The Early Years

Phil and Kim met in 1974. Kim was 17, and Phil was 16 (they’re just 6 months apart). They immediately hit it off and were married less than a year later. 

In 1975, they had their first baby. And, Phil joined the Army.

Phil spent 4 years in the Army. He served in Fort Knox in TN, Fork Sill in OK, Fort Bragg in NC, and Camp Essayons in Korea. Kim joined when she could. Phil was an E4 (AKA a Specialist E4). It was like being a “working man” in the military.

After serving, Phil and Kim went back to Indiana. Phil jumped around a bit, working in construction. He worked his way up from carpenter to VP General Manager. Oh, and in his free time, he got a computer programming degree.

At this point it was 1987, Phil and Kim had 4 kids, and it was colder than cold in Indiana. After an icy, 5 below zero experience on a metal roof, Phil decided that Kim’s dream of moving somewhere a bit warmer should become a reality. So they packed up and moved to Arizona.

After a few more years of working in construction, ending up as a Project Manager at Luke Air Force Base (right next to Phoenix), Phil got tired of construction, so…

The Internet Era

In the early 1990s, Phil started an internet company in Phoenix with his family. This was incredibly early in the tech space. In fact, it was the 3rd internet company to exist in the Phoenix metro area!

They eventually sold the internet company, and Phil worked for other internet companies instead. He did various things like designing and building data centers, running internet divisions, etc.

The last internet company he worked for sold, and he got compensated generously for the stock he earned. At 45, he was able to retire. 

After a year of passion projects like remodeling his kitchen and building a 3-car garage, he got bored and knew he needed to go back to work. But what was he going to do now?

The Elder Care Era

Now Kim had always worked in the medical space since she was 15, as a nurse's aide in nursing homes and stuff like that. At this time, she was working for a crazy lady who had a very disorganized in-home care company. The business was a mess. 

After a particularly rough day, Kim came home, marched to Phil’s office, and said “Can’t we just do this sh*t ourselves?” 

And that was that. In 2005, Phil and Kim started their in-home elder care business. They ran it until 2023, when they sold it. At this point, they were 66 years young and could easily retire. But, as Phil discovered before, he finds retirement too boring. So…

The Ranch Journey Begins

Phil and Kim had always wanted to live in the country. But, until this point, life didn’t lead them that way. So, at the ripe age of 66, after reading basically every Joel Salatin book ever written, they decided to fulfill their lifelong dreams and buy a ranch!

In 2023, they bought a 1,000 acre property in Decaturville, TN. And boy it was a wreck. For decades, it was used to grow soybeans… and that’s pretty much it. It was full of weeds, too.

Since 2023, Phil and Kim have done major work. They built a house and a store, put in over 50,000 linear feet of fencing, drilled 3 working wells with solar powered well houses, installed irrigation lines, removed LOTS of weeds, brought in animals, and so very much more.

What The Future Holds

The dream of the ranch is to continue restoring the land and providing good food to people for generations. It’s not just for Phil and Kim now. It’s for their children and grandchildren to carry on.