People have asked us why we’re moving. The reasons are many, but here’s a good one:
I recently went up to the ranch to start some work on the house, and this was the view from my father-in-law’s house the first morning. That hobbit-looking mound is the storm cellar, which even got some use on this trip.
Building the Fence
The goal of this trip was to build a fence around the area where we wanted to place the house. The cows were not a fan of this plan, but we couldn’t have them wandering around the construction area and out into the road.
Julie has said that building a homestead on the ranch is going to require blood, sweat and tears, and I’m here to report I’ve already achieved all three:
Blood — We put mesh horse wire fence around the property, but the existing fence facing the road was barbed wire. We’ll finish that section after the construction and put in a driveway with a large gate, but the fence had to come down. It is not possible to work with barbed wire and not draw blood.
Sweat — It got warm on a couple of days. This was an easy one.
Tears — Not tears as in crying, but tear as in torn bicep muscle. More specifically, as they said in the MRI report, “complete disruption of the distal attachment of the biceps tendon with proximal retraction of the free margin of the tendon.”
Surgery
Luckily, this happened on the second to last day. I was even able to work the morning of the last day, and I already had an unrelated doctor’s appointment scheduled for the day after I got back.
Surgery is scheduled for this Wednesday. I’ll be in a cast / splint for a couple of weeks, then a flex brace and sling, along with PT. This is my dominant arm, so my activities will be limited. For those subscribers who are here to keep track of our journey to the ranch, it may be a little while before the next update, unless I can get Julie to write a post.
Back to the Fence
One side of the property butts up against an already-fenced paddock and another faces the road and will be fenced later, so there was only two sides to do. Still that was about 800 feet of fencing, 2 tractor gates and 3 walking gates.
I’ll be the first to admit that this is a learning experience1 for me. Luckily, my father-in-law (Steven) and his ranch caretaker (Shelby) are both very knowledgeable, experienced and willing to train a noob.
I thought we’d be banging a post hole digger for days and days, and I did not expect my back to be very happy at the end. Instead, Steven hooked up an auger to his tractor for the corner and gate posts. Which he was able to obtain for us by trading an old recliner. We just used the post hole digger to clean out the holes.
But first, he had to cut them down to the size we needed, another skill I’m lacking.
All of this was carefully monitored by our supervisor and safety inspector.
Once the heavy steel corner posts were in place, it was time to start on the t-posts. Again, I expected to use the heavy driver to bang them into place, but Shelby came up with a method where we just put the post where we wanted it, then pressed it down into the ground using the tractor. Much, much easier on our backs.
Steel corner posts: done. T-posts: done. Time for the horse wire.
At one point we had to take a weather break. The ranch is in that pink, high risk area, and this was during the recent tornado outbreak. It missed the ranch but we were ready.
Steven opened up the storm cellar, just in case, and I’m glad he did. Several critters, including a black widow spider and a few scorpions, would not have welcomed us into their adopted home in the middle of the night.
Finally, we put in the gates. Two gates wide enough for a tractor, three smaller gates for walking, and (later) a double gate for the driveway.
The Yard
Here’s a view from what will be the porch on the north end of our house, looking towards our grove of trees. We’ll create a wildlife sanctuary here, with a walking path wandering through the grove. Many different types of trees in here, with lots of birds.
This is closer to the road, looking up towards where the house will be. Not sure yet if we’ll relocate these rocks closer or leave them here. Those two brush piles will be removed.
Next Steps
Dig out a driveway (the road is lower than the land) and begin the dirt work to place the house. Steven’s ranch bulldozer has just been repaired, so he’ll start that. There’s another guy coming who does the dirt and concrete work to place the house.
Final closing for the house — scheduled for Tuesday. We don’t have to be there to do the closing, so we scheduled for the day before my surgery.
House delivery — still working out those details. We had hoped to do this at the end of the month, but my surgery complicates things.
Septic (soil perc test was done while I was there), well and power — not scheduled yet.
At the End of the Day, a Ranch Sunset
Another reason we can’t wait to be there — ranch sunsets are beautiful. I will never get tired of this view.
Translation: I have no clue what I’m doing