Tuesday, April 4, 2017
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Life off the grid in the SW Texas desert. An experiment in sustainable living. NUMBERS AT THE END OF EACH BLOG POST: temp at 8PM,high temp,low temp,rainfall,wind conditions(CalmBreezyWindyGusty). YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFieldLab Daily live streams at https://www.youtube.com/thefieldlab/live
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24 comments:
Good price John. I have what I need. Is there a road to the place or how would a person get there? Hike from a road? Looks like a place to collect water and swim and possibly do some hunting or just pitch a tent for a young person.
About 40 years ago when Dad purchased his first 20 acres, it was bought sight unseen, and it was close to what John describes as "Badlands"! So Dad, my twin brother, and I ventured into the Terlingua Ranch "Badlands" to hunt deer. We found no deer there - so Dad asked T.R. Management what other property was available - that had lots of deer - so we could take advantage of the swap program in effect - for bought unseen purchases. Then we made a very long drive back up into the Cedar Springs Chalk Mountains. Near the Chalk Draw Cliff, we saw lots of deer and swapped our "Badlands" tract for an available Cedar Springs tract. And on the next two days of hunting two mule deer were harvested by Dad & Don. However, a few years later - after the roads were cut in to this area - the windmill powered water supply was also terminated because the bulldozers destroyed parts of the necessary supply piping. Then deer hunting in that area greatly declined - because of limited sources of nearby water! Our Dad eventually gave up on deer hunting there - and later turned the property to Don & I who had switched to hunting the more plentiful dove & quail populations - mostly near our cabin in the Nine Points Mesa Draw part of Cedar Springs. To resolve the water issue we put in water catchment and guzzlers - and now the whole universe of Terlingua Ranch game comes to our Mahan Hunt Camp Cabin! This worked so well - we formed a club - The Many Tinajas Hunt club - to get water catchments built by T.R. property owners wanting to help wildlife - And yes - help our hunting. We quit counting - the we saw over 200 water catchments built! Hunting is like ranching - it is first necessary to supply water. You sure as Hell can not raise cattle or anything else in a desert - without a dependable source of water. I believe we raise at least ten times the number of game animals - as we harvest each year - because we only hunt two weeks per year!
Hunting even on 200,000 acres is a fools game unless you bait them with food or water. That is just being a coward and a killer for sport.
We do not kill animals we do not eat. Do you regard the people who kill & butcher the meat - which you purchase at a store and eat - as cowards? I doubt it! Like I said - we help T.R. wild animals exist where there would be none - if we did not provide water for them year round. Because they are not used to people at our Camp - these animals remain very wild and will flee at the first sight of humans. . I think of it as coming once per year to collect the rent. That rent is some fine dining. We love to eat dove & quail breasts roasted over a juniper wood bed of coals. You don't purchase that quality of food - at a supermarket. --------------------------- And eating wild game is sometimes necessary - when people do not have sufficient incomes to eat domestic meat. Back in the late 1950's - three poor young Mahan men were going to Lamar College at Beaumont Texas & we ate a lot of deer sausage & grits - just to survive. Fortunately, our father was a good deer hunter and provided us with lots of great tasting deer sausage made by a old German butcher named Bratigam.
Right on https://www.blogger.com/profile/14212335044689143408 Ronald Mahan
Is there at least a dirt road to the property? Any cell phone service? Have you got a page with more pictures/videos? Also, what's the mineral rights/water rights situation? I assume you can catch water like you do at TFL?
Coward and killer for sport are strong words. I know a lot of folks that hunt and fish. They do not exhibit being a coward or killer for sport. I suppose by that definition everyone who has ever put a worm on a hook could be considered a coward or killer for sport.
John, Just curious... What is the property legal description, (section, block, lot), so I can look it up on the TR plat maps.
Happy Birthday John (and Benita too!)
Block G-12, Section 61, East half of tract 2738. It has good road access except during heavy rain storms (like most of the rest of the ranch). No cell phone service - no land line availability - no electric - no FedEx/UPS delivery. The Railroad Commission of Texas owns most of the mineral rights out here. Under Texas law, landowners are allowed to build up to a 200-acre-foot reservoir on their property (for domestic and livestock use only) without receiving permission from the state. An acre-foot is the amount of water that will cover an acre of land one foot deep (325,850 gallons). 200 acre feet = over 65,000,000 gallons!). Using the coordinates listed on the map - you can view the area in detail on GoogleEarth. I may go out and shoot some video this weekend.
You paint nice descriptions Mr. Mahan. For years anywhere around here, big celebrations and now some fund-raisers involved very special wild game. What a treat.
It was that way in the old days among the Native people in Alaska-for free. I sampled all sorts of things, Bear, Moose, Whale-raw and cooked, Salmon, and so much more I do not remember.
My grandparents and before in Applachia would put the meat in glass jars for the winter and do the same with vegetables from the garden. I gleaned the fields in Michigan and canned the veggies that the migrant workers left behind. My children loved the food in the winter in Spaghetti, soup, chili, and the fruit for desert. When we came back here, my children wrote on the chalk board, "Goodbye little house". I was careful with the finances and did not have too much meat. We had beans and other protein and powdered milk which was good, because we found out later that the beef and milk at that time was bad in MI and caused cancer.
Yep, A ways back in there. You can list it on the poatri web site for free.
The tract is SOLD!
Well that is the fastest I ever heard of.
Congratulations all the way around I guess.
Wish I could sell my Mom's house this quick!
Let's talk a little more about hunting on Terlingua Ranch. My problem with "hunters" stems from my experience since moving out here. Most of them come out and 1. bait an area to attract game, then sit and wait in a comfy chair while getting drunk...or 2. poach on land that is not theirs....just so they can kill something...anything. They come out at the beginning of deer season and the odds of actually getting a deer on your own property regardless of the amount of acreage is slim, and they end up shooting anything that moves. Terlingua Ranch was originally bought up by a group of investors with the goal of turning it into a giant hunt park. They made a fortune on their investment with the scam. 200,000 acres simply can not sustain 5,000 "hunters". Some will argue that they didn't sell all the land to hunters which is true. Many people ended up buying land out here just to enjoy the solitude. But the original intent of Terlingua Ranch was in fact the creation of a hunt park. Most of the original land was sold as a remote 20 or 40 acre tract along with a 5 acre tract in the lowlands...the idea being that all the hunters could build a little camp on the 5 acre track and go off each day to their larger tract to hunt. The 5 acre tracts are all packed into specific areas - which would essentially create little "hunter villages".
When I was growing up in Colorado, I learned what real hunting is all about. My relatives would (and still do to this day) pack horses and go up into the mountains in areas where it is legal to hunt on public land and actually track wild elk or deer - sometimes for miles...applying each year for a license for archery, muzzleloader, and rifle seasons. They go for a prize adult and if they are lucky enough to get one - pack it out and bring it back home for the freezer. Some years they spend their entire week camping and end up never even firing a shot. The vast majority of the yahoos that come out here end up killing anything that moves regardless of size or species and just leave it behind or sit at camp and shoot up beer cans.
I thought the Hunt Parks were several different sections (section = 1 Sq mile) that are owned by the state or whom ever and leased by Terlingua Ranch. However, over time leases got let go ( not paid? ) by possibly Board of Directors. So no more Hunt Parks as advertised. I not sure, but at one time the Christmas Mountains might have been one of those Hunt Parks. I think the real scam is the whoever let all the Hunt Park leases go and not keeping road rights.
Like I said...Terlingua Ranch was originally created to be a hunt park and was never in the business of leasing land for hunting. Carol Shelby (the mustang guy) was the principal investor. Once he and his partners made their money - they got out and road maintenance was signed over to what has become of circus of clowns ruled by the local real estate interests - POATRI (Property Owners Association of Terlingua Ranch Inc).
John I bought land out their about the same time frame as you. I found your blog when you first started it and discovered we had similar ideas. You might find this link interesting,towards the bottom of the page is what I was talking about. However,I am still waiting for the aquaponics. I noticed the IBC Totes still sitting around in some of your pictures. I might be headed your way soon. Maybe, I drop a quarter in the meter this trip. The link does provide an interesting perspective.
copy and paste
http://home.hiwaay.net/~rhmahan/guzzlerwar-chap1.htm
Yes...I have seen that somewhat romantic version of the story. "They sold out their beloved ranches to a land developer. The land developer then had a big, big problem. How do you sell land in one of the most remote areas in all of Texas, Mexico, the United States of America, and North America?" There was no "big problem". Land developers do not simply buy 200,000 acres without a plan in place.
This UGLY CRAZY man has been in a figth with POATRI (Property Owners Association of Terlingua Ranch Inc). FOR NOT PAYING HIS DUES, that is why he s NOT liked there by no one, (neigbors all included), UGH
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