This is Us

For those who’ve never read my column, I thought it might be helpful to know a bit about me, and my husband, Houston. Together we own and run a farm to table, Glamping and event venue in nearby Purdon. Some people assume this is something we’ve always done, or at least had some experience doing. Well, it’s not. Many days look like a reality show with massive challenges, mistakes and loss. But some days are beautiful. The golden hour is, well, golden. Photos of our animals come out magical, the chores go as planned and our guests are happy. And that suits me just fine.

I met Houston when I was finishing my master’s in education at the University of Georgia and he was wrapping up a business degree. Within six months we were engaged and five months later we married. We moved to Atlanta, where we lived for 25 years, raising four children.

When my husband’s company that he’d started with his brother wanted to open a Dallas office in 2011, we both jumped at the chance to move. Our youngest child had recently graduated from high school and was getting ready to leave the nest, so the timing was perfect.

Our plan had been to live in Dallas for six months to a year and then return to our home in the Atlanta suburbs, but we didn’t count on falling in love with Dallas - and Texas. After taking into account the Atlanta traffic, as well as Houston’s frequent flights to both coasts, we decided to make the move permanent.

We began to consider buying land within an hour or two of Dallas - a place where we could retreat on the weekends and somewhere we could host others. We especially wanted to provide a place for artists to find a sense of renewal and inspiration. We looked at a lot of properties, but still hadn’t found what we were looking for, when our realtor told us about a place outside of Corsicana. It was Easter Sunday, 2017, and we almost didn’t go. We both had slight colds and got into an argument about who was going to drive.

In the end, we made the drive. And boy! Were we glad we did! We couldn’t believe it. When we walked onto the property, our jaws literally dropped. The owner had spent 18 years after he retired hand clearing the property. Each tree was manicured to allow him to drive a tractor underneath. The land was beautiful, with groves of trees and open meadows. There was even a pond.

We walked the property and told the owner and his daughter that we were definitely interested, and that we’d let them know for sure the following day. We shared what we wanted to do with the property. Right away they seemed to connect with our vision.

Fast forward five and a half years and we now live on our property. Our vision is the same. The way we're doing it may have been tweaked a bit, but our overall goal has remained. We’re creating a place of retreat - for us and for others.

This piece first appeared in Sherry’s column, Finding Myself in a Small Town, in the February 11, 2023 edition of the Corsicana Daily Sun.