I want to be either dead or alive. The middle ground of life would be pretty boring. That’s why I planted pistachio trees 10 years to full production and started a cow herd this past Tuesday. If I breed 300 heifers by artificial insemination, they will have their calves next September and will help pay the bills sometime in 2017. I am also learning better ways to invigorate the health of our V6 ranch soils to help keep me alive. My wife made a comment that it was nice to live for the future but what about paying the bills for today? “That’s a good thought,” I said, because the first tenet of a good steward of the land is to pay your bills so you get to hang around to see the future become the present. So I find it necessary to not look so far into the future. I’ve got it! I think I’ve got it! CHICKENS! Yes that’s it, from the cradle to the grave in 10 weeks. So with the demise of hand picked cotton in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley many 10′ by 30′ cotton trailers were left to become sign boards along our California highways and for me a perfect chicken coop. We have an army of hungry predators that call the V6 ranch home– from foxes to raccoons, coyote to bobcats, red tail hawks to golden eagles and possibly a down and out traveler passing through. The day old chicks will arrive next spring. After a 2 week stay in a brooder they will move to our pistachio orchard where their job will be to eat grass and bugs in the sunshine hours and roost in their cotton trailer at night. Then they will move the length of the trailer each night (30′) to poop on the land, fertilizing the soil in a much more friendly way than a sack of ammonium sulfate. I’m writing this blog and it’s Thanksgiving what a wonderful day not to be dead.

See Ya,

Jack