Texas Ranch questions

We just had such an event here in the Tyler, TX area. They raised money for the American Cancer Society.

The area around here is lush and green, with lots of oak and pine trees, and many working ranches. I live next door to an 800 acre ranch that raises mixed breed beef cattle, and there's a Brahma ranch about a mile down the road. Not too far away is a large Angus ranch, so you wouldn't be wrong picking about any breed you want.

Here's a link to the happenings at the event:

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/G...fr_informational&pg=informational&fr_id=18779

I guess I don't consider Tyler to be "central". Definitely north, though and it might be closer to what you're looking for in terms of "high-end". I'm in North Central! Just north of the geographic center of the state at the bare edge of the Hill County. The "high-end" stuff here is a little . . . well, lower brow. LOL!

Oh, and re: cows. Also add Red Brangus (Brahma/Angus cross, ruddy in color and HUGE!) or Charolais (meaty and mostly white) Charolais are really big in this part of the state.

Wichita Falls also not north central. Well, okay, if you mean MOSTLY north, and not mostly central. I'm thinking mostly central, and slightly north. WF is on the Oklahoma border. The trick with Texas is that there's a MASSIVE difference in both terrain and people mindset in various parts of the state.

Where I am is "downhome country" people. The biggest ranch owners in the area count land in sections (the "north 40" is the north 40 SECTIONS of land and has probably been in the family since Patent.) The biggest ranchers wear ball caps, not cowboy hats, and have "working" trucks, not Cadillac Escalades. "Dallas" we're not.

The closer you get to either the south (Austin, which is really hilly with pine trees, or San Antonio--which is VERY lush, like tropical rainforest lush) or the north (Dallas and Lubbock) the more "citified" people get. You might be okay with Wichita Falls, but don't call it "north central", because nobody in Texas will consider it such. That's "north" or "northeast".

Land holding "location" is also a big topic down here.

Are there many canyons, rocks and cactus? How about people's yards?

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All of the above, depending on where you are. Also the variety of cactus varies wildly. Here in central Texas is not only cattle country but GOAT country. You'll see nearly as many goat ranches as cattle, and here's why:



Oh, and the biggest "status symbol" around here are the tall game fences to keep the deer in for hunting leases (TONS of hunting leases, which go for thousands of dollars a year). The cost of game fence is about $24 per linear FOOT. Calculate that around a section of land...

You're a couple of weeks too late for me to link to the photos of the folks who attended the ball. The Tyler newspaper dedicated a full page to the event that included a bunch of photos. Everyone was dressed in their western finery. They even had several photos of the custom boots some of the people were wearing. Let's just say that some were flamboyant!

As far as transportation, they didn't show anything along that line, but Escalades, Hummers and all kinds of pickups would certainly be in the parking lot. Most cars would be big American brands...Lincolns...Caddys...Chryslers.

This part of the state doesn't have many canyons or rocks, but most of the state has cactus of some kind. We have prickly pear, but nothing very big. The larger cactus are found more to the south and west. We're only 90 miles from Louisiana, so we're more apt to run into a swamp than a cactus.

Most of the state is also subject to heavy rains, mostly in the spring, that cause flash floods. Usually, the flooding doesn't last very long and unless a bridge washes out, the roads are mostly passible soon after the rain stops.

The area around Wichita Falls is quite flat and not very pretty. I have a good friend who owns a small ranch about 20 miles out of WF, and his land is mostly scrub brush and mesquite. Creeks and rivers in the area are quite shallow and wide, whereas in areas where there are more hills, the streams are deeper and faster running. Running water of any kind along the Oklahoma border is very muddy because of the red clay. That silt fills the slower moving streams and rivers, which also helps make them wide and shallow.

I often see the cowboys working the neighboring ranch, and you'd think you had gone back a hundred years in time. No 4-wheelers or baseball caps. Rain, shine, heat or cold, it's hats, boots, spurs and chaps when they are with the cattle or riding a fence line, and I've seen them carrying a new calf across the pommel.

They have a couple of beat-up old Dodge trucks to haul feed from a big tank out to the feed troughs, or to go into town for supplies.

Most of our ranch houses and yards are nicely kept and the grass is mowed regularly. You'd probably see a bunch of crape myrtles and other flowering shrubs around the ranch house. Every ranch would have one or more man-made ponds, or "tanks" for watering the animals.

One thing we have in this part of the state is an abundance of wild hogs that can get nasty. One guy I talked to said a friend was treed by a sow with a litter. Something like that might figure into a story.

Yeah, wild hogs are definitely a problem and that might well be the reason your heroine gets stranded! Fortunately, we don't have many in our county, but other counties are having HUGE problems with them. Feral hogs have UGLY tempers and I've heard of them beating the cr*p out of a car when a male gets territorial. Hit one on the road and you can easily flip a car (as the hogs run upward of 200 lbs.) She could be chased onto the property and if they mill around in a drift (the local term for a family) eating acorns or pecans or such (if you're setting it in the late fall, when most of the floods happen in the central area), she could EASILY be trapped until they either wander off, or a ranger comes and chases them away.

I actually used the hogs in my book MOON'S FURY. A group of shapeshifter raptors (eagles and owls) were preying on the town but nobody had noticed them earlier because they'd been feeding on feral hogs. Nobody thought to mention to the sheriff that there were hogs MISSING. They just cheered and breathed a sigh of relief for their property. LOL!

Here's your solution for what any area in the state looks like: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/landwater/land/maps/gis/map_downloads/

You're probably most interested in the 1984 Vegetation/Cover Types of Texas. Relief maps are easy to find elsewhere. Newer versions of the maps in the above link should also be easy to find via Google. For example, the 2000 version of Vegetation/Cover Types of Texas is available here.

Yes, I've driven through Wills Point many times. The terrain is a bit flatter and there are fewer native trees than a few miles East, but it's farm and ranch country. There are also fruit orchards and commercial tree farms in the area.

Glad to help out. BTW, if you haven't checked Google Earth yet, they have most of that area covered with their street level cameras. You can get a good feel of the area from their photos.

Synonym said:

That thing is scary. I'm glad I live so far off the beaten path they haven't found me yet.

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I live off the beaten path, but they found it anyway. Our county road is not even paved, only oiled, and they made it here last fall. They even managed to capture me driving into my driveway.

They do pay people to go and take pictures. Watch CRAIGSLIST for ads.

Synonym said:

I've been trying to figure out if it's mounted on a UPS or FedEx truck, since so many of the places aren't exactly where someone would wander around for the hell of it.

I know it isn't on USPS vehicles since I am a rural carrier. My thoughts are that it would have to be a delivery vehicle of some sort that was going there in the first place with a passive system in place. They couldn't afford to pay someone to drive around that much.

Plus, we have our UPS stuff delivered to my Dad's business in town and FedEx can't seem to find us.

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When I still live far out in a very rural area of the Missouri Ozarks, they still found me for Google earth even though neither UPS or FedEx could find me. When I lived there, I had all my packages delivered to my brother's in town.

I don't know how they do it but it's not the post office, UPS or Fed Ex.

If it would help, I wouldn't mind taking some pictures in and around Wills Point. We like to go for drives on weekends and it's not that far, so it would be fun to help you get a feel for the town. Photos of the coffee shops, feed store, service station, etc. might give you some ideas. Don't know if it's in a dry county, so it might not have any honky tonks or bars, but I'm sure there are some within a short drive of the town.