ELECTRICITY

The electricity is in!!  We are so excited!

 Poles are in!

Power lines are up!

We also put in a few T Posts to close in the property where the gate will go.  It was too cold to install the gate with concrete, and work with barbed wire, so we'll get to that next time!

DRIVEWAY

Life at the Little Frog Ranch has been moving along, slowly but surely!  Our priority of late has been to get the driveway entrance installed.  Because our address is on a state highway, we had to request and obtain a special permit for the driveway entrance.  That process took more than a month.  We will have to share the driveway entrance with our neighbor, and once the entrance reaches the fence line, our driveway will split off into our property so we can have a fence dividing our property from our neighbors. 

BEFORE

We cut the front fence to install the driveway entrance.  We were required to put out traffic cones and construction signs at specific places along the road.

 

We had gravel delivered for the surface of the driveway entrance.

 We rented a skidsteer to dig the entrance to the required depth before adding the gravel, then used it to fill in the gravel.  

Next we need to put in the gate and install fencing along the side to separate our property from the neighbor.  While we continue to work on the gate/fencing, we are also in the process of getting electricity to our property!  The tall and short electric poles in the above picture are on our neighbor's side of the property line, so we will have our own electric poles added very soon toward the middle front of our property!

RAILROAD, CRAWFISH, and MONTY PYTHON

Little Frog Ranch has an interesting history!  Some years ago, a railroad line used to run through the property.  It is now long gone, but one creative owner decided to turn the old railroad area into...... crawfish ponds!  No kidding!

You can see where the railroad indentation is toward the back of the property (full property not shown), and then 3 little ponds to the right. (The neighbor to the right has even more!)  Each mini pond has water pipes on each side.  These water pipes have been disconnected from the neighbor's water well (it was all one property a few years ago).  Obviously everything has grown over, and there's no water or crawfish anymore.

Water pipe to crawfish pond

 This picture shows the width of the old crawfish ponds.  It's hard to tell the size from this picture, but each one is large!

Our dilemna is what to do with the old crawfish ponds!  Once the house is built, they will be in the backyard.  We could fill them with dirt.  But we were also thinking of turning two into Koi ponds with a bridge in the middle, and filling the one on the far right with dirt because it's very close to the property line.  The Japanese Gardens at Fort Worth Botanic Gardens sure is beautiful!  Not really sure if Koi ponds would be practical for us, but it is a fun idea!  Feel free to share your suggestions of what we could do with the old crawfish ponds!

Speaking of the property line, there is a very interesting bush on the neighbor's side of the property line.  We've never seen anything like it, but a google search had us quoting Monty Python (link)!

We thought it was elderberries! Red branches with blue berries in clusters!  But now we're thinking it's probably just regular blueberries.  But we really don't know!  Obviously it's not in the best of health, but Texas weather can be harsh.   If you are familiar with this bush, please feel free to share!  It's technically not on our land, but it is still interesting!  

Chris and Rhonda

FIRST WEEK

First up on Little Frog Ranch, we needed to get at least part of the land mowed!  Chris went out and mowed down what will be the driveway, and a pretty good section as well. We wanted to mow everything down at least once, and then decide which areas will be pasture for future animals, where the fruit trees will go, and clear the home site.  11.4 acres is too much to mow in one day, but Chris made a pretty good dent!  We know there are snakes on the property, but Chris was able to get a good look at one after it got tangled up in the mower.  (yuck!)  At least there's one less snake on the property now!

Instead of building a storage shed to hold the mower and various equipment, we decided to get a waterproof shipping container.  We added 2 windows, a regular door on the side, and 2 solar vents in the ceiling.  At some point, we will section off the container to be about 1/3 equipment storage and 2/3 cabin.  We'll need a place to stay on the property while we improve the land over the next few years.  We do not plan on building the main house for many years, so it would be great to have a place to stay during weekends and vacations.  Turning a section of the storage container into an insulated cabin with electricity and water will be a fun adventure.

The storage container is being delivered.  Notice the windmills in the background.  Those are across the street and farther back.  We cannot hear any noise from them.  

This is the front of the storage container. The far end that is out of the picture has double doors where the equipment is.  This end will be the cabin section.  

We've been waiting on the driveway permit for a few weeks.  Because our property is technically on a highway (albeit only a two-lane road), we had to have a special permit to know where our driveway is allowed to be installed.  We know where it is supposed to go, but we need the paper from the permit office to give to the gravel company.  They will put gravel down as the driveway entrance, and then gravel the driveway back to the storage container for now.  Once the main house is built, we'll extend the driveway to the middle of the property.

  We've had a TON of rain lately, which has been great for the pond!  I'm sure the frogs are very happy now!  It's so beautiful!  

Chris and Rhonda

LITTLE FROG RANCH

So this happened today.... we purchased 11.4 acres of land in Jack County, Texas!  We are very excited to begin this new adventure.  It will be a long journey to build our homestead, but it will be a fun journey too!  We have named the property "Little Frog Ranch" because there are more frogs in the pond than we can count!

So welcome to our blog!  We will have much to share as we begin this new journey.  First up is to get the property mowed once it stops raining!  More to come next week!

Chris and Rhonda