Last week, McNeil and other Lake Diversion residents received notice that Waggoner Ranch will not be renewing the leases for their property. They've been told it's an attempt to return the shoreline to its "natural, uninhabited landscape to support and improve the microecosystem." Whatever that means. They've gotta go by February.

Residents like McNeil, who own their homes but have spent years renewing annual leases on the ranch land their homes sit upon, were told they won't be compensated for their houses. Anything they can't take with them before the deadline becomes property of the ranch.

"We can't pick up a rock home that was built in 1926, that we poured our lifetime savings into, that was our retirement home," she said. "I can't take that with me."

The hard question here is this: Why in the world would you buy a home on land you didn't own? McNeil attempted to explain something that never needed much explanation before. Yes, the leases for the land were year-to-year. No, the residents never imagined they would stop.

"We've got family members that have had leases out here for 50 years," McNeil said. "Texas is kind of a good old boy state. You take a man at his word. We've never doubted the Waggoners because we never had any reason to doubt them."