Our Story

We began our journey in Nov 2007 with the purchase of 80 previously undeveloped acres in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. This land was part of the 1891 Land Run and if there was ever any habitation, there is no sign of it. No well existed and the nearest electricity is 1/2 mile away. While it has a pond and at the time we bought it, the pond was full, as the cycle of rain/drought moved to drought, we watched while the pond shrank to half its size. Therefore we made the decision to not put cattle on it until a reliable water souce (good well) could be installed.

We began by clearing the Eastern Red Cedars which are officially designated pests (they will take over your pasture completely). At first we used rented equipment and camped on the land. Wayne operated the backhoe and Janis mowed...and mowed.

     

In March of 2008 Wayne and our brother-in-law Dave put in the new entrance. Later that year we rented more equipment and Wayne worked on the drive while Janis mowed. However, at $1000 a whack for equipment rental we quickly made a deal with a local farmer to mow the now-cleared pasture in exchange for the hay.

     

In May 2010, we were finally able to have a well put in. Since we have no house the electric company wants $17,000 to bring in power so we decided to use a generator to run the well as needed. We hit good, plentiful water at 280' and Janis designed and built a "freeze-less" stock tank. Read about that and how she and it survived the blizzard on the News page.

     

At the same time we also finished the drive and had our barn built. This secure facility enabled us to purchase our own dedicated farm tractor. That saved a lot of money!

     

In late 2010, early 2011, Janis stayed primarily in OK working on several projects. She had the fence lines cleared, repaired same fences, repaired erosion, set new cross-fences, set up a corral and purchased their first breeder cows.

     

     

After the calves were born we had our first experience handling them (banded & tagged). Read about that on the News page. Now we're just letting them enjoy the summer. This fall/winter we hope to add some more mama cows to our herd. Stay tuned...