Angel Creek; Finally a yard!!!

chapelgateangel28
4 days ago
5 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Well today was a milestone. Have you ever been so happy about something that you just kept repeating it over and over in your mind because it makes you feel so good? That’s how I feel. I bought Angel Creek about five years ago. I’ve dug that place out by hand, jungle so thick you couldn’t walk, definitely not park. Bit by bit, hiring a dozen different locals, some were great, some took my money, some took my equipment, some worked hard. I did it from Texas. I did it placing local ads. Year after year we dug it out, weedeating, chainsawing. By hand. All by hand.

This short-story sprang off a different, recent short-story, "Angel Creek: Finally a yard!!!" I'll put it in the Comments.. I went back and added this part. I then updated the first story and created this as a stand-alone. xo

***

"How I Developed my Ozarks land from Texas"

Angel (this part is now in my story I wrote about bringing in the heavy machinery for the first time, to clear my front yard. I'm now describing how I took it to that point where I could):

"I did it placing local ads. Year after year we dug it out, weedeating, chainsawing. By hand. All by hand. I'd place an ad. I'd hire a local. He'd/She'd go out there and take photos/videos and send them to me. I'd tell them what I wanted them to do next. I'd buy the tools. I'd pay them first to prove I was honest. Sometimes they were honest, sometimes they weren't. If they weren't I wouldn't hire them again. If they were, I would. They'd do the work. They'd send me photos. I'd put the photos in a folder on my computer with their name and what they did.

I'd write any stories that popped up (how I got my Cryptid photos; I always specified the photos they took for me belonged to me so I could write my stories.) I'd try to decide whether or not to tell them about the Cryptids. I'd decide yes, it was only fair. I would. They wouldn't care, just wanted the money.

I'd search the photos as soon as they sent me the "Before" ones, while they were there, to keep them safe, unknown to them. I'd send possible Cryptids photos to my expert friends I've culled out of the Cryptid groups who know their stuff (there is a saying in the groups "there are no experts," but yes, there are and I found them.) My expert friends would confirm or find ones I didn't see. I'd write my stories. I'd tell the workers but they didn't care. They just wanted the money.

That's pretty much how I did it. If one worker didn't work out, I'd just place another ad and find a new one and keep going. I've only been there myself a very, very few times. But I know it like the back of my hand and I love it like my safety net. Plus it was a blast, a lot of fun to figure everything out, walk with God, write my stories. I came back and added this 1/8/26 at 10:50 pm. I think I'll leave it here, and also go turn it into it's own story. I'm finding people like me who like this idea. So I thought I'd go deeper for them."

Written January 8, 2026 at 10:56 pm

***Now back to what I was originally saying***

Today I hired my very first equipment to come in. If I had tried to hire them before now they’d have refused to come. As it was, the wonderful Christian land clearing businessman raised his price when he saw it in person to quote it yesterday saying he hadn’t realized how remote it was and something about getting his equipment down that road. (It’s not a road, it’s a trail.) But he’s coming. He’s coming because I was able to send him nice cleared pics of the by hand work we’d done, a pretty blue cabin, and the dream in my mind, when I asked him to, and more cash than he’d asked for. And because Arkansas is still known as a last holdout for Christian goodness, which is why I chose it in the first place.

Land Clearing Man: "I know I told you such-and-such a figure but..."

Angel: "Well, if I pay you such-and-such figure (higher) could you do the entire front yard, boundary to boundary? And push it on back as far as you can behind my blue cabin?

Land Clearing Man: "Not behind your cabin, but yes, ok."

Angel: "THEN we'll work on the rest. The dry creek is going to be my focus point of the entire property. It's behind the blue cabin. I'm going to make that absolutely beautiful. And when you pick a spot to clear to move my cabin to keep in mind I'm going to build a porch on the back of it. I want to be able to see all the way down my entire property. It will be so pretty."

Land Clearing Man (on the phone with me at that moment; at my property looking around for the first time): "I'm actually standing, right now, at the place I see for the best place to move your cabin. It's right on the edge of where it is nice and flat. Then, it starts sloping down."

Angel: "Perfect. That's why YOU are there. Just use your knowledge and find the best place for us. Right now, if I were to put up a fence, it would go 3 feet in front of my cabin door (it's close to the road easement, which was the best we could do at the beginning.) That's why I need to move it. Then, I'm going to put up a pretty fence."

In a week my property won’t be recognizable it will be so beautiful. Every bit of brush, every stump, every small sapling, small tree, medium tree will be gone. Gone. All that will be left will be my very biggest trees and my pretty blue cabin. I’ll have a place to move it away from the road, deeper into the middle front of my land. I’ll have a place to park. I’ll have safety because I will be able to see.

I’m talking about the front yard of Angel Creek, not the rest. I’ll work on the rest a bit at a time, it’s expensive. Cash as I go from Day One. That’s security. No one can take it because no debt. I’ll pass a family heirloom to my grandbaby so she will have security. Boy that was hard. But so much fun and so worth it. Plus I now have a book about it once I simply organize my stories into final book form, “Angel Creek.” Thank you, Father. xo

Today…

Laileigh: “I want a white fence, Grandmama.”

Angel (A white fence had never once occurred to me. Thinking. Trying to picture it.)

Laileigh: “And I want it BIG.”

Angel: “Baby, if I could and they’d let me I’d build a CASTLE fence. HUGE.”

***

Written January 8, 2026 at 1:20 am