Driving to your Property?

[tenacrewoods]

Hi! Guys
Rob Thanks for starting this thread,I found TBN around 2yrs ago but
haven't posted in about 9months due to some health problems.
Well last week I logged in and found one of your post and went to your
web site,Wow! I was so amazed at the beauty of your property and the
work that you and Loretta had put into it that I stayed up all night and lookin thru the whole site.I totally enjoyed the wonderful experience.
Tell loretta she does an amazing job on the photos and the entire site.
I live on my own 10 acres with my wife and 2 daughters in Cut & Shoot TX.
In July1997 my BIL gave me the land which ajoins his 82 acres if I'd do the maintinance on his house,My nephews and my Moms which also live on ajoining properties. So I gave notice at my job in Austin Tx and 2 weeks
later we were living in a 32' travel trailer in my Sisters backyard till I could clear the land w/(BILs 67hp Massey) on my 10 acres with a 3.5 acre pond in the back yard.Anyway Heres pics of where we've lived since Sept 1997,It ain't much but we love it and no one within around 800yrds. Yeh! Buddy
I want ever move unless I win the lottery and probable not even then.
Had to sneek in a pic of my Lil tractor. Grin

Sorry I posted a pic of pond twice.

 

[RobJ]

Cool thread I just found. I was gonna post a picture about the drout conditions in east Texas but fill out some more info. Our little 2-acres is 120 miles from Spring (just north of Houston). 2 hours ain't to bad. One of those deals where my BIL gave us the property, we built a house and have gotten to know everyone in the area. I can atv, hunt, fish just about anywhere I want. People actually like to see people going in and out of there property. If someone who is scoping out a place and sees the activity they'll keep going. Plus out place is on one of the black tops and neighbors have actually stopped and approached the phone guy (in an unmarked truck around the back of my house) to check him out. We also have a lease with Trinity River access. Hunting down there and river access for fishing. It's a great get away for me and the rest.

Here is a current pic, the green area is the runoff from the sprinkler system for the flower beds (my wifes tractor!! ). With just bed sprayers, 3 times a week, 30 minutes is about all the grass needs to stay green. We just got a little rain so here's hoping. Here is a link to the house website, not sure if I've posted it before.. Elkhart House Project

This what about 20 grand, a BIL with tractors and a small dozer, and a lot of hard work(and help) will get you in east Texas. I have about 15k in the house and 5k in the garage(built in 2004). 1500sqft 3 bedroom 2 bath. I need to update the web site with some new pics some day.

Rob

 

[IllMarty1]

I currently drive 300 miles to Wisconsin. It is 170 acres with a Lodge we built last fall. Many of my employees, past and present live in the area. My aunt and uncle and 3 cousins also live close by. I love it. We use it for Atving and vacation in spring,summer, hunting in fall, recreational shooting anytime, and will be just a nice getaway in winter. Use my Kubota 3000DT w loader and tiller to put in foodplots and MF 85 with brushog for mowing. Put a pond in last winter and some atv trails. It's all I ever wanted and hoped for: nice place, nice area, nice people.

The yardview pic is facing the pond. Does that look like a fairway? It might be next year. I am thinking of putting a putting green in across the pond. Play from one set of boxes as a par 3 and from where I am standing as a par 4.

 

[IllMarty1]

ours is 50miles one way.

4.5 acers that we have had for almost a month now.

within a year we will be living there and selling our house in STL city.

ive posted the links before but hear the are again

http://www.snjschmidt.com/woodburn_start.html

Nice site. My business just painted the new water tower there last fall. It is rural that fo sure.

 

[SLOBuds]

200 miles, almost exactly to the mile. 4 hours elapsed travel time, almost exactly to the minute.

We make the 4 hour trip about every 2 weeks. We live in the Los Angeles area and travel to California Central Coast - inland about 25 minutes.

The trip is done over the weekend. So our routine is to get up at 5am, or even 4am, on Saturday morning. Arrive between 9am and 10am. Do whatever we need to do on our projects list (now at 30 items). Look at evening stars. Read a few pages in our current books (maybe 2 pages before we drift off to sleep from working projects). Go fetch the dog who has now run after deer. Gossip a bit with the neighbors. Do something bad to ourselves like twist an ankle, whack hammer onto finger, spill a can of paint, etc. Then head back to Los Angeles at 4pm on Sunday afternoon.

We look forward to each and every one of these weekends.

Martin

 

[3RRL]

Martin,
Your drive is almost exactly like mine. We also go up every 2 weeks. Sometimes more frequently. And our days there are pretty much the same with a work schedule of "must do" items. This weekend we just added rain tarps over the bedroom canopies knowing it might rain any day now.

You guys in Texas all have those pines on your property and I never pictured that in my mind? I remember seeing some of Eddie's pictures and asking about the pines there. Our trees are all Oaks and our land has gentle valleys and hilly with only a few flat meadows on it. I guess it's pretty interesting to hike around on.

I have never been in Wisconsin but hear it is beautiful out there. I love the pictures of the kids with the ATV just having fun. I guess there's snow in the Winter though? One thing you all have that I don't is a pond on the property. That will be one of the first things to put in (small one) when the home is completed. We will have to get a permit to make sure how it impacts the riparian life near the river.

I'll be sure to let Loretta know you are enjoying the website. She has put a lot of time in it and is actually many visits behind (as usual) but she works full time and is always busy, so I don't bug her about it. Next visit we plan to till and plant Oats and Wheat for a food plot. Last year's attempt went bust because no water. This Fall will be another attempt.

I couldn't help but post this picture taken this weekend of our boy Wes (10)and his friend Brandon (12). They are walking around the property with their rifles just having a grand time. Wes also has his bug catching net. The time spent up here really gives them an opportunity to be with Nature and learn a lot of things that can't be learned in the city.



Post more stories and PICTURES...

 

[RobJ]

I guess what surprises me the most of some of the long drives. 4+ hours seems forever to me. I once had a deer lease that was 3 hours and that seemed forever. Next lease was 90 minutes and that was sweet (and more deer to!).

Rob, I'm surpised with all the pics and work you didn't build a little cabin. If there is just the 3 of you could get by with something small and still spend most of the time outside, but still have a secure place from animals and the weather. Also food stuffs and clothes, shavers, toothpaste, etc. We did luck out and stay at my BIL's place a half mile through the woods when building ours. But I had the old deer lease travel trailer on site. The 4 of us stayed in it several times at the other deer leases. A little AC to stay cool and even though it was small the only time it was cramped was if it rained and we had to stay inside.

One of the best things I like about the house or trailer is on the weekends where I go by myself, I can hang out with the family until 10 or so, then head for the place. Getting there at 12 or 1:00am isn't so bad if all I have to do is turn on the central AC or heat , fold down the bed and sleep. Ahh but most nights I'm up until 2 anyway working on something anyway. I like to maximize my weekend. Then it's up at 6 on Saturday. With the short drive I spend a lot of day trips. Even better when I take a half day off from work. Get there about 3-4pm, work a while, cook out, up at 6am, head for home around 4pm (on an early weekend), get home at 6( most of the time I've already cleaned up), hit the door for dinner with family and friends. Heck I miss it and it's only Tuesday!!!

 

[3RRL]

Rob,
I just now had a chance to view your Elkhart website...very nice job of documenting. I love that picture of you guys on the stairs before the house is done. Sure didn't take you long to build your home. I wish I had the guts to do mine myself, except the wife wants to move in before we die....hahaha.
You guys were just like us when we were "scoping" the property out. Is that your own dozer? That's a really nice place you got there.

Driving 4 hrs is not so bad, it's a very scenic drive once we get out of Los Angeles. Takes about 1 to 1-½ hours to get get out of the city and the rest is up over the Grapevine in the Angeles Crest National Forest and then through Bakersfield and rural orchards and groves. The last hour is all wilderness leading to Sequoia National Park before we turn off at Three Rivers. You can see a lot of TBN'ers drive farther than I do. Many of us made that choice 'cause that's where we picked. After reading many of the posts early on in the thread, compared to some, 4 hours is not too bad after all.

We generally leave Friday night and get to camp between 8 and 11M, depending when we leave. But we have all our tents set up on the decks so we do the same as you, turn on the lantern and go to bed after unloading. I did not want to build a cabin because I need a permit for that...even a permit to put a trailer there. So the tents (temporary) was the solution until the home is built. But our camp is pretty comfortable since we got water down to it...still no electricity though.

 

[RobJ]

Thanks,

Nope dozer and tractors in the early pics are BIL's. That saved us some money, hmmm I said money...not time. I'm up to 3 rebuilds at the moment, I can't keep up with what others tear up, use to but not anymore.

Ahh the permit, yep maybe a hassle to get I'm guessing. I guess you do with what you can do. If you had asked sooner I'd say power is better to have first before water...unless your planting something. Lights are a wonderful thing. But have you checked out the price? I'm sure your neighbors have power so maybe it's close. Our power company go 800' from an existing line for free (new poles, cable, included), after that it;s about $10 a foot. Gets expensive. In another county it was 100', then $10 a foot.

I'm sure the weather over there has a lot to do with the tents. In the summers here where at 11pm it's 85 degrees and 90% humidity there isn't much sleeping going on. Bugs not a big problem at our place, in fact I have yet to be bitten by a mosquito while at the house in Elkhart (river bottom while huntiung...yes!!). Just some "light bugs" as I call them.

I guess 4-5 hours maybe 6 is about the limit for a weekend trip. Any more and it seems you are spending 1/4 of the weekend on travel, then more on sleep. And let's don;t mention gas prices. Some weekends I'll take my sons V6 mustang up there. About 28 on the highway!! Beats my v10 4x4 CrewCab long bed Ford at 12.

Keep the pics coming when the house gets started. BTW, what happened to the lake?? did they drain it? is it full again?

 

[Trahere]

Your property is very well documented! And I might add beautiful! Orange seems to be an accepted color choice in Tenn.!!