Greetings from the Great Plains!

Howdy folks! My name is John and I'm writing to you from the Great
Plains region of the United States. I am in the state of Texas which is
in the Southern Great Plains.

For those not familiar with our U.S. geography the area between the
Rocky Mountains and the great Mississippi River is known as the
Great Plains because the topography is generally considered to be flat.

I was raised on a farm out by Dodge City, Kansas where we raised
cattle and wheat. I left the farm in my 20s in search of more
profitable employment during my wandering years lived in
several different states including Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky
and Ohio.

My wife and I met in Ohio where we built and ran a successful real
estate business and ran that for 12 years but it was always my
dream to get back to country living. As they say.."you can take
the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of
the boy!"

When the real estate business became all consuming and we realized
we had no life outside of work we started planning our escape and
decided to move to the country and that's how we ended up in Texas.

It hasn't been easy because the property we bought had sat
abandoned for over 8 years and had interior damage from broken
water pipes in the attic so many of the walls were gutted.

The house and yard were overgrown with trees, bushes, cactus, weeds
and wild grass, much of it over 6 feet tall. You couldn't see out of any
of the windows because they were covered with vines and the
overgrowth was so tall and thick around the house that we had to rent
a Brush-hog to knock it down.

The photo below is of me using a lawn tractor in one of the areas
which was short enough to use the tractor mower on.

We had to take the property back from nature who had engulfed it
and turned it into part of it's own domain. Not only was the place
overgrown with plants but there were swarms of wasps and hornets
with nests built inside and out, grasshoppers were jumping all over us
as well as the biggest spiders we'd ever seen.

We also had to deal with scorpions, snakes(I've lost count of how
many I've shot) and armadillos who loved to dig all around the house
and tear up the yard.

It took over 2 years of clearing, cutting, trimming on the outside and
cleaning, repairing and remodeling on the inside but it's finally
coming together.

Now I'm as happy as a "pig in slop" (another country saying) because
we have our own place on a totally private 15 acres of land with 2
ponds. Actually around here they say "pots" because any pond which
is man-made is called a Pot, at least in this part of the country.

Oh and we also have a German Shepard named Jack who is a great
Watch Dog and is very protective. Here's Jack:

We love the peace and quiet of the country...well there IS alot of
gunfire out here because the area is a gun culture so we hear
shooting all around us anytime of the day or night.

Also being just 2 miles from a gun range assures the constant sound
of gunfire. I grew up with guns being raised on the farm and I'm a
bit of a gunslinger myself but even in Kansas we didn't have the
gun culture that they do here.

It's not a negative though, it's a positive thing... when my wife
and I moved here and found out about all the dangers of living in
the country(coming in another post) we realized that one would have
to be a dang fool not to be armed.

And Mama didn't raise no fool. I'll tell some stories about that later.

One of my passions is researching history of all kinds but particularly
the history of the Old West in regards to the settling of the land and
the battles and strife between the Native American Indian tribes and
the U.S. Army and Settlers.

Texas is rich in that history so I will be telling some stories of the Old
West and the modern times as well which you may find of interest.

My wife and I are also passionate about staying healthy and eating
right, anti-aging methods, supplements and working out. And if ya'll
have any tips on anti-aging or staying healthy after age 40 then we'd
love to hear about them.

We started the Keto Zone diet a few weeks ago and I'll be writing
some about that because it's turned into quite an amazing program
with some surprising and beneficial results.

All photos taken by us and are of our property and some of the
wildlife that we have here and enjoy watching.

My wife is a city girl but has quickly adapted to the country lifestyle
and feels like it's home. It # IS # Redneck country but we love it! lol.
Oh, for non U.S. readers the term Redneck is a positive one.

Although it has become something of a pejorative term it basically
means "good ol country people". Hardworking, strong in faith and
character but not sophisticated or polished and I reckon that's
putting it mildly. I'll write a post about what a Redneck is from the
perspective of a Redneck.

I will say this about the people here though, in our area...my wife
has lived in different parts of the U.S. but has NEVER been treated
with such respect, caring and kindness as she has by the men in
these parts. She's been called Ma'am more in the last 2 years than
she has in her entire life!

That's all for now, I look forward to getting to know people from
all over the world because from what I've seen so far this
community has some of the best people on the planet!

Not only that, as if that wasn't exciting enough, I read in
an email the other day that Weise Ratings ranked Steem
as one of their top recommendations for 2018 and one
of the safest cryptos on the market.