Living With the Unknown on a Family Farm

Our weaned calves stand at the front fence, curious about what’s coming. So are we.

Every farmer learns to live with the unknown.

Will it rain this week, or will the tanks keep dropping? Will the grass hold out, or will it turn brown and crunchy? Will the weather be cool or in the triple digits?

Tim and I have lived with those questions for a long time. They’re part of the picture when you raise cattle for a living. You do your best, and you trust God with the rest.

Several years ago, our son Zach and our daughter-in-law Brooke moved back to Serbin. They had big plans. Zach talked about living at The Pietsch Place his entire life. He paid to have two acres surveyed off. The house plans were drawn, and the builder was ready to start. They were going to raise their family on that land.

But things don’t always go as planned.

Zach, Brooke, and their family moved in with us, and everything seemed to be going well. Then everything changed.

We started hearing about another kind of unknown. It's the kind of unknown that comes from the other side of the fence. We heard it was a possible wind farm or solar farm, but no one really knew exactly what it was.

When the unknown comes from outside the fence

We learned that a BESS (battery energy storage system) was going in on one end of Warda Church Road, about eight miles away. We were told it was still in the approval stages, but when we drive by, we can see cranes and heavy equipment, and construction is clearly underway. Some neighbors have been fighting it for years, and KVUE recently reported that they've won the right to take their case to a jury trial, after the Texas Supreme Court denied an appeal to throw it out. Watch the KVUE report here.

We also heard about the possibility of some other scary thing being planned even closer, on the back side of our property. No one knew what it was. No one had answers. How loud would it be? How bright would it be at night? What would it mean for the water, the land, the animals, and the families who live nearby?

With so many questions and no answers, Zach and Brooke made a hard decision. They stepped back and started looking for a place to buy.

How unwelcome changes turned into a blessing

Zach and Brooke found a beautiful home even closer to us, and closer to where Brooke would eventually be hired to continue her career, using her talents at Immanuel Lutheran School in Giddings. What must have felt like losing a dream turned into a sweet spot in the country, only a few minutes from family and a few minutes from town.

Many plans that we make can change. But God is good, and things that seem like a loss can turn into a blessing.

What we know so far about The Pietsch Place

A few months ago, we heard that the unknown thing happening on the other side of our property near Warda was a proposed data center, and the locals are coming together to fight it.

The Fayette County Record reported that more than 400 acres north of Winchester have been leased for the project. Our neighbors are leading the fight against the data center, and they estimate that about 70% of the 414-acre site, roughly 289 acres, would be covered in concrete, roofs, and other surfaces. That’s roughly the size of 218 football fields, 70 Walmart Supercenters, or 2,700 NBA basketball courts.

And that's not somewhere far away. It's across our neighbors' back fence, and very close to the back of our property, where our weaned Wagyu calves graze.

The skies are sometimes gray, and sometimes the unknown feels the same.

The unknown questions fill our minds.

We don’t get a lot of rain, but when it does come, the water running off all that concrete has to go somewhere. Maybe our grass will be greener! Maybe the runoff will fill our tanks! But what if the runoff is contaminated?

Will the Farm to Market road be turned into a highway? TxDOT said there are no plans to expand FM 448 in that area. Meanwhile, the battery storage project is still in court, but we can see with our own eyes that it is moving full steam ahead.

That’s why we are concerned that what we are being told today may not be what happens tomorrow.

Will there be evacuations if something should go wrong with either of those two projects? Will our cows be ok if we are unable to get them out in the case of an emergency? Will the neighbors be ok? Will anyone assume responsibility if damages occur? Will people be compensated for any losses they incur?

Will others nearby lose the peace and quiet that made them choose this place to live? Will there be constant noise? Will there be bright lights around the clock? They could lose everything they love about living there.

What if property values drop, making it difficult to sell for those who'd rather get away from all the what-ifs? Or what if property values go up because data center workers want to live near their job, raising everyone's property taxes?

The other day, I read that a huge mall in Houston was being demolished for an industrial park. Why couldn’t they use places like that for these data centers? Why can’t they use other places that are already covered in concrete? Why do they need to take up farmland? If farmland continues to disappear, where will our food come from? Will we one day be like the old cartoon, The Jetsons, where they took a pill for their meals? Will lab-grown protein take the place of meat?

And even after all those questions are answered, there’s always one more.

Technology changes fast. Just this month, Meta and Apple announced that one of Meta’s largest AI models, called Muse Spark Open, can run on two Apple Mac Studio computers, the kind that sit on a desk. If a model that powerful can already run on two computers, what will these giant buildings be needed for in 10 or 20 years? Will they become obsolete someday? And if they do, what happens to all the concrete left behind?

What we can control

Living with the unknown on a family farm means holding on tight to the things we can control.

We can care for our cattle every single day. We can take care of the land we love. And we can keep raising Wagyu beef for our farm friends who trust us to put something delicious on their family’s table.

The rest, we pray about and leave in God’s hands. May He bless us and our families in a way that is best for all concerned.