Beauty is indeed in the eyes of the beholder. And when it comes to Texas, I especially love the beauty of the Trans-Pecos — where the sprawling Chihuahuan Desert paints the landscape with brushstrokes hundreds of miles long. This wide part of the Lone Star State is not every Texans cup of tea. But for me, there is a beauty here that is hard to explain.
A few months ago, my wife and I purchased a few acres of land in the Big Bend Valley section of Terlingua Ranch. Our little slice of Texas is located between Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park, two of the most beautiful places on the planet. We have named our place Dos Arbolitos, the subject of an earlier blog.
Our intent is not to retire at Dos Arbolitos but rather to have a place where we can occasionally get away from it all — a place so quiet we should be able to hear the sun coming up in the morning and so dark we should be able to see the Milky Way bisecting the night sky. We are beyond thrilled to have visual access to some of the most amazing views of the Big Bend from Dos Arbolitos.

This past week we were able to check off two more important items on our checklist as we take baby steps to develop our property. The first of these was to get our property surveyed in order to identify our corners. My friend Gil Harris accompanied me to Dos Arbolitos to meet the surveyor.
We agreed to meet the surveyor at the Little Burro Country Store at the corner of Highway 118 and American Legion Road, the dirt road that leads back to Dos Arbolitos. While we waited we enjoyed some great conversation on the front porch of the store with the Deputy and some of the locals. One things for sure, folks in the area are pretty friendly.

Relaxing and chatting on the porch at Little Burro got me to thinking about the absence of front porches on homes today. I think that we lost something special when we abandoned our front porches and opted to do all of life inside of our comfortable homes. The conversation and interaction of years gone by has been replaced by so many high-tech distractions inside our homes.

A porch is definitely on our to-do list for whatever tiny home structure we build at Dos Arbolitos. Since our place is so remote, we will depend on solar power (available in abundance) and rain catchment. So, no distractions — just plenty of opportunities to sit on the porch and feel the warm desert breeze.
But, back to our survey. Our surveyor set up his very cool equipment which connects with satellites and marked our corners to within an inch. He drove his markers into the ground and Gil and I added T-posts to more easily see the corners from anywhere on the property. As soon as I get our Metes and Bounds document I will file those papers at the Brewster County Courthouse in Alpine.
The second key thing I was able to check off our list was getting our turnaround cut into the property. This will give us easy access from the dirt road that runs north and south on the west side of our property. Dennis, who operated the heavy equipment, helped me identify the best location for the turnaround as well as a potential site for future building.
Something transformative happened when Dennis drove his big rig onto the property and began to clear land. Seeing the creosote bushes scraped away and the mesquite trees exposed made it much easier to visualize the potential of our little place. I can’t wait to go back to trim trees and arrange for phase one of the project which will be a permanent shade awning that will become an outdoor cooking and seating area.
So, the adventure continues. Cheryl and I know that it will take time for all of the pieces to come together and are committed to inching along at a pay-as-we-go pace. We don’t want to incur any debt in the process. So, if that means doing things a bit slower, that’s ok. We will enjoy the journey.
I will continue to post updates on the development of Dos Arbolitos. Hopefully my posts will be helpful to others who are considering owning their own little slice of heaven in Texas and developing it on a budget.

• Special thanks to my friend Matt Probsfelt for taking the photo of the sunrise over Nine Point Mesa to the east of our property and the drone photo of Dos Arbolitos.