Blog 3442 – 04.06.2025

A Rare Privilege

Yesterday, I got to celebrated my son’s birthday with him and my granddaughter. Jay’s wife is a nurse and she works two or three twelve hour shift per week at a hospital in the Houston Medical Center. Often she draws weekends shifts so Jay pulls baby watch on those days and my wife and I try to plan our visits accordingly.

Thursday April third was Jay’s thirty-fifth birthday and Lauren and little Emma had him to their selves that evening (pictured above.) But Linda, my wife, and I had planned to celebrate his birthday Saturday with Jay and Emma by dropping off one of his favorite meals, a Whataburger Cheeseburger Combo ( a small French Fry for Emma), his birthday gifts, and card. I did not work out that Linda was able to go so I went by myself.

I got to Jay’s house just before noon and we ate together, the three of us, (one of the clearest phrases in Emma’s limited vocabulary is “French fry”), and I got to play with Emma and talk with Jay for a couple of hours. Then he put Emma down for a nap and I had him all to myself for a couple of hours more and it was a rare privilege.

About a year ago Jay drove me to see some timber property that he had purchased near Bon Weir, Texas. It is about a two and a half hour drive both ways, there and back. The drive alone was wonderful just getting to be with Jay. Then walking in the woods with him as he showed me his sixty acres was reminiscent of hunting with my Dad when I was a boy and young man. Those were some of the most precious times I ever had with Dad.

Jay shared with me his dream of one day having a hundred acres there near Bon Wier. Some years ago I too dreamed of having a hundred acre ranch.

Jay has made the trip from Houston to Bon Wier to his property about fifteen times. He is a CPA and his work and family responsibilities prevent him from seeing the property as often as he might like.

To help him realize his dream and mine own. I have over the last six months purchased two 15.55 tracts of land adjacent his from a brother and sister who inherited them from their parents. Jay will inherit them from me when I pass, but they are really already his as I plan to be his grounds keeper and help him make Jay’s Hundred Acre Wood a little piece of paradise like that of Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and the gang.

My first few trips to the property I helped Jay install T-posts to permanently mark his southern property line where the surveyor’s wooden stakes were. The project required a lot of bush-whacking through the dense undergrowth and I confess it was tough trying to keep up with him, but that inspired in me the desire to lose weight and get in better physical shape so that I could.

Tax seasons, a couple of months before the April and the October filing deadlines, are especially difficult for Jay to get away and spent a half a day in the wild woods. So after I acquired the first 15.55 acre tract in early November I have been making the journey to Bon Wier mostly on my own at least weekly.

After completing Jay’s property line marking project I have been mainly focused on trying to clear the paths and lumber roads throughout the property to make it a little more accessible by foot and also to make some clearer lanes for the deer population. I also helped Jay to upgrade several of his game cameras so we can watch the activity along those trails.

Jay told me back in November that in a few months I would have been to the property more times than he had. That has come to be true. Next Tuesday will be but the second time that the interval between visits has been two weeks. One of those intervals was due to closing on the second 15.55 acres after which I thought every two weeks would be sufficient. By far the most special visits are those I get to make with Jay still I have come to the realization that I really need those quiet time in the woods for my own personal R&R (rest and recreation) from my own family responsibilities.

Because I am retired now and I still feel it is okay to leave Linda on her own for half a day I intend to make the drive to Jay’s Hundred Acre Wood weekly for as long as I can. Tax season will soon be ending so Jay told me yesterday that he hopes to be able to take a week day off from work as often as he can so we can make trips to the property together again. I so look forward to that.

Tuesday I hope to meet with the man who is going to run the municipal water line to the property and also to take pictures of a neighbor’s power meter so I can arrange with the Newton-Jasper Electric Co-op to run power to the property. I also hope on Tuesday’s visit to do a little more clearing at the site that Jay and I have picked out to place a 20’ pull behind RV Camper Trailer where the water and electric hook-ups are to be located. Oh, yeah and I also hope to install a solar panel and game camera to keep an eye on the camper site.

Even with all I have planned to do on my half day next Tuesday, I still plan to have a nice peaceful walk in the woods while there. The recent added words to my daily mantra come to mind:

“Come dance with me, come sing with me, come walk with me, come talk with me, come ride with me, come fly with me. Come follow me like you used to do. I can still show you Who and Whose you are.”

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19CDkk3iq8QB_Ccty1QLes7I1EQ0_K7cX/view?usp=drivesdk

No Night So Long