It has been a year since my wife and I moved to the country. It was a big decision to sell our house in Sugar Land and move to the family farm in Dacus, TX . The town with no official population. The entire town consists of one Baptist Church and one beer joint. Sorta the Yin and Yang of life. My wife decided to “retire” as a school teacher, so the only thing stopping us from living in Dacus was my 1 ½ hour commute to my office. Yuck. But since I “work” from home quite often, or I am traveling out of state or out of the country, that commute would not be a daily chore.
What has become a daily chore, is well…..the chores. There is no slack time around the old homestead. The house had been originally built as a weekend getaway, and I am sure that my Dad never conceived that any rational human being would actually want to live in it full time. This house was build out of scrap materials and teenage labor. (I was one of those teenagers, so I know the quality of the work that we did).
This house probably would qualify for some kind of Obama grant money for shovel ready projects. But I am afraid that anyone with the power to make that decision would just decide the shovel should be used to bury this place.
We’ve rebuilt the fences, the pump house, the stairs, the siding. We’ve painted, washed, added, removed, and we still have only made a dent in what needs to be done to make this place livable. If Alf and Ralph , from Green Acres, were not fictional, I would swear they had a hand in the results of what we are living in. But there is something quaint in having a house where you don’t know if the door locks will lock, or if the windows will open.
We will continue to make this place a home. And we are slowly adjusting to being in the country. I have been thinking that living in Dacus TX is sort or a lifestyle all its own. We have identified several indicators that you may live here:
• If you had to use the tractor mower to make a “rough cut” of the lawn grass, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you have one riding lawn mower and four push mowers in the barn, and none of them start, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you keep your tractor in the barn instead of your own vehicles, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you keep a buddy’s boat in your barn instead of your own vehicles, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If your kitchen is upstairs, but the refrigerator is downstairs, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If, at the end of the day, one of your greatest pleasures is to relax in your inflatable kiddie pool, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you wear your straw cowboy hat in the pool, and that’s all you are wearing, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If your idea of mowing the lawn is really just cutting pathways to the other buildings, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you believe that goat weeds should be an endangered species, so you can’t mow, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If your closest neighbor has a habit of honking his car horn 30-40 times to announce that he has arrived home, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you have developed, what some might consider, an unnatural pleasure in killing and dismembering Tallow trees, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If there are more wasps in your house than dollars in your 401-K, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you have a large log in the side yard just in case company comes over and you need the additional seating, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If it takes 2 hours and $9 to get a Sunday paper. You drive in to town, and naturally have to get donuts and coffee; then go back into town since you forgot to get the paper, you might live in Dacus, TX
• And Finally…if you have the producer of “Extreme Home Make-over” on speed dial, you might live in Dacus, TX
What has become a daily chore, is well…..the chores. There is no slack time around the old homestead. The house had been originally built as a weekend getaway, and I am sure that my Dad never conceived that any rational human being would actually want to live in it full time. This house was build out of scrap materials and teenage labor. (I was one of those teenagers, so I know the quality of the work that we did).
This house probably would qualify for some kind of Obama grant money for shovel ready projects. But I am afraid that anyone with the power to make that decision would just decide the shovel should be used to bury this place.
We’ve rebuilt the fences, the pump house, the stairs, the siding. We’ve painted, washed, added, removed, and we still have only made a dent in what needs to be done to make this place livable. If Alf and Ralph , from Green Acres, were not fictional, I would swear they had a hand in the results of what we are living in. But there is something quaint in having a house where you don’t know if the door locks will lock, or if the windows will open.
We will continue to make this place a home. And we are slowly adjusting to being in the country. I have been thinking that living in Dacus TX is sort or a lifestyle all its own. We have identified several indicators that you may live here:
• If you had to use the tractor mower to make a “rough cut” of the lawn grass, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you have one riding lawn mower and four push mowers in the barn, and none of them start, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you keep your tractor in the barn instead of your own vehicles, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you keep a buddy’s boat in your barn instead of your own vehicles, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If your kitchen is upstairs, but the refrigerator is downstairs, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If, at the end of the day, one of your greatest pleasures is to relax in your inflatable kiddie pool, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you wear your straw cowboy hat in the pool, and that’s all you are wearing, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If your idea of mowing the lawn is really just cutting pathways to the other buildings, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you believe that goat weeds should be an endangered species, so you can’t mow, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If your closest neighbor has a habit of honking his car horn 30-40 times to announce that he has arrived home, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you have developed, what some might consider, an unnatural pleasure in killing and dismembering Tallow trees, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If there are more wasps in your house than dollars in your 401-K, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If you have a large log in the side yard just in case company comes over and you need the additional seating, you might live in Dacus, TX
• If it takes 2 hours and $9 to get a Sunday paper. You drive in to town, and naturally have to get donuts and coffee; then go back into town since you forgot to get the paper, you might live in Dacus, TX
• And Finally…if you have the producer of “Extreme Home Make-over” on speed dial, you might live in Dacus, TX
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