So both Zack and I grew up on Ranches--we know livestock, rope horses, animal husbandry...and the people in ag, which we love. In college we decided to pursue things that stretched and interested us, all the while hoping to one day have a chance to return to ranching and raise our kids that way.
I got a degree in fine art and was just finishing up my BFA when we met. Zack pursued a degree in Economics. He'd started in buisiness, but found all the business students hated economics and which kind of triggered the thought in him that that might be an issue. He enjoyed the challenge of economics and graduated at the top of his class. Zack does numbers like a language and while we work to balance each other out, I can pretty much say "hi" and "how much does this cost" in that language---hes about the same with art--both improvemnts though.
Out of college he bought all the slacks and nice shirts and ties and had job offers in finance and business settings...when he realized that he couldn't handle a desk job. We'd made it through college without debt on academic scholarships, art sales, jobs, side hustles, maintenance jobs, managing apartmenst, and even started a fencing buisness...as hard as it was I think it kept him sain--well mostly. Realizing he was looking for jobs in the wrong industry he dove in to more active job offers.
We landed in Northern California with him as a foreman over a walnut processing faciliity. He excelled and made so many improvements that by the time we finally had a house to live in, the company asked him to move to Sourthern CA as Manager over their huge Almond Processing Facility which needed an ovcerhaul. With his number analyisi from Economics, his Ag background and work ethic and with minors in Spanish and Mechanical Engineering he was the guy for the job. He went all ovcer California looking at plants and meeting with manufactures of machinery--even flying out to Georgia for checking out peanut processes he could incorporate. He got it built for less and had a facility that could cut labor, time, and breakdowns....
We'd just had baby number 3 and we moved up to the Center of the Central Valley where Zack came in to work his magic with another Almond Processor.
We found ourselves saving every penny and longing for the feeling of ground we owned under our feet. We'd drive by a piece of property that either looked like a dream place or even a fixure upper and say " I wonder what it'd feel like to own that?".
Upon Moving to Merced with tried to find a house to rent that had a little property for chickens and a cow, as this job was supposed to be temporary--fix the plant up and move on. I was longing for some feelings of home, my kids needed jobs to do and I wanted all the health benefits of raw milk and healthy eggs and gardens. We broke all the rules of good homesteading--you know get the house situated, then trees and gardens, then animals--it didn't help that the house had a random electric fire in the attic three days after moving in and we got to move out. I wasn't willing to go back to town, so a camp trailer it was. Yep--we've had that experiecne too.
Fianlly back into the house with most things put away we were informed that the landlord and his wife were divorcing and the house had to be sold. It was attached to 50 acres of almonds and they were unwilling to separate it off. We talked to every major investor coing to look at it asking if we could work something out and it was a no. The couple felt bad and offered us first right of refusal, meaning when they accept an offer we could jump line and pay it and take the property of that price if we wanted.
The orchard was a mess. We knew it because we'd lived here for over a year, both in the RV and finally in the house. It wasnt because it had bad farmers, the farmers were following all the regular standards, this ground had been farmed for over 60 years in Almonds and the ground was "worn out". The big farmers that came in all planned to tear all the trees out and double deep rip the soil to solve the water infiltration issues. It was so bad that trees were drowning in the little light rains. It looked like every other almond orchard only a little sadder than most and the trees looked like they were three but they were 8 and 9 and should have been producing a lot, but instead were at less than a quarter than the industry average and as low as 1/6 below potential.
Zack went out on his bike and rode every row rating every tree like you would a bunch of range cows. I stood at the computer and rated the numbers in an excell spredad sheet--creating a map and a lot of date to try and make decisions off of.
Eventually an acceptable offer came in and we were prepared. With a lot of skimping and stretching we secured a loan call on our first right of refusal. Our determination not to move was kind of funny looking back---we'd been through so much and just felt our family needed a break. We'd had 15 moves in 12 years and we weren't even sure how much longer Zacks job would last in the area, he was making improvements at a good rate, but it was 2020 and everything was in uproar, the almond market look good and the thought of moving in all the red tape was overwhelming...so yah we bought a farm.
It line up with our dreams, sort of. I mean I wanted a cattle ranch, not an "almond ranch". With the rented acreage we had brought our rope horses from home and were looking forward to some recreation time finally.
Zack told me, he had a demanding job and that the farming would need to be contracted out. He'd found a nice agronomist who would oversee it and we could enjoy the space, but we weren't gonna do more than turning on the irrigation. He wasn't wrong. I had my hands full with 3 little kids--one with some big special needs, homeschooling, chickens, garden, church service, running a home and cooking everyting from scratch to meet my healthy standards I knew I couldn't take more on.
I'll never forget the day in April that the two pallets of herbicide, both preimmergents and glyphosate were delivered for the spray job arranged for by the agronomist.
Now when I was a kid I had attended a youth event where a favorite religious leader had addressed us and told us that he would leave the As to our school teachers, he wanted to give us our Bs. It was a delightful talk full of great advise and visionary direction for a group of kids growing up to face a world like ours. He instructed us to Be Grateful, to Be Smart, to Be Clean, to Be True, to Be Humble, to Be Prayerful. Now I could get behind all of them and try, but that to Be True was kind of confusing. I mean he could have just said Be Honest right? don't lie? or whatever, but he quoted Shakespear's famously confusing quote 'to thine own self be true" and I was even more confused.
Suddenly nearly 20 years later I saw Shakespeare laying quite languidly in Renaissance puffed sleeves and silk bloomers, across the two palletts.
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