# ??? about Texas



## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

My Hubby and I live in the back 40 of Northern AZ but do to medical needs we need to move closer to town, we are thinking about Alvin TX or the surrounding area, we don't know anything about the area though, from what I have read it seams to have the down home southern feel where everybody is your friend that we need but we dont know, I would realy like if all of you that live or have lived in that area tell me about it, prows, cons, the good, bad, and ugly, help us decide where we will go.


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## Dwarf Dad (Aug 27, 2017)

I have passed through the area in my truck driving days. It will be a huge shock, not from people, from geography. Nothing you can't deal with, just so different from AZ.
Some of the people will welcome you with open arms, some will be standoffish. 
Houston metro area is very crowded. Humidity will be so new to you.


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## jschies (Aug 15, 2014)

I live closer to Louisiana, in Kountze, TX, but it is very similar. People in Texas are nice. We are "the friendship state." There will be warm humid summers and mild rainy winters. We get a dusting of snow sometimes and everything shuts down. We keep hurricane supplies and watch the hurricane forecasts in the summers. I moved away for three years and came back to Texas as soon as I could! If you would have to travel into Houston much, you will need to look at the traffic patterns.


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## top_goat (Sep 16, 2014)

All good advice. I live about 2 hours north of Houston off of I-45. Is there a reason you have chosen Alvin? Family or friends nearby? Cost of living? Jobs? The reason I'm asking, is that if the biggest reason is for medical care, I would suggest you look at perhaps closer to Huntsville or Bryan-College Station. B/CS is the home of Texas A&M (recently in the news with the GHWB funeral). Because of that world-class university, they are developing some of the best medical care in the state -- all without the traffic and weather horrors of Houston. (We live about 90 minutes away, but still go there for most of our medical needs.) Consider that Alvin will likely be under water at the next hurricane... or even the next rain storm (which recently has lasted several months, BTW!) Bryan/College Station is a nice community. The "Brazos Valley" is lovely. Far enough from the coast to escape the worst of the gulf storms, but nicely centered between (and an easy drive from) a number of major metroplexes: Houston, Dallas, Waco, Austin, San Antonio. Plus there is the added benefit of the Vet School, which is building a great goat health program! I use them at least once a year, and they are awesome! Food for thought. And welcome to Texas!


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

Alvin is just the place recommended to us, I will have to show Hubby this!!!


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## Nigerian dwarf goat (Sep 25, 2017)

MOVE TO TEXAS!!!!!
I love it here!


top_goat said:


> Huntsville or Bryan-College Station. B/CS is the home of Texas A&M (recently in the news with the GHWB funeral).


I was born at the Bryan Tx hospital! I like it there, and you will only be an hour and a half from me!



top_goat said:


> Because of that world-class university, they are developing some of the best medical care in the state -- all without the traffic and weather horrors of Houston.


AAAA! Houston traffic! The worst! And it seems as if they get rain every day!



top_goat said:


> Bryan/College Station is a nice community. The "Brazos Valley" is lovely.


Love the Brazos valley, although it seems the Brazos river is always dried up lol! Very pretty there though!
I am about 2 hours south of houston off of 290 and have been there for the livestock show and the traffic is scary! Not the best drivers in Houston!

I love it in Texas! Very friendly people, who are always willing to help. Im sure you will love it in Texas if you end up here!


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## jschies (Aug 15, 2014)

What I have seen of Bryan-College Station is great!! It is a beautiful area. If that is an option, I would choose that over Alvin.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

Poor Alvin... No love here for Alvin...


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

I showed all your responses to Hubby, and looked it over online, Huntsville looks like a great option, Alvin is now out, Thanks every one! we NEED all the tips!!!


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

My son lives in Bryan and it's great! There's a lot of small towns just outside of it that have a decent cost of living. It's HUMID though...miserably so at times. I'm between Fort Worth and Waco and it's not as bad. It takes me only about 3 hours to get to Bryan. And only an hour to Waco.
I've lived in the desert and I miss it but I have to admit I love Texas and don't see living anywhere else anytime soon.


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## top_goat (Sep 16, 2014)

Yup.... poor Alvin (NOT!) If one is going to live in Hurricane Alley, there are much prettier places... LOL Alvin is pretty much oil refineries and mosquitoes. ( At any rate, Huntsville is a nice little college town. They don't have the greatest medical care, but they are only 1/2 hour (tops) from the Woodlands, Conroe, Montgomery and a host of other burgs on Houston's northern perimeter. So you can get good basic medical care in Huntsville and great specialized care generally without having to endure Houston proper, though the traffic starts getting horrific at least by Conroe. They do have pretty good shopping -- two awesome state of the art grocery stores, a nice health food store, all of your big chains, including WalMart, Target, TSC, Home Depot, Harbor Freight... all in all a nice community. GREAT library. One tremendous music store if you are musicians (Chip and Wendy Looney, the owners, are friends.)

If there's anything any of us can do to help you, please let us know. The only thing we like talking about more than our goats is our great state!!!!!


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

I'm a born and raised Texan, never lived anywhere else nor will ever live anywhere else, I love it. Lived in Houston the majority of my life, born in Galveston, I hate Houston lol, but I'm a country girl who was stuck in the city all her life. We lived in Huntsville 20 some odd years ago, I loved it, it's grown so much since then, but I think it's still a great place. We currently live in Woodville which is deep east TX, about 2 - 2.5 hours NE of Houston. Moved out here 2.5 years ago and I am in love. Super small town, gorgeous piney woods, so happy here. 

I wouldn't do Alvin, you won't have a house for long...not when the next hurricane comes. BCS is a great and beautiful area too. The Hill Country (central TX) is absolutely beautiful.


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

top_goat said:


> Yup.... poor Alvin (NOT!) If one is going to live in Hurricane Alley, there are much prettier places... LOL Alvin is pretty much oil refineries and mosquitoes. ( At any rate, Huntsville is a nice little college town. They don't have the greatest medical care, but they are only 1/2 hour (tops) from the Woodlands, Conroe, Montgomery and a host of other burgs on Houston's northern perimeter. So you can get good basic medical care in Huntsville and great specialized care generally without having to endure Houston proper, though the traffic starts getting horrific at least by Conroe. They do have pretty good shopping -- two awesome state of the art grocery stores, a nice health food store, all of your big chains, including WalMart, Target, TSC, Home Depot, Harbor Freight... all in all a nice community. GREAT library. One tremendous music store if you are musicians (Chip and Wendy Looney, the owners, are friends.)
> 
> If there's anything any of us can do to help you, please let us know. The only thing we like talking about more than our goats is our great state!!!!!


When I lived in Huntsville, in the 90s, there wasn't hardly any of this stuff. Drove through last year and was shocked at how much had changed!


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## Dwarf Dad (Aug 27, 2017)

I have visited all through that area above Huntsville driving trucks that move drilling rigs and what the others are saying is true. Most everyone is friendly, down home people. Ranchers and people who work outside. We used to stay in Jewett a lot. Crocket, Buffalo, Mansfield, and Huntsville. Hilltop Lakes is beautiful. Marquez is a friendly crossroads with different eating places. 
Going farther east you may feel a little closed in from all of the tall pine trees.


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## Nigerian dwarf goat (Sep 25, 2017)

What about San Marcos? About 20-ish minuites from Austin which has a hospital. And has the San Marcos river, which is the BEST to float in the summer!


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

pine trees!!! we like!! ok Alvin is OUT, thank you for giving me other places with good med and shopping to look in!


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## top_goat (Sep 16, 2014)

Dwarf Dad said:


> I have visited all through that area above Huntsville driving trucks that move drilling rigs and what the others are saying is true. Most everyone is friendly, down home people. Ranchers and people who work outside. We used to stay in Jewett a lot. Crocket, Buffalo, Mansfield, and Huntsville. Hilltop Lakes is beautiful. Marquez is a friendly crossroads with different eating places.
> Going farther east you may feel a little closed in from all of the tall pine trees.


OK -- now you're getting into my neck of the woods again (though I was raised in the Hill Country and would go there in a heartbeat if I could afford it!). Leon County tends to have the lowest land prices in the entire state... with the exception of far west where you can get land for $100 an acre if you don't mind dealing with no water, lots of rattlesnakes and even more drug and human triffickers! Leon, Madison, Houston, Brazos counties are all great. In Leon County (where I live) you might want to avoid Jewett and Marquez -- lots of drugs. Otherwise you're good. Crockett (Houston County) is lovely and is an easy drive to Huntsville or Lufkin for medical care. Trinity is also nice, down in that area.

Heck... there are just so many options! Years ago when I lived in Kansas City, my daughter was trying to find a place for a new start following a nasty divorce. I suggested she make a list of the things she likes best -- climate, geography, social life, etc. -- then start looking for a job there. A week later she reported that she had 5 interviews scheduled in Austin! Gee-haw! (Yes, she moved to Austin and is now a die-hard "back to my roots" Texan! But now she is in Houston...) So I'd suggest the same thing to you and your husband. Quality medical care is available in so many areas. Make a list of the other things you'd like (or NOT). Then you will be more able to focus your search. Good luck! We're all here to help!


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## top_goat (Sep 16, 2014)

OK y'all -- it is obvious we're going to have to schedule a Texas meet 'n greet!!!! LOL.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

I wish I could move close to Austin...


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## Dwarf Dad (Aug 27, 2017)

mariarose said:


> I wish I could move close to Austin...


If all of you move close together, you won't visit with the rest of us. That would be terrible!


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## SleepingDogRanch (Aug 10, 2018)

You will absolutely love Texas (not biased at all)!!!


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

The poisonous snakes scare me.
I hear they have them everywhere in Texas.

Sorry if I am cutting in here, LOL
Been seeking a way out of California, kicked around Texas too. But want a place that has good grazing land, maybe some tree's. 
With most places, it seems to say city water or something weird about it ect. 
We prefer rural well and septic. 
Ag land is a good thing to have but I am having a hard time finding it, if I want to move Texas way. 
My husband works turnarounds(refineries). We wanted to maybe move closer to his jobs.
Also kicked around other states as well.
Moving is a big too do and a big decision to make.


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

Dwarf Dad said:


> Going farther east you may feel a little closed in from all of the tall pine trees.


Haha, this is where I am, an hour-ish east of Huntsville down 190, surrounded by pines, I love it.


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

top_goat said:


> OK y'all -- it is obvious we're going to have to schedule a Texas meet 'n greet!!!! LOL.


I agree that would be fun!


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## GoofyGoat (Sep 21, 2018)

toth boer goats said:


> The poisonous snakes scare me.
> I hear they have them everywhere in Texas.
> 
> Sorry if I am cutting in here, LOL
> ...


Yes, there's snakes but as long as you're careful
not to just reach under something without looking first you should have no problem. I've been here 7 plus years and have only seen a couple of rat snakes and I like having them around ( no mice) hill country is a great area for grazing and it's friendly.


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## Dwarf Dad (Aug 27, 2017)

Jubillee said:


> Haha, this is where I am, an hour-ish east of Huntsville down 190, surrounded by pines, I love it.


I like the area lot. @spidy1 is probably used to wide open or semi-wide open spaces, and all of those tall pine forest looking woods may be clostraphobic to her and her family.


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

to be honest, northern Az is not the typical desert you think about when I say AZ, down south it is, I lived there a wile, now I live in the plains but grew up high north...these are pic I took first where I grew up, second where I live now, third down south...AZ has LOTS of rattler snakes so I am use to dealing with them.


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

Jubillee said:


> Haha, this is where I am, an hour-ish east of Huntsville down 190, surrounded by pines, I love it.


where are you at, we are thinking about east of Huntsville!


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## Dwarf Dad (Aug 27, 2017)

spidy1 said:


> to be honest, northern Az is not the typical desert you think about when I say AZ, down south it is, I lived there a wile, now I live in the plains but grew up high north...these are pic I took first where I grew up, second where I live now, third down south...AZ has LOTS of rattler snakes so I am use to dealing with them.
> View attachment 143037
> View attachment 143039
> View attachment 143041


That is what i was meaning. In your pictures you have a "vista". Ask @top_goat , @Jubillee , and @jschies for pictures. It is beautiful country and not trying to talk you out of it at all. Farther east of jschies, to the Louisiana line, the trees get thicker and taller.
I learned while driving a truck, America has all kinds of geography, mountains with trees, mountains with grass, mountains with just rock, mountains that are a rock, plains, desert with sand, desert with red rock, desert with salt, hardwood forests, conifer woods, pine forests, oak trees that are chest high, oak trees that grow to ten feet, oak trees that grow to seventy or eighty feet, lakes with no vegation around them, lakes that seemed to be cut out of a forest, rivers that trickle, rivers a mile wide and creeks that are huge. It is all beautiful, all different and all could be called home.
Whew, sorry.


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

spidy1 said:


> where are you at, we are thinking about east of Huntsville!


Woodville  in Tyler County.

This is the road to our house, trees for days, so beautiful. I had others but can't find them for some reason...

Love the pictures you posted of the mountains, so beautiful. We have that same landscape out in West TX in the Davis Mountains region. That's where my parents are right now. Texas has several different landscapes lol.


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## SleepingDogRanch (Aug 10, 2018)

toth boer goats said:


> The poisonous snakes scare me.
> I hear they have them everywhere in Texas.
> 
> Sorry if I am cutting in here, LOL
> ...


Not to push Texas even more on you, but where I live in Texas is VERY rural and we get our water through a well (most people in my town live outside of city limits) so then we also use septic. We also have a lot of refineries here too. The ones that come to mind are near Corpus Christi, TX but I'm sure there are some other places here. The way you will get land here is if you are willing to sacrifice not being so close to a big city (in my opinion Corpus Christi is a big city but nothing in comparison to Houston). The snakes thing, well the big ones you'd need to watch out for are rattlesnakes and they tell you when they're around. Corral snakes are also here, but just remember, "Red and yellow, kill a fellow, red and black, friendly Jack" because milk snakes look similar but are not venomous.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

Coral Snakes are beautiful. Glad I don't have any...


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

tell me about the weather there, how far to shopping and medical? your pic is beautiful, we will look in woodville two! we do want our own well and septic, but I dont think we want to be in the south, Huston is two far south for us, Huntsville is right on our line for southern living I think.


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

would you do a drive by if we find an address in Woodville Jubillee? maybe some pics/what your opinion is?


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

Operation Woodville Reconnaissance!


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## spidy1 (Jan 9, 2014)

that's right!!!:clever:


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## Nigerian dwarf goat (Sep 25, 2017)

spidy1 said:


> tell me about the weather there, how far to shopping and medical?


I'm an hour and a half from Huntsville so i could tell you.
Summer
HOT & DRY!! Gets over the 100's in the summer along with *almost* 0 rain. It isn't too hard on the goats if they have fresh water. 
When hurricane Harvey came in to the coast, it was classified as a category 1 storm here. Our pond flooded over and was almost touching the house. Got over 20'' of rain

Winter
mild. Not much snow at all. Gets in the 30-40's and occasionally in the 20's. Lately though, it has been in the 70's and sunny! Its been nice. LOTS of rain!

Spring
Pretty warm (60-70's) and really rainy.

Fall
Gets in the 50-70's most of the time and not a whole lot of rain.

That is where i live so it may be different where u want to live.


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

spidy1 said:


> tell me about the weather there, how far to shopping and medical? your pic is beautiful, we will look in woodville two! we do want our own well and septic, but I dont think we want to be in the south, Huston is two far south for us, Huntsville is right on our line for southern living I think.


Soooo yesterday in the middle of January/winter, it was 78 degrees...so there is that. But in a couple of weeks we might have a freeze. lol. Winters are mild, usually in the 40-50s and we'll get a short freeze period that typically doesn't get below 15. That might be for just a few short days.

Summers are HOT and humid. in the low 100s or high 90s. Not much shopping here directly, we have a Wal-mart, Brookshires grocery, and a Tractor Supply. Several feed stores around and a small lumber store. Other small businesses. But, when I want to go do bigger shopping, it's 45 minutes up to Lufkin from my house, lots to choose from there. Or I can go about an hour down to Beaumont and you have probably more choices there. Livingston is 30 minutes west of us and Jasper is 40 minutes east of us. Both are a bit bigger than us but not as big as Beaumont and Lufkin. Beautiful parks and lakes around within 30m to an hours drive. Houston is 2-2.5 hours of a drive should you need something down there. We tend to go once a month or two.



spidy1 said:


> would you do a drive by if we find an address in Woodville Jubillee? maybe some pics/what your opinion is?


Sure thing! There are lots of other small "towns" around here too. It's a very "country" like area.


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