To Us, Back Then

Celebrating the one year anniversary of the ranch!

Dear us,

You’re getting ready to close on your major ranch renovation. A property that fits your budget, has enough good bones to make it your own, and that you both love after that first tour (despite all the eye sores).

You are about to take on the largest, unending to-do list and project of your lives. I know you’re excited for this dream to come true and you are more than capable of making this happen. If I could give some advice on what you’re getting ready to sign on for, I might go on and on over several glasses of wine, but I’ll try to summarize it here instead.

As Lainey Wilson says, “if you’re gonna be a dreamer, you better be a doer” and that pretty much sums it up, but here we go.

Have GUMPTION: yep, that’s my favorite word. Has been for many years, but now I think you’ll both learn what it actually means. (Note: why did this word go out of fashion, anyways?

Gumption is defined as courageous initiative, enterprise, or boldness combined with common sense. It refers to the drive, spirit, and practical shrewdness to act effectively, often in difficult situations. Synonyms include grit, initiative, moxie, spunk, fortitude, and get-up-and-go. 

This word will help define the work ethic you will put forth over the next year and the leap of faith needed to make all of it possible. You went for it, full send. You’ll learn a ton of new skills like how to hang drywall, install real hardwood floors, refinish floors, pull fence, pull a horse trailer, care for chickens, transport anything that doesn’t look like it’ll fit in the truck, and start an LLC to protect what you’re building. You’ll learn that teamwork is what makes the magic happen and the fun is in the journey, not the end state.

Soak every second in because this is your dream unfolding: I remember when we would sit on the couch on Sundays dreaming up what our future would look like. Would we get those chickens? What would our view look like? Can we find a place that has a view of mountains? What types of things do we want the house to have? Would we have enough space one day for our future kids to ride four wheelers? Will we get to pick produce from our garden for dinner? Now we get to revel in it, every day. Don’t forget how much you’ve done and how much progress you’ve made. Be so proud and look around knowing that sheer willpower brought you here together. Soak in those sunrises and those sunsets because it’s the view you were working towards.

Let people help you: Asking for help has always been challenging for us because we pride ourselves on being resourceful and figuring things out together. But, sometimes you need a little help from your friends & family! You have so many people in your corner and so many people rooting for you! Whether it’s coming to help out on a project, give you a break with a nice sunset beer, check on your animals, give you words of encouragement, or be a listening ear throughout the process. Let people help you because they are part of the dream, a community you care deeply about. People will want to help you because they love you. No returns or trades needed, just a way of showing up and showing love to you. Accept it.

Knowing you (because I am you), you’re going to want a sneak peek about a few things that happened this year.

• The Pivot: what is something that you thought would be a weekend project, but took much longer? The answer is easily the kitchen hardwood floors. This seemed straightforward to nail down at first, but clearly the house isn’t very square because how much we had to bend boards to flow into the old hardwood! And that gap we had to fill. I believe this ended up taking several weeks and your brother ended up coming in to help us with the puzzle.

The Surprise: what is something that you didn’t initially love about the house or property, but has grown on you? This would have to be the swampy area. At first it felt like an unusable piece of land, but it is actually a major attractor of all sorts of wildlife and probably why we get to hear and see so many birds. Second up is the busier road in front of the house. You’ll still wish for a quieter setting so you won’t totally come to love this yet, but you’ll have ideas on how to mitigate road noise for a future project. It does occasionally have its perks tough! The people passing by will actually stop to help you, like when Kayla inevitably blows up the tractor and a stranger pulled over to make sure she’s okay. And the road will remind her of her hometown sitting on the front porch because every once in a while someone you know will drive by with a big honk and wave.

• The Lesson: what is something you learned that you couldn’t learn from YouTube (lol)? WEAR YOUR PPE!!!!!! A couple of finger/hand injuries later and this is a must. No matter how good you get at a task.

Lastly, don’t stop dreaming: yeah, you two get pretty far in a year, but there is always room for improvement. We will always have a to-do list so we might as well keep adding good ideas to it! Like B mentioning some of the top fence rails of the corral need to be sturdier so we can sit up there for the view with our future kids. Like the idea of a nice shade tree in the corner of the yard. Or, how we need a two post lift in a future garage. Who says we can’t have everything?

To anyone reading along - thanks for following us on our journey! There is still so much to do and report on next. Happy One Year of Rocking B Ranch.

KB