The summer of 2005, Donald stayed at the Casa Grande ranch, while the girls and I headed to the John Day ranch. We were anticipating the erection of the horse barn that fall and Donald would be trenching for the water and electric lines, and then join us in Oregon later.
As it turned out, Donald ended up with Valley Fever that summer. It is unique to the Sonoran desert, and is acquired by inhaling spores found in the soil that then deposit in your lungs. It has different symptoms, but commonly acts like pneumonia. Unfortunately, the treatment with antibiotics for that misdiagnosis irritates the Valley Fever spores and makes things worse. It can be debilitating for some and even cause death. My dad had it the year prior and it really kicked his butt. We were suspicious immediately and requested the blood test to verify, but not before they gave Donald antibiotics for the misdiagnosed lung infection. Of course, they insisted that he had heart burn for a couple hours while we waited for them to arrange the lung x-ray.
His Valley Fever was diagnosed after the girls and I had arrived in Oregon. Typical Donald, he didn't let on how bad he really was. So he attempted to work in the 110+ degree summer, trenching and hand shoveling. He would last a couple hours and then he would sleep almost the rest of the day and night.
2005 was also the summer that Donald experienced the wrath of his first "microburst." A microburst is like a desert dust devil on steriods. This isolated tornado blew through the ranch at wind speeds documented by the weather station just east of the ranch, at 90 mph. Then came the torrential rains. Donald was trapped in the modular house that was placed on its jacks by the previous owner. The house was shaking and Donald thought for sure the wind would shatter the windows.
When the worst of it was over, Donald went out to investigate the damage.
When we purchased the property, there was the little house and some stalls that housed the previous owner's stallions. They were heavy duty. We had our RV and a horse trailer parked on the property, along with our personal vehicles at that time. The materials for the barn to be built were on the property at this point as well. We also had acquired a very large tank for capturing rainwater and irrigation overflow that was still on the flatbed trailer.
After the storm, the horse stalls resembled a spider carcass with the pipe rails twisted and mangled and deposited about a half mile south of the property. They were unsalvageable. Debris had flown through the air and smashed windows on the RV and one of our cars. The A/C units on top of the RV were ripped off and blown away. Donald found the water tank about 4-5 miles away in a wash, but that was about 4 months later. There was standing water everywhere. Tools had been thrown and then submerged so that they were found (and are still being found) scattered throughout the desert. The air compressor was completely submerged and ultimately destroyed. Horse blankets and supplies were underwater. Fortunately, no horses were home at the ranch for this storm.
Donald sent us pictures of the damage. It was frightening that a storm could do that much damage. But we were the lucky ones, not too far away, people with similar homes had them tossed over. We realized that we had another issue that needed to be addressed and planned for in the overall design of our property; water.
When we arrived at the ranch we had been niave about the damage storms could do. With paved roads, "stick-built" homes, water drainage, and wind breaks we never had been adversely effected. We quickly realized we were going to have to make some modifications so that we could weather the storms.
Years later after the horse barn had been erected, Donald and I recognized a storm heading our way and set to the task of preparing. We tarped the hay, brought in the horses, moved vehicles to the compacted gravel surfaces and unplugged the electronics in the house. Usually with a storm the electricity would go off more often than not. By the time we got the last horse in, the down pour trapped us in the barn. We figured it was a hard rain that would be short lived and we would wait it out. But this one just kept coming down and as we waited we watched the waters rising all around us. The water was flowing so fast that it was eroding the soil like time-elapsed photography. We were reminded of the importance of getting busy on that plan to deal with all the water that we could potentially get at one time.
Ironically, that week (yes we finally made out of the barn to the house), I heard a radio interview on NPR about rainwater harvesting. Brad Lancaster from Tucson was talking about capturing the rain water and reusing it. http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/ Donald and I had just spent those hours in the barn watching the rainwater beating down on the roof to the ground, swelling, and running across the property to the adjacent field set at the next tier, and decided we needed to figure out the next step to take advantage of all that water by catching it, or re-directing it. We had elevated our roadways and put down AB gravel for a parking area for vehicles and equipment. But more was necessary.
I spent some time reading Lancaster's work and doing some research about rainwater and greywater harvesting. Donald started designing some ways to make use of the rain water. Some ideas were pretty simple; gutters to holding tanks or rain barrels, creating low areas for planting. He also designed and set up a way to capture the water from our horse wash bay. The water drains to plumbing that runs underground to a French drain situated under newly planted trees. These were planted next to the future site of our round pen.
Donald also designed a drainage system that would be under our round pen.
The soil here on the property is primarily clay. Water sits on top of it for days at a time depending on the rain fall. So many horse facilities are basically inoperable when the rain hits, because the riding areas are flooded. We wanted to avoid that situation. We dug parallel trenches across the location of the future round pen. A porous landscape material was placed in the trenches and filled with large rounded rock. The landscape material was wrapped around the rock and covered with a sand. The area was once again level and bedding sand was spread over the area and the round pen panels installed. Now when it rains the water is able to drain through the sand and instead of sitting on top of the clay foundation, it drains down into the trenches. The trenches were dug so that they all had a slope that drains the water to the east at which point a perpendicular trench butts up to the others for a final collection point. Trees and other vegetation will be planted behind this so that their roots can take advantage of the underground water supply.
Just this week I finally finished planting 10 new trees. There is a trench that runs from the irrigated horse pasture that will provide irrigation to the trees through the summer. We have to irrigate the pasture as often as every 2 weeks, so in between I will be carrying water in the front loader of the tractor to get those baby trees off to a good start.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
What? A Prison? Here?
What do you get when you put a room full of long time residents of an RV Park and a man representing a company presenting a prison proposal into a small room? Well I'm sure there's a really good punch line for that, but honestly it was a very loud (I'd say 80% were wearing hearing aids), and lively attack on the representatives.
The latest excitement around here is the idea of building a prison about 8 or so miles up the road. It was communicated to me through the "grapevine." Someone told someone, who told someone.....In a nutshell, the company that specializes in privately run/owned medium security prisons is looking at this location to present a proposal to the city and county to build. They notified residents with in a 1200 ft radius about the proposal and last night's informational meeting.
Well if you're familiar with the desert territory, 1200 ft within this expansive terrain doesn't reach too far when you're trying to contact people. We're pretty spread out here on purpose. So the only ones that were contacted were the residents of a long ago established RV park that borders the southern perimeter of the proposed site, and the foreclosed golf course to the west. As to whether the guys at the golf course picked up and ran as they heard news of what was coming or if they just failed due to the economic climate, I don't know. Needless to say the 1200 ft radius did not inform many residents that this would effect. But those gals at the RV park got busy and told everyone at church and passed the word, so that the ten chairs that the prison guys set up in the tiny room at the Francisco Grande didn't meet the needs of the attendees. It was standing room only.
The fact that the meeting started with the very impressive presentation by the marketing guy telling us about the fabulous accomodations provided for the prisoners (the CAD education program, good food, and GED incentive program), hit a sour note with a good majority of the attendees, didn't get things off to the start they probably wanted. I have to admit when he got done talking about the place I was ready to sign my girls up, forget the expenses of college. Shoot they wouldn't have to survive on mac n cheese while they were getting their education, oh but this is an all male facility. It just didn't sit right telling a bunch of struggling ranchers and fixed income seniors of the benefits these criminals would receive. Don't get me wrong I am not suggesting torture for these wrong doers, just not a luxury retreat.
The tenor was set when the seniors started screaming out in their wavering voices, "Speak up, I can't hear you." The volume for the rest of the meeting was very high, which gave a certain agitation to the overall feel of the meeting.
There were two people that thought that the prison was a good idea as proposed. Of course one admitted that she probably wasn't going to live long enough to see it built so it would really impact the others that were going to survive.
Overall, the design and philosophy is good, just not up the road from us. They admitted that they had had escapes in the past, and the criminals were potentially murderers that have learned to work the system and behave so that they could get transferred to a lesser security prison. They were probably a little put off by the angry crowd telling them they came across as underhanded and secretive by not informing people in advance and only a limited number.
The benefits to the city if a facility were to be built as a result of an annex that would have to take place for the property to be considered Casa Grande, would be nice. Unfortunately, none of those benefits would extend to the rest of us that would be stuck with the facility glaring at us as we drove home, locking our doors as we read the signs posted not to pick up hitch hikers.
The company will present this to the city April 19 and the county June 2, all the way over in Florence. That is a good drive for us. The dates, conveniently for the prison reps, will eliminate some of the attendees as a result of the migratory patterns of our snow birds that inhabit the RV park for the winter. By the way, the name of the RV park is "Rustler's Roost: Escapees Park." I just loved that one!
I have the meeting dates in my calendar and will probably attend those meetings as well. I really find the disruption to my schedule inconvenient, but I don't want this to slip through and building to begin the end of summer as proposed. I am sure this topic will re-emerge in the future.
As for the ranch, the daily chores will take up most of the morning. I will have to take the little tractor with its bucket down to a water spigot and fill the bucket with water. I will then drive to the recently planted trees on the perimeter of the property and pour the water on each of the eight. I believe they all show signs of life despite the band of Indian horses that took the liberty of pulling them all out of the ground and throwing them to the side. Yes that is another story for another time. As for my precious trees, I am happy to report that my Mulberry trees planted 2-3 years ago, have greened up and look a tiny bit bigger this season. I am going for the "park like" setting around the equestrian section of the property. I find myself chanting, "grow little trees, grow little trees."
Time for chores.
The latest excitement around here is the idea of building a prison about 8 or so miles up the road. It was communicated to me through the "grapevine." Someone told someone, who told someone.....In a nutshell, the company that specializes in privately run/owned medium security prisons is looking at this location to present a proposal to the city and county to build. They notified residents with in a 1200 ft radius about the proposal and last night's informational meeting.
Well if you're familiar with the desert territory, 1200 ft within this expansive terrain doesn't reach too far when you're trying to contact people. We're pretty spread out here on purpose. So the only ones that were contacted were the residents of a long ago established RV park that borders the southern perimeter of the proposed site, and the foreclosed golf course to the west. As to whether the guys at the golf course picked up and ran as they heard news of what was coming or if they just failed due to the economic climate, I don't know. Needless to say the 1200 ft radius did not inform many residents that this would effect. But those gals at the RV park got busy and told everyone at church and passed the word, so that the ten chairs that the prison guys set up in the tiny room at the Francisco Grande didn't meet the needs of the attendees. It was standing room only.
The fact that the meeting started with the very impressive presentation by the marketing guy telling us about the fabulous accomodations provided for the prisoners (the CAD education program, good food, and GED incentive program), hit a sour note with a good majority of the attendees, didn't get things off to the start they probably wanted. I have to admit when he got done talking about the place I was ready to sign my girls up, forget the expenses of college. Shoot they wouldn't have to survive on mac n cheese while they were getting their education, oh but this is an all male facility. It just didn't sit right telling a bunch of struggling ranchers and fixed income seniors of the benefits these criminals would receive. Don't get me wrong I am not suggesting torture for these wrong doers, just not a luxury retreat.
The tenor was set when the seniors started screaming out in their wavering voices, "Speak up, I can't hear you." The volume for the rest of the meeting was very high, which gave a certain agitation to the overall feel of the meeting.
There were two people that thought that the prison was a good idea as proposed. Of course one admitted that she probably wasn't going to live long enough to see it built so it would really impact the others that were going to survive.
Overall, the design and philosophy is good, just not up the road from us. They admitted that they had had escapes in the past, and the criminals were potentially murderers that have learned to work the system and behave so that they could get transferred to a lesser security prison. They were probably a little put off by the angry crowd telling them they came across as underhanded and secretive by not informing people in advance and only a limited number.
The benefits to the city if a facility were to be built as a result of an annex that would have to take place for the property to be considered Casa Grande, would be nice. Unfortunately, none of those benefits would extend to the rest of us that would be stuck with the facility glaring at us as we drove home, locking our doors as we read the signs posted not to pick up hitch hikers.
The company will present this to the city April 19 and the county June 2, all the way over in Florence. That is a good drive for us. The dates, conveniently for the prison reps, will eliminate some of the attendees as a result of the migratory patterns of our snow birds that inhabit the RV park for the winter. By the way, the name of the RV park is "Rustler's Roost: Escapees Park." I just loved that one!
I have the meeting dates in my calendar and will probably attend those meetings as well. I really find the disruption to my schedule inconvenient, but I don't want this to slip through and building to begin the end of summer as proposed. I am sure this topic will re-emerge in the future.
As for the ranch, the daily chores will take up most of the morning. I will have to take the little tractor with its bucket down to a water spigot and fill the bucket with water. I will then drive to the recently planted trees on the perimeter of the property and pour the water on each of the eight. I believe they all show signs of life despite the band of Indian horses that took the liberty of pulling them all out of the ground and throwing them to the side. Yes that is another story for another time. As for my precious trees, I am happy to report that my Mulberry trees planted 2-3 years ago, have greened up and look a tiny bit bigger this season. I am going for the "park like" setting around the equestrian section of the property. I find myself chanting, "grow little trees, grow little trees."
Time for chores.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Bermuda Grass Hay by Default
The dogs are fed, horses are eating, chicken eggs collected, steel cut oats simmering, and the running list of things to attempt above and beyond the day's obligations has been compiled.
The turkeys, ducks, chickens, and emu still have to be fed, but Emma will take care of that. The turkeys will get to wander and eat some of the weeds that have sprung from last month's rains. Emma has new hatchlings in the brooder with new lovies hatching throughout the week. All of that project is Emma's creation and responsiblility.
At this point in time, Generations Ranch has primarily become a haying operation. We have spent the last four years regrouping, researching, and implementing our newly laid plans. We currently have 30 acres actively producing Bermuda grass for hay. We will continue to plant acreage as we are able in order to increase our productivity. We have developed a very nice clientele that have been pretty loyal. We try to go out of our way to grow a very good product, testing our hay for protein content, and delivering.
When we started growing our hay, we were growing for our own use. We had show horses and a few with special dietary needs...not "easy keepers." We needed good quality grass hay that would provide the nutrients they needed. Alfalfa hay was not an option. For those unfamiliar, alfalfa is a legume and is not the easiest on a horse's digestive system.
We had taken the horses to Oregon our first summer as an official LLC. There they were introduced to grazing on the 120 acres of pasture. They had never experienced grazing like this. We had to halter them and stand with them in the pasture for increasing increments of time, so that firstly when the time was up we could easily remove them and secondly control their introduction. If left to graze in this huge space, we would have spent hours trying to recapture them once they realized their huge boundaries. We were concerned that the transition be made slowly as to not cause them any problems such as founder.
So they were grazed on some of the best grasses available to horses; Timothy, Orchard, and some others including a little clover. They thrived and our "not-so easy keepers" stayed sound on their new diet. When we hauled back to Arizona we took a good amount of our Oregon hay to hold us over for our Arizona winter.
When we returned we got started planting 10 acres Timothy and 10 acres Orchard for a winter crop. Donald contacted the University of Arizona Ag dept. and worked closely with them on providing the right conditions to grow these grasses in the Arizona climate. We conceded that they would require replanting annually, but wanted to provide the best for our horses and sell the surplus.
In the meantime, we had 10 acres of Bermuda left from the previous owner that was struggling to gain a foothold after years of neglect. We contacted the local irrigation district and began the process of ordering our metered water to grow our grasses.
I feel like I have to explain what happened to the Timothy and Orchard grasses. We had incredibly good fortune with the longevity of our non-native grasses. We produced enough to feed our horses and sell the surplus. But after 3 years the Timothy and Orchard weren't able to hold fast against the spring weeds and we plowed it under.
The first of our hay business obstacles presented itself to us that first year; lack of shelter. We had no out building to protect our hay. So we did like so many attempt to do out here in the desert, we strapped tarps over our hay. Well let me tell you this is a hopeless exercise. The winds that we get here can exceed 80 mph, the sun exposure can literally turned items to powder, and once you have a tarp strapped down you can never remove it because it will never stay in place again. We spent a fortune on tarps only to have them crumble in our hands after exposure. The winds would whip the tarps off the hay in the middle of a monsoon storm so that there was no way the top layer of hay would ever be consumable for horses again. So we began the second phase of our hay production, cattle hay. Anything that got rained on became cattle hay and went for a discounted price. After 6 years of this ongoing battle, we finally have a hay barn this season.
I'll talk more about the learing process of irrigation another time. It is rather an engineering feat as well as an art form.
This spring we will add another 20 acres of Bermuda grass, with the possiblity of another 10. I will settle for the 20 myself. Donald has a different pair of rose-colored glasses than myself. We spent a great deal of time hauling organic manure from the local Shamrock Farms Dairy farm's organic section. We chose to use manure for a slow nitrogen release as opposed to the liquid fertilizer. We are really trying to stay away from synthetics and opt for a progressively more organic operation in the end. I spent days pushing the manure piles around the fields. I will plow the fields next.
So we have become a Bermuda grass hay emphasis at this time. But we have some plans to diversify for the future. But I'll get to that as I fill in the missing time in our progression.
Of course, we are a family and have all of the obligations of the kids' activities as well as our commitments to the community that are priority over the ranch for the most part. I guess I wear two hats as many moms do today. One of mine just happens to be a beat up straw hat.
Tonight after I make a few more calls to rally the neighbors in the vicinity, I will attend a meeting regarding a prison that someone is wanting to build down the road a few miles. Needless to say, we are not in favor of this. As Donald is out of town for work, I will represent our family at the meeting tonight.
Time for more chores.
The turkeys, ducks, chickens, and emu still have to be fed, but Emma will take care of that. The turkeys will get to wander and eat some of the weeds that have sprung from last month's rains. Emma has new hatchlings in the brooder with new lovies hatching throughout the week. All of that project is Emma's creation and responsiblility.
At this point in time, Generations Ranch has primarily become a haying operation. We have spent the last four years regrouping, researching, and implementing our newly laid plans. We currently have 30 acres actively producing Bermuda grass for hay. We will continue to plant acreage as we are able in order to increase our productivity. We have developed a very nice clientele that have been pretty loyal. We try to go out of our way to grow a very good product, testing our hay for protein content, and delivering.
When we started growing our hay, we were growing for our own use. We had show horses and a few with special dietary needs...not "easy keepers." We needed good quality grass hay that would provide the nutrients they needed. Alfalfa hay was not an option. For those unfamiliar, alfalfa is a legume and is not the easiest on a horse's digestive system.
We had taken the horses to Oregon our first summer as an official LLC. There they were introduced to grazing on the 120 acres of pasture. They had never experienced grazing like this. We had to halter them and stand with them in the pasture for increasing increments of time, so that firstly when the time was up we could easily remove them and secondly control their introduction. If left to graze in this huge space, we would have spent hours trying to recapture them once they realized their huge boundaries. We were concerned that the transition be made slowly as to not cause them any problems such as founder.
So they were grazed on some of the best grasses available to horses; Timothy, Orchard, and some others including a little clover. They thrived and our "not-so easy keepers" stayed sound on their new diet. When we hauled back to Arizona we took a good amount of our Oregon hay to hold us over for our Arizona winter.
When we returned we got started planting 10 acres Timothy and 10 acres Orchard for a winter crop. Donald contacted the University of Arizona Ag dept. and worked closely with them on providing the right conditions to grow these grasses in the Arizona climate. We conceded that they would require replanting annually, but wanted to provide the best for our horses and sell the surplus.
In the meantime, we had 10 acres of Bermuda left from the previous owner that was struggling to gain a foothold after years of neglect. We contacted the local irrigation district and began the process of ordering our metered water to grow our grasses.
I feel like I have to explain what happened to the Timothy and Orchard grasses. We had incredibly good fortune with the longevity of our non-native grasses. We produced enough to feed our horses and sell the surplus. But after 3 years the Timothy and Orchard weren't able to hold fast against the spring weeds and we plowed it under.
The first of our hay business obstacles presented itself to us that first year; lack of shelter. We had no out building to protect our hay. So we did like so many attempt to do out here in the desert, we strapped tarps over our hay. Well let me tell you this is a hopeless exercise. The winds that we get here can exceed 80 mph, the sun exposure can literally turned items to powder, and once you have a tarp strapped down you can never remove it because it will never stay in place again. We spent a fortune on tarps only to have them crumble in our hands after exposure. The winds would whip the tarps off the hay in the middle of a monsoon storm so that there was no way the top layer of hay would ever be consumable for horses again. So we began the second phase of our hay production, cattle hay. Anything that got rained on became cattle hay and went for a discounted price. After 6 years of this ongoing battle, we finally have a hay barn this season.
I'll talk more about the learing process of irrigation another time. It is rather an engineering feat as well as an art form.
This spring we will add another 20 acres of Bermuda grass, with the possiblity of another 10. I will settle for the 20 myself. Donald has a different pair of rose-colored glasses than myself. We spent a great deal of time hauling organic manure from the local Shamrock Farms Dairy farm's organic section. We chose to use manure for a slow nitrogen release as opposed to the liquid fertilizer. We are really trying to stay away from synthetics and opt for a progressively more organic operation in the end. I spent days pushing the manure piles around the fields. I will plow the fields next.
So we have become a Bermuda grass hay emphasis at this time. But we have some plans to diversify for the future. But I'll get to that as I fill in the missing time in our progression.
Of course, we are a family and have all of the obligations of the kids' activities as well as our commitments to the community that are priority over the ranch for the most part. I guess I wear two hats as many moms do today. One of mine just happens to be a beat up straw hat.
Tonight after I make a few more calls to rally the neighbors in the vicinity, I will attend a meeting regarding a prison that someone is wanting to build down the road a few miles. Needless to say, we are not in favor of this. As Donald is out of town for work, I will represent our family at the meeting tonight.
Time for more chores.
Monday, March 29, 2010
The Original Intention
Generations Ranch, LLC came into being in 2004. It originally was to be a show horse business, with Oregon and Arizona locations. John Day, Oregon was built and ready to be put into use. The Casa Grande, Arizona location required a great deal of planning and building.
We were excited to begin and we all moved to the John Day ranch the summer of 2004. We had a great time exploring. The girls were so young still, Erin 10 and Emma 7. That fall we all returned to Arizona, moving the horses into the existing stalls on the Casa Grande ranch property.
The plan was to build a barn for our show horses and broodmares, a facility to ride and train, and property for people to come and see our horses available for sale. That "was" the plan.
Just the thought of what has taken place over the past 6 years in the attempt to set up our Casa Grande ranch exhausts me right now. I will start fresh another time and decide whether to dwell on what has taken place in the past sequentially, or as inspired, or march forward and experience the present.
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