Tim and Suzie Cox with their son, Jake. In the spring of 1979 Tim and Suzie moved to Eagle Creek and made arrangements to refurbish the old Double Circle ranch house which had been unoccupied for a number of years. There were several advantages to this new location in that there was a weekly mail delivery from Clifton. Then, too, Tim would have the lodge as a studio, as well as their living quarters while they made the ranch house livable. The lodge was a large, log building used by the Greenlee County Cattle Growers for dances and meetings. Tim set up his easel in one end and Suzie set up housekeeping in another.
“Trying to carry on a conversation across that half-empty dance hall was like hollering down a rain barrel,” Tim says. “And, like most bargains, the lodge turned out to be hotter than a furnace in summer and cold as an iceberg in winter.”
Suzie, along with helpful neighbors, spent days and weeks that eventually ran into months in cleaning and painting the rat-infested old house. Tim overhauled a wornout propane generator for electricity; then he had to replace most of the old wiring throughout the house. He had to clean the well before the water could be used for drinking, and most of the plumbing had to be replaced, along with a new sewer line. Suzie was expecting their first child in November and was anxious to move into the house with its “new” second-hand wall-to-wall carpeting, second-hand draperies, along with some really good antique furniture donated by both sets of parents. Many necessities would have to wait until after the Texas Art Gallery sale the first week of December. Tim had four paintings to sell that year and prints were to be made from two of them.
Tim and Suzie had barely gotten settled in the house when Jake arrived on November 20th. Suzie was home with the 9½-pound boy for Thanksgiving. Then on
December first, Tim flew alone to Dallas. The show and sale were his most successful ever.
Back home Tim and Suzie splurged for the first time in five years of marriage. They purchased a new washing machine and dryer (Suzie’s first). They bought the new heir a baby bed, highchair, and swing. Tim got a new chain saw so he could cut a winter’s supply of wood for the fireplace and wood-burning heater. He bought Suzie a Baldwin organ, and they got each other expensive Christmas gifts, as well as gifts for their families. It was going to be the best Christmas in years.
Sometime after midnight on December 12th, the historical old Double Circle ranch house burned to the ground. When Tim woke, the roar of the flames in the ceiling sounded like a tornado. Snatching the sleeping baby from his crib, Tim and Suzie ran into the cold winter night, wearing only their night clothes.
Suzie can barely keep tears from her brown eyes when telling of the fire . “That’s when we found how wonderfully kind people can be,” she said, her voice breaking.
Last fall Tim and Suzie were able to purchase several acres on Eagle Creek and Tim moved in a trailer for a studio. He set it on the highest point of their property which affords a grand view of mountains and valley in all directions. Tim, adjusting himself to daytime painting for the first time in years, finds he spends long moments just gazing at the magnificent scenery. The slant of the sun’s rays on the cottonwood trees lining Eagle Creek can hold him spellbound for long periods of time.
“I’m getting better in not letting every little thing distract me,” Tim admits, swiveling around in his studio chair and facing the large picture windows, “but, when I see a rider in the distance or hear a cow bawl, it’s hard to concentrate on my work.”
At Easter time this year Tim and Suzie moved into their new double-wide trailer home, and after fencing their land, were able to turn the horses on their own grass for the first time.
“Suzie and I both love Eagle Creek,” Tim says, “and we plan to make this our permanent home, even though there’s no school for Jake – we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Cowboys for hire, on Eagle Creek or elsewhere, are scarce. Tim’s help is eagerly sought after by neighboring ranchers during the spring branding and fall works. Tim tries to ration, equally, his time painting and time spent in riding for his neighbors. In this way, he gathers the subject matter for his contemporary paintings of real ranch life, and makes a hand at the same time.
Cox created, Reflections of a Passing Day, for the cover of our 75th Anniversary edition.
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