Day Trips
The rocking chairs at Fox Meadows Guest Houses and Nature Conservatory look out over a field where the deer come to feed in the evenings, and that is just one of nature's delights to enjoy there
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Sept. 30, 2005
The rocking chairs at Fox Meadows Guest Houses and Nature Conservatory between Athens and Palestine look out over a field where the deer come to feed in the evenings. The soundtrack for sitting on the front porch is provided by a chorus of birdsongs radiating from the surrounding forest.
"The 55 acres was raw land when we bought the place in 2000," Craig Fox says. He lives with his wife, Jane, down the hill from the cabins in their new retirement home. "If you want to make a living or quit work, don't open a bed and breakfast," Fox says.
Jane was a special education teacher and Craig owned an oil field service company when they decided to leave the Dallas area. The couple were married in Palestine and always planned to return to live.
"We wanted to find something that hadn't been logged," Craig says, but the land had to have an agriculture exemption. What they found was an old, backwoods homestead. "We had to add electricity and running water to the property," he says.
The house on the property was beyond renovation. There was even a vulture family living in the attic. The salvageable lumber went into making the cabinets, molding, and furniture in the cabins. For the first 18 months that the Foxes lived on the property, while they built their three-story residence, they stayed in the cabin that is now for rent to visitors.
The guest house is actually two living areas under the same tin roof with a dog-trot in between. Each half is a small apartment with a living room/kitchen combination and bedroom. The couch folds out for more sleeping space if the king-sized bed isn't enough.
The kitchen has all of the utensils needed to fix a gourmet meal, including wine glasses and a coffeemaker. The fruit bowl on the counter is well-stocked, and the proprietors leave a basket of fruit and breakfast bread in a basket in the refrigerator.
The living room is small but includes a fireplace, which is a nice touch not always found in cabins in Texas. Behind the built-in cabinet doors made with the rough-cut pine from the original house is a modern television, VCR, and DVD player. Since the TV reception is weak, you can pick from the small library of videos or bring your own. Also bring the Johnny Mathis Greatest Hits CD for the player in the bedroom.
While visiting, save some time to hike the 3.5 miles of trails around the property. The land is covered in a mixture of pine and hardwood trees that provide plenty of natural foliage for birds and animals. One of the first things that Fox did after buying the property was to establish a Wildlife Management Plan.
"Basically, the land is for the enjoyment of the wildlife," Fox says. After supporting a few head of cattle, the land is now part of an effort in Anderson County to restore bobwhite quail habitat. When the farmers in the area switched from growing legumes to raising cattle, the quail disappeared and the deer reappeared.
Fox says the target species for the property are deer, fox, rabbits, and mourning dove. They have already released more than 125 quail, and several geese have taken up residency on the four-acre pond they built near their home. The black-bellied whistling ducks come to the pond during the day and move to a neighbor's pond at night. "They know where the food is," he says.
You would think that Craig and Jane Fox would have other things to do rather than maintaining their guest houses as a bed and breakfast. But Craig, who has a sign in his home office that says, "VP of Puttering," enjoys showing off the property that they have worked so hard to make more hospitable to breeding and migratory wildlife.
Fox Meadows Guest Homes and Nature Conservatory is about 18 miles north of Palestine off of TX 19 outside of Bradford. "Palestine has some wonderful restaurants, if you don't feel like cooking," Jane says. Rooms rent for $84-$110 per night. For more information, call 903/549-3400 or visit their Web site at www.foxmeadows.ws.
746th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of Day Trips 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
*Oops! The following correction ran in the October 14, 2005 issue: The phone number for Fox Meadows Bed and Breakfast in "Day Trips," Sept. 30, should have been 903/549-3400. The Chronicle regrets the mistake.
