Our new LDG

This weekend I went to Madison Georgia and picked up our new livestock dog. Her name is Maxi and she is 9 mos old but weighs 110 lbs and is bigger than our 2 yr old Rotweillier here she is chillin in her new digs

New beginnnngs

                                                                               

Before Timber Harvest

After Timber Harvest

We have finally done it.... we just bought 5 acres here in Port Orchard Washington. and with the new farm to be we have decided to change our farm name. I believe that we are going to name it Phoneix Farms. Due in great part of the fact that the funds for this purchase came from the sale of timber on my dad's property ( he passed away almost two years ago. When he was alive, he was opposed to cutting down the trees but last year we found out that the a few trees were infested by bark beatles an the whole stand was threatened  and doomed to become firewood. so my brother decided to have it harvested this year. so, with the death of of legacy I am starting a new one a rebirth as it were.
I will Make a account of my Familiy"s Farming history in later Posts.

Is it spring yet??

BRRR On March 6th it snowed about 1" at our place. Now if I were in the Northeast then that would not be suprising, but here in the Great Pacific Northwest, It should be spring. Event today it is in the 40's when it should be in the 50's
I have been furiously working on my website (http:www.superiortraceminerals.com)
updating my prices and adding paypal buy it now buttons in it's continuing evoultions
to a full featured website. I gottta tell you after speding hours of building all those paypal butons my assement is that Paypal sucks. I can't tell you how many endless hours I'v spent updating and testing those buy it now buttons. they are not as great as their cracked up to be. if you have a few items I guess their ok, but if you have a hundred or so items like I do, then it's a pain in the ass. I am in the process of switching over to a new hosting site that offers a full featured shopping cart. but that also takes time to set up. So for now,I'm stuck with paypal.

Research

Today I was doing resarch on a piece of property we are looking at purchasing
and I found a nifty resoure and thought I'd pass it along. We were told by the
owners of the property we are currenty looking at, that they were class 1 soils
so I did a search for soil types and found some very informative websites that
provide data on soil types. The first one is by the Natural Resources Conservation
service at: http://soils.usda.gov/technical/handbook/contents/part622.html
on the top bar they have several catagorys and I clicked on the "Soil survey" tab
and on the top there is a link to another website by the USDA it is the official USDA soil information as viewable maps and tables for more than 2300 soil surveys.
this is the link: http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm

On the top of the page there is a green button to the left and you click on it
and it take you to a map of the united states you can click on the state of intrest
and can even select a specific county. A map of the area if intrest will come up but to display specific soil class info you have to use the aoi tool at the top bar to select a smaller area. The map will then display the specific soil type to your area and has a list of the soil types displayed on the map that can be opened up and viewed. The ony note is that • Web Soil Survey is unavailable nightly between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM Eastern time for soil survey data updates.
• Web Soil Survey may be unavailable on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 8:00 PM and 10:30 PM Eastern time for scheduled maintenance and software updates.
• Web Soil Survey may also be unavailable the third weekend of each month, and the second Sunday of each month, for scheduled maintenance.
• It may also be necessary from time to time to bring Web Soil Survey down for unscheduled maintenance.

Happy soil hunting!!

New year, New plans

Well, what can I say?? I havent posted for a while but not for the lack of
stuff going on... Let's just say that things did'nt work out between myself
and Denny Hunt. and not for a lack of trying. Let's just say we had a
" operations" difference of opion. So we have parted ways...

On a brighter note


We are still looking at ways to get on a farm, but after looking at real estate
in california, we decided to look elsewere. I grew up in oregon so that is where
we are looking now. Sothern Oregon has good land prices and good marketing potential
It would be close (3 hr dr) to my dad's place in Drain so we potentially would have more opportunities to visit him and Darcy has friends in the Medford area.

Holy Cow, I'm In Hog Heaven !! Part 2

After some deliberating, I decided to call Marc Felton at Felton Acres in Sebastopol. (See his blog at
( http://feltonacres.blogspot.com/ ) I had contacted Marc about the same as my first contact with Denny and felt obligated to visit him as well. Denny and I spent about a hour at Marc’s place. After finishing up with his Photographer, Marc Graciously showed us around his farm and spoke with us in great detail about his poultry operation and the learning curve he had and was very candid about the mistakes he made. He also let us pet his yearling pigs and also showed us his goats. Thanks Marc !!
As Denny drove toward Gleason Ranch we meandered through the valley’s and Hills of Bodega hwy towards Bodega, Ca We made a quick stop in Freestone to try to get a quick bite to eat at Gerald’s Paella but it was packed, so we continued on. About 15 minutes later, We found the entrance to Gleason Ranch a
Inconspicuous, unassuming farm that has been in the Gleason family for about a hundred years. Nancy Prebilich Wasn’t there, but both her parents were there and a cousin building a new door frame for their
Hog barn. At first, they were not friendly, and understandably so, as we were strangers who just showed up unannounced ! After a quick phone call to Nancy, she assured them we were ok and then they warmed up and also graciously showed us around their farm.

Gleanson Farm currently raises naturally raised, beef , Swine and Poultry. Like Marc they showed us their
Brooder, their sow barn, and the movable chicken tractors. I’m always impressed when a family sticks togheter and keeps a Farm running and changes with the times to keep itself profitable.

Denny and I left with the hopefulness that we (I) would be making many more trips to the
Gleason Ranch at Least as invited guests and Possibly as partners.

As we drove back to Denny’s place, I got to see more of the bodega/ Valley Ford area, I am already
Falling in love with this area. Then Denny had a idea, First he called his mom again and then he
Called Nancy Prebilich to invite her to a dinner at his mom’s place in his honor as it was his early
Birthday party. Nancy accepted and we went back to Denny’s place to change into cleaner
Clothes and to meet up with Denny’s wife Jennifer who had just came back from a northern California dog show with Tina, one of their border collies. We then headed to his mom’s

When we showed up, Denny’s sister, niece had already showed up and as we were walking up to the house, Nancy Prebilich showed up. We had many lively conversations, but the one that enthralled me the
Most was Nancy’s story of how she sacrificed her life to come and help save her Family’s Farm. Doubly
Impressed !! I left that evening with the hopefulness that I will soon be raising Poultry

The Next morning I left, after having a brief conversation with Jennifer I left with the promise that I would be back soon and then sped off to go back to work.

Thanks for a great Weekend Denny and Jennifer.!!

Holy Cow, I'm In Hog Heaven !!

Last weekend I went to Cotai, CA to do some Family history research and what a weekend !!

Prior to my trip, I noticed on Facebook my cousins had posted some comments
that gave me information that finally gave me enough info to justify a trip
up there but just for added sucess I decided to see if I could find someone
near where I believed my grandfather had his dairy farm. Enter Denny and
Jenifer Hunt at blankity blank Potatoes & Produce.(http://sites.google.com/a/blankityblank.biz/http-www-blankityblank-biz/news)

I e-mailed Denny to ask if he or anyone he knew anything about my great-grand Father, My Grandfather or other family members who had lived around the area.

He told me that he would ask his mother, but it was ok to come up and he
would take some time out of his schedule to visit with me. In addition to the
e-mail,I attached two photos of my Great GrandFather. Later, he told me that
he printed out the pictures and showed his mom and she rememberd him.

Once I arrived thinks started happening fast and furoious, turns out that his
mother knew my great-Grandfather well enough (even though she was only
nine) that she used to yell out when he went by in his horse drawn waggon
"hello old Charle Bean" and sometimes he would give her and other neighborhood children rides on his wagon as horse drawn waggons were becoming more rare and motorized forms of transportation were becoming more common.

For the balance of Saturday, we talked and talked and talked.... you get the idea.

Let's just say, that not much farmwork got done that day. by late afternoon he invited me to stay the night as it was getting dark and I was not real crazy about driving back to the bay area at night, but I had signed up for overtime at
work and needed to go back on Sunday morning. As the day progressed he
decided to call another farm that he knew that was rasing pastured poultry
as I had expressed a desire to get back into farming and my delima.

I spoke with Nancy Prebilich (of Gleason Ranch)for about a hour on the phone.

As I went to sleep I could hardly believe the events of the day but little would
I know of what would tranpire the next day.

When I woke up on sunday morning I discovered to my surpries that the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day, contrary to the weather forcast of just a
few days prior. Then Denny discussed the possibility of going out to
Gleason Ranch and checking it out first hand. Denny admited that even though
he knew Nancy, He had never visited their Ranch and had a desire to do so.
After much deliberating and agonizing, I decided to call and cancel my overtime.

After eating breakfast I called Nancy but to no avail. Even so, we were dertimined and after looking on google maps and a few phone calls to friends later, we were farily confinant that Denny coud find the Geason Ranch.

More Later.....