Who Are These People?

You'll have to excuse the quality (or lack thereof) of this photo. It was taken very early yesterday on an overcast morning, and I had to enhance the light artificially in Photoshop. This massive entryway in progress is on Hwy. 922 in Tioga, Texas, a little further west from the McQuay and Hendricks ranches.

It's difficult to gauge the scale and materials from my rotten photo, but those lions are at least 30" tall. The walls are gorgeous, hand fitted red rocks, not a facade. You can see an existing home way back in the distance, but they are working on the land down in front, which tells me this place is not connected to that little ranchette. With an entrance like that, what will they build?

Inquiring minds want to know: while we're literally struggling to stay in our home, who are these people who can afford such an ostentatious entrance? And what do they do for a living, because I'm obviously in the wrong line of work?!

Edited later 022809:
Mr. Fry and I went to Tioga this morning unexpectedly, and I took another pic in the daylight.

I thought those lions were concrete — not so! They're bronze. And yes, that is a Ferrari sitting there in front. The car had Boyd Bros. lettered on the left front fender — who does that to a Ferrari anyway? — and Mike said that was the name of the construction company. Maybe it's his place? There were several pieces of earth moving equipment grading and digging way to the left of the gate. Curiouser and curiouser. Stay tuned.

Edited still later 022809:

The last thing I needed to get so that I have complete gear for two horses (and riders) was a second helmet. I could borrow one from Heather, but that's a long way to go to borrow a helmet. I used the excuse to visit Smith Brothers, on 1-35 in in north Denton, TX, for the first time. Cool store — there is a small roping arena in the store! There was a dad in there showing his boy how to rope. Duh — why did I not take pictures? And I have wanted one of these since before they were for sale.

Troxel put a lot of thought into the design of this helmet. The cloth liner has tabs that allow you to adjust the fit. A letter comes with it that says the cowboy hat has a larger profile than a standard Western hat, even though the helmet inside is a low profile — read that: smaller — certified safety helmet. The helmet is dishy, like a sporting helmet. They say it appears more in proportion when you are in the saddle.

Oh yeah, and this is what I got when I googled Boyd Bros. Contracting. They're building the entrance, but it could also be his place. Gorgeous stuff and that website is slicker'n snot, ain't it? It will be neat to see what else they're going to do, or at least, I'm intrigued.