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Spaulding Smails

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Everything posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. This is a great point. Things change in business, and it's hard enough to deal with changes on the business side, let alone throw in the real estate aspect. In our case, we brought in an additional partner (buddy who is a real estate attorney) on the land deal. It helped us secure the deal on the front end, and it's been good for both parties. We'll probably start looking for dirt in the next 24 months or so for the next venture, and we'll most likely bring in a different partner for that endeavor. If RE isn't your core business, and you're looking for something beyond a 100% owner occupied space, having someone with more expertise in that space can be very valuable. In this next round, we're talking to someone who has more of a developer mindset and much deeper pockets that can really help slingshot a larger play.
  2. Yep. We did it the exact same way for multiple reasons. Keeps your costs consistent, and you think about it from the a landlord perspective when you have a separate LLC. My thought has always been that, if I sold the business, keeping the real estate would be a must. And, to follow up on what I said earlier, the only way I'd sell what I have now would be to upgrade a land ownership stake. Seems like a no-brainer to have steady commercial rental income as part of a retirement income stream.
  3. I have both right now. Own my original office that we still use, and just signed a lease for our second office. We've owned the space for five years now. Had a tenant for a few years as well. I can make an argument for both. It really depends on the situation and the type of business. Obviously, the increase in equity and the freedom / flexibility to do what I want is a huge plus. The biggest downside is being stuck if your needs change. You end up making sacrifices for the sake of staying at your own space that may cost you profitability. I liked having a tenant, especially one right next door that I could keep an eye on. But, the random BS was tiresome, and towards the end, we were having to chase them down for rent. Ultimately, their lease expired and they moved on. Which was a good thing because I believe they're out of business due in large part to Covid. On the rental side, it sure is nice to have a tenant to call when something is wrong. Love the flexibility piece to be able to move around if needed. But, beyond paying the rent, you do feel like you're throwing money away when you try to make the space your own, especially if it's a shorter term. Ultimately, I think we'll end up selling the property we own when our lease is up on the new space (5 years from now) and trying to roll it all into one consolidated space with us as an anchor tenant and other tenants alongside.
  4. My shitting apprehensions have drastically waned over the years. From refusing to shit in a public restroom to no-holds-barred shitting in porta potties and convenience store. A nasty porta potty is about as bad as it gets for me from an actual location standpoint. But, I did encounter some gastric distress while training for a marathon at the midway point of an out-and-back 16 mile run several years ago. I tried the run-walk-run-walk interval strategy, but the contractions were getting stronger and closer together. I was less than a mile from home when I couldn't take it any more. Ended up shitting inside a 48" culvert under a busy farm to market road and wiping with my running socks. Sidebar... while in outside sales many moons ago, my colleagues and I coined the term "Hampton Inn Pitstop". Walk into a Hampton Inn or other mid-range hotel, and calmly walk by the front desk to the lobby shitter. Almost always immaculate and rarely occupied. Because, who shits in the lobby of a hotel when you have a room there? Walk right back out like you own the joint.
  5. Correct. Background checks only show convictions. Not arrests. He was arrested and held, but didn't go to trial and wasn't ever convicted. Otherwise, he had a spotless record.
  6. One of those four burnouts that were falsely accused worked for me for about 3 years. Decent guy. Hard worker. Just kind of kept to himself. Clean background check when we hired him. I didn't arrive in Austin until my stint on the 40 acres in the late 90s, so I wasn't super familiar with the murders. I read the book "Who Killed These Girls?" about a year after I hired him. I'll never forget reading that book, and getting to the spot where they mentioned his name. It's not a super common name, so my jaw immediately dropped. I happened to be on a flight at the time with no WiFi. Couldn't wait to get to the internet to search a picture of him from 25 years ago. Sure as shit, it was him. I never brought it up during his tenure with me and neither did he.
  7. I don't think I've ever clicked on this thread, but the one time I do and speed scroll through the last page, and holy shit, this is me. Always been a good sleeper. Quick to sleep, can sleep anywhere, any time, no insomnia. I'll be damned if the last year hasn't been full of the 3-AM-wide-awake-crazy-anxiety-and-random-thoughts deal. Usually lasts about an hour. I'll eventually fall back to sleep, and right as rain at 5 AM when the alarm goes off, but damn, it sucks and really puts me in a funk the next day. Anyhow, I clicked on the link to bitch about my elbow tendinitis. I'm a lefty and it's my right elbow, but what a pain in the ass. It's odd because my strength is still fine, but it's weird angles that kill me. I can't pick my coffee mug up out of the cup holder in my truck without wincing in pain. I have to reach with my left hand. It hurts to hold it straight, so I'm walking with my arm subconsciously slightly flexed, so I'm running into door jambs and banging my elbow which compounds the pain. It sucks. Time to go see a doctor, I suppose.
  8. I freed a skunk from a Have-A-Heart trap once. It was after dispatching a .22 to his head, but I removed him from the trap, nonetheless. @crimsonlonghorn why on earth did you even tempt fate by trying to let him out? Nice job, but damn. I wouldn't have thought twice about perforating a skunk.
  9. Hell yes! Rather be lucky than good. Nicely done, sir.
  10. We're thinking about going there next year for our 20 year anniversary (June '23). We got married in Ambergris Caye in '03, and we haven't been there since, so it may be a good time to return. I'm thinking of renting a house on Ambergris Caye. Short of searching VRBO / AirBnB, any recommendations on cool beachfront houses to rent? We're 50/50 on whether or not to include the kids or go solo. If we do go solo, that opens up trying to get a really cool hotel suite. We stayed at Portofino when we got married, and most of the wedding party stayed at either Ramon's or Victoria House. Open to suggestions on high-end but boutique-ish hotels as well.
  11. Wordle 250 2/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Best for me so far. And, for that, I get nothing.
  12. @fattyflattie great minds think alike indeed! I always gravitate towards shooting the tan ones for some reason. Psychologically, I tell myself they taste better. @BabaYaga I've done cabrito on the iron cross before but never a pig. I'm sure it would be excellent. We wanted to eat it that night, so we threw it straight over oak coals on the grill. @Lat22 same here. I even told my wife that I was gonna bust a piglet if they came out. First time that plan came together. Even got to clean it in broad daylight. @davidg it was outstanding. Even the hams were tender. Only downside is how small the tenderloins were. Pretty much two bites on each side and they were gone!
  13. Made a quick trip to the ranch Saturday afternoon after my son's baseball games in Kerrville. We have just a bit of corn left in the feeders. Maybe a week's worth at this point, so they're still spinning. I bought two new boxes of 270 ammo last weekend, but left them at home. Didn't bring my AR either. So, I ended up using the old Marlin 30-30 with a 4x Tasco scope that I leave at the ranch. Climbed in the stand at 5:45, and at 5:57 a sow and three piglets crossed the sendero. I could see them in the brush behind the feeder looking up at it and waiting patiently for it to go off. They were under the feeder before it stopped spinning. I shot this little 30-lb sow through the left eye when she had her head down facing me. I forgot that I was shooting that 30-30 and not the 223. Oops. Serious gut shot on the exit wound. 30 min later, it was butterflied and on the grill. I just drag the big boars that we shoot off into the brush, but damn that little sow sure was tasty.
  14. Holy shit. I had no idea they were that expensive.
  15. I have not personally built one, but my buddy's Baffin Bay cabin has an outhouse with a composting toilet. I'm guessing they're a few hundred bucks new. No hole to dig. Works pretty damn efficiently. A few scoops of peat moss at the end of the weekend. Just build a little box around it.
  16. Hahaha. Yep. You nailed it. Kind of less than ideal, right? I've only driven it a few times. Topped off with fuel twice. Based on my rough calculation, I think it gets about 10 MPG. Definitely drinks the petrol. Taking it to the shop in a few weeks to get all the little things fixed including the fuel situation and gas gauge.
  17. Yep! Dual tank. One of the issues, though, is the dual fuel tank selector doesn't work. Windows need new seals, fuel gauge is broken, heater doesn't work and the carb throttle linkage needs adjustment. On the plus side, it's got a bad ass semi truck air horn that is LOUD. Fun truck for sure.
  18. I'm not a truck nut per se. I'm certainly not a gear head. And, I'm not at all impulsive. But, I saw this truck on the side of the road two weeks ago, test drove it the next day, took it to my buddy's shop for a once over and had it sitting in the driveway later that week. '74 Ford Ranger 350 SuperCamper series with a big block 460. Rebuilt a few years ago and in really good shape. A few minor things need attention, but all in all, it's solid for an almost 50 year old truck. Going to be a fun weekend cruiser and may end up being my son's truck in a few years.
  19. Bummer @crimsonlonghorn. Good lookin chicken. Hard to tell from the pictures, but are they Bantams? We've lost our fair share over the years. To your point, sometime's you understand it's just part of nature. Other times, it hits hard. My daughter was heartbroken when we forgot to close the coop and lost our two ducks to a fox. The other one that my wife was most upset about was a Bantam (Vanilli who's sister was Millie). We didn't realize she had started laying eggs down the hill. Didn't count chickens when we put them up one night, and she got whacked while sitting on her nest one night. Big pile of white feathers right next to a pile of eggs. Always a bummer.
  20. I can't comment on the food plot, and to others' points, if cost is a concern, buying one used is the way to go. That being said, I've built several over the years. Two of which were pretty cool, but pre iPhone, so I don't have any pics. I built three on site and one in my driveway. For the site built ones, I did some horse trading with a mason of mine, and got three used sections of scaffolding to make three blind bases. Slapped some 2x12s on top with U-bolts. My uncle is a drywall contractor, so we built it out of metal studs. Bought some cheap sliding windows and clad them with plywood and slapped a corrugated metal roof on top. Years later, I built one in the driveway out of PT lumber. I used 12' 4x4s for the legs, so it sat about 6' off the ground. Simple framing and a plywood roof. Transportation was a bitch. I had to lay it on it's side on a 16' trailer, then winch it up when I got to the lease. It was HEAVY. The only advice I have is think ahead if you're building it on site. Nothing worse than coming up short on screws, etc. I remember that exact issue on the scaffold blinds. We were short self-tapping screws. I had to drive an hour each way. To this day, my uncle and I still kid about needing random shit at the ranch. Every time I head to his place, I ask him if I need to bring a box of reverse thread metric screws or some other oddball item.
  21. You think it's related to the freeze? Either that, or they're moving into town to be closer to the creature comforts like indoor plumbing.
  22. Yep. He said the big one was extremely agitated and was raising a ruckus. He said he tried to coax them out with a 10' piece of unistrut to no avail. Thought about using his pistol, but he's in a commercial business park on a fairly busy street in the city limits. So, he let 'em be until they left. Though they did shit and piss everywhere. He said the smell was awful.
  23. I figured this was as good of a thread as any to post this pic. My cousin had some interesting guests in his warehouse last week. Got his crews lined out. Nice day, so he left the bay door open while he worked in the office. Heard some noise, came out to find this trio milling around. They spooked and ran the wrong direction and cornered themselves in the shop bathroom. It took him an hour to get them out.
  24. When my wife and I found out we were pregnant with our daughter, we were really struggling to find a name that fits. None of the family names on either side of the family felt right. We didn't want to choose a name that was too popular or trendy. We went round and round for months and still couldn't land on anything. She was 8 months pregnant at Christmas. My uncle was going to be there. He was absolutely nuts. Lived out in the middle of nowhere. My mom suggested we ask him if he had any suggestions since he was very artistic and sentimental. We asked him out of kindness, not expecting much. We replied with one word... "Denise". We loved it and that's what we named her. Fast forward two years, and my wife is pregnant with our son. As soon as we found out the sex, we drove to go see my uncle to see if he had a suggestion for this baby's name. When we asked him, he immediately replied "De Nephew".
  25. You can count on plenty of questions and the occasional humble brag. Headed down to San Antonio in two weeks to visit Johnny Dury about a left-handed 300 Win Mag.
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