#127. After Sun Valley: Lane DeVries on Finding Purpose Beyond Success

Lane DeVries traces his journey from a fourth-generation flower-farming family in the Netherlands to growing Sun Valley Floral Farms into the largest flower farm in America—and through the 2008 workforce crisis and years of struggle before its eventual closure. He and Scott talk about the cost of always saying yes, the faith that carried Lane through dark seasons, and why purpose matters more than business success. Lane also shares lessons from his book *The Pursuit of Purpose* and his continued work in the floral industry.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Lane DeVries

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, it's Scott Hammond and the 100% Humboldt Podcast with my new best friend, Lane DeVries. Hi, Lane. Hey Dad. How are you, Scott? I am very well. I was just complaining on the way in about the fog and the overcast, but hey, it's not 107 and it's not Reading. Exactly. Yeah. And you were reminding me that it's what? August and Humboldt?

SPEAKER_03 0:50

It's August and Humboldt.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Yeah. Tell us the Lane story. Where uh where are you from? Let's start where you're from. Where were you born and how did you get here? And what's your day job?

SPEAKER_03 0:58

I'm born and raised in the Netherlands and uh in the flower business, fourth generation flower farmer. Wow. And I came into this great country in 1983. Wow. Uh uh, you know, replying to a advertisement in a horticultural magazine uh for a job as a lily grower in Oregon,

From The Netherlands To Oregon Farms

SPEAKER_03 1:22

of all places. Oh, really? What part? Um actually in the northern Willamette Valley, Canby. Okay. Yeah. Actually, I started in Sandy, Sandy, Oregon, just east of Portland. That's where I started. And uh but they had a farm in in Canby as well. And so that's where I spent my first uh three months of my uh journey in America. Your first part of your first leg. Yes. What part of the Netherlands? Uh I'm from Beverwijk, uh, which is west of Amsterdam, right on the coast. Toward like Ro Rotterdam? No, Rotterdam is farther south. Okay. Uh you got a big steel mill uh in uh in the North Sea Canal, which basically connects Amsterdam to the North Sea. Okay. Right there is a steel mill, and right next to it is a town called Baverwijk.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

And so where do we go to saw we saw that pottery with the blue uh with the blue Delft? Yeah, Delft is stuff farther southeast. Okay, yeah. Correct, correct, correct. Yeah. What a great country. Yeah. A lot of history. A lot of tall people like you. My son informed me, you know, he's about five seven. He goes, I was always in elevators looking up at co-workers. And they're getting taller and taller. Oh, yeah. Tallest in the world. And he said maybe Sweden might be a little taller. Pretty crazy. We went three summers in a row, didn't make it the summer. Oh, wow. Great. Great time. Yeah. Went down to uh uh uh Belgium and and you know, train everywhere. My wife loves the trains. The trains, yeah. The the whole train system is very well uh and I'm always freaking out. I missed the train, Jesse goes, give it eight minutes, there'll be another one. Or less. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So hey, hey, welcome to the States. Glad to have you.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Forty-three years later.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

That counts. So where did you where was your journey after uh so you did you do uh university in the Netherlands as well? Uh horticulture college, yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:23

Got a BS in horticulture and uh which was specific to horticulture. Correct. The school was itself. Oh yeah, the whole school was in Alsmere, right next to that big flower auction over there. Yeah, yeah. Um yeah, it was different. You know, they had the floral design but also uh plant science. And I took the plant science site and uh And that auction's world famous, right? Yes. Yes. What's it called? It it used to be called the VBA. Uh now it's called Royal Holl Holland. Um uh Floral Holland, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

It's I've seen footage. They fill orders all day long, it's all automated. It's it's football field, it's Amazon scale, right? It's football fields.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

Yeah, one of the largest buildings in the world. Wow, how about that? Yeah. Wow. Not as exciting anymore, though. In the old days, you could go there and all the the banisters or all the the clocks that the three clocks at a time or two clocks at a time with different products going through and all the buyers you know sitting out there, you know, four hundred buyers at a time. But that's all gone. It's all virtual now. Aaron Ross Powell, Jr. It's all uh probably on cell phones. It's all virtual. So there's really I d I went there this year, hadn't been there in many, many years. Disappointed? It was very disappointed. The whole the whole atmosphere is is it's it's gone. Yeah, the electricity. It's it's just yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

I think of the stock market, everybody freaking out doing their orders. Yeah. Yeah. So Canby, how was how how what brought you south from Canby?

SPEAKER_03 4:58

So Canby is where I started, a company called Oregon Bulb Farms. And they brought me in from Holland to set up a lily program. Um they were growing some lilies for cut flowers there, uh, but they were mainly a bulb farm. Yeah, it was called Oregon Bulb Farms, and they grew a lot of lilies. A lot of the Asiatic lilies in those days were actually hybridized there, and actually, you know, they grew them. Um, but their flower program was not great. And so they brought me in to improve that. And uh so I came there um the third week of October. Um, and the first five days was beautiful weather, like, well, it's pretty neat here. Uh huh. You know, you could see Mount Hoot, and uh like this is a great place to be. Well, then it started raining, and it never stopped. And raining, and raining, it never stopped. I mean, apparently during that fall of uh 1983, they had a series of atmospheric rivers. Wow, and it just it just never cleared up anymore. It's still raining today. So, anyway, my first job uh was going into a greenhouse which was owned by Z Crown Zellebag, which is you know one of the uh timber companies there in in Oregon, and they had used that greenhouse for seedlings, you know, for you know, replanting, reforestration. Uh but that greenhouse was probably 30 years old, maybe older, and was built out of fiberglass. And that fiberglass, after about 30 years, disintegrates had gotten kind of dark, you know, a lot of dust and had kind of gone into the pores. Uh, that on top of all that rainy weather, uh, when I came in there, it felt like a like a cave. Well, the lilies they were growing there on benches, uh in crates, uh filled with soil. Uh, in and by itself, not a bad concept, but uh that lack of light, uh the lilies didn't like it. There was one variety called sunray that actually did okay. Uh-huh. All the other varieties had lost their butts. They just had aborted because of the darkness. Interesting. And so I s ended up spending the first week out there pulling up lilies that uh were unsellable and putting them in dumpsters. So it was a very good lesson. Uh yeah, getting get getting that experience.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Get to do the labor, the labor part, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:30

Yeah. And seeing what did not work, which was a great building uh block of of actually you know going forward and learning from what I encountered there. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

So you're this young buck coming from Amsterdam. Well, from from Netherlands. And people are going to go, hey, come over and fix our farm. Right. And so it it's so you probably had a chance to make a lot of mistakes too in honing your craft, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:57

I made plenty. Yes. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Aaron Ross Powell Oh, yeah. So say we all, right? Right out there? So if you're just joining me, my new best friend Lane DeVries from formerly of Sud Valley Bulb Farms. Sud Valley Floral. Floral, sorry. We'll talk about that. And um we want to talk about the book. We want to talk about all the common people we know, and we want to talk about uh uh heaven forbid, but not forbid, got some God stuff. I'm looking forward to that part. Because I read some of that in the book too. Oh. If you if you didn't get his book yet. I shout out right away, man, who I hold back. Pursuit of purpose. How does one find this book?

SPEAKER_03 8:33

It's available in local stores here in Humboldt. Uh Eureka Books uh and uh the book uh legger boss carrium. Yeah. Um and then on Amazon as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Amazon.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

Uh Amazon has it in paperback, ebook, hardcover, and as of this Monday, also an audiobook. The audiobook. All four.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

All four versions. Way to go. Yeah. My favorite audiobook is uh Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. Okay. Great book. Okay. Like 10 hours. But it's I digress. We'll talk about that. So uh tell me more about your journey to Humboldt, then. So uh can be uh you must have gotten a job offer or yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

I so I started footage company, Oregon Bulk Farms. And when I after I had started, uh I say about a couple of weeks later, I heard him talking about Sun Valley bulb farms in Arcada. Where's that? Where is that? So I'd brought my Ram McNally map with me from Holland. And I looked at all, like, hey, Northern California, and uh and I found Arcada, you know, just on the map there.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

LA.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

Yeah. So I found it

Discovering Arcata And Sun Valley

SPEAKER_03 9:43

right there north of the bay, and like and like, oh wow, this is interesting. And then I started looking at the climate uh information, and and I pulled up some, you know, some of those sheets from the National Weather Service. Similar to Holland, right? And actually better.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Better, better for far for Florida.

SPEAKER_03 10:01

Our summers are definitely cooler than they are because in the Netherlands it can get hot. It's miserable in the summer. It can get hot in the summer.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Oh, some days are awful.

SPEAKER_03 10:09

Yeah, and so our summers were much cooler than the Willamette Valley. And our winters had way better light levels than Holland or the northern Willamette Valley. Wow. Um, yeah, so you know, you look at Arcada, you know, it's it's comparable to Naples, you know, in terms of its latitude. Oh, I didn't know. So so the light levels actually are pr actually really good. Yeah. Um and so after looking at climate information, I put together a report for to the CEO of the company. It's like, hey, I don't know if you're spying Sun Valley, but if that were to happen, and at that point it wasn't clear that it was happening yet. But if that were to happen, um You want to know this? I think we want to go to Arcada and set up a lily operation and not in the northern Willamette Valley. And so he looked at that report for about 10-15 minutes, and he said, you know, uh if we buy Swin Valley, that's where we're gonna build a greenhouse. Uh so Sun Valley is pre-existing at this point. Sun Valley was there, not with lilies. They had some lilies, but they were all field-grown. Uh you know, for instance, the Stargazer was hybridized at the grounds of Sinn Valley by L Wesley Woodruff.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

I've met Leslie.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Yeah. Glad you brought him up.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah. I'd like to honor his name for a second. What amazing. He's a great guy.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

I have a story of Leslie. Can can I tell my story? Sure, absolutely. So my dad Bob, who you'd you'll get to meet one day, great guy, and he loved flowers. He'd come visit us with our nine kids in McKinleyville. And he's got who's got bulbs? You know, there's uh Bill Weggle had some bulbs down the street. Yeah. And uh but there's the stargazer dad, and Leslie's still got a little farm down there. He'd already sold the rights, I think. Yeah. And Leslie was very sick and and dying and in bed. And I'll

The Stargazer Lily Origin Story

SPEAKER_00 12:04

never forget uh he he managed to wrangle uh wrangle a couple of bulbs from Leslie's daughter, who's very sweet. Would you like to meet dad? And they brought Scott and Bob into Leslie's uh room, his his sick room, and and my dad was very tender. He kissed Leslie on the forehead and and he and he he he I don't know if he prayed for him, but he he said, Hey, old timer, and he's very tender. And it was a really cool moment to see my dad go. Whoa. God's changed my dad in a big way. He's a transformed, spiritually transformed man from a World War II fighter pilot to this tender man kissing Leslie on the forehead. Wow. A stranger. And but he he had that compassion. He knew that he knew what was going on. He was he was very sickening. I think he died shortly thereafter. Yeah. But uh next So as I s as I smelled that stargazer last night on my patio in McKinleyville, I thought that that man was key to that, correct? Oh totally. Oh yes. Yeah. How did he do that magic? Because it's and everybody knows it's the paint.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

So you I'll let you describe it, it's pink, and there's nothing uh on God's green earth that smells quite uh as magical as prior to you know, the mid-70s, because that's when Stargazer was was was selected, all the uh Oriental or they weren't even called Orientals yet. There were all kinds of different species of uh lilies that were all downfacing. Uh you got speciosum, you got auralium, yeah. So there was like a whole range of different uh lilies. Interesting. Uh, but they were all downfacing. And so um right, because they had that yeah, the yeah, all the the trumpet lilies, I mean the auraliums, I mean they they all were downfacing. So Leslie Woodruff was just a pioneer, and what he did, he took pollen from all these different types of species of lilies, and he mixed it together and then put it on the stamens of all these different species as well. So he went completely back to the core of the the genetics essentially, uh-huh. And and that's how we ended up with that one variety with the butts going up rather than going down. And that ended up becoming Stargazer.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

And it's uh nothing like it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

And so from there on, you know, hybridizers from Holland came over and started, you know, uh, you know, using some of his uh genetics, and that's how you know all the Orientals, or not necessarily all, but many of the Orientals you see today uh have genetics going back to the material that Leslie Woodruff developed right here in McKinleyville in the in the 70s.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Let me use my prop. Are you ready? You'll like this. Okay, right over here, Nick, is uh McKinleville, California. As we uh How do I do the deal? Wow, Scott. Oh, there it is. They push the button. There's the bright light. And uh Lane's going, what are you doing here? So anyway, McKinleyville's over there by map. That's where Leslie's from, and that's where I live. I we live on Dows Prairie. Oh, okay. Okay. But you know, look you know, experiencing a man like Leslie, you'd go, hey, he's gonna wear a lab coat and he's beautiful, and he's not. He's a dirt farmer. And he was lovely and kind enough to have us over and um show us around. Anyway. So that became more or less your um your focal point, right? It's to some degree at Sun Valley? That f that particular flower. I know s there's many others, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

Actually, the the lilies we started growing originally were asiatics, which are the yellows, the oranges. Sure. Umfacing. No. No, they're upright as well, but it's a different type. I see. So asiatic lilies already were upfacing, uh. But the speciosum types um uh which origin eventually became the oriental types, those were all the ones downfacing.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Trevor Burrus, Jr. And we're nerded up, nerding up here on flowers. But people that love flowers are gonna love this show. You're gonna be going, well, I want more. Talk about that other flower. Um that's all described in the book, too. Oh, the yeah, we'll come back to that. So uh let's go let's go to Sun Valley then. So did your guy up at Canby along with you buy buy this property? Is that how that went down?

SPEAKER_03 16:42

Aaron Ross Powell, Jr. So so the original owners of Sun Valley, uh Ted Kurs and the Layards from Oregon, uh they sold out to uh Melrich in those days, or George Jubline was the CEO. Uh so they sold the company to this larger conglomerate. Uh and so Cern Valley became part of that group, but then a whole range of other companies did too. Wholesalers, six different wholesalers across the country. Uh they bought some uh companies in Holland, uh, an exporter and a bulb trading company. They had a farm in Africa, a farm in Spain. Uh so yeah, they were well on their way, and and they became public. Yeah, they actually went public in 1984. Uh and so they went on a pretty wild ride there.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

But did you guys come in and buy them out or buy just the one property? So Or the whole thing?

SPEAKER_03 17:38

No, we just bought Zoon Valley. And that happened that didn't happen until 1991. Gotcha. So that's way later, after a series of things happened.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Uh which talk about those real quick. So are you still in Canby the whole time, or did you come down to work in the world?

SPEAKER_03 17:54

I moved to Arcada in January of 1984. 84. Right in the middle of the daffe season. Yeah. Uh, because in those days, Sun Valley's main crop were daffodils. Yeah. Daffodils in the winter, iris in the spring, and then a few lilies in the summertime. But it's mainly it was a daffodil and iris farm. That's what Sun Valley was known for. Sure. Um, so yeah, when I came, um, we started building that first greenhouse in 1984 to grow lilies. Um so the first year we only grew the Asiatic lilies. A year later we built another greenhouse, and that's when we also started growing suborientals. Uh how many greenhouses were there when you were done? By the time like two years ago? Yeah. Um we were up to about two and a half million square feet of greenhouse space. Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

We'll have to look at that. I want to verify that. And and you're going, what are you saying? Just stay with me. Stay on the show for a minute. You'll go. Okay, that's where he's going. Um So there was no greenhouses when you showed up, and you were the When I came, there was one small 10,000 square feet greenhouse.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

Trevor Burrus, Jr. They're sort of vital to the show, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That that that was that's what we did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Yeah, my wife worked for f with you for a minute. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So anyway, the acquisition happened and you you owned it. And somewhere in there you married Kathy. So I'm going to start name-dropping. Yeah, we didn't own it at that point.

SPEAKER_03 19:26

I didn't own it. What when did you meet Kathy and Mary Kathy? Uh we I met Catherine in uh December of 1984. 84. At a car giveaway at Eureka Toyota.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Was it the Eureka was she working for the radio station? She was working for KATA, correct? She and I worked for K to KFMI at Southeast Street. Yeah. So I spent my first year of my career. Uh we came on with a pre-existing condition. His name is now Jacob, and he's 42 years old. Wow. And so she and I sold advertising together for a minute, and then I went over to the Tri-City Weekly to work for Ron Pellegi. Hey Ron, what's up? Hi, Kathy. So I look forward to seeing Kathy because I haven't literally haven't seen her in fifty years. Maybe forty. Yeah, forty. Yeah, forty. I've been married to Joni for forty-five years. Yeah, so about forty fan. Yeah. So yeah, she was terrific. Yeah. Yeah. Say hi. Say hi to Kathy. I will. Kathryn. Yeah. So we and I also know your friend Bruce Brady, who's a brilliant flower man, right? Right. Yeah. Worked with Bruce for many, many years. Is his life a testament to you in terms of how he did life? And I know. Great, great guy. Great man. Yeah, absolutely. Sweetheart. I haven't seen him in too long. You know what? I think I'll give it a call him on the way home. I think I have his phone number. There you go. Why wouldn't I? Yeah, exactly. Is it hard to dial people? I think I'll do the same thing. I should be able to do this. So one thing that I do like this is when I'm inspired or barely inspired, I pick up the little device and I'll call my my sister, St. Beth. I'll call Bruce Brady today. I'll call my kids. Hey, what's up? How's it Oregon? Hey, great. And I'm dad and I'm touch and I'm connected because relationships and connections are really what makes the this whole thing work. Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

And so uh and I know I know you would appreciate that. Um I'll drop some more names. How about uh Dottie Hawkenberry? Oh, yes, Dottie. She was terrific.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

Yeah. She came on board in 1985 as the administrative assistant of of of one of our sales managers in those point at at that point. And uh and actually became my administrative assistant shortly after, and uh worked with Dottie for many, many years. I think she retired in like 1998, somewhere around there.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

So yeah. Wow. She quick Dottie story. When I had double hip replacement surgery from Stanford, same day, bilateral hip. He goes, Oh, we do them all the time. And I got and the nurse goes, We're like the you're like the second guy we've ever seen. I go, wow. So I got home after uh you know a week in the hospital, and here's Dottie. She comes by with a book, a really nice book by a guy named Joseph Prince, who's a pastor in um Indonesia, I think. Great book.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

And chocolate covered strawberries and a big deli sandwich, and I'm going Dottie, you know, and and she's sitting there praying for me. And it was just like, oh, that's who you are. You're you're amazing. I know. She was. Special. I used to host the men's groups up at her house. And I know.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

I know.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

For all those uh those wacky guys from uh what's the church called? In McKellyville? I should know. My friend Dave Turner goes to loves New Heart. New art. New Hart, yeah. Great, yeah. Great fellowship. So yeah. So Dottie, rest in peace. Hi Dottie. Rest in peace. She's not resting. She's probably conquering some universe. The people that you walk to through through a crowd to go visit, that's Dottie. Oh yeah. See, I'd walk through the gym and I'd go over to her.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

Never met a stranger.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Never. Lovely. Her and Bill would be working out at Health Sport and getting it done. So you've surrounded yourself with some amazing folks over the years. For sure. Absolutely. And you thought it was all you. No. You didn't. Maybe we never think that. Yeah. No.

SPEAKER_03 23:34

No. We had a great team.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Oh yeah. But how uh the growth, uh the expansion and the deceleration and kind of what happened in your life toward that um toward that part of the journey.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

So we ended up uh purchasing the company actually out of a bankruptcy of a company that had bought the out Melritz assets, and it just, you know, by they bought it with all debt and they it they mismanaged it and it so it it didn't work at all. So 22 months after this company had bought Melritz, we actually ended up uh that that company actually went into bankruptcy. And about a year later,

Buying The Farm And Scaling Up

SPEAKER_03 24:24

I put a group together with two partners from Holland that were bulb growers and hybridizers. And um, so the three of us bought the company in November of 1991, and we changed the name at that point from Sun Valley Bulb Farms to Sun Valley Floral Farms because that's truly what we were doing. We were no longer growing bulbs, you know, we were in we were growing flowers, so so it was really a misnomer to be called Sun Valley Bulb Farms. So we changed the name to Sun Valley Floral Farms, and we just slowly started growing. Um you know, growing tulips. Tulips was one of our main crops, iris, and of course lilies. And so from 1994 on, we started building greenhouses, warehouses, coolers pretty much every year.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Aaron Ross Powell So did you buy all the assets or just the Sun Valley Trevor Burrus, Jr. Just the Sun Valley. Okay. So you could focus on one enterprise.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

No, the the other company that was part of that group was Oregon Mold Farms. And Oregon Mold Farms is actually the one that was losing money pretty heavily. And so Sun Valley was the one company within that group that actually did pretty well. It was making money. So it was making money. So turns out it's about making money sometimes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's all cash flow, yeah. Being gas flow positive. But anyway, so um so through the nineties, yeah, we just started getting more and more customers knocking on our doors, looking for our flowers. Uh you know, so it first it was mainly wholesalers, but then uh the supermarkets came knocking on our door. Kroger, Safeway, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods. Um and then uh H E B in Texas, Central Markets. H E B is huge. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Hubert Edward Burr it stands for guys' initials. Yes. Anyway. But Butts. But is his last name. B-U-T-T. Oh yeah, yeah. It's a great one in Houston that's just Oh yeah. Great.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

They dominate that Texas market. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Everybody loves everybody loves H E B.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

Yeah, exactly. And then um Sam's Club came knocking on our door. Uh that's a little uh fit. And so pretty soon we were doing all the Sam's Club's uh stores throughout the country, uh with our tulips and and and Iris, but mainly tulips. And then when Walmart saw the success in the Sam's Club stores, then they came knocking on our door. So and so at one we started with eight divisions of of Walmart, and then the year after they gave us the entire country. So so yeah, phenomenal growth uh for many, many years. Sure. Um and so in the book I called that chapter the Golden Years. Yeah. Uh and then in the early 2000s, we actually um started spreading our wings. I actually bought a company in or Oxnard and started growing some crops that do very well in that Southern California climate. Okay. That don't grow well here, but don't grow very well there. A lot of farms down there. Yeah. It's not all buildings anymore. No. No, no. That Oxnot plate is still uh is a significant agricultural area. Aaron Ross Powell I remember Bruce used to fly down there, I think.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Oh yeah, we used to go there every week. Do you know Derek Kingham too or no? Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 27:55

He's a flower guy, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Oh yeah, he used to work for us as well. Sweetheart. Yeah. They are very active in Girl Scouts, have been for decades.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Yes, they have been.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Yes. And it raised a lot of young women up into uh adulthood and kudos. Hey, Derek. And and his lovely wife. Yeah, they are they do a great job. So uh you you're continuing on, so you guys are are starting to peek out and and expand and yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

So by the mid-2000, 2007, 2008, we were you know riding pretty high. And then in 2008 is when things really started changing for our company. Uh we we got a we ended up with a um an an audit from ICE that was looking for all our i9s, and we submitted all our i-9s. And that that actually happened in the fall of 2007.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Uh ICE pre-existed. It's not the ICE we know today, but it was a whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

It's been around since 9-11, really. That's when, you know, Homeland Security, that's when we know, uh that's when ICE really

The ICE Audits And The Raid

SPEAKER_03 29:04

kind of, you know. Anyway. Um so 2007, November 2007, we submitted all our I-9s, boxes and boxes and boxes. And then we didn't hear anything anymore. And then in the end of May of 2008, uh, we got an ICE agent uh delivering a letter in which it indicated that 287 of our team members were ineligible to work in the United States. So for our company. And so we uh we set up a meeting with the entire team and told, you know, uh, the group that there were 287 team members that could no longer work for us. Um so that was very devastating uh going through that process. What portion of the team was that? At that point, it was about 60, 65 percent of our team. Whoa. Uh so the next morning we, you know, the group that was left, uh we uh you know tried to pick up the pieces. Um and but then a few months later, in the in uh September, well actually in August, uh we had another audit for all the people that had been hired from November 2007 till May of 2008. Wow. Because though those were you know had come in the door, and so that that was a whole new set of high dynasts. So there was another 40 people that we had to let go basically the Tuesday after Labor Day in September of 2008. Wow. So by that Wednesday morning, we figured, all right, this whole thing is behind us, we can now look toward the future. Well, then on that Wednesday morning, I'll never forget it. I was I had a clee-steening appointment, clee teeth cleaning appointment uh in in uh Bayside. And uh I drove onto the freeway and I see all the the parking lot at Tony's is just filled with scars, and I see guys walking around with big ice on their on their t-shirts. It's like, well, this can't possibly be for us because we just let the last 40 people go yesterday. You're complying. Well, so I went to my appointment. Uh I say about 20 minutes into the appointment, my production manager comes running in and said, Lane, we're having a raid by ice. So I just ran out. Oh man. Got to the farm. The farm was surrounded. Uh 130 ice agents. Is that right? In 50 vehicles, helicopter going above the farm. Higher up, there's an airplane circling. Whoa. And so it's like, so I got into the property. It's like, so I go to one of the supervisors of this operation. It's like, what's going on here? He said, oh, we have an arrest warrant for uh for about 50 people that claim to have driver's licenses from Oregon and state of Washington. And therefore they, you know, portrayed to be either uh citizens or uh legal aliens. And so so they went through the entire farm, ended up with 16 people that were arrested. 16. Yeah. Uh the other five, the other ones, who knows where they ended up, but anyway. Your tax dollars at work. So 16 people, uh, they were taken to the local uh Coast Guard station. They were being interviewed for about 20 minutes. Uh and all they the the agents were after is to get some dirt on the company. Wow. Uh and after that they were released. Uh they went their own way. Uh and so that was the whole premise. And so it's a lot of resources.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

Yeah. I don't know if there's 150 for the Humboldt riot when they uh took over campus two years ago. I'm not sure there's 150 law enforcement. There's a lot, but I don't know if there's that many. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 33:24

Well, 130. It was 130 agents. But still. I mean, it was it was yeah. So it was very painful, very traumatic for our team. Uh and so but now 287 in June, another 40 uh the of uh yeah, another 40 the first week of September, and now we lost an additional 50. So by now we have lost 80% of our workforce. And so we're trying to replenish it with new folks. Uh we voluntarily uh engaged with uh e-Verify, not realizing at that time how that would really restrict us from hiring people. Uh and so that whole 2008 year became a nightmare, complete nightmare. Uh and it and it honestly lasted all the way into 2009. And and as a company, it really changed the trajectory of our company. Sure. And we honestly never came back. Um, I mean, we pretty much kept fighting uh you know to survive uh rather than grow. And so our our whole mindset change mindset changed at that point.

SPEAKER_02 34:41

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

And um, so yeah. So that was a trauma. Trauma trauma. It was big time trauma. All you were trying to do is be farmers. And trying to do a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

And try to do it the right thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:51

And try to help the community. It was, you know, uh funding uh any way we can. And and yeah, we gave our people health insurance, 401k. The health insurance, you know, and this is 2007, right? This is before any of the laws was were really in place. We were paying 100% of the premium of all our team members. That's great. So these are all things we were able to do. But after 2008, that changes.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

It it got really difficult. So we'll get to you how how you dealt with all that. But first, I w I have a little bit of good news for you.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

Come on in. No, I've I'm not bringing anybody in. I have a uh we do a little quiz on our show. All right. And uh this is my bell. A couple of questions. Usually you'd get lucky and you'd be playing for a Dick Taylor chocolate bar. However, today we have a different prize for you. Okay. And uh I when I saw this, I thought of you and I thought, I don't even know this guy, but uh he's gonna love this. So if you play your cards right, you'll get this prize. All right. You would you

Hard Questions About Life And Faith

SPEAKER_00 36:00

like to see it first? Sure. Okay, you're going to go, I don't know. The buildup's pretty big here. Uh I found this my friend Gary Todorov. Gary's a really great Christian guy who was the Gary very well. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah. Gary was uh official photographer for the Coast Guard, first ever official with our friend Captain Bob Durfee. Hi, Bob. And uh uh I was at Gary's home a couple weeks ago. Okay. And they were clearing out all of his stuff, and I said, I think I'd like that. So what I've got for you, should you play your cards right, is a uh a picture of all your greenhouse. I know.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

I know this picture very well.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

So this is an aerial photography from Gary Todoroff, the man of the myth, the legend. And you, Lane DeVries, could be the lucky winner. We'll see. Don't get carried away now. So first question. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Oh, don't drop it now. No, no. Just it slipped. Okay. What's what was your best day of your life? Best day of my life. I think you just told me your worst day. One of one of the best. That was definitely one of my worst days.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

I won't ask that question. The best day of my life, I would say when I met my wife. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

At a car giveaway at Eureka Toy. Exactly. Was that Gary Barker back in the day? Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Hey, Gary. Gary, no fault, Barker. Man, he was legend. Yeah. Great. That's a great day. Hear that, Catherine? Question number two. What do you find crushing in your life? What what just takes it out of your sales?

SPEAKER_03 37:36

I mean, for all these years we were trying to please our customers, building our business. If a customer was unhappy for whatever reason, that just stuck like a knife in my heart. I mean, because we were out to police. And uh so an happy customer, that just really, really hurt.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Yeah. Those are hard when you when you do everything you you know to do and still it's not enough. Aaron Powell Yep. That's that's life too. Yeah. I I accept that as a good neighbor. I I try to I get some bad neighbors once in a while. So that's that happens. Um okay. What have you learned, lessons learned from defeat or failure or setback?

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Well, I have a I've had my share. Yes. Setbacks and defeat. Joined that club, yeah. And at the end of the day, I mean looking towards Jesus as your Lord and Savior has carried me through some very dark nights. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Absolutely. He said he'd never leave you or forsake you or me. Exactly. But even more than that, we're beloved, which is even a other other thing. We'll get to that. Um okay, great. Uh what's your biggest what was your biggest failure? My biggest failure.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

Personally or business wise?

SPEAKER_05 39:03

Either. Both.

SPEAKER_03 39:07

That's a good one. I mean, I have so many. I honestly can't be. I got so many I have to pick some. Yeah, yeah. I mean, um just one thing I learned is that sometimes it's better to say no. Always saying yes, and and particularly when we started building the company and expanding um, you know, all these customers coming online. There may have been times when it would have been better to say, you know what, no, we're we're okay. We we don't need this business right now. And and always saying yes is exciting when it's happening. But down the road, you kind of regret, you know, actually always saying yes or saying yes too often.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Yeah. The whole the the holy no. Yeah. My dad used to say, watch what you pray for, you might you might get it. So Okay, great. Hey, next question. And I haven't asked this yet, so this is kind of a bonus question. If you could live one day in in life in history, a day in history. What not your history, it could be your history. What day would you go back to and live through? A day in history. I mean any history. Any history, world history. Since millennia. Is it millennium? Millennia. Beginning of time.

SPEAKER_03 40:43

I mean, I grew up hearing the war stories from my parents virtually every night around the dinner table. World War II had such a tremendous impact. How old were you during the war? Oh, I I was not born yet. Oh, you weren't over. I was born in 60. But I heard the stories. Right. You were born in 60.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

60? 60, yes. Oh, you and I are the same age. Oh, yeah. What's your birthday? Uh guarantee I guarantee I'm older. September 17th? January 2nd. Oh, okay. There you go. Were you class of 79 or 8? What's that? Class of 78 or s 79 in high school. I don't even know. Doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 41:20

But um but hearing the war stories from my parents around that dinner table.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_03 41:27

I mean, almost every night. I think that day, May 5th, 1945, when the Germans were defeated, at least in Holland, when Hor Holland was uh um uh liberated, yeah, that would have been the day to witness.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:45

Good one. That's a good choice.

SPEAKER_00 41:47

I was reading a book in Amsterdam while I was in Utrecht that the Jewish population was huge. And it was uh dwindled to 70,000 or less. I knew I I had no idea that the impact of the the arts and the culture and the it was quite quite a city. Oh yeah. Uh pre-war and um post for that matter. Anyway. Um what's your last question? What's your biggest victory in life?

SPEAKER_05 42:16

Biggest victory's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 42:26

I I think having peace with some of the troubles that we went through and still being able to look back on that and having learned from it, and still being able to move forward. I mean, it's it's not necessarily any one particular point, but it's a victory process. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Yeah. You seem pretty joyful. Yeah. That that's a plus for a victorious space. Yeah. Well, hey, winner winner, chicken dinner. You, my friend, have won an exclusive. I was gonna say signed Gary Todorov, but yeah, what a great guy. He probably very much appreciated what you're I know.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

He was a great guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

So I'm gonna hand you this over the table so I don't uh damage it any more, any longer. But from from me to you, my friend. Thank you. Enjoy that. I know you probably have a place for that. An original Todorov. It might be a little dusty, but it'll clean up nice.

SPEAKER_05 43:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

That's a lot of that's a lot of greenhouses you got there.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

Uh yes. Yes. This picture was taken in 2003.

SPEAKER_00 43:35

Yeah, it's it goes back always. Yep. So uh let's talk about the book for a little bit and then your legacy. Uh I really liked a lot of the things I was reading in here in terms of uh mission statement and all. But um give us the give us the gist of the book and the the arc and and you know the the elevator pitch for why someone might want to buy this book, what it's about.

SPEAKER_03 43:54

Really, in a nutshell, the book comes down to we went through a great run, a lot of success, but then we had our time of failure or and and hardship, and and and

The Pursuit Of Purpose Explained

SPEAKER_03 44:09

we definitely went through the dark valley. Uh but at the end of the day, what is life all about? And I think coming to the realization that purpose in life is way more important than anything else, be it mat yeah. Anything material, uh be it success, be it building the largest flower farm in America, all that becomes really secondary as long as you have a purpose in life. And I think that's really the main theme of the book. And and so uh and there's many touch points in the book where I where I bring that back. And and and my faith journey obviously is a is a big piece of that. Sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

Man of faith. I love it. The um It's funny we would talk about purpose. I'm talking to my 40-year-old who's um he's struggling in in in Seoul, South Korea as a an American, and he's traveled internationally, but it is a tough place to learn the language to navigate, to order soup. I bet. Get a haircut.

SPEAKER_03 45:21

Do people speak English then at all? No, no.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

No, no.

SPEAKER_03 45:23

Not at all.

SPEAKER_00 45:24

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Oh, very, very little. Unlike Netherlands, which you guys speak better English than Americans. I don't know about that. Some guys. I mean it's very articulate. Which was an interesting journey. But yeah, the that idea of purpose uh and and purpose outside of inside of us, but outside of us. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Right. And I suppose let's talk about some purposes that people could lean into. It could be a faith journey, it could be uh legacy with children or grandchildren. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yep. I suppose career could be a purpose, but is is that enough? I think what he's finding is that it's not. Exactly. He he thought the job and you know sorry, Jesse, for divulging your conversation here, but it's a good conversation. Uh because it's a common error uh in in a journey, and that is that a job is going to make me happy. Because it's structure, it's money, it's instant gratification. I'm doing it, and I'm I'm in this thing. And you know what? We all find out eventually it's not it's a false purpose. Exactly. Or a a masqueraded purpose. Um so are other people sometimes. You know, that I'm gonna I'm gonna marry her, she's gonna make my life amazing. Well, wherever you go, there you are. Pal. Yep. You know, bro. So i you we look at that and I go, okay. So let's talk more about purpose. So how did you discover your purpose in this hardship?

SPEAKER_03 46:51

So so there's there's one chapter called uh back pain experience. And so I went through in 2007 through a uh pretty bad situation of a slip disc. Ouch. Uh where it got to the point where I basically couldn't walk anymore. Uh it felt like three knives were stabbing in the shin every step I made. Uh so ultimately um I avoided needing surgery, which is a miracle in and by itself, given where we are. Oh yeah. Uh Dr. Aryompur, who was who was my uh is he still around at Mad River? I I I do not know. Uh he's a surgeon though, right? Yeah, yeah. I I think he is, but um He's kind of legend, yeah. Yeah. But anyway, he uh um he saw my situation and he said normally I would do surgery, uh emergency surgery, but I'm going on vacation. Uh leaving this is Friday afternoon at three o'clock. He said, I'm going off vacation for three weeks. So um I you're gonna I'm sending you to Mad of um to St. Joseph's Hospital. They'll give you a hypodermic uh uh cortisone shot. Well hopefully that will subside the pain for you know for a while. Right. And when I get back, we'll take a look. See how you're doing. So that is it's amazing how that helped me.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

You did the cortisone?

SPEAKER_03 48:22

Yeah, and and so three weeks later, I go back in his office and I'm I'm casually walking in his office. And it's like it's okay, we're not doing surgery. We're we're just gonna see this for a while. Wow and kind of take. And so, but meanwhile, I had developed, I learned something about certain back exercises by basically laying flat on your back, pulling your legs up. And at first I couldn't do that because of the pain.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

So on the back doing leg raises?

SPEAKER_03 48:54

Yeah, and so working on your core. And so, but the minute I started feeling a little bit better, I started doing that exercise. This is 2007. I've done that exercise every single morning for the last 19 years. Wow. And and and so I found purpose that in that pain, in that hardship, in that summer, just that exercise, I've told so many people. About this. And I've been able to, and so that's how I describe it, that book, find purpose that through the pain and through that hardship that's up, I've been able to help others. Yeah, good work. Countless people by just taking that approach and uh how that has helped others. So that's just one tiny little example. Sure. Uh, but yeah, purpose in teaching others, inspiring others. I mean, the the ten guiding principles that I mentioned in the book. I mean, I actually spent quite a bit of time in the in the backside with um a lot of short stories uh describing those guiding principles and using live uh examples on how we can apply those principles. My favorite part of the book. Okay. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. Let's pick pick one. Let's talk about it. I mean inspire and inspire others and always keep learning. That's kind of guiding principle number three. Lifelong learner. That that's it's been and and I use many stories. I use uh Victor Frankel's story in there. Um I use some you know stories on my own. Um so but yeah, there's countless examples that I cite in the book on how we can help others uh by inspiring them, and to always keep learning and to always, I mean, a lot of people once they graduate from high school or college, they never pick up a book anymore the rest of their life. It's amazing the percentages, the statistics out there. Aaron Powell And now it doesn't even have to be a book. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 50:57

An audiobook.

SPEAKER_03 50:58

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 50:59

I mean, for for uh those of us who can't read a lot and big tomes of content. There's this thing called audible by Amazon. Yep. It's amazing. You can become a genius. You can draw 10,000 hours, you could master something. Yep, that's true. Yeah, no, I I love that. You're right. To be a lifelong learner. Joni and I have the phrase in our next season, our new beginning that we're into is let's get curious. Let's go learn something. Let's go what is what's that about? Yep. Let's go try let's go try playing water polo. There you go. There you go. Hey, pickleball. Yes. Anything. Yeah. Anything. So that that that that sense of discovery and fun. Right. You know, and if you don't like it, then stop it and try something different. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 51:46

Yeah. Do something else. Yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 51:49

So it you're right. And I think there there is the key to staying and being young. So let's do the shout-out again. How do we how does one get a copy of this book locally here in Humboldt?

SPEAKER_03 51:58

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Eureka Books carries it, book letters.

SPEAKER_00 52:01

Solomon. What a great guy. Oh yeah. Great guy.

SPEAKER_03 52:05

You did a signing there already? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then Arcada, we used to have it at Note Down Books as well, but they're they're going to be up here.

SPEAKER_00 52:17

In the old Arcada Auto Building, right? Right. Exactly. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 52:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:21

And then you got Booklegger.

Where To Get The Book

SPEAKER_00 52:24

Ten K. Melman doesn't do new books, right? Trevor Burrus, Jr. I don't think so. No. I went in there first time two days ago for decades. And found a Jesus calling the devotional. And I was looking for my book. This is a book I wrote called The Everyday Dad. Okay. I'll sh share that with you after the show. And uh I couldn't find one. I found one on Amazon. It's $119. What? I'm pretty big on it. No. It's like with the one copy that somebody held back. That was a totally different journey. We're talking about your book. So um so any local bookstore, uh and you said Amazon?

SPEAKER_03 53:00

Aaron Ross Powell Amazon. Yep. Okay. And then the audiobook is also on Apple Books. Apple Books, Audible, and Amazon itself. Aaron Ross Powell Okay.

SPEAKER_00 53:08

And that's available now or Monday?

SPEAKER_03 53:09

Aaron Powell No, it's available now. It was actually came available this past Monday. Aaron Ross Powell Okay.

SPEAKER_00 53:15

You just finished that up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:17

That was a process in and by itself.

SPEAKER_00 53:19

Aaron Ross Powell That's probably a lot of hours of reading, right? Take two. Take seventeen. Aaron Ross Powell Do you have to go in the studio with a coach and and walk it through and not so much as a coach. I just, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:35

And then uploading it on ACX and all that was it was an interesting uh learning experience.

SPEAKER_00 53:40

But that was a learning curve. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not everything that's hard is bad. Oh no. It's all good. No, I love it. Yes. And would you sign this before before you go? You don't have to do it on the air. Absolutely. I'm going to give this to you so you don't run out of here without giving that back. Trevor Burrus You bet. So any parting shots that you want to talk about? Buy the book?

unknown 54:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:08

What's your day job now besides writing?

SPEAKER_03 54:10

Currently I'm the president of the American Floral Alliance. Okay. Which is a uh an organization of uh wholesalers, growers, and retailers in the flower industry in the United States. Wow. So uh so yeah, though I still find purpose in life even after Sun Valley. I I think that kind of proves the point, right? Right, right. That even Sinn Valley, you know, unfortunately, yeah, we had to close that, but still finding purpose in life, helping the floral industry in the United States, you know, at large. And uh and uh it's it's fun. It's fun to be doing it.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

Do they call you Mr. President? You have to fly and go places and meet people.

SPEAKER_03 54:56

Actually, a lot of trade shows. I was in Pasadena last week and I'll be in um Florida next week in Amelia Island. So you have to travel a lot. Fair amount of travel, yes.

SPEAKER_00 55:06

Aaron Powell I mentioned a lot of the floral industry is shows, right?

SPEAKER_03 55:09

Yeah. Well, particularly in the off-season. Uh you know, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, that that time frame, there's nothing going on. But then in the summer and in the fall, which is kind of the off-season for flowers. That's what they do, all the shows. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

So uh I I ask everybody this, Lane, what do you want to be remembered by or for? What in in your celebration of life when we go to church out in Blue Lake or wherever that's going to be? What what what would you imagine or hope for that people would have said about your your life, your person?

SPEAKER_03 55:43

I would say helping others, inspiring others, and s and and really be the best that you can be.

SPEAKER_00 55:53

That's good. Sounds like leadership. That's uh yeah. Any inscription on the gravestone? Ever thought about what we'd put there? We'll let others worry about that.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

I like that. And I when I hear that, I hear leadership. You know, the idea of being a leader. Setting an example, setting the culture. And you talk about that a lot in the book. So one more time, uh The Pursuit of Purpose by Lane DeVries, available on Amazon at any local bookstore. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Correct. What other booksellers are there? I mean, if you're not I I'm just thinking out loud, if if it's not a local store and it's not Amazon, where would that be?

SPEAKER_03 56:33

I guess other distributors do you uh I mean you could if when you're not in Humboldt County or you're going to a Barnes and Noble or any other bookstore across the country, you can order the book. Sure. But they just I mean the book is also available at Ingram's Park, which is a uh basically the wholesaler that supplies all the bookstores across the country. Okay. Uh but they won't carry it because yeah, it's not that well known. But if you if you I I as a matter of fact, I know one somebody who lived in Colorado, in Dorengo, Colorado, of all places, uh used to go to a church here in Eureka, and that's where she now lives. And she went to a local she did want to buy from Amazon. So she went to a local bookstore. Dorenko, Colorado, ordered the book, and a week later it showed up.

SPEAKER_00 57:19

I know Norttown would do that and others.

SPEAKER_03 57:22

Oh yeah. Yeah, no, no. Once Northtown is back up.

SPEAKER_00 57:26

So yeah. I I watched them clearing that uh that block yesterday. They've been at it for two weeks and they're still a mess.

unknown 57:34

I know. I know.

SPEAKER_00 57:35

So half of the city block of Arcata, California burnt down on my birthday January 2nd this year. And uh thank God, thank goodness, thank you, fire guys and gals, for how to stop that to stop it. Because otherwise you might not have an arcada. I know. It's crazy. That could be crazy. Crazy. We're in Ashland, Oregon, watching it on my phone. I'm going, I know.

SPEAKER_03 57:56

What's going on? I know. All that paint at Hensel's. Oh gosh. I mean, yeah, it could have been uh way worse. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 58:05

Creepy thing was walking by at night, and there was still a little beep, beep. It was a it was a little uh smoke detector that went off for like another month. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All day long and all night long in rubble. That nobody wanted to bother to answer. No, go in there. Yeah. So hey, what a delight. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Thank you for uh having me. Appreciate you. Yeah, no. I'm really glad that uh you're here. And uh don't forget my inscription. Don't forget you're gonna text me those back exercises. I will. Absolutely. I'm gonna hold you to it too. Yeah, no problem. All right. Hey, if you're just joining us, you're way too late for the show at C and Lane, but you could watch it over on uh Access Humboldt TV, we're on YouTube, we're on uh Spotify, 15 or 20 other uh podcast platforms, and you could leave a comment. You could send us money on our website, hey, 100humbold.com. Uh gold bullion is our favorite currency. Uh if you have a jag you want to donate, just kidding. And you know, thanks for the help for everybody that makes this possible. Nick Flores and his great uh podcast

Final Thanks And How To Follow

SPEAKER_00 59:08

growing pains. We've got uh so many people to thank in the community. Dick Taylor, uh Quality Body, Advanced Security, people that just are friends that make try to make this happen. So and to you, Lane Davis, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 59:21

Well, thank thank you for hosting me.

SPEAKER_00 59:23

Welcome. Have a great day. You too. Thank you so much.