I'll cherish.  By 10:30am Jenn's mom, step-dad, sister, nephew, and friend had showed up to visit.  They also brought out some of our patio furniture we've been keeping at their place.  Moments later Pastor Kevin and his little boy arrived.

We sat around our new "front porch" area while Kevin read a couple of Bible verses and a quick prayer blessing us, our land, and our future home.  During the prayer, we heard a small rumble of thunder off in the distance, to which we all later commented.  Minutes later, the drops began to fall, we all said our goodbyes, and the four of us ducked back in to the RV for shelter. 

It was nice hearing the rain outside and the timing was so befitting after just having blessings bestowed upon the land.

Very little work took place out on the land this weekend, but suffice it to say, it was a good weekend. 

Thank you, Lord.

Land Spreading Out So Far and Wide

This has been one heck of a weekend!  Our property has a forest of flame leaf sumacs covering a good 75% of property and we decided to clear as much of it as possible this weekend.  In 100+ degree weather.  So when we went to see about renting a tractor, they were out at the time but had a Bobcat with a mower attached to the front.  Okay, guess it'll do.

The bucket they decided to "throw in" for free did me no good, we used it strictly for mowing as there wasn't much time for anything else.

The whole thing loaded back on the trailer for early morning return tomorrow morning.  A BIG thanks to my Father-in-law for hauling the Bobcat out to the property and back for us!  Thanks Russell!!

Had some family and friends stop by and lend a hand with clearing, Thanks Todd, Andrew, Tony, Shannon, Kristi, and Judith!  Here I am at the controls.  It was a blast!

Couldn't seem to get Jenn in the thing, she had other plans.

Here's the drive down to the gate, before...

 

Here's the drive down to the gate, after.

Here's some views facing South/SW, before...

And, afterwards

~

Let There Be Light!

Though there is electricity on the property, we've set the wheels in motion for a downward area light to be mounted as well as wiring for RV, hopefully this week! 

This is from the center of the property where the utility pole stands looking SW as Jenn marches back toward the vehicle.

We are land owners!

It's official, we are land owners! Ten acres north west of Austin! I'll add pictures as soon as I figure out if I need flash to do it, iPads can be so picky!

Time To Move!

Wow, time has really flown by since the last post.  Not only has two major holidays passed, and a couple minor ones too, but so has the entire Winter season!  Well, Spring is here and it has brought about some changes.

We finally got an offer on the house and should close the second week of April!  Yaaaay!
Now, time to pack and move!!  Booo!

Since my last post, we have looked at several properties and just recently narrowed it down to two, but just as we were about to decide one of them sold.  The story there is that someone had an offer on it before we came along, yet the owners were taking backup offers.  Though we could have taken the deal out from under them, the thought of it happening to us already gave us some hesitation.  It was during this time that they secured the purchase.  Good for them!  Especially since we were leaning towards that one anyway.  As far as the other property goes, we started to make the deal but something just didn't feel right.  Its a beautiful piece of land with plenty of room to work, play, romp, graze, plant, and just about whatever, but that gut feeling prevailed and we turned it away.

So many choices out there and so many factors to base our decisions.  Distance to work, cost of improvements, cost of building, types of animals allowed and quantity, all while trying to cut expenses.  I can hear Dave Ramsey now telling us that we can't have our cake and eat too!  We've gone to looking for land 10 acres and greater to anything with a house and "some" acres that's practically move-in ready.  Oh, and the drive!  Gotta consider that one too.

Well, when it does happen, we'll know it.  And then we'll post it!

Meanwhile the search continues.