A campfire story for our traveling friends…
Western Skies
Along about 2006 we (Lana & Chancie) bought the first 120-acre portion of the ranch which ended up being 460 acres total. It had previously been farmed and you could see the remnants of an old, burned-down homestead up by the highway, old farming equipment, out-house, clothesline posts, remnants of old livestock sheds, half buried fencing and tin. As we were still living in South West Florida at the time it was rare that we had the chance to head west and visit.
So, we continued to lease the 120 acres back to the local farmer/rancher, Brian Kane, whom we had bought the place from. He grew cowpeas, peanuts, haygrazer, and wheat on our 120 acre farmfield and harvested it yearly. We were introduced to the Brian (and the property) by friends from Florida, the Castellito’s – a family of four at the time. They had purchased the larger, 340-acre portion of the ranch and built a two-story, two-bedroom cabin into the 50-year-old hay barn centrally located on that parcel. It was just a shell of a structure and the challenges of a Texas panhandle winter led them to decide they preferred warmer climes and headed back south after the first year.
The Old House
As things unfolded, there was an old abandoned house on a little over an acre across the highway. It was part of the entirety of the deeded land when our two families purchased and split the ranch. Though its metal roof was intact, a tree had blown over on it, windows were busted out, and all manner of small animals had called it home over the 15 years it stood empty. A few years after the Castellito’s departure we were able to get that old house.
I accomplished a good portion of the home renovation with the help of my mother Anita and my uncle on my daddy’s side, Larry Flint. Uncle Larry came up for a couple weeks one winter to help with the wiring & drywall. His construction experience made that portion of the project possible in just the week or two he was able to spend some with us around Christmas. He also found time to help Chancie hone her shooting skills in the afternoons when we were winding down and just before lighting the campfire. We gutted the house to the studs, re-plumbed, re-wired, and re-roofed it. We laid new tongue & groove pine flooring, new drywall, and hung windows and doors. We then built a big front porch, a carport, and a barn.
During that process, we were beating out the drywall to expose the old, black cloth-covered electrical wiring for replacement. One day, in the southeast corner of the house we found about three sections, floor to ceiling between the studs, 16” on center that was solid honeycomb. The bees were crawling all over it & honey was just flowing down the wall onto the floor. Immediately the scripture came to me about the “promised land” flowing with milk & honey.
By May of 2009 we had enough work done to move into the shell of our little house. By the end of that summer, just in the nick of time, we were able to get hooked up to the county water supply. We were very thankful as cold weather was coming and up till then we had been doing all our bathing, dishes, etc outside utilizing a 500-gallon water tank Brian Kane loaned us.
By that point we had discontinued the lease with Brian on the 120-acre farm field so we could start hauling up our cattle and horses from Florida. Though we had more stock than the 120 acres could carry we brought young cattle first as we could fit more on our trailers and they would require less forage right off the bat than the grown cows. About three years later we were able to purchase the 340 acres to the north that had been owned by the Castellitos and the ranch was once again put back together whole, under one owner. That was a fantastic achievement as we were able to bring the rest of our herd up from Florida.
The Barn House
The purchase of the additional 340 acres included the shell of the barnhouse, which we immediately finished out with insulation, a wood stove, propane heat, plumbing, A/C, windows and doors, flooring, appliances, everything we needed to be able to get through the harsh winters and summers. Part of remodeling that cabin was sealing up an area between the ceiling of the upstairs and the actual roof of the barn. Somehow the original design left a few feet of space that had become home to a family of owls, as well as a few dozen scorpions and spiders who were quite perplexed at our intrusion. We built the first and second story decks few years later and we felt like we owned the world with that wonderful additional space to sit outside in the mornings and evenings before and after our work. Not only was the space and view wonderful, but sinking those power poles in the ground really helped steady that tall barn in high winds. When severe winter storms blew hard from the north, we spent many nights laying in our beds watching the ceiling fans sway with the gusts of wind. Lagging those deck joists to the side of the barn made the windstorms less intimidating. That labored over and loved structure is now the Lone Mound Ranch Barn House
Not only the barn, but the fences also were 50-60+ years old at the time. I think more posts were pushed over or rotted off than standing and the wire was so rusty that it just broke as we tried to pull it tight again. Along with my mother Anita’s help, we started re-fencing the entire perimeter and cross-fencing it every quartet mile. We built miles of fence together over the course of a few years between daily chores. During the summers we worked in the mornings until it got too hot, we’d break until evening and work until we couldn’t see any more at night. Eventually, we had most of the cows on the right side of the fence and out of the neighbors wheatfields.
The South West Hillside Cabin
After having moved into the Barnhouse we sold the little old house across the road. Mom had left Florida to come up to the panhandle help us out. We were nearing 100 head of cattle and had our hands full with rebuilding the ranch infrastructure tending livestock simultaneously.
Mom had always been interested in and done a lot of research on bermed-earth style houses that were environmentally friendly, sustainable, and energy efficient. She was in no way limited by cultural norms and had a great imagination for sketching floor plans.
Part of cleaning up the land led us south, down the hill from the barn to another old homestead. It also must’ve burned or succumbed to time and disrepair. All that was left, besides debris and miscellaneous concrete foundations, was a 20’ x 30’ x 6’ deep concrete rectangle in the ground. It would have been the basement of a house. Over the decades it had been used as a trash hole by previous generations. It contained untold amounts of old barbed wire rolls, baleing wire, household trash, you name it, it was in there. We hired a fella with a backhoe to claw everything out into a dump truck to haul to the dump. Then Mom, Chancie, and I climbed down in there with shovels, wheelbarrows, buckets, trash bags, and brooms to get every last bit of trash and debris out of there.
Used power poles have always been free from the electric company in Pampa, TX. So, we hauled several trailer loads back for building fence braces and to use as ceiling beams in Mom’s soon-to-be new dugout cabin. To help us get this cabin built we hired an incredibly skilled carpenter/handyman from town named Ricky Lopez. He used to say he was a Mexi Can… that he Can do anything. I think I believe him. Anyway, Ricky formed up some wall extensions to create a shed roof angle on the existing level cellar walls and laid the power poles as beams creating an 11’ vaulted ceiling. With our old international tractor, he cleared soil from a portion of the southwest-facing wall. There Ricky cut the concrete away and installed a set of double glass patio doors that let the sunlight flood in. He also cut out space for a couple sliding glass windows just above ground level. Along with staining the concrete floor, installing plumbing, and electricity, we walled off an area making it a two-room cabin. A short retaining wall, deck, and trusses transformed that dump hole into what is now the rustic Lone Mound Ranch South West Hillside Cabin.
The Bunk House
The near completion of those two structures (nothings ever 100% done when you have a good imagination) leaves the story on the little bunkhouse just north of the barn. Back around 2014 my dad Bobby, who had faithfully followed the treatment plan of modern medical doctors back in Florida, was in very bad health. His prescription drug list was long and his outlook was short and bleak. Having done quite a bit of research and having had some personal experience with holistic doctors/medicine we brought Dad out for some fixing. While we were restoring his health, we relocated a shed a neighbor wanted out of his yard and brought it to the ranch. Dad was only around a few months that summer so he just needed a little place to hang out. Of course, we skinned that little shed down to the bones, insulated the heck out of it, re-roofed it, ran some electric and water lines over to it, and added a porch roof. A few staple appliances, one outhouse later and presto… dad had his little house on the prairie. That little place is now the Lone Mound Ranch Bunk House.
Off Grid
Another undertaking during those years was the completion of our solar water system. The cattle operation and the Barnhouse were completely functional off-grid. We had tied the two water wells on the property together and they both pumped to a 500-gallon water tank mounted on a 17’ tall water tower we built at the east end of the barn. There wasn’t much pressure after sundown, but it was sufficient for laundry, dishes, toilets, and a low-pressure shower in the barn. The rest of the Barnhouse’s off-grid infrastructure included a propane-powered water heater, cook stove, and heaters. All those improvements which included the wood burning stove downstairs as well as a variety of candles and lanterns made us self-sufficient during a winter ice storm that knocked out electric power for a couple weeks. Some folks in the area were in a pinch as they had banked on their co-op supplied electric service for survival.
Ultimately the chem-trails had gotten so intense around 2015-2016 that installing a new pump and newer panels still couldn’t collect enough sunlight to sustain both the livestock and cabins. We were forced by circumstance to pull the solar pump, pack the panels & install a grid-tied pump. Unfortunately, we just had too many irons in the fire to afford or address the continued self-sufficient water system. Though the spraying has seemed to virtually stop throughout the Trump presidency so far… time will tell if we’re to be completely freed from that contamination. I am hopeful.
Meanwhile, as we were re-building the ranch the cattle were multiplying. We had purchased some new ‘heifer bulls’ that produced low birth-weight calves (meaning, no more pulling calves in the wee morning hours in our bathrobes out in the cow pens). The previous Herford and Angus bulls we had used produces fantastic, big, healthy calves out of grown cows but a lot of times our first-calf heifers just couldn’t handle the size of the babies. We had lost severalcalves and a few heifers also during the birthing process.
Fire
In all that success creating beef, we were busting at the seams and thankfully able to pick up some lease land. We had an additional beautifiul quarter section a few miles to the northeast owned by Russell & Cheryl Bockmon. We had another 1600 acres about 25 miles north owned by Rusty & Kathy Henderson. All in all both parcels were great blessings and we were running stock on over 2,200 acres. A challenge came in March of 2017 when a deadly wildfire ripped across the Texas panhandle. It killed 3 people, untold numbers of cattle and horses, and burned equipment operators trying to cut the fire off. Some of the livestock did not die in the fires, but had to be shot after the fact due to the smoke inhalation. By the grace of God (a whole miraculous story in itself) none of our cows, bulls, or newborn calves were killed… though the bulk of our leased land was lost in the fire. A few neighbors stepped in and allowed us temporary pasture until we could come up with a plan. Ultimately we had to sell some of our older cows and bring everybody else back to the home place.
Restoring Land, Cattle & Friends
Throughout that whole process, there were other things brewing. Spurred by the health issues of family members, and fueled by moving to the Texas panhandle, I got a whole new “behind the scenes” education on the perversion of our food supply and disease in society that we had been blissfully ignorant of for our many generations of ranching in Florida. Being able to have direct contact with the feed yards where they finished the beef and the local farmers who (are not evil, just ignorant) regularly and systematically use toxic chemicals on their crops. It just makes me sick to see the orchestration of what is happening. Dark players in the world are quite literally killing us… in a ‘soft kill’ as it’s often referred to. I became a lot more open to theories that get passed through back channels after seeing and experiencing what I have since 2009. There are things that you can’t ‘un-see or un-know’.
Anyway… business-as-usual was no longer an option. I love all of God’s creation and understand how imperative it is to stay committed to God’s design in every area. We immediately started the transition to nutrient dense, grass fed and finished beef, free range chicken eggs and meat, and all our dairy goat products. No guest of mine, ignorant of this situation or not, will ever receive a contaminated product from our ranch.
In addition to the humans and animals, the farmland itself had been degraded with all the previous decades of tilling and toxic chemical application. The minerals and microbiome in the soil were all but dead. In 2016, after much research and contemplation, we reseeded the 120-acre farm field in native-mix grass. We started high-intensity rotational grazing utilizing portable solar chargers and temporary electric fencing.
In 2018 we were both grazing open range on our county roads either horseback with our working cow-dogs or the ATV. Both methods instantly jump-started the process of bringing life back to dead soil and therefore increasing plant density and diversity on every acre we grazed. The basic premise is mimicking the natural bunching of hooved herbivores (the more variety in the mixed herds the better) and moving them daily as they would with constantly circling predators on open ranges.
The Second Fire
October 26th, 2019. Chancie and I had been out over-seeding rye into the new grass field. We stopped for lunch about 2-3:00p.m. and headed for the hillside cabin we were living in at that time.
Upon arriving we were shocked into action when opening the front door as thick, black smoke came billowing out and we could see flames inside. Though we had been using the wood stove for a couple weeks already that fall, apparently some form of back draft had occurred and caught fire to the contents of the cabin. The cabin itself, being almost entirely concrete, did not catch fire. THANK GOD.
Though our elderly cat, Little Orange, had no chance of surviving the dense smoke and heat, we were able to salvage a lot more of our belongings than we had anticipated. Some plastic items had burnt causing everything surface and item within the cabin to be coated in oily soot. We spent weeks scrubbing and the fumes were so thick we had to sleep with wet handkerchiefs over our faces and our blankets over our heads. The minute the handkerchief dried out it would wake us up and we’d have to go re-wet it and try to go back to sleep. It took us a month or so of scrubbing, wiping, and washing every single surface of every single item, whether in drawers, cabinets, or not, including the walls of the cabin itself to get back in order. Then finally, a fresh coat of paint. We were blessed to make it through a second fire.
Irons in the Fire
With that stage set, circumstances came about that we had been renting out our spare cabins to hunters who came every winter. In March of 2019 the transition to interstate travelers came quite suddenly. We’re so blessed to be able to open up the ranch to both short-term and longer-term guests. We started utilizing a myriad of hosting platforms besides direct contact through our website. Guests can book cabins, tent camp, or set up anything from off-road camping vehicles and travel trailers, to 40’+ motor coaches. We also started accomodating travelers with horses and other livestock at our new Horse Motel Chancie has developed. Guests have acess to covered horse pens,and a 50′ round pen for turnout, as well as miles of west Texas trails and backroads to explore. The hiking, mountain biking, ATV rentals, and horseback ranch tours became a big draw also as families have taken advantage of everything this land and surrounding countryside has to offer.
The Grill Barn, Ranch Store & Direct to Consumer Beef!
Our Airbnb, Hipcamp, Harvest Host and hunting guests had been leaving fantastic reviews on the quality and flavor of our food after filling their coolers to take home, which was amazing for business! After about a year of running from one end of the ranch to the other delivering everyone’s orders upon check-in. I decided to build the ranch store to be a more convenient meeting location where folks could come make their selections and enjoy some social time.
I chose a deadline of Nov 6th, 2021 as it was the opening weekend of hunting season and we planned a (complimentery) Open House BB-Q. As with most things, I created my own challenge. My good friend, Rusty Henderson, Chancie, and I built the 22′ x 32′ grill barn in 8 days. It was pure adrenaline & busted knuckles.
The grill barn included an outdoor kitchen, seating for 12 under the light of rustic chandeliers in the dining area, a western bar and an accompanying outdoor seating area to enjoy the “everyone-welcome” campfires. The ranch store is immediatley adjacent in a repurposed insulated semi body. It’s a cozy place where folks gather out of the weather to tell tall tales of heroism and share life-journey adventures. It’s definitely a group effort. We have freezers and refrigerators full of our own beef, dairy, eggs, and home brewed kombucha! Our neighbor, Gary Oldham who owns SOS From Texas, is one of only two farmers growing organic cotton in the Panhandle. After harvest his cotton is sent to North Carolina to be woven into T-shirts among other things. They’re then shipped back and a team of our neighbor ladies do the screen printing and they ship all over the world. We’re just delighted to be able to source all of our custom Lone Mound Ranch t-shirts from our local SOS family! The ranch store also serves as our headquarters for the ATV rentals and the horseback ranch tours that Chancie ramrods. It is also the central location for families that want to interact with the goat herd and chicken flock or sign up for on comprehensive ranch tour with myself or Chancie. It is also command central for our direct-to-consumer beef shipments and deliveries from Rochester, New York to Huntington Beach, California amd anywhere in between. Getting quality animal protein into the hands of friends everywhere is our driving goal!
RV sites
In addition to the multiple primitive camping sites scattered across the ranch land, we added 110, 30, and 50 amp RV sites up by the highway (right across from our little old house we sold so many years ago). That location has become a favorite as they’re adjacent to one of our old ranch roads that is perfect for walking dogs and leisurely strolls while the horses and cattle drift through.
Feedback we often hear includes: silence, quiet, coyotes, this is great, sky, stars, peace, we were surrounded by cows, beautiful, amazing, the horse stuck his head in the door, my dogs loved running free, wildflowers, delicious and flavorful.
God Works in Mysterious Ways!
As a lady who appreciates fine western art… I’d stood for years in the lobby of the local bank admiring canvas I just knew I’d never be able to own by the renowned local Western artist Kenneth Wyatt. Wistful and admiring I’d resigned myself to lingering in the financial institution. As chances would have it…we ended up getting a smoking deal on a piece from Mr. Wyatt’s grandson himself which included a personal tour of their own art gallery in Tulia, TX. Shortly thereafter, Jake and his beautiful new bride came to stay with us in the Barnhouse and spent the weekend at the ranch hiking, four-wheeling, and stocking up on our beef.
They seemed to have a fantastic time and upon departure, I was struck speechless as Jake offered to fully outfit all our cabins and the ranch store in Kenneth Wyatt prints! No, I did not hesitate to take Jake up on that! My God is … Indescribable. So, in addition to our Fredrick Remington’s and Chris Owen pieces… whichever cabin guests book, it is an art gallery. All the Wyatt canvases are available for sale. They can be not only a souvenir of your ranch experience, but an appreciated vision of the western spirit for generations.
It Takes a Village
Behind the scenes is our steadfast, encouraging, best friend and right hand Diane Horstman with Busy Bee Inspirations. She is the techinal and creative genius behind the face of Lone Mound Ranch. Diane produces our website and media and shows up with all manner of tools, materials and creative ideas on hands-on projects. She is a phone call away when I get stumped on a job and regularly helps me when I’m unable to see the forest for the trees.
I can’t begin to express in words the absolute treasure of relationships and memories we continue to receive with every booking. Husbands, wives, sons, daughters, young adults, friends, dogs, and I even met a special cat. Everyone is on an adventure and has life stories that we are so thankful to be a part of. The gifts, handwritten notes, and drawings from children are gems. The reviews on the hosting sites we receive are humbling, heart-warming, and inspiring. I’m in the process of compiling a scrapbook containing these valuable momentos we get to take away from the souls that pull in through our front gates.
To live on this amazing land is beyond what I dreamed as a child thinking of ‘out west’ adventures… being able to share it with so many is another degree of fulfillment in this purpose-driven life.
This ranch is being built and maintained by a myriad of extraordinary folks who weave the fabric of our lives. Every accomplishment achieved is something we look back on and give thanks to our dearest families like the Sotos, whose contributions to our natural and spiritual lives cannot be thoroughly written. And every single neighbor and business owner in the community, too many to mention!
God
All the glory for any of our adventures and progress goes to our Creator and his Son Jesus who have literally and miraculously, seen us through every challenge and victory.
We’re hoping you’ll visit to enjoy a crackling campfire and big skies in a world where time is of no concern…
Many blessings to you and yours,
Lana & Chancie Flint
May 24, 2023
Now… off to build a windbreak and a couple of mobile tiny houses!
Lone Mound Ranch 