What happens when you mix family, business, and a slice of the real estate pie? You get an engaging conversation with my good friend, Larry O'Doss, a dedicated husband, father, and maverick in the space of real estate. Join us as we roll back the years, reminiscing about our youthful exploits, Larry's passion for football, and how he dared to dream and steward'Tom Sourdough Pizza', a venture that blended his love for food and entrepreneurship.
Being a family business owner in Eureka, California, isn't all sunshine and roses. Larry unveils the reality behind the business landscape in Humboldt County and the challenges that come with it. We dissect the impact of the good old boy network and the 'no' network on the region and how it has shaped the opportunities or lack thereof. Larry's insights into the story of railroad development and the repercussions of the San Francisco earthquake on the timber industry are not only fascinating but also offer a fresh perspective on a not-so-talked-about part of history.
Ever wondered about the nitty-gritty of ranching life? Larry gives us a front-row seat to his world in Orick, California, and the hard-earned lessons from taking care of his horses, tending to the land, and the rollercoaster that is running a ranch. As we navigate through tales of Larry's family ranch, his Belgian draft horses, and his officiating football games, we also delve into a broader conversation about life, culture, and the unique grit that makes Humboldt County a place unlike any other. So, buckle up for an insightful and entertaining journey into Larry's world, where each day is a new adventure.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
What happens when you mix family, business, and a slice of the real estate pie? You get an engaging conversation with my good friend, Larry O'Doss, a dedicated husband, father, and maverick in the space of real estate. Join us as we roll back the years, reminiscing about our youthful exploits, Larry's passion for football, and how he dared to dream and steward'Tom Sourdough Pizza', a venture that blended his love for food and entrepreneurship.
Being a family business owner in Eureka, California, isn't all sunshine and roses. Larry unveils the reality behind the business landscape in Humboldt County and the challenges that come with it. We dissect the impact of the good old boy network and the 'no' network on the region and how it has shaped the opportunities or lack thereof. Larry's insights into the story of railroad development and the repercussions of the San Francisco earthquake on the timber industry are not only fascinating but also offer a fresh perspective on a not-so-talked-about part of history.
Ever wondered about the nitty-gritty of ranching life? Larry gives us a front-row seat to his world in Orick, California, and the hard-earned lessons from taking care of his horses, tending to the land, and the rollercoaster that is running a ranch. As we navigate through tales of Larry's family ranch, his Belgian draft horses, and his officiating football games, we also delve into a broader conversation about life, culture, and the unique grit that makes Humboldt County a place unlike any other. So, buckle up for an insightful and entertaining journey into Larry's world, where each day is a new adventure.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Hey everybody, it's my friend Larry Doss. Welcome, thank you. How's it going? Thank you, great, great yeah. What do I?
Speaker 2:do with my hands.
Speaker 1:What do I do with?
Speaker 2:my hands. I don't know. Leave it right there, hold on, hold on.
Speaker 1:Remember Talladega Nights where Ricky Bobby was going. I don't know what to do with my hands. What's the actor's name that played Ricky Bobby? Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell, he's going. I don't know what to do, and it was hilarious Anyway, hey, welcome. Tell us, thank you, tell me about your job, your duty. What do you do? What are those of us that might not?
Speaker 2:know you Well, I am. I am a husband, so I'm married to Cass or she lets me be married to her and I am a dad. I've got three kids and we have a business in town that I've been able to steward as a family business Real estate brokerage. Does it have a name you could?
Speaker 1:say the name.
Speaker 2:It's Mingtree. Yeah, so everybody knows Mingtree. Mingtree was founded here in Humboldt County in Eureka, over on near Forth NL used to be Bob's Cafe, jerry Nelson and my dad and another lady that she was the broker for a little while and then Jerry and my dad took it from there.
Speaker 1:Your dad's Larry Doss, your Larry O Doss.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how the O comes in.
Speaker 1:I got you.
Speaker 2:Everyone called me by the middle initial what's your what's O stand for? I never asked O stands for Orian.
Speaker 1:Orian, that's a cool name.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh, yeah, does it mean something Named after one of my grandfathers, orian?
Speaker 1:okay, that's an old school name.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like Floyd or Floyd. Yeah, I'm from Iowa. They had a lot Opal and Opal Opal yeah, inus. Uh-huh.
Speaker 2:What.
Speaker 1:I remember Sheila Forbes worked down there and I met her and probably you and a group of them when I was in advertising a hundred years ago. Right, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got to be a little kid and meet all those great folks over the years and you grew into the business.
Speaker 1:Work in the business? Yeah, so what's your role at Mingtree? What do you do besides go to Costco and clean the bathrooms?
Speaker 2:That's the main thing. Someone's got to come in and turn the lights on early in the morning and make sure they go off late in the day and answer questions and help agents, help clients. As my biggest role it's kind of coaching.
Speaker 2:It is Coach-croach yeah, very much. When my dad turned the business over to me and he passed from cancer about a year after that, a little less than a year after that, I looked at it as a lot like ranching or farming and a lot of my family has been in that world and it's a stewardship program really. I was given a great opportunity with great people to work with and my responsibility was to keep the ship in line and steward it the way it's supposed to go and help everybody be productive and successful in their lives.
Speaker 1:I like that approach. I take the same. It's a member of Lord of the Rings, the steward of Gondor. Oh yeah, yeah. It was a terrible steward, but it's the idea that you don't. Do you really own it? I mean, when you go it's going to go to somebody, right? So you're just stewarding right now. Exactly Kind of like the earth too.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, the earth and leave it for my kids. Well, the Boy Scout principle you pack it in, pack it out, leave it better than the way it was Nice.
Speaker 1:Were you in Scouting? Yeah, nice. Yeah, my kids got to do it for a while. Right, I was raising San Diego. We couldn't afford it. We were busy smoking weed or something. I don't know what else to do.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know, it's scout meetings, I guess. For me growing up out in the freshwater area, that was a way to hang out with kids a little bit longer than the school day. That's great, learn something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now the Scouting program is great. I'm just a big fan. My son-in-law is one of four Eagle Scouts in his family. Oh nice, yeah, they're hardcore. Yeah, and Matt, there's nothing he can't do, he's amazing yeah. Super smart guy. I usually save this question. So here comes the singer, so we'll just get out of the way, okay, so who are you and what do you want?
Speaker 1:My father-in-law said if you could answer those two questions, you're on your way. You're on your way, yeah. So who do you see Larry Doss as Larry O'Doss, and what do you want? What do you want?
Speaker 2:to see happen? I see my Well. Actually, I'm asking that question often Good. Sometimes when I Best thinking is when you're on those long drives, and sometimes I find myself. Well, I drive all over the place, so I find myself thinking and talking with myself, often Good.
Speaker 1:Like driving the Clydesales.
Speaker 2:Yeah, driving or just driving around the county. There's a lot of places where it's tough to get radio, so just good time to just turn everything off, turn a disconnect, and think and talk. So what's Larry going to do when he's going to grow up and Right?
Speaker 1:Five-year plan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, I like to think that I am a nice guy, a trusted person. I'd like to think that I'm helpful and that I better people's lives that I touch. Those are great, so that's my focus. Of course, we sometimes have problems staying on focus, but that's my marching orders for myself and when I talk to my sons as they're growing up guys, my job is to help you grow up and to have similar and you're going to have to find what those are, but similar, but as a really young, I said I'm going to. My job is to help you grow up to be a gentleman.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:And then you're going to be there. You need to focus on what's important to you Good way to say that I like it.
Speaker 1:I heard service too, served people.
Speaker 2:Served people you bet.
Speaker 1:I like it.
Speaker 2:I mean, we're all on that path through life. There's no stopping point, where it just keeps going.
Speaker 1:I tried to get off the bus. Didn't work out that good, right, so tell me about what. So what would you like to see happen? What do you want from life? It was an old rock and roll song by the tubes, I think.
Speaker 2:Well, just always my mom is always reminding me always go back to the basics. So, starting the basics and up is one is be a good parent, be a good dad, be a good husband. Sure, boss.
Speaker 1:Those are important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, be a good leader, Maybe even be a good example, and whether someone wants that example or not, it's up to them. Yeah, it's good and better your community Sometimes. I guess I could be a really bad fish sometimes because I would jump on hooks really easy and those hooks you see out in life are sometimes things just not going right and you want to set that right. So I jump on those, sometimes In a bad way, like a bad hook. No well, it could be. Yeah, more of. I've always fought for the underdog, so whether that was the most profitable way for me to go or not, I don't think it was, but I've always just said, hey, that's not right. So that's one of those things Fighting with the market. I think I count on myself that I am going to stop and help the ducklings across the street. That's cool, or?
Speaker 1:whatever that might be.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I read a story about a guy in an airport. All his friends rushed to get to the plane but they docked over the lady in her apple cart and she was blind and it was really, really neat. He's helping her and he's putting everything back and she goes. Are you Jesus? And he goes? No, far from it, she goes. I'm pretty sure you're Jesus.
Speaker 2:Oh, for me yeah.
Speaker 1:He missed his plane and he said it was the best thing he ever did. Stop help the ducklings.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you're from Humboldt? Yes, went to Eureka High 40 years ago.
Speaker 2:Eureka High, yeah 40. Yeah, 1984.
Speaker 1:What are you now? 39, 40 years old 50?
Speaker 2:A bright about there yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So who was Larry Doss at 15? At 15.
Speaker 2:Played football, played football. I pole vaulted at Eureka High.
Speaker 1:Are you at Billy Hansel? The same age. He's a little younger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but played sports, was involved in anything and everything Music, everything, the student government. I was one of those people that just went across all kinds of things, like if there were the clicks in school, type of thing. I was in all of those and mixing it up.
Speaker 1:Good yeah, that's good. Yeah, I was a connector in relationship. Yeah right, yeah, no, I get it.
Speaker 2:That's proved very well going through life.
Speaker 1:Sure, it doesn't hurt business.
Speaker 2:It doesn't hurt business yeah.
Speaker 1:Kind of that networking kind of thing. Before it was called networking.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, exactly Before it was cool. Yeah, before it was cool. I'm a networker, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I thought we just had a friendship. Okay, yeah, no, I did the same. Yeah, san Diego was real diverse where I was from National City and so, being a stoner with super long hair, yes, I was voted most prettiest hair. Can't really tell from there. People came up over the weekend. They go, or reunion. They go. Where's your hair? Where'd you vote for the guy with the hair? They go. Yeah, the kids and drugs.
Speaker 1:See what's over it's just like they, I lost all my hair. So 15 year in high school, 20, what do you? Did you go to Humboldt?
Speaker 2:I didn't. I went to college with the Redwoods, played football college Redwoods, which was a fun, real fun experience. Met a lot of great friends from other schools, local schools, met some great coaches and mentors there.
Speaker 1:Fred Whitmire, is that right, fred?
Speaker 2:Whitmire Dave Banducci.
Speaker 1:Is he still living? Fred is, yes, great guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. Tom Jackimini. Tom Jackimini had a class. Those were some great sports minds. Tom's big love is baseball, but he taught a class called football officiating, and I didn't realize that that class was gonna carry me even through to today Because you officiate. Yeah, this is my 32nd year, like youth football or high school. Started off with youth football and did high school did college.
Speaker 1:That's right. I've seen you suit up yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I even had an invitation to do NFL at one time and I just thanks, but it was cool to get the letter, that's cool.
Speaker 1:Remember Jim is it Jim Turney? That he was an NFL ref? Yes, met him. He was a professional speaker. Oh, I bet yeah. And super nice guy. He endorsed my book, he read it, he gave me an endorsement. It was really what a great guy. Oh yeah, I've never seen him ref a Super Bowl, so he was hardcore Right right.
Speaker 2:So ref school, Ref school. Yeah, there was. I don't know how he talked me into that class, but that was a great thing. I'm so glad he did All those guys are kind of legendary.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so did you meet Cass your wife there or in?
Speaker 2:high school. No, after well, actually after CR, I was prepared to go to Humboldt and at the time the family also had a moving company and one of the drivers was killed in a hunting accident and I had to go across the country and pick up his truck and continue his route, which kind of aced me out of school for that quarter. At that time they did quarters and then, before that quarter was up, I had an opportunity to buy into the pizza business.
Speaker 1:Ah, we're getting to.
Speaker 2:Tom Sourdough Pizza. Yeah, dad and mom helped me and we bought Tom Sourdough from Tom Farrell at the time, was it?
Speaker 1:original Tom, yeah, and then Babette bought it after that somehow.
Speaker 2:After we sold it, she bought into it. Yeah, a couple years ago. I saw her a couple years ago.
Speaker 1:She's still around, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Her family. I know some of her family. So how long did you run? How long were you in pizza guy?
Speaker 2:Almost 10 years, wow, almost 10 years before. And I was the one in the family that was looking for reasons not to get into real estate and that was my last ditch effort of he was in.
Speaker 1:I want to be my dad. Yeah, real estate's for Trump's.
Speaker 2:Well, growing up you see a lot of the negative side behind the scenes and all the issues and problems that can come up and just didn't want to jump into that.
Speaker 1:I thought my dad was crazy being an insurance guy. That's just stupid. Why would you sell life insurance to Marines on Camp Pendleton?
Speaker 2:That doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1:Right and he was great. They loved him. He says he did a great job. So back to Cass. How did she show?
Speaker 2:up. So let's see, after pizza, dave Bandu. She was one of my football coaches at CR. He and I became real good friends and another buddy, rick Ross. The three of us were pretty inseparable that time of life, late my late twenties, and we were out after a football game. We had gone to see a football game and we stopped in at the old sidelines in Arcada and Cass was there with some girlfriends and relatives for the beginnings of a bridal shower or something like that, and so Cass and Dave knew each other from swimming. Dave was a swim coach, all level swim coach.
Speaker 1:And she went to CR.
Speaker 2:Yep and Cass knew Dave from when she was maybe five or six years old, beginning to swim, and Cass was competitive swimmer. So those two said hi and that's introduced, and really from that point on we were pretty inseparable.
Speaker 1:Come on over here and meet your husband.
Speaker 2:To me, that's pretty cool. Dave always had that kind of fatherly thing going on with me you know like I'm looking out for you. I'm still gonna give you a hard time, but I'm gonna look out for you. That's great mentor like that.
Speaker 1:Sidelines are they still open? I don't think so. Yeah. So for you folks that don't know, Arcada is right over here on my map, my trusty map, Arcada Bay. There's Arcada, that's Eureka, that's where. And then Larry went to school down here at CR, so Arcada had Bar Row right, Cause it's a university town.
Speaker 2:That's square. Yeah, that's square. Had a lot of bars. Yeah, one of my neighbors growing up was Fred Seiler and he was the defensive coach at Humboldt State. I knew Fred.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Fred, he's hardcore. Oh my gosh, he was a grouch.
Speaker 2:He taught also diving.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah. And he grabbed a hold of me at one point and said hey, I need a ball boy and I would go hang out with Fred on Saturdays home games and we'd go do the. Back then in the 70s the square had lots of bars but they were all also big supporters of the football program at Humboldt. So we would drive in to the routine was kind of funny 16 millimeter films. So we'd stop in at Greyhound, drop off three or four 16 millimeter films going out to a school, pick up the ones coming in for next week's game, and then we'd roll over to Four Street Market, get a case of oranges and roll up along the row there.
Speaker 2:Case of oranges, case of oranges Del Porto, yeah, yeah, and everything. Everybody was just giving in support of the school. Sure, and that was way before we had water bottles. So just here's a hose, get a drink, and here's a bucket, yeah yeah, but he'd get the oranges and I thought that was kind of unusual that was.
Speaker 1:I'd never seen that before. That was the Mike's donation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and we'd pick up some cigars and then whatever else, down that row of different things and sandwiches and stuff from all the different businesses yeah, I didn't see alcohol, but I'm sure there might have been. Sure, and then we'd head over to the school and get ready for the game that day, the benefits of coaching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and my dad was a football coach so I kind of knew that field. But that was a little bit ramped up, more adultish and they had good teams back in the day. Oh yeah and tough. That was back Grassfield, tough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a lot different than the Turf Bowl, redwood Bowl now Chuck's name that owned the Napa store, chuck Giannini Giannini he's pretty tough football player, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:He was part of that. Part of that. What's the name of that team? The famous team with Humboldt Whitmeyer was on it. That went all the way. Banducci was a kicker, yeah. So all those cats were on that. They were all yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow. The reason I like this conversation is it's it's kind of reflective of Humboldt, at least Humboldt State, and you know you still got Mike Williams at the Jogged Shop you know who stayed at the forest and the PE department and there is such a kind of a heritage. You know, in terms of and guys that stayed, oh yeah. You know, this is you know University of Massachusetts, where people go and leave and never come. The people that have stayed and planted roots that Joan and I would, nine kids and Right.
Speaker 2:I was a rec major. I majored in recess. There you go recess.
Speaker 1:Kids go major in recess. What are you talking about? I can do that Rec major. That's not even mean yeah, so so I know how you got to Humboldt. You were born.
Speaker 2:Well, I we weren't. I wasn't born here, but I arrived at four years old.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I was born in Santa Clara. My grandparents were all in the stone fruit farming world, so plums, apricots, prunes Back in the day, yeah, and my dad was a football coach down there.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:High school football coach and he had gone to San Jose state for your letterman. So he was big into sports and had an opportunity to come up and teach and coach at Eureka High, nice. So we moved up in 69.
Speaker 1:So what happened after pizza, after pizza and gas?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's when I got into real estate. Okay, so you were just a general agent under your dad's privilege.
Speaker 1:Yes, Yep, yep, what you like. How'd you do, were you good at it?
Speaker 2:I, you know, first couple of years, you'd think, growing up in that business, and it, you know, seven or eight years old. I'm putting stamps on catalogs that go out to mail or I'm putting together signs, and I, you know, I'm doing all the little stuff.
Speaker 1:Stake signs in the front yard.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you'd think, with all of that time around the business, that you would just fly. But now I started off, I was driving a cement truck early in the morning and get that done by they would try to get me out of there by 10, 30, 11. And then I'd go do real estate and did that. That was a single dad for doing that for several years. And then Cass came along and we solidified our relationship within a couple of years, got married and yeah.
Speaker 1:And had supplies deals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we all have come from some sort of agriculture background. I can remember teams of horses with my grandfather, joe Tripoli and Morgan Hill area. He had either old tractors or teams of horses that would come in. They weren't necessarily his teams, but they would come in and use teams of horses, plough and Deuston and, yeah, yeah, mainly in the harvest times, you know, the pickers would fill up big lugs of wooden boxes of apricots and Morgan Hill had fields.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And hills. He was one of my early real estate lessons and I didn't really know I was gonna use it till much later in life. He sold a little piece of his farm to this company that nobody knew too much about and it became their main headquarter campus that they know as IBM, and I learned from grandpa early on that there's something to that owning and selling and owning, I imagine that, yeah, flips up of it, yeah, ibm.
Speaker 2:And Morgan Hill and it was South San Jose. Okay, so just north of Morgan Hill up the El Camino was where his farm was, and then a lot of his friends stretched all the way into Morgan Hill.
Speaker 1:So this is early Silicon Valley.
Speaker 2:Early, yeah, yeah, wow, yeah Okay.
Speaker 1:So let's flip it for a minute. So let's talk about Humboldt. Okay, you're a guy that born and bred, love Humboldt. What do you see as our challenges?
Speaker 2:You know, a year or so ago I ran for supervisor and that was a great experience to really get a different layer of knowledge and what people think out there Exposure. Yeah, I've always been around positive let's do the best we can. Let's do the best we can. Let's you know it's a good thing to work hard and make a profit. I mean we all try to. The profit is when you put a dime in your savings account. That's a profit. That's a profit. And I found a lot of people that were very put off by people that made money.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Success not such a nice thing. That was a surprise. That really confused me. Yeah, because I really. My purpose of running at that time was hey, there's a lot of things that aren't right. I told you know we talked about earlier is I will jump off the bus and you know, fix that, even though the plan was to stay on the bus and go further. It's hard for me to see things go afoul and not do something about it. So that was a surprising thing for me is the need to not do your best or not provide the best. That's not a large segment of our population. I'm sure they were the ones that didn't vote for me, though. Sure.
Speaker 1:Well, people, yeah, I think there's a lot of coasters. Yeah, and it's disappointing because I would assume otherwise I also. I totally assumed otherwise, yeah, so that's a challenge to the county.
Speaker 2:That's a challenge because that is the focus and I've sat on. Most recently I sat on the Harbor Commission the being a Harbor commissioner and I found through there that the reputation of Humboldt Bay was a no. That no was the reputation around the world. The answer is no.
Speaker 1:The answer is no, don't come here, don't come here, yeah, and you'll hate it. The weather's awful, it's an ugly fall day here today, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Don't look at the blue sky. That's right there right now, yeah, yeah. And don't look at all the opportunity around a beautiful deep water port. That's the cleanest port in California. It's got the most eel grass. 80% of the eel grass in California grows in Humboldt Bay. Is that right, which says yeah, which says that Humboldt Bay is clean, it's healthy, it's very healthy. It's really set up geographically to be a perfect bay for ecology and economy.
Speaker 1:The economy can work well with it and the ecology can thrive yeah, so you're touching on something that's I find interesting because it goes back to all the old development stories. We could add Hershey.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we could have had.
Speaker 1:you know Walmart wanted to come and build the building, hope Depot, the whole what's that the balloon project? Yes, that could have been, and it's like the answer's no and, furthermore, hell no. Yeah, it's like so where do you? What do you suppose that comes from? Cause there's certainly the blame of the good old boy. Now that keeps us small. There's also the ambivalence network. We don't care, we're not gonna start caring. Let's keep it, not my back hair.
Speaker 2:So how do you?
Speaker 1:rather than feed you that answer. How do you see that play? What does it stem?
Speaker 2:from the. I don't see the good old boy network as really being a network much anymore.
Speaker 1:Not really.
Speaker 2:The network that I see as being very powerful is the no network. The no network, yeah, and they have figured out. I mean, we have, like I don't know what the exact number is, but we've got a ton of nonprofits here. Yeah, we do and bless them all.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of them that are on great missions, but there's several that their mission is to say no, wow and hide behind a grandiose name and facade, so to keep us small and small and thinking yeah, the most people that I've run into too, even politicians that are the no folks are not born and raised here, Right, I would say a very high percentage, very high percentage of folks that are born and raised here are a little disgusted about the no Right and for some reason there's this feeling of you come in from out of the area, you know better and I've gone to Humboldt, I took a class Right, I know things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm from San Diego, I got it. Yeah, I got this.
Speaker 2:And you guys are doing this all wrong. Let me show you how to do this. And that attitude ends up being that no network, right.
Speaker 1:It's funny because a lot of the no folks if I were to categorize, are those who should be curious Exactly, and let's find out. You know, as a parent, I want to say yes, yeah, hey, dad, can I do this thing? Well, tell me a little bit more about it. Mm-hmm, no? Then I can say no, right. But nobody even got curious with some of the things that have come forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I guess we've said yes to a few things like the offshore wind.
Speaker 2:You know some of the good old boy stuff that were the no's that I look back in Humboldt history, the railroad. So initially the railroad was supposed to go from Humboldt Bay east over towards the Red Bluff area. That is the path that was designed and surveyed 36 out that way and it was someplace that direction it was gonna go. And what happens is the San Francisco earthquake.
Speaker 2:And so the market demanded. Our timber companies up here were like well, the direct route to the market that needs the most wood is there. So let's try to follow in those terms in those days. Well, the river valley, you know, find those low spots and let's get it to San Francisco as fast as possible Long the eel river.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then there's a lot of games in the rail world back then too, of who owns what, and you know Sure. So that was one that unfortunately it didn't go east.
Speaker 1:That's a good yeah.
Speaker 2:If it had gone east we would have been a very balanced community. The success in the economy of our county is important because it brings in the necessary services. You know I hear a lot about, oh, we need living wage. Well, living wage isn't solved by raising the minimum wage. Right, they're talking about that right now in the Midwest and Detroit. You know the auto workers are striking over. You know everybody, when you raise minimum wage it raises the whole scale. And then now you got to go back and deal with okay, that minimum wage raise really didn't do anything.
Speaker 2:The effect is zilch or negative Right.
Speaker 1:They like people off.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we're seeing the end of that scale out there now in Detroit and now we're gonna nationally see how that works. So having some niche economy, strong and humble, is huge. So you know, present day, wind, nordic aqua farms, land-based aquaculture, organic aquaculture. When I first met the people that were scouting for Nordic, you know, I told them I said this couldn't be a more perfect business, yeah, aquaculture guys, yeah, and what are they gonna raise?
Speaker 1:It was salmon.
Speaker 2:Yeah and they no. Yeah, Atlantic salmon, and of course some of the fear mongers are saying, oh well, that's gonna be a Frankenfisher, that's gonna be. You know, they're gonna get out and spoil the natural habitats. Well, that's not science-based.
Speaker 1:Right, that's just fear. Yeah, that's just no. Exactly, here we go with a no.
Speaker 2:I don't wanna hear it. No, yeah, the simple answer to it is you know the Atlantic salmon. If it ever got out of the dry land racetracks that they would raise the fish in Probably wouldn't make it. They can't make it for more than about six or seven days. The salination is different, right they?
Speaker 1:grow, they kill them yeah.
Speaker 2:It just wouldn't work.
Speaker 1:I'm interested in this no thing because it has to be fascinating. I think there's probably all camps and all demographics that say no, yeah, and I always argue with my lovely wife Joni hi, joni, about this. I think progress is not our enemy.
Speaker 2:No, I think it'd be good.
Speaker 1:I'd love to see my kids and grandkids stay in Humboldt, yeah, and out of nine kids I've got four left here, so they're all gone, right, and you know, medford, boise, netherlands, they're bye-bye. And so to have jobs and living wage, affordable real estate, healthcare, we can go there. But to have somebody random from LA go, yeah, no, I'm gonna, and I have a little bit of power and I'm gonna exercise that. No one, hell no, for you guys. And it's like wait, bro, that's where's democracy, yeah, so it's kind of frustrating.
Speaker 2:You know that the other side of that is a lot of us have been raised to be very polite and if we don't agree, sometimes we're quiet and that's where you get run over.
Speaker 1:That's oh yeah.
Speaker 2:The loud no versus the polite silent.
Speaker 1:Right, right so yeah. So, speaking the truth and love, here we go.
Speaker 2:The answer is yes, yes, yes, now good economy.
Speaker 1:Why would we not say yes?
Speaker 2:Our healthcare goes up, our schools go up, everything goes up with some good jobs, what'd it hurt Economy? What'd it hurt especially clean jobs, even the spirit of folks. I mean, if you think about travel, it's a good idea to travel out of the area once in a while, yeah, and just you know? Just look at the person that's checking you out in the grocery store 300, 400 miles away in a larger area, or it doesn't even have to be a larger area.
Speaker 2:Just they breathe different, they smile, they're excited because they're able to do something and we're really crunching, and the nose are really crunching the area, yeah.
Speaker 1:This gets crunchy around here.
Speaker 2:I am.
Speaker 1:So we have this boom and bust economy with timber with cannabis, with whatevercom, so we need sustainability.
Speaker 2:Good job.
Speaker 1:And you think we could do that?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, very easy, super easy, super easy. Take the magic wand, it's gonna say yes, and yeah, there's no reason for our environment to take backseat. Right, you can say yes, we can be very successful in Humboldt County and everybody wins, including the environment.
Speaker 1:Hmm, so it's a win win, win, win, win, Win. Yeah, I like it. It's good, I like it. Okay, hey, time for time for that part of our idea out. Oh, am I no? No, I like it. It's good. So time for our show where you actually get a fabulous prize from the prize bag. Oh and, but you have to answer the quiz questions.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So. So, nick, you got those ready? He doesn't, he probably does, but I'll ask. So I, where do you eat out tonight? You and Cass have 500 bucks to go eat some more. Where do you go 200.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, we have some great restaurants. That's the one that we have a lot of art and a lot of great Probably restaurant clients.
Speaker 1:So it's almost I don't want to be, you know what?
Speaker 2:I well relatives too. But the waterfront, the cafe waterfront first in. F in Old Town, ben, yeah, ben and Leslie and my aunt Diane, oh Diane. Before was yeah, that's my aunt, my dad's sister. That's such a great restaurant. Yeah, waterfront's great. You know what you never eat off the menu? Always look at the special board, right? Oh, the creativity is awesome. Oh, they do In the views, right?
Speaker 1:there on the waterfront.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but then you, you know, around the corner you've got a seagrill and we love Bayfront. What Cass would say bar food, but it's, you know, lost coast brewery.
Speaker 1:Oh my God Delicious.
Speaker 2:Go sink your teeth into some of those wings. Yeah, oh man, I'm getting hungry to All over the shameless and oh man. The sliders, they have Pretty good, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they ain't shameless for a while. Let's try to try that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, see how to, chris there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a great guy. Yes, he is. So question number two Okay, where do you go for coffee?
Speaker 2:All of them. You know I'm the guy that you know. I just want a regular cup of Joe. Yeah, I don't. I don't want the Appalata crema, whatever. Just give me a black coffee, I'm good.
Speaker 1:Somebody goes I was behind somebody and I was, or they were behind me, and I ordered a decaf mocha. And she goes hey, gutless wonder, huh, yeah, I guess I.
Speaker 2:I guess I was I'll take a mocha once in a while. If I'm like my, my fuel level is feeling low. Right, just get a little chocolate going in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you have an afternoon to do whatever you want to do and humble where do you? Where do you go? Do you and who with? I'm gonna.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna see what Cass is doing and I'm let's go, hitch the horses up, babe.
Speaker 1:Nice. Yeah, we're gonna talk about the horses deck. I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, that's right. That's there for. Go see the cows, go feed the cows, go check fences. This is all up at Orrick, that's heaven.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, nice, nice. So what do you like most about Humble?
Speaker 2:Well, okay, the people, the spirit of humble, the true spirit of humbled, is big and to me it goes back to like John Wayne-ish. It's gritty. You think about the people, the families that have stuck it out here and have made humble and, looking at that, we take a lot of things for granted moving around the county. They didn't have paved roads here 100 years ago. They didn't in most cases. You didn't have a wagon, you had a mule if you were lucky to pack goods. It was tough territory to live in. It wasn't five hours to San Francisco. These big giant redwoods were kind of. They were kind of hard to get around, right, even tougher to mill. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. You look at that. I mean, yeah, things weren't done perfectly, but still talk about some grit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tough.
Speaker 2:I remember Rocky the barber down on F Street has been my barber forever and Rocky was telling me the other day about old tree-fowler that was that. Told was telling him. Hey, you know, rocky, I can remember standing right out here in the street and looking in towards Old Town. Of course we didn't call it Old Town, then that was downtown. He said this town did not sleep. It had probably a hundred bars. It's rock and roll. You got, you came in with your crew and then you left with your crew but for a couple days you had off, you bar hopped and there was a hundred bars down there, no figure All over it was loud, it was. It was a Las Vegas. Yeah, it was how they rolled back. All different.
Speaker 2:But that was a dirt street.
Speaker 1:Right, you know they, they. It was rough, yeah. They came in with a pocket full of money. A bunch of sailors, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, sailors loggers some, some Chargers for that money yeah.
Speaker 2:All mixing in there, yeah, Gritty.
Speaker 1:That's a great way to say it, because I think of the Hunt family or the Millers in McKinleyville or the Russes, I mean there's tons, I mean there's tons of pern d'allis yeah, lots of old, old families, yeah, and. Rancher family is like way back in. Yeah, I don't even know who they are. But yeah, not easy, not easy, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I miss the ocean when I'm, you know, as far as terrain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the ocean, the trees, Is your ranch close to the ocean? In Ork we are yes, or do you have?
Speaker 2:actually beachfront. Well, we don't have beachfront, but we're we. We see the ocean, see it there. It's just right yeah.
Speaker 1:So tell us about Ork. So Ork is kind of a product of of a big no which was yeah, yeah, cancel, logging, yeah the timber industry in in great parts.
Speaker 2:Back in the 60s For a lot of reasons.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Ork to me as an example. Every time Joni and I drive through to go for a hike at Lady Bird, johnson or Right, let me show you where. That is real quick. It's over there. So what we do is right on. Nick's tired of that joke. It's right in there, look right there. So I'm almost sad because I go through Ork and it's just bereft. And Redwood National Park is the most underutilized national park in the system it is, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And it should have hotels and casinos and and there should be, you know, restaurants and coffee and there's. You don't, I'm sorry, you don't have that many shops.
Speaker 2:No, no, and it's dwindling. Less and less of an opportunity, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I kind of make segue to that that, no, and what happened to Ork? And yeah, and it, and it trickles down to the kids and the grandkids and the Absolutely the poverty. Yep, Lots of services, yeah, and crime and drugs and sex, drugs and rock and roll, yeah, here we go, yeah, but you have a wrench there, yes, and you have Clydesdales that where you keep your horses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they're not Clydesdales, they're Shires, shires which are our cousins to the Clydes. Okay, clydes are from Scotland, shires are from England, gotcha, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Man, I feel super ignorant, right now?
Speaker 2:No, you wouldn't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, are they the?
Speaker 2:same size. Yeah, pretty much I mean you. You just wouldn't know looking. In fact, you know, honestly, budweiser has a few Shires in their class.
Speaker 1:Sneak them in there. Yeah, they sneak them in Super bull horses that are talking at the fence of the dog, yeah, yeah, so most people would not know, right yeah. So what do you like about ranching? Tell us about the ranch. How'd you get into it? What taught three takeaways? Tell us the ranch part of your life.
Speaker 2:Ranch part of our life. We ended up in a work about 20 or so years ago and real estate brought us up there. I I drug cast along with me and and our little daughter who was probably less than a month old Wow, and it was one of those beautiful April days in Humboldt that can sometimes become short sleeve or less type of shirt weather Right, it just just gets beautiful and you start to see everything's budding and flowering and gorgeous, Still snowing in Iowa.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I took her with me to to go mark property corners on this property that I had helped the folks buy years before and and sell before that. And we're putting ribbons on the property markers and and driving around through this place and and Cass is like, why aren't we thinking about this? And we had our ranching life. Up to that point was several small acreage pieces all over the place that we were renting and we'd have to travel water into those places and we'd have to. You know a lot of, a lot of time, a lot of work and we were young but that was that's still a lot of work. So we were looking for a place to consolidate. We were able to scrape up some money and sell a few things and get a down payment on it.
Speaker 1:Nice, how many acres.
Speaker 2:There's about 230.
Speaker 1:So you're east or west of town.
Speaker 2:We are west of town. Yeah, okay, yeah. And below the hill that I see on the left as I'm coming into town. We are, no, we're all mountain. So our cows have have feet that are like tilted because they're walking sideways on the mountain yeah, pleats yeah. Yeah, we're all mountain. I'm anytime a cast and I see you know setups that are on flat ground. We're like, oh, that'd be nice.
Speaker 1:We went and surveyed who's the sheep ranch lady on the right side of the road, on the east side of one to one. She died a.
Speaker 2:Tiki Roman, any Tiki yeah.
Speaker 1:About nine years ago she died yeah. So Don Brown and Joe and I went up and he was in charge of Tiki's place and she just died and yeah, she, yeah, he died. Here there's stuff like that. The daughters are giving us the legend of Tiki, she, she had spotting scope and she could see down at her sheep, oh, okay. And if she saw critters, yeah, coyote or something, she would come out. Come at you, bro, yeah, yeah, tough lady oh what a wonderful person, though.
Speaker 1:What a grit, what a grit thing. Oh yeah, yeah, so she was special Tiki she was.
Speaker 2:She was a rodeo queen. I saw a poster of her where she was and Way back and Joe. I don't know the story between the two of them, but Joe founder and they became the, the Roman Ennis, and brought her up to Oreck, I think from Southern Humboldt. I believe I may be totally wrong, but that's she's telling as well I.
Speaker 1:Don't know, is Robinini Italian?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, romanini is yeah no it's Polish but she's One of the things that she was famous for. She was. She did so much for that community but she made she was heck of a baker, made candy Cookies, yeah, all kinds of stuff. She would her pickles unbelievable, really. Pickles is a that's a whole thing. We do fundraiser auctions, you know an oryx for the school or something, something going rodeo community yeah, and Sometimes her jars of pickles would go a hundred bucks or you know lots and lots of dollars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you wanted those pickles, but one of the things that was good about you brought the story up about the critters and coming after her sheet. If you took out a Predator, tiki would remember you. At Christmas time, you get a plate of cookies and candy.
Speaker 1:Special prize. That's right, that's. Don't forget your prize, by the way, have your prize, don't let me party gift here. Yeah, it's a plate of cookies, and if you took out to your ear, yeah, money You're. Yeah, well, she involved the orc rodeo, she was yeah, that's still going.
Speaker 2:It's a going yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you guys bring the the horses to that?
Speaker 2:sometimes we have it for a few years. But yeah, sometimes it's great as far as your seat You're sitting right on the rodeo. I mean, you're sitting right on the ground and perfect with the, with the bulls and the bears and everything.
Speaker 1:So that's your safe spot when you go up there. That's therapy, the ranch. Oh, yeah, yeah, tell us about the horse. How'd you get into the horse the shires and you compete with them or show we?
Speaker 2:do. Yeah, in fact just got back from a show, a yearly show we go to, that's the one in the grass valley. Grass valley yeah yeah, is it the fairgrounds? It is Nevada County fairgrounds. Yeah, beautiful place, huh beautiful and this it's nice and they've situated everything, even situate, you know, the ferris wheel might be between a couple big trees or whatever that's neat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's pretty cool. The old gold country? Yeah, it is yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they know that Grass Valley is a beautiful old gold town and they've got certainly great architecture. But doesn't beat humble, doesn't be eerieke, it doesn't meet Arcata.
Speaker 1:Doesn't have an ocean man a fern dale. Yeah. Yeah it's not great, and Well, they have some great. I'm sure they have some grit over there's a little grit, we got big grit Not our great, true great. We have true grit, right, right, hundred percent, humble hundred percent. Yeah, I like that, that's good.
Speaker 2:Well, at that same time, when we bought the ranch, we bought our first team of horses and they were Belgians. So a blonde, big blonde draft horse and good friends, mine, limsters. They used to have the lazy L Ranch, vickle Hill. Is that Craig's dad? Craig's dad?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, Um he's cool, he loves. He plays Glen Campbell, oh yeah, like nobody. Oh amazing, he knows the daughter. Amazing, yeah, yeah, it's a nice guy.
Speaker 2:He's got a great song that he wrote original About Humboldt and Humboldt Bay. Oh really, you ever get him to come in and perform it. It's a pleasure. Yeah it's super. Yeah, nice guy it's. It's such a great song. Brings a tear to your eye of the what he sings about.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen him in a few years. Yeah, he's still around.
Speaker 2:He is yeah, but especially for an auto, especially for an auto McKinleyville, California. It's right there on the map, it's right there, it's all right there.
Speaker 1:A lot of grit right there. Right there, the grit map, it's a grit map. So he used to work on all the Hollywood Redondo Beach guys sports car yeah. So who's the guy I'm thinking about, chuck?
Speaker 2:Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris used to work with Chuck Norris did movies with Chuck Norris. Yeah, he was like. I think Craig was like number two in the Kickboxing. Oh, really, a hundred percent kickboxing. I'm forget what the he was a martial arts guy.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yes, yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah, no, he's nobody's into Glen Campbell more than yeah, our brother he's here, he's so great.
Speaker 2:He and I officiated football together, college football together, he, he went on, did division one. Oh really, even in We've been in some tight spots on the field a few times, and one time we just felt like Hell was raining down on us.
Speaker 1:Really fans are, players are bull coaches and the whole.
Speaker 2:You know everything. Everybody was trying to be hard about it. You know, all all night long and and Craig had this great phrase that he gave me that night and I use it forever's run to the roar, run to the roar, run to the roar. Whoa, that coach others giving you grief, he's Larry. You just ran to the roar. He did great, yeah, you ran to the roar. He's always.
Speaker 2:He always gets the compliments out of it Does that mean like go go to the, don't run away, go at it, go out the problem, go deal with it. That's good man. Don't look kind of like eat, you know, go after it while it's still warm.
Speaker 1:Metal tough to smear yeah don't let the vester and go into cancer. Oh yeah, get deal with it right there. Thanks, it's taking care. That speaks to me. I have a phone call to make right now. I gotta go. I gotta go. I gotta run to the roar.
Speaker 2:I think I will actually yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2:Well, getting back to the shires, we bought this team when our daughter was month old and we ran those guys For several years and they were a little bit greenish, so they taught us a lot about how. How to, you know, sharpen up our game. How many horses, though that's two got to team of two, and Then, when those, those two horses were retired out, we retired them up on the ranch and their job was to protect the ranch. They did they, for some reason. Elk don't like the draft horses.
Speaker 2:So that's that was the retirement job and the elk.
Speaker 1:They'll screw up your property right. Oh, yeah, yeah and you're right in elk country.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah. So when those two retired, we were at a fundraiser dinner and Cass was like Larry you know was one of those seasons where we're at three dinners a week, you know and and she was like man, I got it, she's kind of check out for a few minutes. So she sat down at our table and she grabbed my phone and she's looking around and she's she finds these. Look what.
Speaker 2:I found two horses in Pennsylvania. And then she finds this cool wagon and she said hey, you know, we just changed the colors of the company to Black and red and look this black and white horses and a red wagon. What do you think? Boom, you know, she said don't buy anything at this auction tonight.
Speaker 1:We just say I think Grand Target here 20 or 30 grand.
Speaker 2:Oh no, they were. They were somewhat retired horses. They were 10 years old, 10 and 11 years old trailer back and trigger and King and and they Got picked up by a service that moves horses around and that was our only experience hiring somebody that move horses around the country. I'm like gosh that sounds so complicated, but they made us grow and learn. Now you know trailers.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, when was the cart? Or?
Speaker 2:the, the wagon was in Michigan, huh and and I met with cast and I met that, the neighbor of the where the Wagon was there, it was all out in farming country. He was a trucker and happened to have he was gonna be taking off and so he brought that the wagon out to will it's. We met, I'm gonna will it's wasn't on our trailer and brought it home.
Speaker 2:And since then we've Got a different wagon, a little bit lighter wagon that's pretty heavy wagon, old-school wagon, great wagon but old-school. And so we had different wagon, got more horses. King and trigger no longer with us but they they did a great job the first four or five years of the that set up of and that and we had a mixture of Clydes and shires. We we've just gravitated more to the shires, so primarily do you breed them at all already.
Speaker 1:We don't you show them and show them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I guess it's one of those. It's one of those old guys deal, because all these horses that we get are. We have two young ones, two and three years old right now, but they're in training, but they're made mainly 10, 12 years old and that's kind of the you know where they start to look for a different home, mm-hmm. And so we have this old guys rule thing.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:It kind of works with me. You know gray hair yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you're talking about at all. It's completely missed on me. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. What a great, great heritage and that's something that's an active service to share.
Speaker 2:It is, and the reason we love that is we really saw a need to promote agriculture. To me, agriculture is a Freedom. You know you, you have the. We have the freedom in this country to do a lot of things and and when we drive the horses, I'm hoping people think that, hmm you know, we can do anything we want. That's right and and this is some of our heritage this country is built on the backs of horses. Yeah, all of it. The whole country was.
Speaker 1:It was reminded of freedom. We're at the Miramar air show. America's air show over the weekend. Yeah, and it's a three-day air show that has, well, it has everything. And and to see, you know, an F 15, go, you know, for cheese, up and just hear the roar and you go. This is amazing.
Speaker 1:I work wherever you're at, it's, it's the sound of freedom, it's like we are free, you know, through. You know, piece of strength, through strength, you know, and these, and it's all ran by Marines, it's a hundred percent free. It's been around our base, wow and Got, you know, they're all. They're all 15 years old, right, right, but it was really heartwarming and it was fun and so much stuff to do. So if you ever get to that air show, it's it's bomb three days, okay, fun. So hey, in conclusion, a couple things. Okay, if you had to do one or two things over, what would you do different with your life?
Speaker 2:One or two things over, I would not worry as much.
Speaker 1:Mmm, good one stressing out yeah, yeah, yeah, living in your head, yep, yeah. How do I know about that turn?
Speaker 2:turn it over to God. Yeah, that's, that's good, that's cool. No, don't worry as much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't worry, be happy, every little thing probably gonna be alright, it's gonna work out. Yeah, seems to yeah. So for that one today that looks so hard. So there's that one that looks horrible, right, right, yeah. So on your, what do you want to be remembered for?
Speaker 2:Probably kind of how we started talking about. You know what's my daily charge?
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Good guy, gentlemen. Mm-hmm professional, helpful, trust, contributed, trusted. It's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah here. Integrity and the yeah, yeah, faithful and serving other people. I asked this frequently what, what's it say on on Larry's tombstone?
Speaker 2:Well, hopefully spell my name right.
Speaker 1:Phone number, email address, website no, sorry no forwarding call. Forwarding calls, you stop taking balls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh cool.
Speaker 1:any party shots, anything you you want to talk about before you go.
Speaker 2:No, this is a lot of fun. This is a great place, great spot, this is a great space. Yeah, Nick is amazing and yeah, just a good guy and stuff fun and you know, it's a great reminder in life just to have these kind of conversations. Yeah, I think I have these deeper conversations with you, scott, and I should have them with other people.
Speaker 1:Well, you got a couple topics now. Yeah, got the no-guy culture and they.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, there's, there's the grit, there's grit here, there is, and that's what makes us really iconoclastic and unique and yeah, and it's I think you grabbed some of that and there's the spirit of the area, the spirit of the people. You know, the land is, of course, unique. Yeah, you know, world-class, absolutely. My kids all come back and they go hey, the air quality, yeah, I can breathe here. It's a me smell the ocean. I go yeah, right, I do every day. Thank you for reminding me, reminding me, yeah, that's good. So now, thanks for coming and appreciate you and our friendship and Look to hear more from you. Great, all right, anything else? Hey, take care, there it is, you take care. Thanks, larry, bye you.