An Old Goat Ranch in Texas

   / An Old Goat Ranch in Texas #1  

terry.dinerman

Gold Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2009
Messages
431
Location
"The Old Goat Ranch" Grimes County, Texas
Tractor
1990 - JD 870
Hello Neighbors-

I have been lurking for a while and what has impressed me the most about this forum is the good humor of the members and the good sense evident in the advice.

At the urging of Eddie Walker, I am going to try my hand at a thread, and tho I am a Greenhorn dont be gentle, as I wont get better if you coddle me.

Here goes.

A little background...

I am a Remote Site Paramedic working at an iron mining project in Liberia. I have worked all over but this is my first posting to Africa...sort of a vacation-station after 3 straight years in Iraq and even tho I am so far back in the bush you have to bring a bucket of sunshine, at least I am not getting shot at.

For now, anyway.

When I am home, my family is in the process of building a small ranch in Grimes County, Texas, starting from an unimproved piece of ground out in the county. No city problems for me, thank you very much.

Country problems can generally be cured with tools, wits, hard work, a few friends and a gun....city problems generally cut straight to the gun....

The project began in earnest last year with the purchase of the land and we soon began working on the infrastructure.

It is in the middle of a green swath that runs thru this part of the county, mixed hard and softwood, bordered by some of the nicest pasturage in the state. A regular critter highway full of deer, pigs, coons, squirrels, coyote, bobcats and who-knows-what-all else.

Post Oak Savanna they call it.

We quickly earned the approval of the crowd at the local Cafe by putting up a fence that will hold anything from a Chihuahua to a Brahma bull. It is known locally as the "Prada Perimeter" and naturally we sure had to pay a premium to get it done right. You can play a tune on that wire.

The local wags are saying we spent so much on the fence we will probably have to live in a tent....and there may be some truth in that....

As usual, the finished product came in a right about twice our estimate. And I used to do that sort of stuff for a living when I first came to Texas....

<Sigh>

Of course, this fence won't stop the GOATS we plan to run unless we also put up flat seamless polished stainless steel panels 10 feet high with electrified razor wire and gun towers.

Short of that you may as well give them a doggie door.

Private water is now piped up to the front of our property and we are saving up to have the power run 1,000 feet down one side of the land to our building site in the back. No sense spending all this time and effort only to live next to a State Highway. It wont be cheap, but, we will have power and water across the fronts of each pasture down a private road and should we ever sub-divide the property, well, it's already done.

I plan to run the water myself, which will certainly require some research here on the Forum and generate more posts.

I had a local machine operator clear my fence lines, the home-site, dig a small pond for fill to raise the house pad, improve local area drainage and provide a source of agricultural water and put in a gravel pad for the barn. He was worth every penny. I did the survey and laid out plenty of flags and sighting-poles and as he cleared the bush away, I worked ahead of him flagging the trees to save.

I have attached a few shots of the land clearing

I will continue to post and bring you up to date with my next installment: "The Great Container Barn Massacree" where your humble author begins to build a barn-on-the-cheap...

Watch this space and BE SAFE

Terry
 

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   / An Old Goat Ranch in Texas #2  
As an old goat :D I was a little disappointed that you meant the 4-legged kind. Kinda thought there might be a bit of an opportunity to relocate to a more southern and warmer clime.;) Of course then you may have become overrun with the scads of us old goats that frequent this site. That said, welcome! You are at the beginning of quite a project and have a great opportunity to share and entertain us.:cool:
 
   / An Old Goat Ranch in Texas #3  
You keep that P/U parked along side the fence and the goats will get out!:D:D
 
   / An Old Goat Ranch in Texas #4  
I was just about to reply to your email when I came across your thread. Looks like you're off and running with an interesting thread that should offer plenty of entertainment and ideas. While I don't know anything about goats or fences to keep them in, But I do know a little bit about water lines and building stuff.

Any more pics of your place? How about that pond?

Eddie
 
   / An Old Goat Ranch in Texas #5  
Welcome Terry,

Looking forward to watching your project.
Dave.
 
   / An Old Goat Ranch in Texas #6  
That funny, and you save lives for a living, to boot. Welcome to TBN, brother. I believe you've got the thread-starting thing down.

Merry Christmas to you, your family and the goats!
 
   / An Old Goat Ranch in Texas #7  
"We quickly earned the approval of the crowd at the local Cafe by putting up a fence that will hold anything from a Chihuahua to a Brahma bull. It is known locally as the "Prada Perimeter" and naturally we sure had to pay a premium to get it done right. You can play a tune on that wire..."

Funny you should say that. The quickest and surest way to tell a piece of property has changed hands is the presence of new fence activity. Vice versa is true.......fence falling down in absolute disrepair means the owner is still trying to sell, has found no buyers, and isn't spending a dime on the place.

Also, FYI, a lot of fences with bow-string tight wire today will be sagging messes with leaning corners and problems to fix in 5 years. Learn to do your own fencing.

If I understand, this being an old goat run..........what kind of shape is it in and what do you want to do with it?
 
   / An Old Goat Ranch in Texas #8  
Welcome to TBN ... and enjoy...and keep us informed of your progress. You are right about goats and fencing... I had some Spanish meat goats once... rounded them up to sell... one somehow got thru a square in a cattle panel ... wild critter....ultimately had to hunt him down, literally, and drop him in the pasture.
 
   / An Old Goat Ranch in Texas #9  
Nice looking CAT D4 you got there!
 
   / An Old Goat Ranch in Texas
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Opti-Mist-

Nice to know I'm in good company...!

Old Goats do best in herds...should "scads" of them show up somehow, well, I can throw in a couple of 6 packs and some trees to sit under.

Now, although there are no 4 legged goats on the ground yet, there is one old buck and a sweet old doe running about...I have included our photo below...

Be Safe-

Terry
 

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