Life in the country looks bright

By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition

The Brightwell's beautiful 200-plus grafted pecan trees produce large pecans. -Staff photo by Poehl

Sept. 9, 2004 - Buying a new property containing 12 acres filled with over 200 pecan trees, the Brightwells have a demanding job lying ahead of them. Can they, like the previous owners, run a successful pecan business?

Verna and her husband Carl are recent retirees who moved to their new home in Valley Mills to live in harmony and experience the beauty of nature surrounding them.

Finding the perfect property for the Brightwells seemed like a tricky task. The Brightwells lived in China Spring for three years, all the while searching for the perfect home.

"I wanted water on our property, like a pond," Verna said. "We ended up finding a property on Hog Creek and it actually belonged to the son of the people who we bought this property from. The property was a little too far out for us."

Verna saw the property she currently lives on advertised, but when she finally inquired about the property, it was sold. One day, she drove by the property and found that it was back on the market. After looking at the property, the Brightwells loved the land, but they were looking for a larger house. After discussing it, "we decided a house is a house. You can make it what you want," Verna said.

Verna Brightwell poses in front of the pecan house, which will house the nut sheller and cracker, and will eventually be turned into a gift shop. -Staff photo by Poehl

By the time she and her husband made up their mind to buy the house, someone else had signed a contract on it. The Brightwells signed a back up contract and eventually ended up with the property to call their own.

"It was like it was meant to be. Once we decided to buy it, we were very pleased," Verna said. "Sometimes you have to make adjustments for the love of the land. We're happy out here. It is peaceful."

The previous owners were successful pecan producers. They had their own shelling and cracking machines in a little wooden pecan house labeled with a sign reading "Hog Creek Pecans." The previous owners also had fun with a system for gathering pecans. Families were allowed to come out to the land and collect any amount of pecans they wanted. Once they were finished, the owners took half of the gathered pecans to sell and they shelled and cracked the other half for the families to enjoy.

Getting the farm back into a productive business will take time and the Brightwells are not even sure what processes they will offer.

"We don't know if we'll do very much this first year, Verna said, "but we will probably sell pecans by the pound."

The Brightwells are looking into buying a new sheller and cracker and they already have a grader. Verna definitely looks forward to turning the pecan house into a gift shop. It will not only house the sheller and the cracker, but the shop will contain seasonal gift items that Verna will sell.

"My mother paints and we'll sell her paintings," Verna explained. "We also hope to sell things such as woodcraft items and bowl and crackers to go with the pecans. It will all take some time."

The Brightwell's property is located on Hog Creek, and Verna said it's almost like their land is a river bottom because they do not have to water the trees.

"We want to run this as an organic farm. We'll find organic ways to take care of our pecan trees," Verna said. "We also plan to have a garden and chickens to raise our own eggs. I'm sure we'll also end up buying a few goats to eat the grass around the trees. It's an ongoing upkeep."

The pecan season is six weeks long. The Brightwells will need to keep the pecans off of the ground, wash and dry them, sell, freeze and ship them.

"We're retiring to work harder than before," Verna joked.

"We would've liked the land even without pecan trees, but the pecans are a great little icing on the cake."

"We wanted a feeling of being in the woods."

As a side benefit, lots of animals also share the farm, Verna said, - skunks, foxes, raccoons, armadillos, deer, and fish to name a few. Pondering about the possibility of the foxes eating the chickens, she said, "I guess everything has to eat."

The Brightwells could make a little profit without much work at their new homestead, or, with more work, they said they could possibly make $12,000-$20,000 per year that would help defray some of the living expenses. Either way, for the Brightwells, retirement to the country looks to be bright.