Water is fundamental to life, so when I we were choosing the property, it was one of the primary considerations for selections. I was told that the local water supply coop serviced the property – unfortunately that was not the complete story. Manville WSC did indeed have a service lines in the area. They had one
I have been struggling to get a contract together on my building. I spent a months with a fellow in Thorndale (Andrew Unnash) before he quit taking my calls, then several months with Meuller & Whirlwind getting the design right (while coincidentally looking for someone to erect it). My thought here was that at least
We closed on the property on March 4th, 2016. And while technically the bank owns it, we are now landowners. Everything went according to plan. It was actually quite a pleasant experience. Even our lender, Jon from Capital Farm Credit was there to give us a goody bag full of paraphernalia. I will be updating
Finally able to exhale! This past Monday (2/22/16) we sold our home in Alvin (Still Waters). Things could not have worked out better for us. The obvious struggle with starting an adventure like this is how to fund it. How do you come up with 20% to secure a mortgage on a piece of land, and still have
Molly and I spent the weekend at the Mother Earth News Fair in Belton, TX. There were thousands of people there! Very inspirational. We attended great workshops lead by the people who are pioneering the sustainable living movement. There were also lots of vendors trying to catch the attention of the knowledge hungry crowds. Molly
Took another load of stuff to the ranch yesterday. Fortunately the neighbor was outside so I took advantage of the moment. Both Buddy and Gene were outside BSing so I was able to meet two of my neighbors at one time. Buddy invited me back to his awesome man-cave and we enjoyed a beer. Today
Wow, that was fast! We put the house up for sale last week, and no sooner than the sign was posted, we had a showing. And a few days letter, an offer for our full asking price. Yesterday the signed contract and earnest money was in the hands of the title company and we are
This past weekend we put our home in Santa Fe up for sale. Katelyn and I made a big sign to put in the yard, listed it on Craigslist, and built a web page for it. Within hours we had someone from down the road wanting to look at it. I guess they fell in love because we
Looking back on 2015… We got serious about moving this summer. There was 70 acres next to the in-laws that was rumored to be coming on the market and I spent many an hour in dreaming and scheming how to buy it, but it did not come to pass. In passing, Michael and I went driving
Yesterday officially kicks off the move. We took our first trailer load of stuff to the ranch and loaded it into the connex that was delivered Monday morning. We’re are trying to clear out some of the clutter at the house so we can put it on the market (so it ‘shows’ better). The 40′
I’ve been asked a couple of times where we got the name Amber Oaks Ranch. I must confess, choosing a name is a difficult task – especially in the internet age, as finding an available domain is difficult. Amber Oaks Ranch is located in the historic community of Shiloh, TX, so naturally I was trying to incorporate
Sure, it goes without saying, I have a blog and you’re reading it, so of course it’s on the internet. Well, things don’t always happen as they appear. I’ve been working on the blog for a few days, trying to figure out WordPress and all before I went live. Well today, my nephew hooked me
