Milking the rewards of 47 years of hard work
Story by Steve Nussbaum
Each edition of PK Magazine features a profile of an iconic home that makes folks wonder what it looks like on the inside, and this time around it’s the beautiful home of Tim and Connie Collier.
They have lived the iconic American dream, and 47 years of hard work in the agriculture business have led the couple to Possum Kingdom Lake.
Back in 1982 the two of them, along with Tim Collier’s dad, Keith, started a dairy farm five miles east of Snyder, Texas. They built a small dairy barn and started with 80 dairy cows.
They lived on the farm in a 14-by-80-foot single-wide trailer house, raising their two boys, Will and Brady. The couple milked the herd twice a day, at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m., and maintained that schedule for years until they were finally able to hire an employee. They were able to take three days off a year by having Tim Collier’s brother come and give them a respite from their work duties on those days.
“In the early days, we would live in the trailer next to the dairy barn, and we would only draw a salary of $700 a month,†Connie Collier said.
Both of them have enjoyed being around livestock and the outdoors. Connie Collier grew up on farms and ranches, while her husband farmed on the side growing up. His dad was elected sheriff of Scurry County in 1965, and Tim Collier lived with his family on the bottom floor of the county jail, underneath the inmates who were incarcerated on the second and third floors of the building.
The couple gradually expanded their dairy, because they said it’s almost impossible to make a living as a small operation. The Colliers added more cows, eventually hiring more employees to milk their herd of 400 cows twice a day in that original small dairy barn.
The couple said they could only milk a dozen cows at a time in that original barn, though, so Tim Collier found a bank in California that loaned him the money to expand the structure. The initial expansion allowed them to milk 32 cows at a time, and a subsequent expansion allowed 50 cows to be milked at a time.
The Colliers’ herd eventually totaled 2,600 cows.
After 10 years of living on the dairy in that small trailer house, the Colliers bought a home in nearby Snyder. In the early days, Connie Collier kept the books and tracked each cow’s health, vaccination status and milk production on index cards. It was critical to track each cow, she said, because even the slightest amount of contamination in the milk could lead to the loss of the entire herd’s output.
Connie Collier eventually returned to school to take some computer courses so the entire operation would be better organized.
“You have to be a good manager,†she said. “We’d be out of business if we ran it like we did in the beginning.â€
The Colliers eventually sold 2,200 of their best cows to a dairy in New Mexico. Their son Will, who was just graduating from Texas Tech, managed the dairy for three years and then bought the remaining 400 cows to start his own operation.
Will Collier and his wife, Lauren, have three children and live in Snyder, and he milks 3,000 cows per day while also farming about 10,000 acres where he grows the feed for his herd. He’s been an innovator in bringing in robotics and technology to the modern dairy, which reduces the number of employees needed and helps maximize production.
In his herd, each cow has an electronic necklace to help identify those that have been milked and those that haven’t. The device detects if a cow is sick, or if the animal is ovulating and needs to be artificially inseminated. Also, when the cows are leaving the barn, the sensor determines which gate to open to corral the animals in the correct area, saving on manual labor. He’s also building a second robotic barn, and Tim and Connie Collier’s 15-year-old grandson, Jagger, has taken an interest in the business.
The Colliers’ younger son, Brady, also attended Texas Tech University, but he decided early on that the dairy business wasn’t for him. He and his wife, Becky, live in Lubbock with their five children. Brady Collier owns Wheelhouse Development, a commercial real estate and development business in Lubbock.
After selling the dairy, Connie and Tim Collier traveled in their motor home to PK and stayed at Lush Resort. That’s where they met Pat Murchison, who told them about a house for sale next to his place in Gaines Bend.
The Colliers eventually bought that house and used it as their lake house for a couple of years, and that property had a vacant lot next door that had never been built on – a rarity in Gaines Bend in such a prime location.
The couple found the owner of the vacant lot and bought what turned out to be one of the most prime locations on the lake. They said they loved their Gaines Bend neighbors, so they made the decision to sell their Snyder home and original home in Gaines Bend, and to build their dream home on the vacant lot so they could live at PK full time.
The choice to leave Snyder and live at PK was a scary thought, they said, because it meant they would be leaving their children and grandchildren in Snyder and Lubbock – but it turns out that their children and grandchildren enjoy coming to the lake.
The Colliers incorporated the help of neighbor and longtime PK builder Mark Anderson, along with his son, Mitchell Anderson of Anderson Fine Homes, to design and build their home. Tim Collier drew a picture of what he wanted on a napkin – including an outdoor kitchen, an RV garage, a pool and office space – and the Andersons turned those drawings into design plans.
The couple lived at The Harbor while building their new home – but, like most large projects, the timetable stretched out, and the challenges of building during the COVID-19 pandemic made it even harder. They finally moved into their beautiful modern farmhouse on the lake in April 2021.
For the first nine months, the only furniture the couple had in the house was some outdoor furniture. Connie Collier, who described herself as “just a redneck cowgirl with no sense of style,†used the assistance of a designer out of Lubbock to customize the entire house.
Tim Collier told the designer to give his wife three choices, with nothing too complicated, and the results are gorgeous. Their home resembles a beautiful farmhouse with a modern look.
Guests walking up to the home immediately notice the metal doors, while the windows give a sneak peek into the stunning living area and incredible lake view. The main room, which has soaring ceilings coupled with a grand fireplace, opens into the huge kitchen and dining area, and all these rooms are anchored by floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the pool and lake. When the lake level is up, the water appears to lead right up to the pool and patio.
Also on the main floor is a well-appointed guest bedroom and guest bathroom that leads the way to the master suite on the back side of the house. The room is filled with designer furnishings and art. The master suite itself leads to a huge master bathroom, and it features a large, custom-tiled shower as well as an elegant soaker tub.
When asked if she ever thought she’d have a tub like that when the couple lived in the trailer next to the dairy all those years ago, Connie Collier replied, “Never in a million years.â€
Toward the back of the house is the room that gets the most use: the outdoor kitchen and patio area. The large space has garage doors that allow the Colliers either to open the space to the lake and pool area, or to keep it closed and remain in air-conditioned comfort. This area is Tim Collier’s favorite space in the house, because he has his game table, recliner, television and luxury outdoor kitchen all in one space.
The couple got the idea for the room after staying at Lush Resort and seeing the bar area that could be opened to the outside by lifting the garage doors there. It’s a great feature that takes advantage of the view and creates the ultimate entertainment space at the same time.
Off the kitchen and outdoor space is a custom RV garage, and behind it is Connie Collier’s office space. The RV garage has access to kitchen and outdoor areas, and it can be turned into extra seating and dining space for entertaining guests. In fact, the couple plans to hold their granddaughter’s wedding at their home in the near future.
The upstairs has a large game room and custom furniture for all the grandchildren to sleep and bring their friends, along with two more bedrooms with balcony access on the lakeside. The entire house is filled with comfortable, stylish custom furniture that matches the Colliers’ lifestyle and needs.
The couple said their move to Possum Kingdom has been better than they ever could have imagined. When they lived in Snyder, the Colliers said they would have five different Christmas events with their families, with each lasting about an hour. Over the past two years, though, they have been able to entertain their entire family at one location for the holidays.
The Colliers said they are always eager to open their home to their many friends, and they sometimes get so busy in the summer that their grandchildren take turns booking time for their friends at their house.
It seems the years of hard work have finally paid off for this hard-working couple. They were able to build their dream home, and now they get to share it with their entire family.
Pictured below: The upstairs has a large fame room and custom furniture for all the grandchildren to sleep and bring their friends, along with two more bedrooms with balcony access on the lakeside.
Pictured right: When the lake levels are up, the water appears to lead right up to the beautiful pool and patio.
