Kimberly Kelly - A new country sound from the soul!

Song writer and country singer Kimberly Kelly was playing at the Rail Head Smoke House in Aledo Texas Saturday night so I traveled north to meet with her and learn little more about this rising song writer and singing sensation. I arrived at the Rail Head a little early so that I could try to catch up with her while the band was setting up but got there about a half an hour before the band had even arrived. This gave me time to meet with the manager of the Rail Head Smoke House, Jeremy McCormick whom along with his staff, went out of their way to take care of me. Great folks and I really enjoyed me time with them.

The place opened in August of 2007 and has had a booming business every since. I would attribute it to the great food, wonderful staff and if Kimberly Kelly is any indication of the type of entertainment, I’d add entertainment to the mix. While I continued to wait I also had the opportunity to meet with some of the more charming and colorful local residents who went out of their way to entertain me.

Finally the band arrived and before they had even finished setting up for the sound check the room was packed with patrons. Kimberly stood at the microphone and entertained, talking and teasing in her sweet southern way making everyone smile as the crew set up the sound levels. When they were finished she came to the table where I was waiting. There was only seven minutes until show time.

Kimberly’s personality radiates from deep in her heart and pours out of her gorgeous smiling southern eyes. As she gives you her complete attention you can’t help feeling good just being around her. There is just something about her humbleness yet confident approach to life. She attributes her success to her belief and faith as a Christian first and family and friends second. She has loved singing her whole life but it wasn’t until her senior year in high school that she discovered and declared her intentions to be a singer and song writer.

She attended McLennan County College in Waco Texas. She took music class and got a degree in psychology. That is also where she met the beginning of her band members and the whole thing just started expanding from there. Debbie Scoggins is her stage mom and promoter and her Aunt, Diane Smith travels with the band attending to the promotional sales such as CD’s and Tee shirts. Their pride in being part of Kimberly’s life beams when ever they talk about her and it’s obvious she loves having them around also.

She plays the mandolin and just a little guitar and uses the piano when she’s writing a song. Writing songs is her passion. She told me that she would love to sing and perform every night if that is want is meant to be but if her calling is to just be happily married, raise babies and write songs from home she could be just as happy listening to her music being sung on the radio by a country star.

I look around the room and notice that not only are there the normal crowd here but two different radio stations and tables reserved by people who want to preview her to book for their parties. I have the honor of sitting at the table reserved for her friends and family but the room is so crowded that the walk ways are almost impassible for the waitresses. It is overwhelmingly loud and my seven minutes with Kimberly are over.

I watched as Kimberly stepped back out in front of her waiting audience and took control of the entire room with just a couple of words and a laugh. She has come a long ways from the girl I saw perform a year ago. No longer afraid, this place is hers and rightfully so. The band starts up and her deep from the soul country bluesy voice engulfs the room. It is hard to image a big voice like that comes out of that tiny little lady.

Kimberly and the band play song after song, some hers, some other artists, it doesn’t matter they’re all great. The band is outstanding, the crowd’s involved and they receives ample applause and cheers at the end of every song. Kimberly and her band is on their way to greatness; whatever that maybe. With every song Kimberly writes and sings, she comes one note closer to her goals and dreams. I look forward to catching up with Kimberly in the near future and visiting again.

Personal thanks to Debbie Scoggins who made it possible and to Kimberly Kelly and her band who welcomed me and let me take up their time.


Check out Kimberly’s website and when ever you get a chance go see her. We will keep her future engagements on our event calendar and follow her progress to stardom. Her CD’s are available on her site.
http://www.kimberlykellymusic.com/

Rosenthal Ranchette

Have you ever wanted to live in the country, but weren’t ready to take on a full scale ranch? Do you long for a space of your own and not just the 50’ by 75’ lot that the normal house sits on? Do you need to be close to town and know that your children are in a good school system? If you answered “yes” to the above then you need to read on and your dreams might just have found the perfect home for you.

Just a short skip and a jump from town, located close to Waco and just between the little town of Lorena and Robinson is eight beautiful acres with one of the most spectacular country yet elegant homes you will find in this area. When you walk through the front door of this 3602 square foot two story home you know there is lots to talk about as the first words out of your mouth will be “Wow!”

It won’t matter if you want to entertain here or just raise a passel of kids, as you walk into the house you will know you can do it all. Here’s a quick run down starting with the 4 bedrooms ( 2 bedrooms upstairs and 2 downstairs, including the master bed room and master bathroom), 3 ½ bathrooms, a study, formal living room, entertainment/game room, upstairs living area, 4 fireplaces, a large kitchen and dining area, and so much more. From the master bedroom or the dining room you can walk out through French doors on to the covered patio area.

Once you’re outside and looking out from the covered patio, yet within the privacy fence, you’ll see a beautiful sparkling blue pool and small yard. Remember all of this is sitting in on eight of the most beautiful acres in the state of Texas. A large pasture sprinkled with a few trees and a nice stock pond sits out in front of the home with many large trees and more pasture behind it. If you’re thinking about a horse or two, a place for the kids to ride their bikes or go-carts or you just want the peace and serenity of owning land, this might just be the little ranch for you.

Now imagine, you’ve had a hard day at work and within minutes you’ve left it all behind and you’re pulling off the main road on to your long concrete drive and up to your home. In the back yard the kids are playing in the pool and you can smell the barbeque grilling something really good. Within seconds you’ve changed into a swimsuit and taking a cool dip, preparing to spend the evening with your family listening to the crickets and watching the sunset in your own little piece of heaven on earth.

Okay, now wake up! You don’t own it yet so you better get on the phone and get a hold of the agent listed on this web site and go buy it before someone else does! No really, if you’d like to see this beautiful place we’d love to show it to you and get you started on the path to owning it so give us a call.

First Monday in Canton Texas

I’d bet every state has at least one of these, it may not be held on the first Monday of every month. It might happen on the first Tuesday or maybe even every weekend but if you look hard I’d bet you could find one in your area, at least a small one. I’m talking about what used to be called a Farmers Market. They use to be where the local people got together to sale their goods. New and used, hand made things, food, knickknacks, chickens, goats, cows and horses. Anything that could be dragged in was sold. Today it’s still the same way except these days you can also find shops with imports of new stuff from pretty much all over the world included.

Canton Texas during its prime had the largest First Monday Sale I have ever seen. Twenty years ago it was just little booths and tables thrown together in lines that haphazardly formed rows on the flat dirt areas and the rest were scattered up and over the root invested and slick mud hills. You could get lost looking at everything and I guarantee you’d lose the car or truck you came in if you weren’t careful and scoped out some king of land mark. But these days though it doesn’t seem as large it’s much better organized. There are rows of long large metal buildings full of little shops selling everything from spices and furniture and so much more. The hills where we used to stumble over roots and slip in the mud is now covered with asphalt and little old time looking shops filled with candles, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, a massage` parlor, ole` time photos, bars and on and on. Across the main road is where the farmers, junk dealers and puppy kennel owners still line the dirt trails in make shift booths. This was still the Canton I remembered.

It was a bitterly cold day and the weekend after Thanksgiving that we choose to make this trip. It took us about two hours to get there. Canton is just a little south and a little more east of Dallas so it’s close to the big metroplex area but a tad more than a hop, skip and jump for us coming from Waco. And did I mention it was a vey cold day! I don’t like the cold very much so I will admit I would have had more fun if it was warmer but still all in all I had a pretty good time. We walked through most of the shops in the big metal buildings first and that is where I met Mike the spice man. He was selling and I do mean “Selling” the spice that he had created. He told us that he used to own a barbecue joint and his clients were always telling him he should expand but he thought that would be too much work so he decided to market and sell the spice he concocted to a larger audience. At that point I didn’t know how good his spice was but I guarantee he was working hard at selling his product and had my husband in hook line and sinker. My husband who never cooks needless to say walked away with two bottles of spice. I later used it on some fish and Mike, you are right! It is great stuff. Mike has a website if you’re looking for a great tasting spice. He says it’s low in sodium, I don’t know about that but I love the taste. Mike’s website is www.mikesseasonings.com if you’d like to try it out.

If you like metal art then you’d love Texas Metal Art. Cheryl Loggins didn’t have to sell me anything here. I wanted to buy it all. I was amazed at what can be done with plasma cutter and a torch. It took me forever to choose what I wanted there were so many stunningly beautiful pieces of art here. Cheryl I real want to thank you for braving the cold and being there that day. Your circular, rope wrapped torch color heated State of Texas with the blue bonnets will forever hang in front of my desk where I can look at it every day. You can see her beautiful art pieces at www.texasmetalart2.com but I would suggest you venture out to Canton and see them in person if at all possible.

As we walked up the long hill through the little shops I realized we we’re the only ones there. The shops were open but there were no shoppers. It felt like a ghost town. One of the shop owners braved the cold to step out and speak to us. I asked her if the current economy was slowing things down. She said it had a little but mostly just the cold. I guess only crazy people like us we out walking in it. After we finished with the hill area we headed over to the animals and the real farmers market area. This would normally be my favorite part but by now I felt like a popsicle. We walked at a brisk pace through the rows of old tools, goats, every kind of fowl you could need and more, calves, and row after row of puppies. There was a steady flow of people coming and going. The cold didn’t seem to even phase the people buying and selling chickens but I’d had had enough by then and we headed back to the truck.

I really had a great time, bought a few things here and there, including a new pair of deerskin work gloves. Rehashed some wonderful old memories and remembered why we used to only go until the early fall and not through the winter without a heavy coat, two pairs of socks and big ugly but warm hat. It’s one of those places everyone should experience. It takes you back in time to a place where everything was bartered for, the place we used to purchase everything before Wal-Mart and grocery stores were so accessible. Face to face with the people who made it or owned it.

Welcome Back!

Welcome back! It has been a long time since I’ve written. So much has happened! Let me start with our E-Zine. Some time in April it locked up the entire server and froze forever. I bet you thought we just forgot to up date it. Unfortunately, we just got too much information on it, too many hits and it froze. Then, no matter what my great web master tried and the server people did, they could not recover it. The only thing we could do is buy a new system and have it rebuilt and that was a very time consuming process.
So as we sat and waited for the E-Zine to be built we watched the economy deteriorate. Loans dried up, real estate agents, mortgage officers, title companies, an entire industry slowed to a crawl putting many folks out of work. These people were the first to start losing their homes as they scrambled to find other employment to feed their families. Home owners in Texas weren’t as badly affected at first because there weren’t as many bad loans written in Texas as other places but the economy slowly began changing here as well and gas prices began to go up.
Next the Presidential election began to consume our lives and again the Nation slowed even more as we wait to see who will be our next President. Then in the mists of all this came the “Economic Reform Package”. Will it save us? Who knows but I do know that the real estate agents, mortgage officers and so on left in this industry are learning great lessons in fiduciary responsibility for their clients and the economy.
So, now as we sit and wait on the economy, the election and things to change, we are using the time to make big changes within our E-Zine and our office. The new “Texas Legacy Country E-Zine” is up and running and though we still have a few things to change, we have a great line up of experts joining our team. Watch for their pictures and articles to start appearing on the home page. They will teach and entertain us about things we need to know about everything from farming, land care and animal issues to insurance, mortgage and economy issues. I’ll continue telling you about farms, ranches and great recreational land I’ve had the privilege to visit and even throw in a few pocket listings here and there. The economy will change for the better and when it does we'll be here bigger and better than ever.
I’m really excited about the growth of our E-Zine and can’t wait to see who joins us next. I hope you will continue on this journey with me and see where it takes us next.
/Annie

Land for Sale with Mineral Rights in Abbott Texas!

It rained all day Sunday, good for the garden but bad for people who love to be outside. So I spent most of the day reading newspaper articles in a book my husband found in an old building in Waco. The newspapers were from the 1850’s and up for Tarrant County. I can’t wait till I get to that area so I can tell you about the information I discovered but for now I’m still down here in Hill County and consumed with my garden. The sun is out this morning and though I need to be finding buyers for land and advertisers for the website, I thought I’d take a moment to tell you about piece of land for sale right here in Abbott and another one in Mt. Calm.

The property in Abbott is about forty acres, give or take an acre or two. Currently the land is being farmed in beautiful rows but would make a great place to sprig and grow coastal hay and raise a few head of cattle. It has a stock pond and a few trees and rolls down to a seasonal creek. It has water and electric available and has a great home site with some nice views. The school district is one of the best with teachers who really care about their kids. One of it’s best features is it comes with its mineral rights and since it’s rumored that one of the local land owners has hit gas that might be real appealing to those looking for a future investment. Did I mention the great neighbors?

The next property is 40 acres a little to the east close to the Mt Calm light. This property was farm land but has not been maintain for a while and has many young trees on it. It has water and electric available and would make a great home site or ranchette. It has great neighbors and school district. It’s only a short drive to Waco on good roads and mineral rights are negotiable. This flat land would make a wonderful place to raise your family and some horses.

As always you can check these and hundreds of other properties out on our website at www.TexasLegacyCounty.com and if you’d like to see them give us a call or email us. If you have property you want to sell this is a great place to advertise. We’re also looking for Rep’s so if you want to make some extra money and know how to sell contact us.

Land For Sale In Mt. Calm Texas

It’s lunch time and I thought I’d take a break and write on the blog a little. It’s going to rain again this afternoon or evening and we’re in phase 3 of the garden. We’ve tilled up another block of ground and are getting ready to plant again. I’ve had so many requests for fresh veggies that I don’t think I can plant enough. That’s the nice part about a large piece of land, need more garden just till up another acre and get to planting. I wish it was that easy, hah! I know of a really beautiful place not to far from here with gorgeous dirt and big trees like I’ve got. Actually I know of several places but today I thought I’d tell you about one just outside the little town of Mount Calm, Texas.

Now considered to be a bedroom community of the city of Waco, Mt. Calm has a population of over 300 people. The only surviving part of the original community is the cemetery which is next to this property. The original community was located on this land we’re featuring. It makes you wonder what treasures could be buried beneath, Humm!

The town built around 1850 moved to follow the railroad in 1881. The most notable person buried there is J.J. Elliott, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto as well as 19 veterans of the Civil War and 11 veterans of World War 1.

The town was probably named for a French black smith “Mountcalm”. An estimated fifty families moved to the area, attracted by the rich soils of the Blackland Prairie. In 1855 residents organized a Baptist church and applied for a Masonic charter. In 1858 the general store and post office were opened. The community reportedly expanded slowly due to fear of Indian attacks and the Civil War. Then in 1881 the Texas and St. Louis Railway Company extended its lines from Athens to Waco passing within a mile of the town. The train meant revenue so within the year most of the residents and all of the businesses moved along the tracks. The little town has now migrated again. When highway 31 came through the town moved closer to it.

Mt. Calm is a quiet community with lots of nice people living there who are always happy to welcome new neighbors and make them feel at home. If you’d like to know more about this property give us a call but if you’d just like to take a drive out to see it, here are the directions.

From Mount Calm on Highway 31, go south on FM 339. Turn west/right on 1st Street. Go about .5 mile and turn left/south on HCR 3278 (Nickles Ave). Go about a mile to LCR 102 turning right/west. The cemetery is about .2 mile on the left and is easily seen from the road. The land surrounds the cemetery, you can’t miss it. So go have fun and I better get back to gardening.

Living in Hill County

Said to be “ The riches dirt in the world” brought farmers from far stretches of the world. In the 1870’s one of the most influential groups to settle Hill County were the Czechs. They came from Austria-Hungary via Fayette County. They had neat, well managed farms, strong spirits and kept to them selves speaking their own language and practicing their old world customs. They settled in the Abbott area and just south down into theMcLennan County town of West. There’s a Historical marker in front of the “Turkey Shop” along the freeway at Abbott. (Did I mention I love the food at the “Turkey Shop”?) The Czechs keep their customs alive for future generations in so many ways including their wonder food, (my favorite, Kolaches) and their yearly celebration called “West Fest”, which happens on Labor Day in the town of West every year.

My family and I live near Abbott. My kids have all grown up and married into the local heritages. We have a beautiful piece of land which is mostly farmed by a local Czech family, now related by marriage, but my brother and I maintain a small garden. And like the Czechs, I must admit the dark, rich soil with slightly rolling hills and big trees is what captured my heart when I first saw the property. The farm girl in me emerged and I wanted to live here. The pecan and fruit trees, flowering bushes and bulb flowers that surrounded the old ranch house were planted over the last 100 plus years by the Czech family that lived here but the grapevines and vegetables are my babies.

Owning and working the land does something to your soul. It gives you a sense of pride and belonging. Our land has history of it’s own from the family that lived here for so long before us and now we're adding to it.
If you’d like to own land but don’t know how to get started, check out our website. www.Texaslegacycountry.com and let us help. We specialize in Texas land and it's needs. It’s easy to use and grows daily. Plants some roots, be part of Texas history and own a farm or ranch of your own and grow your own garden.