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!