I’ve realized that when I last posted to this site I was not fully committed to moving to Texas, and some things have changed. I now have as my short term goal a move to central or southern Texas, and here’s why:

1. I’m not financially or logistically ready to move abroad yet. While that remains my ultimate goal, making that move with animals and equipment is complicated and requires an intermediate step. I want to move to Panama, though I haven’t ruled out Mexico; in either case, getting to Texas and having a ranch there from whence to stage the move, slowly and deliberately, would be a major benefit. And yeah — I just said whence.

2. I don’t want to wait to ramp up my agroforestry efforts. I’m not getting any younger, and there’s a scenario where I’m in my 50s or even my 60s by the time I get to where I really want to be living and working — I don’t want to sit around doing nothing in the meantime. I can raise animals and grow trees and do research in Texas.

3. Texas has a lot to offer. There are multiple international airports within a few hours of each other (Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio) and that means more competitive pricing for international and domestic flights. Overall, flights to and from Texas are the cheapest I’ve found anywhere. And it’s a quick drive to Mexico, and a day’s drive or less to almost anyplace in the contiguous US. There are a lot of excellent schools in Texas, including a great veterinary school (A&M); good schools mean good interns. Texas is livestock central, but it’s also close to other states that are good sources for livestock. Texas has some of the best hospitals in the country. Austin is a tech hub. Houston is one of America’s largest ports, and there is a massive railroad infrastructure, including trains that cross the border. Texas has a better business tax system than a lot of states, as well, and some very favorable property tax cuts for agricultural land. Texas has so much going for it, you can almost look past how god damn hot it gets there. Almost.

4. Texas is getting bluer by the day. I’ve made no secret of my political affiliation, but I also don’t love living in a place where my vote doesn’t carry much weight. I’d rather be in a battleground state for a lot of reasons, not just to make a bigger difference with my vote, but also because when my party runs everything they can get a little carried away. It’s good to have some pushback, something I especially feel as a gun-owning Democrat.

Having said all that, Texas is a big place, and each region is pretty different from the others. I’ve spent a lot of time researching and mapping the state; I can show you where all the oil and gas wells are, every tornado path, where the hail is especially bad, where the ground water is and how deep the wells are, the soil types, rainfall, average temperatures, and so on. Considering all the data, the conclusion I’ve come to is that the area between Austin and San Antonio (San Marcos, Lockhart, etc.) is ideal. Unfortunately a lot of other people agree, and it’s some of the most expensive real estate in Texas. I don’t want to be too close to the coast (hurricanes), too far west (desert), or too far north (tornados, hail, Republicans), but I think I could be happy in most of central or south Texas.

If you’re reading this and thinking, ‘I want to buy this guy a ranch,’ here’s what I’m looking for, besides the location:

1. Property size: as large as possible. For free range poultry, 35 acres or more would be ideal, but that doesn’t allow for much in the way of additional animals of the hoofed variety. I’ve seen some places over 100 acres that are in my price range (but if you’re a generous, wealthy person trying to buy me a ranch you don’t really care about my budget…)

2. Homes: the main house needs to be big enough for a family with five kids. Three bedrooms/two bathrooms are the absolute minimum, since I can always add on, but a bigger house would be better (just not a mansion — the people who will be renting it prefer a smaller house). The second home should be two bedrooms/one bathroom minimum, but I could also work with an RV or mobile home hookup. I’ve also looked into getting a vacant parcel and developing it myself, and I’m not opposed to it, but the main issue there is financing both the purchase and the improvements.

3. Outbuildings: I need at minimum a barn and a workshop, but the more the better. I will inevitably need multiple barns, and having a garage or at least covered parking would be great.

4. Water: there must be surface water of some kind, or at least the ability to build ponds and have them functional for ducks and geese fairly quickly.

5. Fencing: it’s expensive, and having some already on the property would be great. A lot of larger properties in Texas have exotic animals on them and are fenced; that’s kind of a mixed bag, as I don’t have any interest in trophy hunting or running a hunting ranch, but I also don’t believe those animals belong in North America and I do eat meat…

6. Minerals: I don’t want any drilling on the property. I don’t care if I have mineral rights, so long as there are no minerals to have rights to. I don’t want trucks coming in and out, I don’t want oil spills, I don’t want fires, and I don’t want my groundwater or surface water polluted. Hopefully that sounds reasonable.

7. Since you’re buying, why not a pool? It’s not so much for me as for the renters. I mean, it’s really hot there, and kids like to swim.

8. Income: if the property has housing for guests, workers, or long-term renters, or a place for storage rentals, that would be excellent.

In a later post I’ll talk about some of the things I want to do on a Texas ranch and how I want to stage a move abroad from there.