The Value of Character – Knowing Who You Are

“This above all; to thine own self be true.” ~ William Shakespeare in Hamlet “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson        I am not, to be sure, a fan of corporate team building exercises – at least forced team building exercises.  Groups of individuals come together to accomplish joint ventures in two basic scenarios: long term […]

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The Value of Timing: Understanding How an Acquisition is Affected by When You Enter the Market

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1 (KJV) “They say timing is everything.  But then they say, there is never a perfect time for anything.” – Anthony Liccione        There are a multitude of factors that can affect a land acquisition. How well funded is the acquirer? Are those funds readily available or is the acquirer forced to request those funds […]

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The Value of Position: Why What Comes Before Matters

“What’s past is prologue.” – William Shakespeare, The Tempest        A sequential enterprise will often have many phases and stages throughout its life cycle prior to achieving its stated aims.  Each of these phases are important because without successfully completing each the project would either suffer a diminution of value or productivity or fail altogether.  When working in a sequential system the order in which tasks are performed and completed is very important.  […]

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The Value of Adaptability: Surviving in a Storm Tossed Sea

“It Is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” – Charles Darwin        A few years ago, I was a volunteer helping to run an oil & gas industry clay shoot.  The participants were landmen and their invited guests.  The guests were a mix of reservoir engineers, geologists, business development specialists, and executives all from oil & gas companies.  My station was close […]

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The Value of Respect: And the Attendant Need to Avoid Landowner Fatigue

“I’m too old for this… [well… you know].” – Roger Murtaugh “More isn’t necessarily better Linus.  Sometimes it’s just… more” – Sabrina Fairchild        Everyone wants options in life. No one wants to be forced into a given course of action by circumstances beyond their control. The same is true for landowners. A tract of land, whether it is the family farm, a multi-generation ranch, or an investment property bought in the hopes […]

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The Value in Foresight: What’s Old is New Again

“I sell here, Sir, what all the world desires to have – power” Matthew Boulton          This will be a discussion about the increasing electricity demands made by A.I. initiatives, their associated data centers, and the tremendous land requirements these will require, but we will take a circuitous route to get there – no pun intended (maybe a slight pun intended).          In ancient Rome, the god Janus presided […]

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The Value in Patience: The Interconnection Queue Process

“To lose patience is to lose the battle”– Mahatma Gandhi “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.” – A.A. Milne        There is no shortage of good quotes concerning the twin notions of patience and perseverance and if you are a land developer trying to navigate an electric utility’s interconnection queue process, you will have plenty of time to familiarize yourself with many of them. A renewable energy […]

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The Value in Speaking with Others… Especially Competitors

All comes back to the land value, and its owner for the time being is able to levy his toll upon all other forms of wealth and upon every form of industry. – Winston Churchill        I always tell my son if you follow the money, you will usually find your answer. I know that’s not the most uplifting of messages, but it is amazing how often it ends in a correct answer. […]

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The Value Behind a Point of View

“You’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.”– Obi-Wan Kenobi If this blog achieves any purpose, I would hope it demonstrates that there are multiple different points of view inherent in every situation and when handled appropriately this can make both the process and the outcome better. This is nothing new. As the centuries pass, we forget that there have always been differing […]

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He Fought the Law… and Won

“These 900 acres are my life, the same ground worked for generations by my family in goodfaith that if we obeyed the law, our government would treat us accordingly.”– Ritchie Devillier                 We live in a nation where the right of the individual to own property is enshrined and protected in our most basic, primary, and foundational law – the United States Constitution.  The drafters of that document believed that certain rights were […]

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The Decision of a Lifetime

Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven.  Know, then, that the world exists for you.  For you is the phenomenon perfect.  What we are, that only we can see.  All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do.  Adam called his house, heaven and earth; Caesar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a Cobbler’s trade; a hundred acres […]

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Minerals and Destiny

“Geography blended with time equals destiny.”                                              –  Joseph Brodsky          Humans are visual beings.  We understand and take in the world primarily by what we can see.  Many memories are recorded as either photographs or videos, but a visual recollection regardless.  Many popular aphorisms are rooted in the notion that what […]

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Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

It comes to little more:  “There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’” Excerpt from “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost        Adhering to the staid logic of the immortal poet Robert Frost, the neighbors in Solano County, California will need to […]

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Running with the Mane Blog – Welcome

       As near as can be estimated there are approximately 600 million blogs globally producing an average of 7.5 million daily posts – this amounts to just over 2.7 billion posts a year.   So why add one more?  Why add what amounts to another drop of water in the ocean of conversation constantly flowing around us every day?  Well, because it’s how we communicate in the modern world.  When done properly it affords […]

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