The Fat G Ranch

[CentralTXHunter]

We got on a new lease earlier this year. It’s my buddy’s father’s land out in Val Verde County. He was contemplating selling it due to health issues and not being able to maintain it anymore. After a couple of conversations, he agreed for me and two of my closest friends to lease the property. Not only that, but our “lease payment”, for at least this year, is improvements to the ranch. It’s an awesome deal on a beautiful piece of property in need of some serious TLC.

We have a high fence ranch that borders about half the property called “The Lazy S”. We were riding around on the ranger one trip and they said our place needed a name. I blurted out “The Fat G” and it stuck.

My intent is to document our time on this place here, show you guys the improvements we are making to the place, and hopefully lots of LDPs in the future. I hope you follow along and I intend to update the content every trip from this point forward.

The Good:

Two conex boxes (one to store the ranger and another completely empty)

18’x20’ Camphouse with a small porch

Solar powered water well with a 4,500 gallon storage tank

Tons of game from whitetail, hogs, and axis to elk and auodad

Decent blinds already in place all around the ranch

Cell service (makes the wives happy and super important for emergencies when you are as remote as we are)

Incredible views

The Bad:

Tons of trash piled up around camp

Plumbing has been broken for years

Feeders were non-existent or in very poor condition

Layout of the cabin is terrible and it’s trashed up

The whole place is solid rock

It’s almost always windy there and they’re prone to really high wind storms

Generator power only

It’s a 3 hour round trip drive, minimum, to go to town

It’s far (5 hour drive from home)


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[Youngblood]

Sounds like an awesome place. Best of luck with it.


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[CentralTXHunter]

Our first trip was early February. Priority 1 was to get feeders erected and get them feeding.



Mission accomplished. We put up 6 feeders on that trip and then made a ridiculous list of all the things we needed to get done.

One thing was certain. We were going to have to secure these feeders somehow. The wind is too strong and with auodad on the place as well, they can beat up a feeder.

The next trip was at the end of February. What we came up with to secure the feeders was to use a hammer drill and a 1/2” x 18” bit to drill into the rock. Shoot some Hilti epoxy in the hole and then insert rebar. Then we used stainless steel zip ties that are rated to 500lbs each to secure the feeder legs to the rebar. Came out looking like this.





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[sunsethunter]

Looks like a cool place! In for updates

[CentralTXHunter]

There were piles of trash like this all around camp.



In March, my buddy and some young boys did some quarantining at the ranch and moved all of the trash from around camp.



We had an old box trailer on the place. So they put all the trash in it and shut the door. Out of sight, out of mind, right?




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[CentralTXHunter]

Camphouse and plumbing were in pretty rough shape. Here’s some before pictures.








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[CentralTXHunter]

This weekend was a major turning point with two major projects to accomplish.

1. Repair the plumbing.

2. Build a large deck to provide us with some much needed additional living space.

Thursday afternoon we were ready to roll...





We head out around 2:30. Things are going well and we are cruising towards Sonora. Then 10 miles outside of Llano, this happened to the load my buddy was hauling.




Oh yeah, and the spare he has is a different lug pattern. I leave him on the side of HWY 29 and haul balls back to Llano. I pull up to Miller’s Garage at 4:59. By 5:15 I was out of there with a new tire mounted on the rim and a brand new spare with the correct lug pattern in case we have another issue. Huge shoutout to the folks there by the way. They were super kind and stayed a little late to get us back on our way. We come rolling into camp around 9PM. Much later than our targeted time of arrival.



Our third lease member was already at camp waiting on us. He drove in earlier from a job he was on in Midland.

First things first was to install the new sign Steve made us. Big shoutout to him. He does fantastic work and is a pleasure to work with. Make sure you order a sign from him, but beware, they become addicting. You can find his posts all around TBH.



After a few adult beverages and some domino games, we called it a night.

The next morning we got to work. I handled all the plumbing while they worked on the new deck addition. It took ALL day and it was hot. Temps were well into the 90s on Friday.







We ran out of screws on the deck so the final touches will be completed next trip. Still have railings, stairs, and a header to install. We also decided to build a L or U-shaped bar with a griddle built-in to the right corner where the original footprint of the porch was. Not sure when we get to that project, but it’s on the list. The view off that deck into the canyon can’t be put into words. Awesome project that dramatically improved our amount of functional living space.

Original setup was a 12V RV pump ran off a car battery that they’d have to charge all the time. The RV pump had cracked and the PVC from the pump all through the cabin was in terrible shape.



I installed a brand new RV pump and enclosed it in a box to help keep it out of the elements a bit. Then installed a 20W solar panel ran into a solar charge controller. I mounted a switch to the side to easily turn on the RV pump. A brand new 100AH deep cycle AGM SLA battery enclosed in a battery box completed the install here.





From the pump on I installed all new pex lines to the whole camphouse. The sewer line was in decent shape, but the kitchen sink and shower drains had never been plumbed into it, so I tied those in.








The kitchen faucet had never been plumbed and the strainer body on the sink was in rough shape.



After a pipe wrench, hammer, and eventually an oscillating tool, I finally freed the nut to remove the strainer assembly. I installed a brand new one and a S-trap. Discovered I didn’t bring enough parts to plumb completely into the drain in the floor. (Another thing to compete on the next trip) Installed the faucet and sprayer as well.



As Mike (our landowner) tells it, when he purchased the place, the original owner got drunk and came onto the property and took the propane hot water heater. True or not, we didn’t have one, and it had never had hot water since Mike has owned it. So I also installed a tankless, propane fed hot water heater. The igniter is ran off D-batteries, so no additional power requirements for our generator. I also put an exhaust stack and simple enclosure on this unit to help protect it from the elements.




The supplier I ordered this eccotemp L7 from is working on getting me the adjustment knob. It wasn’t sent in the original box the hot water heater came in. It didn’t arrive in time before we had to leave for this trip.

Ended up being a super long day with these projects. Joe cooked us an amazing dinner and he fell asleep shortly afterward. Keegan and I were up until about 1AM drinking and telling lies. I didn’t test the plumbing Friday night because I didn’t want to run down a leak in the dark.

Saturday morning rolls around and it’s go time for the pressure test. We open the valve from the well and I hear water. Turns out to be simple. I installed a water hose connection that was a shark bite fitting. Pushed the pex in a little further and the leak stops.

I flicked the switch on the control box and the RV pump fires right up and shuts off once it has pressurized the house. Just like it is supposed to. Solar is working and charging the battery. All is good!

Go inside to test all my valves. All good! Success! Now time to test hot water.

The tankless fires right up and hot water is delivered in 30 seconds. And let me tell you it is HOT! Very impressed how that little unit works.

All three of us got our first showers at camp. Total game changer. When you’re working that hard in the heat, a shower makes you feel like a new man and renews your drive.

Installed the most important piece of equipment in the cabin as well.



Then I couldn’t take the dirtiness and clutter anymore and got after the kitchen countertop and sink. (If you look pics in an earlier post, you’ll see how bad it was)




Kitchen faucet cold water valve has a problem. Just going to buy a whole new assembly and replace the next trip. Also, the toilet floor seal is bad. Another thing to replace.

We have tons of projects left to complete, but it’s coming together. Views like this are what make it all worth it though.




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[brysdad]

Maaaaan, I am looking forward to following this thread! Y’all are doing an awesome job it looks like!

[NotJose]

Very cool!! Enjoying this, please keep posting your progress! Y’all are doing a great job


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[DUKFVR]

Lookin Great! Good work!

[Heath]

Looking forward to following along.

[Big pig]

Wow. That is looking great. You and your biuddies will have some great memories
Last camp I was in they stored their feed in the box truck.

My two cents: Those small generators burn very little fuel and are really quiet

BP

[CentralTXHunter]

Wow. That is looking great. You and your biuddies will have some great memories
Last camp I was in they stored their feed in the box truck.

My two cents: Those small generators burn very little fuel and are really quiet

BP

They are pretty quiet and very efficient. We are currently using a Predator 3500 from Harbor Freight that Keegan has had for years. Our landowner has a diesel 7500 he’s been wanting to get out there. It’s actually at my shop getting tuned up right now and will be out there on the next trip. Another one of the projects is to replace the existing breaker box. It looks rough.



Going to replace it with a new outdoor 6-12 panel and I picked up a partially used 250’ spool of 6 gauge 4 wire SO cord for $100 and we are going to run the generator way out away from the cabin behind the conex.




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[texan16]

What a POS place to hunt.....I will take it off your hands for a really good price.

Yall have done a great job getting that place set up !!! Hope yall kill some nice critters off that place.

[twosixteens]

Sounds looks an awesome place