Farm

This is our farm, "the land" – two hundred acres of fantastic land with a twenty-six acre lake of it's own, bordering on the much larger Blackduck Lake. We are located 26 miles north of Bemidji, just two miles north of highway 71 at Hines. Since 1981, we have been planting trees, while at the same time planning this land to be friendly to all kinds of wildlife – lots of deer, fox, raccoon, and even black bear. Although these goals have been said to be impossible, we have been nominated twice for "Tree Farmer of the Year" and once awarded "Conservation Farmer of the year". It seems that sometimes the "impossible" just takes a little more effort. This piece of "God's wonderful world" has kept Ed sane over the years while teaching in Marshall at Southwest State University, where he has been a professor since 1968. In these web pages, Linda and Ed hope to share some of our favorite places on this very special piece of land. Take a tour on these pages. You have no idea how much we love this place! It is varied in nature and satisfies nearly all of our natural desires. (Sorry, no mountains nor large rivers!) With over 1.25 miles of frontage on a blacktop road, this land has become valuable, but to us three hundred million dollars would not be enough. This is our special haven – our own "state park" with over eight miles of maintained trails (Ed loves to cut trails), two ponds (one large with a huge dike and one small), two creeks, the small lake, and 450 ft frontage on Blackduck Lake. There were already lots of trees, but over the years we planted about 20,000 more (the 21 year old red pines are already huge), fifteen acres of field that we "hay", a two acre field of "native grasses" (about the best we've ever seen, anywhere). In addition, we have built two buildings ("barn one" in 1984 and "barn two" in 1998), a large fenced in garden (to try to keep the wildlife out - doesn't work), seven pheasant cages (with 4-7 species of pheasants, wild turkeys and chukars; the fox and raccoon love us!), three deer stands, one neat Massey Fergeson tractor (Linda's), lots of great farm implements, a 1950 Ford F-1 Pickup, a 1951 Ford F-1 Pickup, a 1930 Model A, and all the very cool "boy toys" (four wheelers and snowmobiles). What more could anyone want?