T. Reeder - The Free Republic of Texas 2015 AD

I sat there and for the first time in years I wanted to say… I need a drink!

After Jody and Sing left I sat for several hours and let my mind roam and in the late afternoon I got up and headed out to the ranch, As I got out of my truck, Sing greeted me with that 5000 watt smile and took my hand and walked with me to the door, I will say, I would have followed her to the river and jumped in for another of her smiles, Now what in the hell is wrong with me? I’m acting like a moon struck teenager and at a certain level felt like I was betraying the memory of my late wife, but I never felt like this when I went to the big city for R&R, Then it hit me, I was not looking at her as a possible R&R companion, I was looking at her as a Man looks at a Woman he wants to spend a long time with….boy oh boy!!! This is getting deep and I’m lost, now that’s a lot of thinking in a 20 yard walk!!

We went into the porch area and she excused herself as Jody came out the door and offered his hand, we shook and I said I’m in! Just like that I joined Jody’s army; I figured it might be strange but never boring!

After Sing returned with iced tea, and sat down we got to it…

Jody showed me the deed and latest appraisal for the River Bend Ranch and said I propose to sell you 50% interest In the ranch with only one condition, that we both agree that neither of us will ever sell our share to anybody else and that as co owners we jointly follow the plan to build it into a retreat against whatever may come to disrupt life as we know it, that it’s a haven against the darkness to come.

I looked at the figure I would be putting into the first phase of the plan and said I agree, have the papers drawn up as you like and I’ll sign, Jody said The papers will show only that we are each half owners in the ranch, period, the court house has no need to know what we plan” and I fully agreed with that.

The figure was less then the interest paid on my money in the last 5 years of doing nothing with my life, I had nothing to lose and a lot to gain, and looking at Sing I really hoped there would be more to my future.

It took a Lawyer about an hour to do the deed work and Jody and I to sign the papers and for me to hand him a check. We were now co owners in what we both hoped would be the light in the darkness we both knew was coming full speed.

Jody wanted to stop at the local bank to set up a drawing account for the expenditures that would be going out over time, surprising me a lot he set it up with both Sing and I as co signers on the account, Sing was the book keeper and any 2 of us were required to sign checks, as Jody put it, now if one was on the road looking for equipment we were covered.

The plan as Jody laid it out was many fold. His main idea was that most of the work required would be performed by those who were permanent personal at the ranch, I asked who and where these folks were?

At this point Sing took over and laid it out, it seemed that she had been very active in looking over the grad students who were finishing up in collage this year, Agriculture and Mechanical as well as Veterinarian and Medical Doctors fresh out into the cold world and had used her brothers skills as a Hacker to look at records and other things that would show how they thought.

As she explained, we needed good people but not somebody who was only in it for the money.

She had set up interviews in Tyler TX to look them over and feel them out as to which might be what we wanted, their expense’s were being covered by the LLC that was set up at the same time we signed the papers on the ranch, the idea was to look them over but not give out too much information as to why of it all, just yet.

Jody took back the meeting and explained that the place would have ponds for raising fish, green houses, fruit and nut trees, all the things it already had except in larger quantity, the surplus would be sold to cover some of the expense’s that occurred.

The green house roofs would be built on top of 5 ft walls made from earth bag construction using the sand and red clay from here on the place, after compaction, the walls would be almost 3 ft. thick with wire and concrete stucco on the outside, I asked why these type walls and he said without smiling “Bullet proof “I knew then that he had put more thought to this then I knew and that the days to come were going to be real interesting.

As for the ranch, it was in an almost enclosed horse shoe, the road in passed thru the narrow land bridge so to speak, it was about a quarter mile wide maybe more, the river while not deep in the summer still had a good flow and the course was cut deep around the ranch leaving high banks dropping right down to the water.

We talked about security and Sing asked if it would work to plant brambles on the facing edge of the river bank and then plant blueberry and raspberry’s in from the bank edge back about 10 feet as both an intrusion barrier as well as provide their fruit to the ranch larder, well both of us looked at her and she laughed and admitted she had been reading a lot of survival stories on the net…

I agreed with her on that for sure as I had taken many a walk in the woods around the area, between the brambles and such things and the heavy brush you didn’t get far real fast and you didn’t get there without bleeding a good bit. That project was the first we all voted on and we guys dumped it on Sing’s pretty head, it was her baby.

She also said we needed to think about all the work needing done and if we were going to hire outsiders to do any of it and if so we might want to bring in workers from outside the area as a security thought, this too was passed by the 3 person committee as we started calling ourselves.

Sing said she would start on the bramble wall right away, using a nursery from a city 75 miles away; she would call them the next day.

We also talked about how to close off the front of the ranch between the river bends, while not open by any means it was a way onto the property, we decided to plant the fast growing pine trees the area was known for after clearing out the brush in a 50 yard corridor across the front leaving all the trees already there.

With the ranch entrance being a road that zig zaged into the place, easy but slow access due to the turns, each would act as a choke point to stop intruders if needed, as we all knew it would be.

While Sing was looking to dinner Jody and I took a walk around the ranch house area, there was a nice barn built with the same logs as the house though several years later, a few of the usual out building, some old chicken houses and stock pins, no longer in use and in truth needing replacing, this was another project, what kind of small live stock would work best?

From having been in the area so long I knew a lot of the folks with small acre homesteads had Goats, because they were small, easy to handle, ate less then cattle and goats milk was good right from the goat to the table, no pasteurizing needed but the fat didn’t separate as with cows milk so no butter, So goats we would have and a few young milk cows and a bull to start a small dairy herd with the intent to sell the surplus milk locally “As pet food only” this brought a laugh from us both.

We wanted a lot of chickens; all free range but in an area fenced to at least slow down the chicken eating critters which the area abounded with.

There was no need to have hogs as Texas had about 5 million wild ones running all over tearing up the country side, in fact they were breeding faster then shooting and trapping could control them so we wouldn’t lack for pork, all we had to do was shoot a few when it was time to fill up the freezers.

While Jody and I both loved Horses we agreed that only a few would be kept on the ranch simply because they ate way more then they were worth if not used all the time, That discussion brought up the idea of farming with horses and mules, another note on the rapid filling note books we both carried. So several of the bigger draft horses and a few riding horses which could be very handy if used enough to pay for their upkeep. More internet time looking for draft animals and harness for them, and the tools to go with them, plows and wagons and all the other things needed for an operating 1875 ranch. IF it came down to that, we had no intention of not having electricity and all the many uses for it, but we would need to create our own, not relay on the power company’s in any way.