11/23/2009: I lived in a country setting on 50+ acres in East Texas before I became disabled in 1993 and loved the fence building, hunting on our own land, growing gardens, raising bottle calves, cutting and selling square baled hay and so on.

I dreamed of living the country life again after becoming disabled and when my wife and I finally had the money we made the plunge. I told her she could raise a garden and save on groceries and they would be healthier for us. We could kill deer and raise a calf to slaughter. We could raise chickens and get fresh eggs. We could buy a cow and get fresh milk. She could have a horse in the country which she had dreamt of since she was a child. I could start a business at home. Sounds good doesn't it?

Now for the real reality of country living. If you want to know how to spend $150,000.00 in 2 years here is one way. Move to the country. Before we moved we had a modest handicap accessible home just a few miles from Lake Conroe where we kept our boat in a slip at the marina, a nice deck boat, a deer lease, a new Troy-Bilt tiller to start a garden, a 5,000 watt generator, a new custom built John Deere Gator sitting on a new 16ft pipe trailer, just to mention a few toys we carried with us when we moved. We left our home and rented it out. We arrived at our new place 7 miles outside of a very small East Texas town. One mile down a dirt road and 7 more miles to the nearest one horse town with a small grocery store, feed store and a small bank. It was 45 miles from what we called civilization or a decent place to shop or eat out. I didn't put much thought into this venture, I just wanted to live in "the country". Looking back I can't see what attracted me to this place because the house needed extensive repair and it was on a mud road into the property. Oh well we have money so let's fix it up and get to the country living, I said.

We hired a local to come break up a spot with his tractor and tiller attachment to start a garden. We had the tiller so my wife started tilling us a large garden to get it planted. We were so happy to get tomatoes, turnip greens, okra, egg plant, and so on. As it all started coming so did the weeds. My wife de-weeded till she couldn't hardly stand up. Turns out gardening was more trouble than she was willing to deal with so we sold the tiller at a heck of a loss.

Let's raise some chickens! My wife mostly constructed the chicken house and I held things for her and planned the project out. We built another brooding house to raise up baby chickens till they were big enough to move to the chicken pen. We had over 50 chickens to start out and I loved watching them peck and scratch. The problem is we built the chicken pen too close to our house and business and the stink was awful -- especially when it rained. Not too long later my wife said the chickens had to go!

Did I mention the rabbits? Yes we also raised domestic rabbits and ate the meat and even sold a few. I had raised rabbits several times before I became disabled and enjoyed it. Now the work was on my wife because I wanted them. We raised them a few years until that era came to an end and they had to go also.

We bought a Jersey heifer at the sale and she was pregnant and already had milk. I didn't know enough to know she was a cull someone was trying to pawn off on us unsuspecting GREEN horns. She had 3 bad teats and one good one we found out after she was our place. She went to the field and had a baby Jersey bull calf the same day we brought her home. We got a few gallons of milk out of her before she died and had to bottle feed the bull calf. We tried to get the vet to get her on her feet but she died anyway after we paid his vet bill. I picked up another young Long Horn heifer and kept her and the baby Jersey for several months before they were more trouble than we wanted. Sold them at a loss again.

Somewhere in between we got two horses and all the tack because my wife wanted a horse and they seem to do better when there are two so they aren't lonely. To make a long story short. I gave the second horse to my daughter as a birthday present and then her mother wouldn't let her ride or keep it. I finally sold them both with all the tack and might have broken even if it had not been for the feed and vet bills.

The property came with a two car open pole barn style garage on a cement slab with an enclosed office type area. We paid contractors to come and enclose the garage to make it into a shop. When it rained I couldn't even get to the new shop for the mud holes. So we contracted a paver to build us walkways from the house to the shop, then a large paved parking lot. While they were there I had them pave some walkways so I could get to the barn and to our small lake in my wheelchair during bad weather.  We had a ramp built on the house for me and adapted the bathroom with a shower and pedestal sink.  I got this stupid idea to build a retail gun shop with a shooting range. I figured with all these rednecks around me the gun business would be a good idea - WRONG! I invested in gunsmith tools, glass showcases to lock up pistols and scopes, Complete assortment of re-loading supplies and tools, hunting accessories, and a nice selection of new guns.  We already had a small pond you could cast across easily and I decided to enlarge it to about a 1/2 to 3/4 acre pond and take the dirt from the pond and build a shooting range bank for safety.  Next was a shooting bench with a cover. A custom made sign at the road to show people where we are and a lot of advertising to get the word out that we are "in business".  The calls start coming in and people are starting to visit us on a regular basis but guess what? They want to talk and brag about all their guns and share hunting stories, not to buy guns! Everyone wanted to bring their granddads old .22 in to be repaired. They only wanted to pay $20.00 because they said it only cost their granddad $30.00 when it was new back in 1945. The parts cost more than that. I've spent days hearing about all their guns and stories and never made a dollar. Most people who were in the market to buy guns said they could get a better deal at Wal-Mart. They can because Wal-Mart buys at better prices but when the guns break down they tell you to send it to the manufacturer. We took care of service when there was a problem if we sold the guns. When I did sell a new gun I had to replace it so there was no profit. We kept selling and restocking and barely made enough to stay open for two years. The economy took a dive and we went a week at times without a phone call. The writing was on the wall, so by the third year we were selling out one piece at a time at only pennies on the dollar of what we had invested just to survive.

I asked a neighbor if a person could make money with goats since a few miles down the road a lady was going out of the goat business. We live in the country so why don't we raise animals to make money on, I thought to myself. There went the rest of our money plus some. We raised meat goats for a month I guess and I quickly realized you can't make enough money to do any good with meat goats unless you have 1000 of them. We only had 6 acres so we needed to find goats we could raise at a profit on 6 acres. We then raised registered full-blood Boer goats and we did make some money for a while till that market dropped out also.

We re-financed our home to use the money to expand the goat business. We sold off our John Deere Gator and trailer, we sold our generator and everything we had left to keep this goat business going until we just couldn't keep us with expenses.

5 years after we moved to the country, we were broke! Not to mention we had re-financed the property, the old property we had was foreclosed on when it wouldn't sell, and were going to have to move back to Conroe and leave this property which also would not sell for the remainder of what was owed on it so it was also foreclosed on also then we had to move back to Conroe where my wife can make more than minimum wage and a 20 hour a week job. Never move to a small country town or the equivalent unless you have enough money to retire and don't need a job!!

We all make bad decisions and I hope you never make this one like we did.