Reasons we Bailed and Moved to Iowa

[cva34]

Sounds WONDERFUL ENJOY

[wytex]

Great move for your family !
I got married, packed up and moved to Wyoming 34 years ago. Only thing I miss about Texas is my family and hog hunting but traded it all for big elk, whitetail, mule deer, pronghorn, bison, wolf, grouse and various waterfowl hunting. All on public land. Oops, forgot mt lion and year round predator hunting.
Mountains are about 10 minutes away with all the public land you could ever use.
We do however work for a rancher that gets up access to 8,500 acres without paying a dime, that's the way it is up here for locals, get to know a rancher and access is free if you have mutual respect.

[BrianL]

Great looking place! Congrats on the move

I'm strongly thinking about moving out of Texas, maybe even the US at some point in the next 5-10 years. I have a similar place as you here with zero traffic, but you can't just leave land in NE Tx. It has to be maintained all spring, summer, and into fall. I may be a nomad for a few years till I decide where to settle for my retirement years.

[friscopaint]

We are gonna sell out a move to Florida panhandle area, I can't handle the cold winters of Iowa or Idaho now and pretty much want to saltwater fish and no taxes. The barndo is almost exactly what I'm thinking of building.

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

By the way. I have seen one car today and it was the mail lady.

Don’t you just hate rush hour traffic!

[LAW]

Reasons I could never live in Iowa

1) They only have small farms up there. Texas has big places.
2) My wife has family there. I don't want to be around my in-laws.
3) They are so rural, we have to conversate with racoons. Also when the combines hit the FM roads, it blocks the path around them for 15-20 mins.
4) It's **** cold in the winter, like **** cold.
5) Don't matter where you live, someone will always steal something from you.
6) They don't have HEBs or Whataburger.
7) The deer have white horns, not Texas chocolate.

and lastly why I couldn't live in Iowa
8) well it's...... Iowa for crying out loud. I can't remember the last time someone stood up proudly and declared they were from Iowa. Heck most Americans couldn't find it on a map

But seriously, glad you are enjoying it.

Don’t forget all the songs about Iowa.

[IOWA BOW HUNTER]

What part of Iowa you in? I have family near Sac City and the quad cities. Anything south of Des Moines is pretty, especially near the Mississippi or Missouri/Soiux River valley. And some big deer.

Took many bathroom breaks in old sac city back when I was in college at ames . That was before the interstate was finished and it was a brutal drive. Always loved that town and the popcorn ball.

If you ever get a chance travel west towards sioux city/sioux falls thats where the rolling hills and tall praire land starts its drop dead gorgeous in the fall when the grass turns red in the Loess Hills. Growing up on our farm we used to find native america stuff in the hills and found a couple rusted colt pistols from when irish cowboys roamed the area.

Mike your place is gorgeous, congrats on the move!

[bow5]

Great place y’all have!
Hope to get to see it again soon.

[Katsaregood]

Man you made the right decision. I’m third generation Texan and I never ever even thought I would give it a second thought about leaving but I’ll tell you now that if I can make it happen I’ll exit texas when I retire.
We have a very nice get away with acreage on richland chambers but all that metro mess is closing in even on the south side of the lake where we are is growing. 10 years ago I thought we had the perfect little hide away that would make it another 30 years before we saw growth, unfortunately that was wrong. I’m sick of the summer heat too. Iowa really hasn’t crossed my mind but I love Oklahoma and Arkansas.
I would commit to northern Oklahoma now if my wife was onboard.
Funny thing is my step father was from Iowa and we would go up every summer and I hated it, other than fishing the skunk river and everyone made fun of my him for being a yankee.

I say you got a real good thing going there and I hope one day to be able to say the only car I saw was the mail man.


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It used to be so nice and quiet around Richland Chambers where I’d fish with friends. But then a lot more development started and more trees were bulldozed to make way for new houses. My friends began buying up any ranch land that came up for sale that bordered their properties in order to stop development. Going into debt wasn’t what they wanted but the alternative wasn’t something they could afford either. All the other land they used to lease on 287 for hay was sold for development. The only way they could stop any development closer to the ranch was to buy it up.

There was a pretty good sized acreage down the road from them that came up for sale by the lady that inherited a lot. That would’ve taken a tremendous amount of borrowed money to purchase and then grow crops and cattle on. The guy that bought it had good friends where he borrowed money from.


OP, you have a very nice looking place. Lots to enjoy there. I don’t blame you for leaving the metroplex. Finally had enough and left like you did.

[mjhaverkamp]

You have a beautiful place, enjoy your hunting stories, with that being said I will never move away from Texas, fortunately i have places to go and get away from the rat race, I also have the means to travel to places like Iowa, or anywhere else, the main thing in life is to be happy, you have accomplished that, congrats.

[OldRiverRat]

It used to be so nice and quiet around Richland Chambers where I’d fish with friends. But then a lot more development started and more trees were bulldozed to make way for new houses. My friends began buying up any ranch land that came up for sale that bordered their properties in order to stop development. Going into debt wasn’t what they wanted but the alternative wasn’t something they could afford either. All the other land they used to lease on 287 for hay was sold for development. The only way they could stop any development closer to the ranch was to buy it up.

There was a pretty good sized acreage down the road from them that came up for sale by the lady that inherited a lot. That would’ve taken a tremendous amount of borrowed money to purchase and then grow crops and cattle on. The guy that bought it had good friends where he borrowed money from.


OP, you have a very nice looking place. Lots to enjoy there. I don’t blame you for leaving the metroplex. Finally had enough and left like you did.

Up until about 5 years ago People didn’t even know where richland chambers was when I told them we had a place there. I’m the last two years at least five family acquaintances from deer park have bought on the lake.
I stopped telling people about it, 20 years ago it was so nice to get away on the lake and not see a hand full of boats



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[Katsaregood]

Up until about 5 years ago People didn’t even know where richland chambers was when I told them we had a place there. I’m the last two years at least five family acquaintances from deer park have bought on the lake.
I stopped telling people about it, 20 years ago it was so nice to get away on the lake and not see a hand full of boats



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Yep I know what you mean. Back when dad and I fished it regularly I had hopes of building a lake house there and catching lots of crappie. But then a very noticeable change with the amount of development was going on. And then dad got sick and died. Before he passed I went back a couple times to fish alone. It’s just not the same so I quit fishing there. The father of the father/son partnership in the cattle business there passed before dad did.

[Longhorn95]

The cornfield must have told you to build it.

(Love the movie Field of Dreams. While on a trip to Chicago years ago I added an extra day to go out to Dyersville to see the diamond on my one and only visit to Iowa.)

[bloodstick]

Congrats on the fine piece of land.
Back in 2018 when I got laid off twice from oil and gas, I tried hard to move out of the heavily populated Houston area. Best we could do was Huntsville and this will soon be North Houston in a few years at the rate its growing.


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[Shake N' Bake]

That's a beautiful place! I'm jealous!
I would love to do something similar once the wife and I get the kiddos raised up!
We've been rat-holing every dime we can, we are in our early 40's and we've been talking a lot about retiring early and buy some land!