I was raised a city girl for 13 years. I was going to celebrate my 13th birthday by going to the mall with friends and without my parents! But 1 month before that was to happen we moved to 15 undeveloped acres outside the city limits. Now by car, we’re only 40 minutes from the mall but for someone without a driver’s license it might as well have been days away. I certainly couldn’t walk there. You would think that I ran back to the city the first chance I got. I didn’t. Rural life grows on you. It slows you down and calms your nerves (most times).
So here I am: city girl turned rancher and occasional
farmer. Now I would like to share with
you some of the things we see, do and deal with here. Welcome to the Jude Ranch!
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| Our rustic-looking hello |
My parents discovered this plot of land in South Texas in
the early summer of 1989. It wasn’t the
first place they’d found, but it was the last.
The horse my mother had asked for as a present every year on her
birthday and Christmas moved onto the property before we did – even before we
had a water well. My parents would drive
out to check on her almost daily. Before
the start of the school year we had left the city and settled into rural
life. Boy how things have changed.
Our horse population has grown; we currently care for
10. Katanya, our first, is still with
us. Thanks to neighborhood (yes, things
have changed) dogs our ownership of chickens, ducks and geese has been off and
on. It’s hard to start fresh when your
stock has been wiped out. Emotionally it
takes time. We’ve kept goats ever since
my sister’s 4-H project. And of course
we have dogs. All of these topics I’ll
discuss in the future. I’d like to know
what you’re interested in most. Please
feel free to make suggestion, comments or leave feedback.
We’ve come a long way in 22 years: happy and sad times, high and lows. We haven’t stopped. There is still much we’d like to accomplish
and discover. Join us on our journey as
we strive for a successful future by learning from our mistakes and the experiences
of others. We hope you have as much fun
as we do.
I’m not the only writer here, but I don’t know if I’ll be
able to convince my family to share their thoughts with us. Although, a few of our feathered and
four-legged (or three-legged in the case of Loki, one of our dogs) have shown a
great interest in adding their two cents. Guess we’ll just have to wait and
see. Facebook fans can interact with us there too. You can find us by our name: Jude Ranch TX. If you're a tweeter you can follow us by our handle @JudeRanchTX. So far that's all. If new avenues arise we'll let you know. Thanks so much for joining us! Hope to hear from you soon.
