MOVING ALONG

Things slowed down at Little Frog Ranch for awhile.  Summer was too hot to work outside, then came a crazy amount of rain making it too muddy to work too!  But things are finally moving again!

The barbed wire fencing project has taken much longer than we had expected, but with some new tools in place it is going much better now!  Chris is just about finished with closing up the entrance, and then he will finish up the left side and move to the right side.  Thankfully the back and front were already fenced!

Barbed wire is not easy to work with!

 Front entrance 

TXDOT told us where the entrance had to go since we are on a 2 lane highway.  

Once the house is built we'll change the gate to an automatic one, but this works great for now!

We have been debating on whether to remodel 1/2 of the shipping container into a small cabin (8x20), or buy a portable building and turn it into a cabin (14x30).  Right now we're leaning toward remodeling 1/2 of the shipping container because of low initial cost and proximity to the electricity.  In the long run a bigger cabin would be much more usable and would be in a better location with a view of the pond.  But we still need to think about this more. 

This was an awesome surprise!  Our back neighbor has cows!  This will be part of our view from our back porch and we are excited!  We plan to have our own cows in the front pasture eventually (once the fencing is complete), but this was neat to see!

Fencing and Mowing

Not much happening on Little Frog Ranch lately, except fencing and mowing!  The left side barbed wire fence we've been working on for awhile now has been a bit complicated, but things are finally moving in the right direction, again!

 Our first stop in town is often the Jack County Building Center.  On this day, we picked up more fencing supplies and then headed to Little Frog Ranch.

It was a beautiful day!

I spent some time mowing the vehicle paths down using the ride-on lawn mower.  It was surprisingly enjoyable!  Next time I plan to bring earbuds so I can listen to music while I mow.  I learned a valuable lesson though: be sure to check the gas gauge.  That's why I had to leave the mower and walk back to the storage container.  Good thing we had extra gas around!  I also saw my first live snake on the Ranch!  He slithered in front of the mower's path trying to get away.  So I got out of that area quickly!

Deer prints!!  I haven't seen any deer yet, but we were very excited to see deer prints around the pond!

The pond is very low right now.  With some good rain, it'll fill up and be nice and blue again.  Eventually we'll dig a well and run a water line to the pond to keep enough water in it for the animals to come.  For now, we need some good boots and gloves to pull some of the dead brush out to clean up the pond a little.  We have to leave some brush in the pond for the frogs!  I didn't see any today though.  

 Still no barbed wire up yet.... coming soon!  

Chris and Rhonda

25th ANNIVERSARY

To celebrate our 25th Anniversary, we wanted to do something really special.  Just last month, we took an awesome family vacation to Disneyland!   That was a wonderful way to celebrate!  But for our anniversary weekend, we decided to do something smaller, but meaningful.  We decided to look forward to the future!  The future at Little Frog Ranch!

We rented the Skid Steer again, with 2 attachments.  The drill will be very helpful with digging some post holes, and the bucket will be very helpful in moving some dirt around the property.

Holy Cow! Rhonda can't believe she's driving this thing!  It was fun!

 Rhonda drove it across the property, but let Chris operate the actual attachments.  

 Piece of cake for Chris!

We were able to get a lot accomplished, and had fun together too!

1993 and 2018

Chris & Rhonda

GATE

Now that the driveway entrance is in, we put the gate up and started the fencing on the left side.

The property line runs between these trees, and in the middle of one of the old craw fish beds (just beyond the trees), making for a challenging time fencing!

I love pink, so Chris used pink string to mark the property line.  Then he installed the t-posts, and now he's working on the barbed wire.  First row down, four more to go.  This will take awhile!

This is the gate for the front entrance. Eventually we'll put in a much nicer electric gate once we build the main house (many years in the future....).

And here is the gate installed.  The wooden posts will be trimmed down soon, but for now, it works just fine!

Look for another update very soon!

Chris & Rhonda

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