Meanwhile Back at the Ranch.....

There is a lot to be said about that age old question on how does one eat an elephant?...one bite at a time. Lots of symbolism with the development of our Olive Ranch.

We, and that usually means my brother Roger and I, are moving forward and over the last seven months, lots of important things have been accomplished. As in:

We have installed over a mile of new fencing and new gates!!

We ripped (a 3' deep plow) the entire 40 acres and then disked it twice!!!.

We have installed the new 400 Amp 3 phase power system for the orchard wells and the processing plant.

We have tested the soil, designed the irrigation systems, identified the nursery, located the bamboo stakes, found a local processing mill, designed the orchard layout and planting schemes.

yep, little by little...dollar by dollar, one bite at a time the vision is becoming a reality.


I love it when a plan comes together but the sad reality is that what happens when its all done? I am one of those guys that always needs a project, a new venture, a new beginning. Its not that I don't finish what I started actually I do and then I go do something else. Thats my lot in life but I got to tell you its a lot more fun to be busy rather than sitting at home staring at the TV.

The only real drawback is that to do this stuff it does take money and while I have been fortunate enough to have supportive wife and a decent income, I did have to cut back on my racing team to focus more on the olive ranch. Ahhh but this is what legends are made of, or at least I can pass this on to the kids when I'm gone and they can decide if they are up for the challenge. Then again I think the Mondavi's tried that without too much success but I think they wrote a book on that affair and I try to learn from other people's mistakes.

The weekend to end all weekends

Where do I begin??? First, there was a race in Baja called the Baja 500 and second there was a race in San Diego called the Rock and Roll Marathon and somehow I had to be in 2 places at the same time. What a dilema... Well since I am responsible to run a pit crew for the SCORE Baja Races, I headed south with my trusty side kick Raymond also known as "Lucky" and boy what an adventure was in store for us.
We arrived in Ensenada early Friday morning and had to wait to get our fuel because a couple of clowns were late in getting their deliveries done.

So we decided to check out the contingency row and technical inspection of the cars. The inspectors were so overwhelmed they had to recruit some of the Monster Energy folk to assist
Well we finally got our supplies and headed off to Jamau Outpost around Race mile 105 and we set up camp. We had a great time around the campfire and getting psyched up for the race. On Saturday morning things got pretty crazy with all the motorcycles wizzing by and pulling into our pit then the trucks blasted by and dusted everyone in the same zip code.


All in all we had encounters with Racers, Federales, Cowboys, Outlaw Jesse James, Coyotes, Monster Girls and Clowns wow I am tired


But wait the story is only HALF OVER because then late Saturday we had to pack up all out gear a full 4 truckloads of equipment and head to San Diego because Daddy wasn't gonna miss his little girls debut at the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon race. Nope come hell or high water or maybe a gas crisis or something we were gonna get there. Well we made it to San Diego a little past 1 on Sunday morning stumbled into a Holiday Inn and paid way too much for a few hours use of a bed but I was a little tired...and dirty.. and hungry...and burning up from the early signs of sunburn.

On Sunday we ate some breakfast then headed out to find a place to see the race. We wound up and down local streets trying to get access to the race area mind you we were in a big truck pulling a 20 foot trailer... sort of hard to find a place to park that vehicle that is until the hand of God reached down and cleared a spot on Claremont Drive right by the course where we were able to share an encounter with the #1 daughter



Yep what a weekend. Too good to be true or miss
Now I need to go to work to get some rest....