April 22, 2011. Harper, Texas. Solving Problems.

It happens all the time, but it always catches me by surprise.  A bunk house is what we need at the ranch.  The girls are of an age where,  when company comes to stay,  the boys and girls can not bunk in together, so after much discussion, the decision was made to obtain a building already manufactured suitable to fit four bunk beds, and have it installed on the property.  We would then insulate and finish the interior.  We even chose the right one, to be delivered on Friday.  But when we arrived at the ranch, we discovered that the gate was too small to allow the building into the ranch.  So we cancelled the delivery, for now.

So we  met with a  man to install a bigger and better gate.  As is typical with country contractors, they take no deposit but the next time we arrive, our gate will be new and he will have been paid, thanks to the miracle of the computers.  The gates in Texas go from the sublime to the ridiculous.  You see huge fancy stone entrance gate where you know the ranch is small and you see huge ranches with old fashioned gates like ours.  Our gate will not be pretentious, but it will be wider and better.

In discussions with Randy the gate man, we mentioned that we were unhappy with our road to the Top House, as it is eroding due to the steep slope.  Randy recommended Tommie, another workman who lives in Harper, and this morning Tommie and his wife Kelly arrived to evaluate our road.  And yes, we need a new road which will be installed before the next time we arrive.

Now perhaps, we have solved all our present problems at the ranch, for now.