Country living

We decided that for Memorial Day weekend since both Bryan and I had time off from work, we were going to get the heck out of Dodge.  The city - if not only the daily routine - was getting stifling.  There is constant construction at the lot across the street and it feels as though the concrete walls are slowly closing in on us.  With that decision made, we rented an airbnb log cabin in Washington on the Brazos aka the birthplace of Texas.  We were looking for peace, quiet, a place for the dog to run around and us to have some time to unplug and read.

Cabin way off in the distance

We drove down on Saturday morning and since the cabin is 30 minutes from civilization, we loaded up on groceries in Brenham, TX and also stopped by these two incredibly cute shops: Ballad of the Bird Dog and Puppy Dawgs and Cat Tails.  Bowie was welcome in both places and quite spoiled with treats at the pet store.  Downtown Brenham is quite lively and full of small town character.  If we had more time, I could have a spent a full day wandering in and out of shops, grabbing a tasting at the brewery, and sticking around for the live music in the evening. 

One of the many murals in Brenham

Later that day, we rumbled down the gravel driveway and parked in front of the cabin, amidst a sea of grass on 50 acres.  The main house and the barn on the property sat empty, so we had the entire place to ourselves.  We were told that we were welcome to roam the property and fish in the pond if we’d like.  The property managers had thoughtfully mowed a path through the long grass around the property so the first thing we did was stretch our legs and trek around the property.  The dog’s mind must have exploded as he ran and ran in front of us, continuously checking back over his shoulder to see if we’d call him back and bounding away when we didn’t.

Being Texas in late May, it’s already in the 90s during the day so we knew that we’d be dunking the dog into the pond to cool him off.  The dog fell off the dock twice, mistaking the pond weed for grass.  Once we showed him how he could get in and out of the water by himself, we couldn’t stop him.  A wet, cool dog is a happy dog and Bowie wanted nothing more but to play fetch with his duck decoy that we kept launching into the water.

Happy wet dog

The days were long and it seemed as though the sun would never set in the evening.  I haven’t been so aware of how long the sun sticks around until we were outside for the majority of the time.  Even though it was very warm, there was a constant breeze blowing.  We did smush our fair share of scorpions and wasps - gross - but it’s the country and you’re living in Mother Nature’s house.  There was a fire pit, grill, and smoker just outside the cabin and we grilled out every evening.  Once dusk hit, we lit a bonfire and made s’mores.  You gotta eat them standing, the only way you can do it without making a complete mess.  We sat underneath a blanket of stars at night and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find the North Star (third star straight down from the handle of the Big Dipper in case you’re wondering).

At dusk and dawn, the creatures that lived around the property came out to play.  An armadillo wandered up to our bonfire the last night.  We disrupted the shenanigans of jack rabbits multiple times and Bowie gave chase across the fields.  The neighboring property had a herd of deer that we spied on with binoculars and Bryan had fun calling to the turkeys hiding in the trees.

Inevitably, as these vacations do, the weekend trip led to a very serious discussion about getting a piece of land in the country.  At the moment, we are still tied to the city and massive changes would be required for us to move outside the city limits permanently.  I continue to be convinced that managing land in Texas is much more than we can handle at this point, particularly if this is to be a weekend getaway.  I guess we all have long-term goals that we need to work toward but in the meantime, we’ll continue running away to rentals in the countryside when we have a chance.