Blessings of the Double Portion Ranch

As everyone knows, on the eighth day God created Texas (or 'chocolate' depending on the t-shirt you are reading).  All of you who read this blog know that God gave us a little piece of Texas to watch over for the next several years.  The Groundhog family got 10 beautiful acres in South Texas to live and work on recently.  We have named it The Double Portion Ranch (or DP for short).  Why?  Because it's like a blessing where your cup runneth over, a good measure, pressed down, and shaken together.  Easily a double portion. I have to come up with a brand symbol now!  I have some ideas already.

I've not exactly shared my history much on this blog.  I've been a city kid/guy pretty much all my life.  The closest I ever got to rural living was a norther tier SAC base for a couple of years that was stuck in the middle of nowhere.  I loved that area!  When I was a teen  I lived on the edge of a small river town that was close enough to a big town to almost be considered a suburb.  Still, there was a lot of country around the place.  I learned to ride horses there as well as just a little bit about rural living.  I'm not sure if that period created my love of the country or if it was just naturally in me all along.  But all my adult life I've wanted to get out of the city and live in the country.  I could literally feel it.  When I drove to the country a peace enveloped me, as I approached the city, usually coming home from some place (but it worked going to other cities too), the stress levels would rise.

God blessed me with the fulfillment of my desire to live rural this year and it's just knocked my socks off.  It may sound like bragging but really I'm just recounting these blessings here to remember them and give them the recognition they deserve before God and man.  And I guess chronicling things I thank God for regarding all the blessings of the DP Ranch.  Without further ado I present the list of blessings that the DP Ranch is to me, and yes, the socks came off!

1. It's in the country.
3. It's in The Republic of Texas!
4. It's a lot of land!  (to me anyway).
5. It's affordable.
6. It's just a few miles from a small town that's big enough to have nearly everything you need.
7. The town is awesome.  Very historic and pretty and on a river.
8. It's near a river (one property from us).
9. It's on a hill side.
10. It has a beautiful view!
11. It has a well (2 actually).
12. The water tastes good*.
13. It's off a paved road that's a dead end and we're nearly at the end of that.
14. It's far enough off the main road that we get no road noise.
15. It has a lot of trees.
16. There are a lot of TALL trees on the property! (exceptional for South Texas**)
17. It came ready made as a working ranch (a sheep ranch is still a ranch).
18. It borders a property that's all woods.
19. My drive to work is now completely rural (nice working on the edge of town like that).
20. I can shoot anytime I like on it.
21. I can hunt here if I wish (though not really enough land to do much of that, I still can though).
22. I can burn stuff here (trash, bonfire, brush, etc.).
23. It has an ag exemption (currently, hope I can keep that, think I can).
24. I can and will have horses here someday.
25. You can see a LOT of stars at night!
26. I might be able to expand it someday.
27. It came with a llama, how cool is that!
28. I can sit naked on the front porch and not get arrested! (but I won't ;^)... maybe... not totally sure that's in the blessing category, LOL!).
29. It's close enough to the tracks that you can hear the train whistle. 
30. There are no big towers or power lines visible from the ranch.

OK, #28 maybe not so much.  This list is hardly exhaustive and I'll add to it as I think of more things. I get overwhelmed trying to remember them all which is part of the reason I want to write them down somewhere. I never ever in my wildest dreams thought I would live in a place like this.  I had hoped for some land with some of these characteristics of course but it never occurred to me that I could get all of them!  God is so good and has blessed us so much with this place!  I know, I'm gushing.  I can't help it.  It's all too awesome.  I was literally in shock the first few days of living here.  Someday it'll be just normal but right now it's just stunning.  I hope and pray it'll always be special and I'll always be thankful for it.  I can't imagine not blessing others with it.

* There are places in Texas where the water tastes... er... NOT good.
** When I got here I referred to the trees around here as "tumble trees" as to me they appeared to be about the size and shape of tumbleweeds compared to the trees I was used to.  Most trees around these parts are just short!

 

Update - Added train whistle blessing.