The story continues.........

I'm not sure that I have ever shared with you how the idea of Lost Creek Ranch came about so I'll take a few moments to let you in on how we got started.

When I was growing up as a kid, my grandparents lived in east Texas and we spent time with them most holidays and summers so we could experience the "farm" life. Both sets of grandparents lived in the same town, just down the street from each other, so my mom and dad grew up together. My parents made such an effort for us to be able to spend time with our extended family and make memories with our cousins. My Uncle Bud and Grandaddy Heck built a "cabin" on some land and put in a fishing pond with paddle boats and a floating swimming pier. We had rope swings, target practice with our BB guns and it's where we all went on our first snipe hunt! It was such a fun place for our family to gather and have a great time. All the cousins slept on the floor with sleeping bags and the adults stayed up late at night playing dominoes. We had many a fish fry there and there's nothing better than Aunt Nelba's hushpuppies! As we became older we brought our college friends and others out to experience this great place. Uncle Bud and Aunt Nelba always welcomed groups and were always eager to let people use the cabin for gatherings. They even let my parents live out there during my dad's last days before he died from cancer. It allowed him to be "home" near family when he died.

When we became parents, we gathered out there with our siblings and their kids to do just what we all had done many years before. All of our kids went on their first snipe hunt there as well. Our kids became attached to the cabin and the fun times they had had out there with all their cousins and 2nd cousins. It was really wonderful. When our kids married, they began to think about what their kids would do without a cabin, since the cabin had become a permanent residence and could no longer be used as a gathering place for all of us(nothing lasts forever). It was a very sad realization for them and for us too. So, we decided what was keeping us from becoming the second generation "cabin" builders? The kids loved the idea and we soon began our hunt for the perfect place. And while the "ranch" is a bit different from the "cabin", the concept is still the same - provide a place for family and friends to gather and have fun and make memories for generations to come! We are so blessed to have had Uncle Bud and Aunt Nelba, parents and grandparents and other extended family teach us how important it is to be a family! What Uncle Bud and Aunt Nelba didn't tell us is about all the work you have to do to have a place for everyone to enjoy!! So I have to say a big "thank you" to them for all the work they did to keep a place for all of us to have such a great time enjoying. And I'm sure they will agree, it's worth it!

It's been almost a year since we broke ground on Lost Creek Ranch. We have been pleased with our progress over the year and it will always be a work in progress. It's been awhile since I last updated so here are the most recent photos of the ranch.The front gate finally got the lettering hung and painted and we are proud to have such a great entrance to the ranch.

The logo for the ranch was designed by Uncle Jim, who has such a wonderful eye for all things cool(it doesn't hurt that he's an artist by trade). We have this logo on the front gates and here at the entrance to the house, as well as other places throughout the house. It's awesome to have our own brand!

Ahhh, the new and improved pond! Right now it's a big hole with a small amount of water but hopefully the Spring rains will fill it right up. We haven't put the decking on the fishing pier yet and I don't think there's a big hurry since we don't have any fish!

We do, however, have cows that like to drink from the pond. Our neighbor leases our pasture and runs about 40 head at various times throughout the year. They wake us up every morning with their mooing as they stand around the house fence waiting for us to feed them(and we're not even in charge of that!). Who needs a rooster!

It will be a beautiful site when the pond is full of water. We think that it will be about 2.5/3 acres big when it's full. We'll start stocking it as soon as we get the go ahead from the Parks and Wildlife Dept. and then "the big one" can begin it's journey to many a fish story!

I love this view of the ranch house from the pond. It's just looks so peaceful and relaxing. And I'm all about relaxing when we're at the ranch!

This is the approach to the house and you can see that we now have a fence, yard and landscaping. We have also just planted some trees in the yard area. Hopefully they won't interfere with our wiffleball games and washer pitching.

Here is the dinner bell that is mounted on the back porch. You can hear it from anywhere on the ranch(believe me, we have tried it!). The girls and I picked it up in Canton and thought it was just perfect.

The house entrance looks so much better with a little landscaping. We used native plants and low maintenance shrubs to keep our time spent doing yard work to a minimum!

Here's the front porch with the Fall decorations in place. We had Thanksgiving at the ranch so I had to do a little decorating to make things feel like home.

The outdoor patio area is finally finished complete with grill, sink, bar and heater(for those cool evenings spent outside). We have a telescope that we use this space for at night to look at all the stars and planets. It's very cool what you can see at night when there aren't city lights to brighten everything up.

The screened porch is everything thing that I had hoped for. It's so relaxing to sit out here in the mornings and evenings and enjoy the ranch-bug free!

The dinning area has worked out great. We have two tables that fit together so we can all eat together and then they break apart for the real game playing that goes on with the family.

The kitchen and bar area are a favorite! It's a great place to have conversation, cook and just hang out. We love it!

The family room is a wonderful place to play games, watch ball games, nap(my favorite!) and enjoy being together. The boys love the flat screen and the girls love the fireplace.

This is the master bedroom sitting area. Right now there is no sitting but the space gets used for wrestling when the little kids(or big) need some space to get rid of their energy.

This is the furniture that we moved from our house to the ranch. We slept on just a mattress for quite some time while we waited for our new bedroom furniture to arrive.

This is Brad and Remy's room. Each of the kids had a budget to furnish their room and they did a great job. Each of the bedrooms has a rocker/recliner along with the beds and bedside table.

We girls spent some time at Canton getting some of the accessories and it was great fun putting everything together.

This is Russell's room. Now I can't say that he decorated it himself, but he did have input and he likes it just fine.
This is Emily and Kolby's room. The girls decided on a color scheme for each of the bedrooms so every one's would be a little different. It worked out great. They all look fabulous!

We feel like it has been a dream come true! Everything has come together really well and we love our time at the ranch. We had 20+ at the ranch for a Labor Day reunion and 17 at Thanksgiving and there have been numerous smaller gatherings throughout the past several months and it has worked out great. Everything that we thought it would be, it has been and more! Work continues to be done around the property but the big projects seem to be winding down. I'll post when we have some more things going on that make it exciting. Thanks for checking in on Lost Creek Ranch!

Lost Creek Ranch Pond

The new pond at the ranch has begun to form. We are draining the old pond and building a bigger pond in it's place. Same location but the new pond will be about 2.5 acres when it is completely full. We are building a new dam further down the hill from the existing one and it will be 28 feet tall when all is said and done. The dozers are moving a lot of dirt and the hole just keeps on getting bigger and bigger every time we're down there. It was with great expectations that we waited for the breaking of the old dam and draining of the existing pond so we could see just what was in the current pond. It was quite disappointing when all we saw after the water cleared was an old tire, an old wheelbarrow and a piece of an old metal culvert. Several little(and I do mean little) fish were left for the birds to feed on, but we didn't see any big fish. Oh well, we'll just wait for our new fish to grow when we get them put in the pond.
Here's the view from the existing pond looking back up the hill at the house. It will be nice to have the pond close to the house, but we won't be able to fish from the back porch!This is the existing pond in all it's glory. It's not very big and I'm so glad we didn't spend a lot of time fishing in it trying to catch the "big one" since there wasn't one!This is Bentley, one of Brad and Remy's dogs. He enjoys the water, but is careful not to get too far from shore.The dozer(or pusher as I like to call it) is working on the beginnings of the new dam and making a path for the water to drain from the old pond. I feel like this is just grown men playing in the dirt!This is the excavator(or digger as I like to call it)breaking the old dam so that the water can drain out. There is a really skinny, deep trench that was dug prior for the draining and all he had to do was dig the last little bit to open the flood gate.The water was so fast rushing out of the old pond and down the trench. If there were any big fish they had to have gone out in this initial rush and we didn't see anything big flopping around down stream. The digger just kept digging the hole backwards to continue to let the water drain. It just kept getting more and more muddy and gross looking as the water drained. Yuck!

Then came Nala, Brad and Remy's other dog. Unlike Bentley, who has some sense and is a bit more careful, she just had to get right down in the muck and mud to check things out. I was so afraid that she was going to get washed away down the trench and end up miles away, but she managed to stay safe. Of course, she hadn't thought about how to get back out once she got down there. She was stuck for a second or two but then managed to get herself turned around and start back out of the hole. Obviously, she and Bentley had to go to the barn for a good scrubbing before they could come back to the house! Funny, Funny dogs!

This was the small creek that developed as a result of the pond draining. It flowed for an hour and there was quite the water on the lower part of our acreage. All in all, it was fun to watch and it's good to experience new things.

It will take a month to complete the project, depending on the weather. We hope we will have the chance to get into the new pond before it begins to fill and put some cool things in the bottom(an aquarium of sorts)for the fish to swim around, feed on and have some protection from the other things that lurk in ponds.

The landscape is 95% complete and the fence is being installed. They still have to paint the fence and finish the entrance gate and then we will consider the first phase complete. The pond is phase two and then we have many, many small projects that we will have to work on throughout the years to continue to improve the ranch and make it our own.

August 2009

A lot has happened since the last post. August brought a flurry of activity as we near completion of the ranch. The inside is almost perfect, just a few touch up things and we are done with the interior. The exterior is still being brought to it's full potential but it's hot and things are moving a bit slower. We've been able to start moving some furniture and things in a little at a time and it's starting to look more like a home every time we return. It has been an amazing experience and we are so pleased with how everything is turning out. So here are the latest pictures from the last few weeks.

The family room is great and plenty of space for a crowd, which we always seem to have. And we're glad that it's that way.

This is the 1/2 bath just off the kitchen. The architect made all the doorways and hallways handicap accessible because he knew that Brian and I were getting on up in age and he wanted to plan for the future I guess. Whatever!

These are the baths in all the kids rooms. It's so nice for them to have their own bathrooms in their bedrooms so they can be self contained and we can just send them to their rooms and forget about it.

This is the bar area off the family room. It's one of our favorite places to hang and have Brian serve us up pancakes as we all sit at the bar for breakfast and watch him cook. It's really cool!

The dessert bar, as I like to call it, turned out great and is waiting for someone to bring some dessert - anybody out there!

This is the outside grill area which will have a grill, sink and seating for 6 or more. It's actually finished now except for the top and putting the grill and sink in place.

The retaining wall in the back yard will be great for people to hang out on while they watch the horseshoe and washer pitching that will eventually be going on as our family gathers for fun times.

Here's the somewhat finished product in the family room. We still have some picture hanging to do and the bookshelves need some work, but all in due time.

The kitchen turned out just as we planned complete with coffee bar and red tea kettle. There's so much space to move around and the sonic ice machine is awesome!

The bar area is a great place to hang out and have some good conversation and you won't miss a thing because you're right in the middle of everything.

The area is massive and we love all the room to hang out and have fun with each other.

This is the dinning room that we are so overjoyed about. This is where we will eat, play games and enjoy good times. It seats twelve comfortably and we can squeeze two more chairs in if we want. The tables are made of reclaimed pine that was in the river in North Carolina and the chairs are hand made and will last forever.

I'm not sure who decorated the dessert bar, but I don't see any desserts and this will not do. Clear all this mess off and get me some sweets! The pictures are of different things on our land and there are several more scattered around the house. There awesome and it's great so see all the neat things that are on our property.

SIC'EM BEARS! This is one of our most favorite things that came from my brother and his wife. They have a place in Colorado and brought this cute little welcome bear back to us for our home. He's even doing the sic'em bears hand motion. You can turn the welcome sign over and it says GO AWAY. We hope we never have to use it, but we're not afraid if it ever comes to that. Cute. Cute. Cute.

Here's the best part of the day. We get to sit on the back porch and have views like this one every evening. The sky is beautiful at sunset and we sit and watch the stars come out. We don't even wear a watch when we're at the ranch - new rule!

We are more than excited at this point with the ranch. It has already brought us great memories and joy! The final things around the outside of the house are still being completed. The landscape and yard are being put in as I write this and the pond is just getting started. The fence and entry gate will start at the end of the week. There will always be things to get done for quite some time and lucky for us, we have time. It will be neat to see what this place looks like in 3, 5, 10 years from now. It's awesome today!

More pictures to follow as we keep getting things done, but I am easily distracted with just sitting on the porch and enjoying the views!

July 2009

The ranch is nearing completion and we see more done every time we go there. The final grading is being done now in the front and the back yard grading will be done in levels with retaining walls since there is a good bit of fall to the land in the back. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks things will wrap up and we can begin to move some things in and start to make this ranch come alive!

The forms have been constructed for the concrete drive and front walk. The mammoth cattle guard off to the right is upside down and just crazy BIG! Once we get it in the ground and the fence up around the house I'm sure it will look fine but good goo, really!


All the hardware has been installed on the cabinets and the door knobs put on and they look really good.

The plumber has put in all the faucets, toilets and shower heads. All we lack in the bathrooms are the glass doors for the showers.

You probably can't tell in the picture, but the screens have been installed on the porch and all we have left is the screen door for this room.

This in the cooktop waiting to be installed. It's has 6 burners and a griddle on it so we can make plenty of pancakes(or panytakes as Russell called them when he was a toddler) for everyone. That boy does like his breakfast!!

Double ovens and a microwave on top finish out the cooking portion of the kitchen. We can't wait to have our first big meal together. Who's cooking?

And finally, the stone above the cooktop was finished and we love the look. It's a great balance to the stone fireplace at the other end of the great room.

The last items that need to be done are the shower doors installed, the cooktop and refrigerator put in, the wood floors and carpet and this baby is done! Of course, there are always some little things to finish at the end but we are really close. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and we can get the concrete poured and the retaining walls built in the back and then finish with the landscape. The weather has delayed us at times but not much and things have gone so smoothly that it's a little scary that we're still right on time with everything. Maybe the next pictures will be of a completed Lost Creek Ranch??