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Howdy from Texas

judc

judc

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2022
Messages
16
Wife and I grew up in the same town (high school sweethearts). We're nearing 30 now and have a kid of our own. After living in the city for a while, we've been longing to get back home to a quieter life with some land of our own. We've got 12 acres in our hometown now (a little town in Southeast Texas is about as specific as I'd like to be). It's not a major tract of land, but it's plenty for us. We're excited to get some animals and a big garden. We've already been working out there on the property to get an old barn that had fallen over "stood back up". I put that in quotes because we're really just rebuilding the bones of it and using some of the old barnwood and tin as more decorative than functional pieces. The land is actually where my wife grew up as a kid, and our neighbors are all family members, so we're very excited to be working and visiting with family daily, especially with our little one.

There's lots for us to learn, and we're excited to do so - figured I'd introduce myself. I'm sure I'll post lots of "stupid" questions on here over the course of time 😁
 
judc said:
Wife and I grew up in the same town (high school sweethearts). We're nearing 30 now and have a kid of our own. After living in the city for a while, we've been longing to get back home to a quieter life with some land of our own. We've got 12 acres in our hometown now (a little town in Southeast Texas is about as specific as I'd like to be). It's not a major tract of land, but it's plenty for us. We're excited to get some animals and a big garden. We've already been working out there on the property to get an old barn that had fallen over "stood back up". I put that in quotes because we're really just rebuilding the bones of it and using some of the old barnwood and tin as more decorative than functional pieces. The land is actually where my wife grew up as a kid, and our neighbors are all family members, so we're very excited to be working and visiting with family daily, especially with our little one.

There's lots for us to learn, and we're excited to do so - figured I'd introduce myself. I'm sure I'll post lots of "stupid" questions on here over the course of time 😁
Click to expand...
Wow, you are in luck! You have come to the right place. No matter what your question is, our panel of experts will give you several answers and you can pick the one that suits you best. Having spent some time as a child and teen in Texas, I can say my memories of chiggers, armadillos, opossums, big barn rats, copperheads, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, snapping turtles, tornados, and humidity leaves me a bit prejudiced against the Lone Star state.

I am now living in Eastern Oregon, opossums are everywhere thanks to some Texas liberal animal activist that brought them here many years ago. Rattlesnakes are native, so Texas bears no burden for their existence here.

Raised on a Colorado mountain cattle ranch for the most part, I spend time all over Texas with relatives that had some big ranches west of Hill Country in mesquite land and one never married great Aunt that had 40 acres in the backwoods of southeast Texas. After she retired from schoolteaching she became a recluse hillbilly, dressing in overalls with a scarf on her head and lace-up combat boots. She thought I should dress the same so after a visit to the feed store, I was just an 8-year-old version of her and learned to milk goats, run trotlines, kill and skin cottontails, make snapping turtle soup, and garden a 2-acre plot.

I already knew how to care for her 8 Hereford cows, but was disappointed in her 24 year old mare that only semi trotted after being stung by a mud dabber. Hoeing Johnson grass wasn't my idea of summer vacation, nor was spraying 7 to kill the giant grubs that attacked the many rows of corn. She insisted I sing gossip tunes with her as we slaved in the early morning heat and humidity to help make the experience more enjoyable. "I'll Fly Away" became my favorite. I even dreamed about flying high above her garden, more correctly called a hand tool maintained mini-farm.

I was excited to go to her country church because I could wear a dress instead of those horrible overalls and combat boots, however, pumps replaced my church-going handmade custom cowboy boots with cutouts and fancy stitching. "Those Spanish dancing boots are not to be seen in the Lord's house," she said. It was a long month. Treating chiggers in the nether region with sulfur leaves a bad memory. Chaining her truck in the summer because of a half-mile of gooey clay mud road before hitting the gravel, spurs my PTSD. I knew about snow chaining, but for mud, no thanks! Anyway, if I seem a bit anti east Texas, you know why hahaha!

Welcome to the forum and feel free to discard any advice I might offer.
 
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Mountain Cowgirl said:
Wow, you are in luck! You have come to the right place. No matter what your question is, our panel of experts will give you several answers and you can pick the one that suits you best. Having spent some time as a child and teen in Texas, I can say my memories of chiggers, armadillos, opossums, big barn rats, copperheads, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, snapping turtles, tornados, and humidity leaves me a bit prejudiced against the Lone Star state.

I am now living in Eastern Oregon, opossums are everywhere thanks to some Texas liberal animal activist that brought them here many years ago. Rattlesnakes are native, so Texas bears no burden for their existence here.

Raised on a Colorado mountain cattle ranch for the most part, I spend time all over Texas with relatives that had some big ranches west of Hill Country in mesquite land and one never married great Aunt that had 40 acres in the backwoods of southeast Texas. After she retired from schoolteaching she became a recluse hillbilly, dressing in overalls with a scarf on her head and lace-up combat boots. She thought I should dress the same so after a visit to the feed store, I was just an 8-year-old version of her and learned to milk goats, run trotlines, kill and skin cottontails, make snapping turtle soup, and garden a 2-acre plot.

I already knew how to care for her 8 Hereford cows, but was disappointed in her 24 year old mare that only semi trotted after being stung by a mud dabber. Hoeing Johnson grass wasn't my idea of summer vacation, nor was spraying 7 to kill the giant grubs that attacked the many rows of corn. She insisted I sing gossip tunes with her as we slaved in the early morning heat and humidity to help make the experience more enjoyable. "I'll Fly Away" became my favorite. I even dreamed about flying high above her garden, more correctly called a hand tool maintained mini-farm.

I was excited to go to her country church because I could wear a dress instead of those horrible overalls and combat boots, however, pumps replaced my church-going handmade custom cowboy boots with cutouts and fancy stitching. "Those Spanish dancing boots are not to be seen in the Lord's house," she said. It was a long month. Treating chiggers in the nether region with sulfur leaves a bad memory. Chaining her truck in the summer because of a half-mile of gooey clay mud road before hitting the gravel, spurs my PTSD. I knew about snow chaining, but for mud, no thanks! Anyway, if I seem a bit anti east Texas, you know why hahaha!

Welcome to the forum and feel free to discard any advice I might offer.
Click to expand...

This had me smiling the whole time I was reading it. Such an accurate depiction of Southeast Texas (especially the mud and chiggers). With all of its faults, it's still home to me, so I'll gladly endure the quirks, oddities, and irritations all to sit on the porch in the evenings with some watermelon, a sweet tea, and a fly-swatter watching a beautiful prairie sunset.
 
Mountain Cowgirl said:
Wow, you are in luck! You have come to the right place. No matter what your question is, our panel of experts will give you several answers and you can pick the one that suits you best. Having spent some time as a child and teen in Texas, I can say my memories of chiggers, armadillos, opossums, big barn rats, copperheads, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, snapping turtles, tornados, and humidity leaves me a bit prejudiced against the Lone Star state.

I am now living in Eastern Oregon, opossums are everywhere thanks to some Texas liberal animal activist that brought them here many years ago. Rattlesnakes are native, so Texas bears no burden for their existence here.

Raised on a Colorado mountain cattle ranch for the most part, I spend time all over Texas with relatives that had some big ranches west of Hill Country in mesquite land and one never married great Aunt that had 40 acres in the backwoods of southeast Texas. After she retired from schoolteaching she became a recluse hillbilly, dressing in overalls with a scarf on her head and lace-up combat boots. She thought I should dress the same so after a visit to the feed store, I was just an 8-year-old version of her and learned to milk goats, run trotlines, kill and skin cottontails, make snapping turtle soup, and garden a 2-acre plot.

I already knew how to care for her 8 Hereford cows, but was disappointed in her 24 year old mare that only semi trotted after being stung by a mud dabber. Hoeing Johnson grass wasn't my idea of summer vacation, nor was spraying 7 to kill the giant grubs that attacked the many rows of corn. She insisted I sing gossip tunes with her as we slaved in the early morning heat and humidity to help make the experience more enjoyable. "I'll Fly Away" became my favorite. I even dreamed about flying high above her garden, more correctly called a hand tool maintained mini-farm.

I was excited to go to her country church because I could wear a dress instead of those horrible overalls and combat boots, however, pumps replaced my church-going handmade custom cowboy boots with cutouts and fancy stitching. "Those Spanish dancing boots are not to be seen in the Lord's house," she said. It was a long month. Treating chiggers in the nether region with sulfur leaves a bad memory. Chaining her truck in the summer because of a half-mile of gooey clay mud road before hitting the gravel, spurs my PTSD. I knew about snow chaining, but for mud, no thanks! Anyway, if I seem a bit anti east Texas, you know why hahaha!

Welcome to the forum and feel free to discard any advice I might offer.
Click to expand...
"some Texas liberal animal activist that brought them here many years ago." I fail to find any evidence for that assertion. "they were introduced to Oregon as pets between 1910 and 1921." is the official story. I would be interested in any personal knowledge you may have.
 
I always hear that members of the CCC brought pet opossums to the PNW. That would have been in the 30's. Where I lived in Western Washington there were lots of the miserable creatures. I have yet to see one here in eastern Oregon. Where ever they there always seem to be dead ones laying in the road.
 
bighead said:
"some Texas liberal animal activist that brought them here many years ago." I fail to find any evidence for that assertion. "they were introduced to Oregon as pets between 1910 and 1921." is the official story. I would be interested in any personal knowledge you may have.
Click to expand...
They were brought to Oregon, about 1920, from the south for food is the most accurate story I have heard from old-timers. When the southern opossum meat-loving folks tasted Northwest foods such as salmon, they let their possums loose. I am not sure if either the pet or food source story is correct, but whoever brought them here sure did us a disservice.
 

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