About Blacklands Ranch
Like most people, our world changed after 2020. We decided to sell our property near Montgomery, and moved to the country. Like the real country. We found a beautiful sanctuary near Round Top, not far from Bastrop, Houston and Austin. Nestled among huge oak trees and complete with an old pond, was the new ranch we would call home.
We needed peace. We needed something more than the encroaching city life could offer. We wanted to go back to our roots.
The beautiful land had been occupied before, and we soon found remnants of its incredible history. An old farm house that had been knocked down, early 1900s tractor implements hidden amongst the trees, and even some potential home-made liquor bottles down by the old creek that now runs dry. To this day we still find amazing hidden gems, like an early 1900s wrench buried in the lawn during construction, that still works like new. One day we might even venture into the tree line to pull out more of the locally sought after antiques and large metal farming wheels hidden away.
We put up fences, ran water lines, bought lawnmower goats, hatched chickens, adopted two livestock guardian dogs (and gave one away), and bought a donkey until the LGD is old enough to chill out. And we put together a herd of amazing, purebred Dexter cattle – four of which came to us pregnant.
Then, when we didn’t know how we were already going to handle everything, the drought hit. Everyone else in our area of Texas was letting go of animals, but we put our foot down and said we would have to figure it out. In the midst of a horrible drought, we learned that we aren’t ranchers, we are grass farmers.
We started learning about how to care for the Blacklands Prarie we decided to call home. It has been a really hard journey to find people who will not only share information, but good information. We realized that we had to get back to nature, and to what God intended in order to reclaim this land, and make it the best that it can be. Without the grassland being productive, ranching is not productive. It’s costly. It’s frustrating. And it’s no good for us or the animals.
Our goal is to raise and sell 100% grass fed and loved on Dexter cattle and everything else our little ranch can offer, without spraying or fertilizing unnaturally. We are no where near that goal just yet. We’ve had to sacrifice fields and buy hay just to survive the summer. We’re reading and learning like we’re back in college, but with God’s grace and a little rain, we know we’ll get there.
We hope you will join us on our journey along the way. Our goal is to share information freely so that your journey may be a little bit easier than ours has been, so please check out our resources page, and follow our journey on Telegram.