When I bought these hundred and sixty odd acres from a friend of mine, I thought I would build a house and raise a few cows. I'd hunt deer and squirrels or fish the nearby lake. That is the way things are usually done in my part of the country.
Central Texas on the other hand is an odd place. There are few minor cities and one major one. It's an area of small towns spotted seemingly at random throughout the woods and fields. The people are friendly and polite enough to traveling strangers and passers through, but if you decide to settle in the area, they don't want to know you until the second or third generation.
They'll accept your kids but then what do children know. I guess they figure children are young enough not to know better and can be trained in the proper ways. Adults on the other hand are set in their ways and seem to want to change the status quo. This can't and won't be tolerated.
To come into this area dead cold was just my bad luck. The fact that I was in the second half of my life, single, and didn't have kids just added to the suspicion of the good people, my neighbors. What they may have thought of me or about me, I still don't really know. By a very few I was welcomed, but most ignored or shunned me.
Now, I'm friendly enough, even out going for the most part, I try to get along with everyone. I patronized the local shops and stores; I had coffee most mornings at the local café. I even had a few beers at the little local bar. I tried to fit in, not to change anything or interfere, just be one of the people who lived here. So much for good intentions.
*****
I don't exactly live in downtown, its fifteen miles by road or eight miles as the crow flies to my place. My nearest neighbor is three or four miles southeast across a thick stretch of woods. The property is roughly T shaped, the hundred acres stretches east to west while the sixty acres juts out of the center to the north. The hundred acres sets across two large creek bottoms, one of which is spring fed. It's covered with mostly old hardwood with several large thickets around the edges.
The sixty acres straddles a high hill and is mostly small fields separated by lines of hardwood trees and cedar. At the highest point near the front gate is the perfect spot for a house. It's well shaded by large oaks and has a tremendous view of the surrounding area and the large lake to the south.
After drilling a water well, installing a septic system, and getting electric power ran the last half-mile into the place, I was ready to build a house. This is where I again ran into difficulties with the local people. Instead of a wood or brick home, I built a red steel loft type barn for a house.
I'd been living in a small camper trailer during this time. Now that I had the shell of my house built, I moved in. I figured on living there while I finished the insides. Once I roughed in the kitchen and bathroom, I put the camper up for sale. An ad in the local paper sold it fairly quickly.
When I went to town for supplies or building materials, I still stopped at the café or bar, depending on the time of day, to try and socialize. Everyone knew about the barn and the sale of the camper, that's how small towns are. Now everyone wanted to know when I would build my house. When I explained I was going to make the metal barn into a house, everyone thought I was a nut. Metal buildings, are shops or barns, maybe a garage, but not a house.
Well, here I am, a middle-aged man with a ponytail and a small goatee, in good shape for my age, single, with no kids or wife, and a nut to boot. The fact that I don't have to go to work every day and seem to be fairly well educated doesn't help the situation a damn bit. Most people probably consider me to be a drug dealer.
The truth is that I split a small Lotto jackpot with two other people a few years back. I'm far from rich, but I do have a comfortable monthly income, enough to get a line of credit from my bank and buy this property. The fact that my bank isn't the local bank is why no one knows my business. Some things I like to keep to myself.
*****
I worked throughout the summer, finishing the ground floor of my new place. It consisted of one large room, thirty-six feet by forty feet. The kitchen occupied the left rear corner, while the bathroom with a six-foot wall on two sides, is in the right rear, with a washroom and the back door in between. The kitchen is separated from the dinning room by a wide counter and the dinning room is separated from the living room by a cedar post "L" shaped railing.
The ceiling is ten feet high at the outside walls and gradually sloped to twelve across the center third of the room. There is a wide ornamental iron, open frame stair starting to the right of the dinning room leading up to the second floor. In the right front corner is a twelve by twenty-guest bedroom, again with the six-foot walls. I liked the idea of the open space layout. The front walls of this bedroom and the living room are mostly glass, so a person could take advantage of the beautiful view, any time they wanted.
The second floor is only twelve feet wide, but forty feet long. I planned to put a master bedroom, bath, and office up there. A deck would be added off the bedroom and office to cover the front and rear lower entrances. The front of the bedroom is glass like the lower floor. The view from up there is even more breathtaking.
I had first thought to do the same with the office, but decided to use two standard windows instead. My reason was simple, anyone driving in here would have an open view into the office, and I wanted to preserve my privacy. I was in no hurry to finish the second floor. I had everything I needed on the first, for right now.
While I was busy with the house, I had a local contractor come out and redo all the property line fences and to add several cross fences. He would stop by to see me from time to time and he really liked the way the house looked, once I got it roughed in. The fact that it looked like a barn on the outside didn't seem to bother him much. I found out later that he was as much an outsider here as I was.
*****
As the weather started to cool off, I wandered the lower hundred acres, checking on the deer that lived there. Over the last five or six months, I had seen many deer in the area and some very nice sized ones at that. I figured that a couple of them in the freezer would give me meat for the rest of the year. Since I'd been raised in the country as a kid, I liked wild game more than I liked store bought meat. Squirrels and rabbits are plentiful in the area and would add variety to my meals.
I needed a shop built, so I contacted the people who had built my barn house and arranged for one of their salesmen to come by and help me figure out what I wanted and needed. The salesman was supposed to be here around noon on Wednesday. I had planned on going into town to look at four-wheelers early that morning but I got a late start. I ended up buying a nice two hundred cc bike, but the dealer made a big deal about the out of town bank handling the financing. After several phone calls and two trips to the local bank for wire transfers, I finally got the bike loaded and headed for home. I ended up paying cash for it.
It was a quarter to one by the time I pulled into the yard beside the house. I hadn't seen a car when I pulled in, so I figured the salesman had given up on me and left. I was unloading the four-wheeler, using a couple of scrap pieces of two by twelve as ramps, when I saw a jeep coming up the old road from the bottom. I was all set to chew some major ass, as I figured it was some local yokel, trespassing.
Many people had used this land over the years for hunting, as the dentist that owned it lived several hundred miles away. With the new fences, there were hundreds of new "No Trespassing" and "No Hunting" signs, so I thought that the word was out to everyone about the new ownership of the place.
As the jeep stopped next to my truck, I saw that a woman was driving. When she got out of the vehicle, all thoughts of ass chewing took on a completely new meaning. From her hiking boots to the faded blue Jean cutoffs she wore, was about a mile of the most beautiful long legs I had ever seen. The cutoffs were well filled, with a bare flat stomach, above that. The sleeveless crop top she had on was hot pink and vee necked. The cleavage displayed by the vee wasn't large, but it was in keeping with the rest of her long slender body.
I just stood there taking her in, with my mouth open. I was leaned into the bike as it slowly rolled down the boards. It was picking up speed and my mind wouldn't let loose of the girl long enough for me to find the brake handle.
A smile was playing around the corners of her mouth as she saw my expression. Then she realized I was about to lose the bike. Quickly she ran over and grabbed a hold of the handlebars, slowing it and breaking the spell my mind was under. I clamped down on the brake handle and it slowed even more. It was now sliding on the boards, but it was under control once again. I eased up on the brake as the rear tires touched the ground and let it roll back until it was completely off the boards.
