Next Step?

A game plan for your future.

You’ve been reading. You’re interested. But now what?

Come for a visit.

You’re first step is digging deeper, although if you have read to here, you know a lot about the business.

If you just want to talk to me, I will give you the one hour tour for free. After that I charge $60 an hour. Come here. We will walk, and chat. I'm quite willing to teach you want I know.

Or…

Come work with me. I like to talk while working. You will learn from what I say and what you see. You will learn through your fingers from what you do. Also: If I'm giving you a year's support, we both want to know that we are going to get along. I lose some productivity when I talk, but hopefully your work more than makes up for it. My goal: I want you to have your eyes wide open when you come into this. Win-win. If you’re serious about this, work here for the summer -- or for a couple days a week. You will be my shadow, doing everything I do. You can stand there with a notebook, and jot down timings for how long each task takes.

Is this your lifestyle

One thing that will come out of working here part time: You will discover if it is your life. Find out if you are willing to be in the sun working with your hands most days. Find out if you start to ‘tune to the land’. This is beyond price: For me it keeps me going. For others it may be beyond price in a different way: Utter boredom.

This is NOT a business you can hire a manager for, and be an absentee owner.

Run the numbers.

If you do the following on a Google Spreadsheet, you can share it with me with me having comment access.

You need to do your due diligence. You need to take these ideas, and turn them into numbers. You need to seek out other people, and see if those numbers make sense. When you are ready, you may come and extract data from our books, to convince yourself that we have not 'fudged' the numbers.

We aren’t very good bookkeepers, but we’re better than a shoebox. Laura will run any reports you want that we have. We will provide you our tax returns. On the face of it we’ve not made much money because the surplus was invested back into the trees and into the infra-structure. Last year we took $30,000 out. Remember that all businesses try to optimize their business to show little profit for tax purposes.

Split the property into house and farm in your model. You figure out what the return on investment is.

You’re going to find that it’s meager. If you do only what I’ve done, you can make your mortgage, but not a lot more. So go back to that spreadsheet:

Now go to each note. You probably skimmed some of them while you were reading Future Directions but this time you want to analyze them. For each note:

Develop your own cost model. Don’t depend on my assumptions, but work your own. Then go back and look at my model in more detail. Set up your sheet with each item, and your cost and my cost. You will think of things I missed. We can discuss each model over the phone.
Cost isn’t just money. It’s also time. There’s one of you. If just running the farm takes 30 hours a week, then adding 4 new projects at 20 hours a week is going to have a tough time getting off the ground. You can hire out some. But then you don’t develop the expertise.

Seek expertise

Ideally you would find a CPA who has experience with tree farms. I’ve not found one. My weakness is financials. I’m far more interested in the field than I am crunching numbers.

Ag Alberta discusses the economics of field grown colorado spruce: https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca//deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex8433

They have done the numbers like a government. I think their cost estimates are high. https://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca//deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex8433

Industry overview: http://www1.agriculture.alberta.ca//deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex1370?opendocument

Concentrates on greenhouse bell pepper production, but has concepts that apply. Specifically:

High labour intensity --lots of non-mechanized work.
High plant density.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca//deptdocs.nsf/all/opp2873

You can also contact: Toso Bozic Sustainable Woodlot Specialist Phone: 780-415-2681 e-mail: toso.bozic@gov.ab.ca

Toso is an expert on horticulture, and ‘fringe’ agriculture in general. If he doesn’t know, he can pass you on to someone who does. In addition to working for the government I think he consults. Develop your model as fully as you can. Buy a morning of his time.

My connection: I’ve gone to a couple talks.

Typical Pine

Lodgepole Pine in our front yard.

Got something to say? Email me: sfinfo@sherwoods-forests.com

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Want to talk right now? Talk to me: (8 am to 8 pm only, please) 1-780-848-2548

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Sherwood's Forests is located about 75 km southwest of Edmonton, Alberta. Please refer to the map on our Contact page for directions.

There are three kinds of men:

1. The ones that learn by reading.

2. The ones that learn by observation.

3. The rest of them that have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

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