Meet your bloggers- Colton & Morgan Bubela!
The first thing you must know about us is that everything we do, and will ever do, is rooted in our faith. Our mission is to trust in God’s plan and use our talents to the best of our ability. We hope you feel God’s presence in our journey and nursery. Welcome to the first post of Rooted Reflections.
Our Family
Howdy! We are your authors, a husband-and-wife business partner duo. We are very excited to be here! Our story starts in December of 2016 with a blind date and the rest is history. We tied the knot in April of 2021, and we haven’t slowed down since. We welcomed our first child in October of 2022, Martha Clare, the apple of our eye and who’s full of life. We enjoy spending time outside, nurturing our plants and trees, or just enjoying God’s creation. Our favorite day of the week is Sunday which starts with early morning Mass at our local Catholic Church and ends with a back-road Jeep ride.
Colton is a certified arborist and tree farmer extraordinaire who has been growing trees since 2014 at his tree farm, Bubela Tree Farm. Most importantly, he is a loving husband, dad, son, and friend to many. He enjoys hunting, fishing, and recreational activities. I, Morgan, am a licensed Occupational Therapist who works part-time for local school districts, a part-time stay-at-home mom, The B Haus caretaker, as well as wife, daughter, and advice giver to friends and family members. I enjoy cooking, gardening, and anything vintage with a good patina.
Together, we have started creating a wonderful life and careers we are truly passionate about. We are eager to take you along for our many adventures!
The Beginnings
Our business adventures began together in March of 2021, just a very short month before getting married when we bought our beloved 23 acres on the outskirts of Schulenburg, TX. Colton was born and raised here and this is where we call home. From May of 2021 (after recovering from our wedding and honeymoon) until March of 2024 when we opened The B Haus and the new location of Bubela Tree Farm, we poured our hearts, souls, and pocketbooks into building our nursery from the ground up.
We, with the help of a few local friends, renovated the 1930s farmhouse on the property to become our storefront, dug a large new well, irrigated over 10 acres, high-fenced the property, built a commercial greenhouse, added infrastructure, and moved our tree farm from private property to our new retail space! Our project was nothing short of an adventure, from working with our carpenter and friend Alan Koehn, to project managing the build-out of the commercial property…something we did not have previous experience with. Now that I write this, the renovation and starting a new business while moving an old business seems daunting enough, but life kept moving forward during this time as we juggled full-time jobs, our first pregnancy, and the birth of our daughter. We utilized every spare second of “free time” we had to improve our property…no small feat but one we did with joy.
The B Haus is Born
A big idea we had for a long time, we set about to make it a reality. The name, The B Haus, is rooted in family and tradition. Colton’s grandparents (Joyce & Clarence Bubela) owned and operated a nursery, Columbus Tree and Lawn, and a convenience store, Mr. B’s in Columbus on US 71 just north of I-10 (the sign is still there!). Colton fondly recalls many childhood days spent at the nursery running around and hiding in the trees playing with his cousins. “The B” was a nod to his grandparent’s legacy (and the initial “B” made it easy to acknowledge the family name while not making visitors try to pronounce it correctly, LOL). The second part of the name was chosen because our marketplace store is in an old farmhouse so with the proud German roots Colton and I share, “Haus” just seemed to fit! (No, we do not raise bees, although we do have a fond appreciation for all of their handiwork!)
As we constructed the business needs for the property, paying homage to the character of the farmstead was extremely important to us! The farmhouse sat vacant for over 40 years before we rescued her. She sat atop the hill, doors and windows busted out with the exterior siding needing extensive repair. We knew restoring her would be a labor of love…a lot more labor than love some days!
We collected exquisite, salvaged items to “recycle” into the bones of The B Haus from a variety of local sources. For example, we stumbled upon a tear-down project in New Bielau, just outside of Weimar, TX. The beautiful two-story farmhouse had worn down throughout the years and sat amongst the brush. She was still occupied the week before we set our eyes on her. She desperately needed exterior repair, but man, did she have beautiful bones. I must’ve walked around that house 30 times just taking it all in and feeling like I stepped back in time. Instead of repairing, salvaging as much lumber and furniture as we could became the plan of action! The staircase, interior and exterior walls, floors, cast iron sink, dinner table, armoire, and much more, all of which would be given new life in our store and nursery.
Bringing The B Haus to Life
The true key to making our vision happen and worth the extra trouble of salvaging used materials was our carpenter, Alan. He has an uncanny appreciation, like ourselves, for recycling and reusing lumber from previous projects. Not only do the house and barn parts tell stories, but their quality is unmatched and better than anything you can find at a lumber yard or hardware store today.
Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, but she slowly came together. We vaulted the ceilings, installed central heat and air, installed the salvaged staircase, preserved the walls and floors, and installed a hand-planed live oak slab as our checkout counter to name a few details. Perhaps vaulting and installing the new ceiling in the middle of the summer before the AC was installed wasn’t the best idea, but it was just a part of the process!
The best compliment I have received thus far is a customer who came into the B Haus for the first time and remarked “I feel like I just walked into my grandma’s house!” Beaming with pride, I couldn’t help but feel a tears well up. Today, The B Haus houses locally made and sourced goods like honey or tallow, houseplants, seasonal decor, and gift items.
Once the storefront was complete, we add infrastructure to the nursery and tree farm. An old barn, beyond repair, once stood where our retail greenhouse stands today. Having zero experience building greenhouses, Colton and Alan set their sights on ordering a “kit” because how hard could that be? Little did they know, that greenhouse would test them in ways they weren’t prepared for. They put off that project for months and finally decided to tackle it after the summer heat passed. At one point they questioned if the greenhouse would ever be built. Luckily, they finally stumbled across the correct assembly instructions after months of fruitlessly working with their customer service, brainstorming, and now the rest was history!
Next came the restroom and garage! If you haven’t caught on yet, we try to reuse anything and everything! Are you looking to sell, move or get rid of something on your property? Great, give us a call, ha ha! Our neighbor and best friend, Scott Stoner, told Colton he wanted to get rid of his wooden garage. Colton said, “Hold my beer and watch this!” Carpenter Alan and Colton came to the rescue with 6 bottleneck jacks, a goose-neck trailer, and spare lumber. They loaded that garage onto the trailer in a few hours and Colton drove it across town with Alan piloting the way in his truck!
Little did they know, this would set the tone for a future “moving job” which we will share in a future blog post. Today, the garage is nestled outside the back porch of The B Haus and hosts our restroom in the front and a garage in the back. The garage is a future outdoor nursery check-out station we are planning for more convenient customer experiences!
We converted the other existing farm shed into our potting shed which displays outdoor products that need some shelter such as our fertilizers, gardening tools, and outdoor accessories. It is attached to what used to be a pig pen turned pergola!
The last major infrastructure part of the nursery was IRRIGATION, aka our lifeline. Colton has a wonderful mentor and friend in the nursery industry out of Hallettsville, Jerry Stehle. He is the best in the business and is “all things irrigation”. Jerry and Colton trenched and laid the underground pipe for the nursery and tree farm. It was quite the undertaking, but an insightful opportunity for Colton to learn from Jerry. Using his years of installing irrigation at our first tree farm on the other side of town coupled with what he had learned working with Jerry on the new tree farm, Colton installed the above-ground irrigation for our greenhouse and growing tables!
Today, our nursery offers native plants, perennial and annual bedding options, shrubbery, fruit trees, and seasonal vegetables. Our tree farm consists of native shade tree varieties such as live oaks, Monterrey oaks, red oaks, cypress, pecan, sycamore, magnolia, and more.
The Team
Throughout its duration, this project required all-hands-on-deck and a collaborative effort from our employees. We value our employees and absolutely couldn’t have opened and continue to be in business without them. One true blessing, and our version of the “energizer bunny,” is our cousin and employee, Karolina. On any given day, you can find her wearing many hats at the tree farm and nursery or working on the arbor care crew at homes and businesses. She is a versatile employee who loves her job (according to her) and is always up for the next challenge. She has been vital during the building and daily operation of our nursery.
Our longest-standing employee, Karl, is the textbook definition of punctual and willing to lend a hand of support to us on and off the job. He even helped fix our commode at home in a pinch! His experience makes everything easier for us.
We are blessed to have high school and college students who work with us in their off-season. Iit has been a joy to watch them learn and expand their skills through hands-on mentorship. And we enjoy getting to know them watching a future generation learn the value of a hard day’s work and gaining knowledge about trees and plants.
What Really Makes The B Haus
At The B Haus and Bubela Tree Farm, you, the customer, is at the center of all we do. We strive to create a unique experience each time you visit. Our team goes the extra mile to make everything visually appealing and easy to find the treasures you seek as you shop. We carefully select vendors to deliver only quality plants, veggies, or garden products to you. Customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to us- we want you to be equipped with the right tools and knowledge to cultivate and grow successfully.
The long slow construction process over three years enabled us to carefully curate our business and way of life, one that is unique and our own. As our one year anniversary of our grand opening approaches, we continue to expand, learn, and grow…and reflect on how blessed we are to have an amazingly supportive community. We hope you enjoy our space as much as we do. Please stop by and tell your friends, bring Ma n Pa too!
God bless you,
Colton & Morgan Bubela