In the shelter

I’ve borrowed a song title from the author and song writer Jimmy Buffet for this blog. I have been a fan of his since the 70’s. We all have people that we look up to, to get us through challenging times and be an inspiration the rest of the time, and Jimmy Buffet is one of those folks for me.

One might ask what does Jimmy Buffet have to do with creating a Texas Hill Country life style. That would be a fair question, and to answer it you have to know your Texas history of singers and song writers. Jerry Jeff Walker is a Texas singer/ song writer of the first order. He and Jimmy Buffet became acquainted at some point, and Jerry Jeff took young Jimmy under his wing and showed Jimmy the way to Key West, Florida where Jimmy found his way to Margaritaville,  stepped on a pop top, blew out his fip flop and found his lost shaker of salt. I think he’s done all right since then. So bottom line is that Jimmy Buffet’s roots stretch all the way back to the Texas Hill Country with his friend Jerry Jeff. Jimmy also wrote a sound track for Rancho Deluxe a movie with Slim Pickens, a long time Wimberley, Texas resident back in the early 70’s. I’m not saying creativity starts in the Hill Country, but I am saying it dines here and thrives here. Luckenbach, Texas is about 20 minutes down the road from the BEE Ranch, tucked away a short drive South of Highway 290 just East of Fredericksburg, Texas. A man named Hondo Crouch helped put Luckenbach on the map with a little help from his friends: Waylon, Willie and the boys in April 1977, I went to college at Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, Texas in those days and made my way to Lukenbach a time or two before it hit the big time. I never met Hondo, but I’ve enjoyed his spot in the world. All of this brings me back to the BEE Ranch, our place in the Hill Country following in a long tradition of creative people and places.

The BEE Ranch is about 25 Acres, roughly 1200 by 900 feet. When I get on the property I can feel my attitude change, my thoughts settle, and worries start to melt away. Outside interference drops away. It is as if the world is put on hold. My mind is free to go where it wants, and I am the first mate, along for the ride, just making minor course adjustments along the way. There is nothing magical about 25 acres, it’s about having a place where you can get in touch with your creative side, and enjoy nature. It could be anywhere, the size is not important; it’s just a place to be comfortable, and let nature show its beauty. And to be comfortable we need shelter from the elements. I’m not planning on living out here just yet cause I’ve still got my day job gig going and I like it. But the BEE Ranch is a place to heal, reflect, relax and renew, while the wind blows in the grass, the birds sing, and I want to help bring out those feelings. It took a few years to figure it out, but we got there. First it was going to be a guest house, but then the economy tanked after the plans were drawn, so I twiddled, and I piddled, and eventually I landed on the idea of a barn, a utilitarian building with quarters to keep us comfortable and out of the elements, and the barn would have a bathroom, very important to the ladies, like the one I am married to, and my daughter. This was going to be a rustic, post and beam, timber framed Texas style barn evoking the rugged nature of the Hill Country’s past. I found what I was looking for in a Company located in Omaha Nebraska, Sand Creek Post and Beam. The trees are Ponderosa Pine sustainably grown in North Dakota, milled In Omaha, Nebraska, and shipped to your site on a big truck. We came up with a design that minimized interior walls and gave us the space and volume we wanted and the utility a barn provides. The whole thing came to Johnson City, Texas on the flat bed trailer of an 18 wheeler in May 2009.

Soon we would be in the shelter of our barn.