Day/Night Owls Chit Chat

[Texan]

I just got a phone call from my youngest at school. He has an interview for an internship at a large truck mechanic shop near our house. My neighbor used to be the fleet manager there and he pulled some strings to get my son an interview. This will help him get more experience, some money in his pocket, and a good line on a good full time job when he graduates. $$$

Correction. He has 2 interviews. He got one on his own and another from our neighbor pulling strings. I think this kid is going to do alright. He's presentable, honest, trustworthy, and hard working. Once his foot is in the door, the sky is the limit.

Mrs Texan may start her first job in 25 years. Details to come once it is for certain. She wanted me to buy her a Jeep Wrangler and I told her that we will get her one when she gets a job to pay for it. (We are trying to save to buy land to build a house.) She needs to decide between the ute or the suv.

Good to see your son has some asperations and is being proactive, A lot of young people appear to just want to cruise along these days , what does a bit of dirt cost in Texas in the area you want to live ?

Its pretty reasonable. Land typically goes for about $10k/ acre. Less on larger tracts. I should be able to build a nice place on 5-10 acres for about $300k. I almost have that in equity for my current home, but I will need a little extra to maintain 2 homes during the transition. I'm 4 years from paying off my current home. Interest rates are at 2.25% now, so I'd like to at least buy the land soon.

Thats a pretty reasonable price. In NZ land prices are ridiculous, A bare block down the road from me sold for $1.2 mill , and Its not a particularly nice property, The best spot for your house build is around 450 meters from the road ,it will cost a fortune to get your services to the build site, Anyway to cut a long story short , you wont get much change from 2 mill ,,

At 450 meters, you are better off providing your own utilities. Solar power and rainwater collection from your roof. I won't convert to metric, but a 1000 sf roof will collect 600 gallons of water for every inch of rainfall. A well is reasonable in East Texas. We get 45 inches of rain per year.

Digging a pond and stocking it with fish is common here also. It waters livestock and provides fish. Excess water from your roof can also be diverted there. In most rural areas there is no building permit required and you can get agricultural tax exemptions for raising livestock, bees, or harvesting hay for livestock.

[BigP]

I just got a phone call from my youngest at school. He has an interview for an internship at a large truck mechanic shop near our house. My neighbor used to be the fleet manager there and he pulled some strings to get my son an interview. This will help him get more experience, some money in his pocket, and a good line on a good full time job when he graduates. $$$

Correction. He has 2 interviews. He got one on his own and another from our neighbor pulling strings. I think this kid is going to do alright. He's presentable, honest, trustworthy, and hard working. Once his foot is in the door, the sky is the limit.

Mrs Texan may start her first job in 25 years. Details to come once it is for certain. She wanted me to buy her a Jeep Wrangler and I told her that we will get her one when she gets a job to pay for it. (We are trying to save to buy land to build a house.) She needs to decide between the ute or the suv.

Good to see your son has some asperations and is being proactive, A lot of young people appear to just want to cruise along these days , what does a bit of dirt cost in Texas in the area you want to live ?

Its pretty reasonable. Land typically goes for about $10k/ acre. Less on larger tracts. I should be able to build a nice place on 5-10 acres for about $300k. I almost have that in equity for my current home, but I will need a little extra to maintain 2 homes during the transition. I'm 4 years from paying off my current home. Interest rates are at 2.25% now, so I'd like to at least buy the land soon.

Thats a pretty reasonable price. In NZ land prices are ridiculous, A bare block down the road from me sold for $1.2 mill , and Its not a particularly nice property, The best spot for your house build is around 450 meters from the road ,it will cost a fortune to get your services to the build site, Anyway to cut a long story short , you wont get much change from 2 mill ,,

At 450 meters, you are better off providing your own utilities. Solar power and rainwater collection from your roof. I won't convert to metric, but a 1000 sf roof will collect 600 gallons of water for every inch of rainfall. A well is reasonable in East Texas. We get 45 inches of rain per year.

Digging a pond and stocking it with fish is common here also. It waters livestock and provides fish. Excess water from your roof can also be diverted there. In most rural areas there is no building permit required and you can get agricultural tax exemptions for raising livestock, bees, or harvesting hay for livestock.

Its not easy here to put in a pond and when you did their are no legal edible fish you could put in it, We have trout, Perch. bull head catfish and rudd, These fish were introduced in the 1800's but are highly regulated , you are able to fish for them but not able to move them live around the country, we have no native fresh water species suitable for eating

[Texan]

Good to see your son has some asperations and is being proactive, A lot of young people appear to just want to cruise along these days , what does a bit of dirt cost in Texas in the area you want to live ?

Its pretty reasonable. Land typically goes for about $10k/ acre. Less on larger tracts. I should be able to build a nice place on 5-10 acres for about $300k. I almost have that in equity for my current home, but I will need a little extra to maintain 2 homes during the transition. I'm 4 years from paying off my current home. Interest rates are at 2.25% now, so I'd like to at least buy the land soon.

Thats a pretty reasonable price. In NZ land prices are ridiculous, A bare block down the road from me sold for $1.2 mill , and Its not a particularly nice property, The best spot for your house build is around 450 meters from the road ,it will cost a fortune to get your services to the build site, Anyway to cut a long story short , you wont get much change from 2 mill ,,

At 450 meters, you are better off providing your own utilities. Solar power and rainwater collection from your roof. I won't convert to metric, but a 1000 sf roof will collect 600 gallons of water for every inch of rainfall. A well is reasonable in East Texas. We get 45 inches of rain per year.

Digging a pond and stocking it with fish is common here also. It waters livestock and provides fish. Excess water from your roof can also be diverted there. In most rural areas there is no building permit required and you can get agricultural tax exemptions for raising livestock, bees, or harvesting hay for livestock.

Its not easy here to put in a pond and when you did their are no legal edible fish you could put in it, We have trout, Perch. bull head catfish and rudd, These fish were introduced in the 1800's but are highly regulated , you are able to fish for them but not able to move them live around the country, we have no native fresh water species suitable for eating

My brother in law had a pond dug. He stocked it with bass and catfish. He used to buy large bags of fish food. You could throw in a handful of fish food and dozens of fish would fight for the food. Turtles would come after the young fish he had just bought and our kids would shoot them with a .22. Good times. Brother in law died and my sister in law sold the land. Sister in law still owns part of the land and has access, but we cant set up targets and shoot behind the dam like we used to. We could probably go fishing in the pond still.

[BigP]

Its pretty reasonable. Land typically goes for about $10k/ acre. Less on larger tracts. I should be able to build a nice place on 5-10 acres for about $300k. I almost have that in equity for my current home, but I will need a little extra to maintain 2 homes during the transition. I'm 4 years from paying off my current home. Interest rates are at 2.25% now, so I'd like to at least buy the land soon.

Thats a pretty reasonable price. In NZ land prices are ridiculous, A bare block down the road from me sold for $1.2 mill , and Its not a particularly nice property, The best spot for your house build is around 450 meters from the road ,it will cost a fortune to get your services to the build site, Anyway to cut a long story short , you wont get much change from 2 mill ,,

At 450 meters, you are better off providing your own utilities. Solar power and rainwater collection from your roof. I won't convert to metric, but a 1000 sf roof will collect 600 gallons of water for every inch of rainfall. A well is reasonable in East Texas. We get 45 inches of rain per year.

Digging a pond and stocking it with fish is common here also. It waters livestock and provides fish. Excess water from your roof can also be diverted there. In most rural areas there is no building permit required and you can get agricultural tax exemptions for raising livestock, bees, or harvesting hay for livestock.

Its not easy here to put in a pond and when you did their are no legal edible fish you could put in it, We have trout, Perch. bull head catfish and rudd, These fish were introduced in the 1800's but are highly regulated , you are able to fish for them but not able to move them live around the country, we have no native fresh water species suitable for eating

My brother in law had a pond dug. He stocked it with bass and catfish. He used to buy large bags of fish food. You could throw in a handful of fish food and dozens of fish would fight for the food. Turtles would come after the young fish he had just bought and our kids would shoot them with a .22. Good times. Brother in law died and my sister in law sold the land. Sister in law still owns part of the land and has access, but we cant set up targets and shoot behind the dam like we used to. We could probably go fishing in the pond still.

I hope you buy your bit of land Tex, From personal experience it can be very fulfilling ,It can be a lot of work at times, but I have found if you set yourself up with the equipment you need , ride on mower , post hole borers and such like it makes life at lot easier, and get easy care stock, self shedding sheep as finding a shearer can be a drag at times, a couple of pigs, they make great hoes for the vege garden and good eating, I have a couple of large breed cows on the property , my brother is an electrician and does some work for a couple of large farms and they give him some weaner calves every year, he only has five acres so we have an arrangement where I rear them on my 14 acres then we go halves when we slaughter them, The home kill slaughter man is $100 , he comes to the prop, kills guts and skins the animal on site then drops it at the butcher of your choice, then from memory its about $350 for the butcher depending on what you want done , mince , sausages a few salamis , corned beef and such like, The sausage's are to die for, I like them plain and just enough grain to hold them together and lite on the salt,

[Texan]

Thats a pretty reasonable price. In NZ land prices are ridiculous, A bare block down the road from me sold for $1.2 mill , and Its not a particularly nice property, The best spot for your house build is around 450 meters from the road ,it will cost a fortune to get your services to the build site, Anyway to cut a long story short , you wont get much change from 2 mill ,,

At 450 meters, you are better off providing your own utilities. Solar power and rainwater collection from your roof. I won't convert to metric, but a 1000 sf roof will collect 600 gallons of water for every inch of rainfall. A well is reasonable in East Texas. We get 45 inches of rain per year.

Digging a pond and stocking it with fish is common here also. It waters livestock and provides fish. Excess water from your roof can also be diverted there. In most rural areas there is no building permit required and you can get agricultural tax exemptions for raising livestock, bees, or harvesting hay for livestock.

Its not easy here to put in a pond and when you did their are no legal edible fish you could put in it, We have trout, Perch. bull head catfish and rudd, These fish were introduced in the 1800's but are highly regulated , you are able to fish for them but not able to move them live around the country, we have no native fresh water species suitable for eating

My brother in law had a pond dug. He stocked it with bass and catfish. He used to buy large bags of fish food. You could throw in a handful of fish food and dozens of fish would fight for the food. Turtles would come after the young fish he had just bought and our kids would shoot them with a .22. Good times. Brother in law died and my sister in law sold the land. Sister in law still owns part of the land and has access, but we cant set up targets and shoot behind the dam like we used to. We could probably go fishing in the pond still.

I hope you buy your bit of land Tex, From personal experience it can be very fulfilling ,It can be a lot of work at times, but I have found if you set yourself up with the equipment you need , ride on mower , post hole borers and such like it makes life at lot easier, and get easy care stock, self shedding sheep as finding a shearer can be a drag at times, a couple of pigs, they make great hoes for the vege garden and good eating, I have a couple of large breed cows on the property , my brother is an electrician and does some work for a couple of large farms and they give him some weaner calves every year, he only has five acres so we have an arrangement where I rear them on my 14 acres then we go halves when we slaughter them, The home kill slaughter man is $100 , he comes to the prop, kills guts and skins the animal on site then drops it at the butcher of your choice, then from memory its about $350 for the butcher depending on what you want done , mince , sausages a few salamis , corned beef and such like, The sausage's are to die for, I like them plain and just enough grain to hold them together and lite on the salt,

I miss getting meat from my brother in law. He traded cattle for a living and usually had 500-1000 head, but he kept hogs and chickens and we would get sausage and steaks every once in a while. Jay was a really nice guy. I miss him.

[Texan]

Mrs Texan started her new job today. She works at a railroad yard where they offload new cars and prepare them for shipping to dealerships. Her team inspects the offloaded cars for defects, remove the shipping skins, repair any defects, wash and wax the car, and prepare it for shipping by truck to dealerships. The only brand she mentioned was Lexus, but I think there are many brands there. Her coworkers are male and female of all ages and she seemed to enjoy herself. Because they are socially distanced, nobody is made to wear a mask. The company is about 20 minutes from our house and located well outside of Dallas County. It's a perfect job for somebody who doesn't want to deal with retail customers or undergo expensive education and training.

My job for today was canceled and I helped my son change spark plugs in his old Chevy.

[Black Orchid]

Sounds good Tex and all the best to Mrs Tex. I hope she continues to enjoy the work.

I'm starting to worry about myself. A few days ago I lost the cheese after using it for dinner. I searched high and low and couldn't find it so I decided I must have accidentally thrown it out and bought some more.

Tonight I go to get some carrots out of the vegetable crisper and there it is underneath the vegies lol.

[Neferti]

Sounds good Tex and all the best to Mrs Tex. I hope she continues to enjoy the work.

I'm starting to worry about myself. A few days ago I lost the cheese after using it for dinner. I searched high and low and couldn't find it so I decided I must have accidentally thrown it out and bought some more.

Tonight I go to get some carrots out of the vegetable crisper and there it is underneath the vegies lol.

Poltergeist?

[Texan]

Sounds good Tex and all the best to Mrs Tex. I hope she continues to enjoy the work.

I'm starting to worry about myself. A few days ago I lost the cheese after using it for dinner. I searched high and low and couldn't find it so I decided I must have accidentally thrown it out and bought some more.

Tonight I go to get some carrots out of the vegetable crisper and there it is underneath the vegies lol.

Do you sleep walk? Strange things can happen. Back in the early 50s, my uncle sleep walked as a teenager and peed on an electric fan and it sprayed all over his buddy who was sleeping over. At least that's what he claimed.

[Black Orchid]

Sounds good Tex and all the best to Mrs Tex. I hope she continues to enjoy the work.

I'm starting to worry about myself. A few days ago I lost the cheese after using it for dinner. I searched high and low and couldn't find it so I decided I must have accidentally thrown it out and bought some more.

Tonight I go to get some carrots out of the vegetable crisper and there it is underneath the vegies lol.

Do you sleep walk? Strange things can happen. Back in the early 50s, my uncle sleep walked as a teenager and peed on an electric fan and it sprayed all over his buddy who was sleeping over. At least that's what he claimed.

Not that I'm aware of. One of my kids sleep walked once when he was a kid. He got up and peed all over his bookcase thinking he was in the bathroom. Poor kid was mortified when he found out he wasn't in the bathroom.

Maybe he did inherit it from me?