Feeling Good

Just a brief update.

We harvested over 2600 pounds of flawless shrimp in total from 10 ponds this past week.

A remarkable number of pounds made even more remarkable when you consider everything that we have been through in trying to integrate all of the system components over the past 120 days.

In the ponds where the growth trials had been going since early January many of the shrimp were 40 grams plus which was amazing.

The system is performing even beyond expectations.

Sometime on a Sunday it is just nice to take a moment and feel good.

Little Lives and Big Plans

Where I am living right now is absolutely beautiful.


The house I am in has a large enclosed courtyard with an amazing fountain in the middle of that courtyard.


It also is home to a rich diversity of birds, bugs, and lizards.


So far I have managed to count at least 7 individual personalities in the resident lizard population.


I have named some of them.  


There is "Half-Tail", (obviously he has a shortened tail, no doubt from a narrow escape from some larger predator). There is "Bold Boy", (he literally hangs upside down and stares right in my eyes), and there is "Swifty". 


Swifty is the fastest lizard I have ever seen, with an incredibly long tail.


After about three weeks of trying I finally got a picture of him yesterday.

Sometimes I am simply mesmerized by the richness of the activity all of these small but incomparably complex life forms experience every day.


They face daily struggles and travails just as daunting as those I feel I face yet they are irrepressible in their determination to succeed and indeed flourish. And they do it all with a fascinating sense of optimism and dogged persistence. 


Their lives may seem little to me but after close observation I suspect their goals and plans are as big and ambitious to them as I feel mine are to me.


Speaking of big plans, we harvested over 1,000 pounds of shrimp yesterday as part of the conclusion of our growth and biological trials.


The system has been performing brilliantly but we still had not seen the overall condition of the shrimp in large scale numbers nor had we faced the final and perhaps most important question, to wit; "how would they taste?"  


Ultimately, it is the quality and taste of the product that will make or break any endeavor such as ours. 


Our system is a "natural system." In addition to being recirculating, bio-secure, and environmentally friendly our system reduces FCR's and feed costs by creating and managing a nutrient rich bio-floc upon which the shrimp feed. 


With outside observers and seafood experts standing by, after close examination the harvested shrimp were pronounced , "beautiful and flawless in external appearance;

and after a simple and quick boil, and cooling on some ice, 

the penultimate comment by our resident expert on seafood marketing and quality said, " Not to be over dramatic but these are the best shrimp I have every tasted". Other comments were " they taste sweet, with a flavor profile like a lobster firm and crisp", and my favorite, "think how good these will taste with a little melted butter". 


So, the last question has been answered.


Now, we are making adjustments and some improvements to the production greenhouse and we will restock that 1/4 scale facility to full commercial densities in the weeks ahead, but our big plans are now to quickly find the funding to build full size production greenhouses and expand production to significant numbers as soon as possible. 


And we will be irrepressible in our determination to succeed and indeed flourish. 


And we will follow the example of those "little lives" around me, and do it all with a fascinating sense of optimism and dogged persistence. 

Charm

Twenty-six years ago I met a special creature that was destined to be one of the great loves of my life.

Even at that first meeting you could see she was special. 

Intelligent, beautiful, with enormous eyes that literally took in everything around her.

I met her in 1985.

We would spend the next decade taking on trails, and walking through country sides, and forging a very close bond.

I would like to say I taught her many things but the truth is whatever meager things she may have learned from me were trite compared to the lessons and values she taught me. She arrived in my life with more wisdom than most people display after decades of living. 

I drew strength from her strength, learned from her what real loyalty meant, watched her determination and spirit define her behavior every day of her life and most importantly learned from having her in my life what being responsible really demands. 

On many an occasion when my world seemed "upside down" I would go to her and see my fears and anxieties disappear as her quiet strength and honesty put things in perspective.

She has been in my life since she was six months old and she recently turned 27 years old.

Tonight I am many miles away from her but thinking about her very much. 

Don't ever let anyone tell you the world has grown so modern and so technologically sophisticated that the warmth and affection we can draw from an animal does not trump the accolades of material success society demands of us.

Charm has been in my life 26 plus years and I pray she is with me for many more to come.

She is an pure bred Arabian mare and she is one of the most remarkable creatures I have ever met, human or non-human. 

She is the only horse I have ever even heard about that during a thunderstorm stands outside and watches the lightening.

She often let's herself out of her box stall, no small feat. But more fascinating, she then goes stall to stall and opens the doors for her stable mates.

She is the most social, most calm, most thoughtful being I know.

In the movie Ben-Hur there is a scene in which Charlton Heston meets the four white Arabian horses that will carry him to victory in the chariot races. 

Th exchange between the horses owner, the Arab Sheik Ilderim (played by the wonderful actor, Hugh Griffith), Ben-Hur and the four beautiful Arabian horses always ( even today ) brought tears to my eyes.

I always thought the love and respect the owner of those horses in the movie displayed in the dialogue was something that only came from Hollywood fantasy. 

I was wrong. 

Whomever wrote the words for that scene most of had or known horses they loved. 

I have a horse I love. 

Her name is Charm. 

She has and continues to enrich my life.

She is at 27 (plus) years old. 

I pray she lives many, many, many more. 

 

 

 

Sunday musings

Sunday morning in South Texas, windy, warm, and sunny.


Not a bad environment in which to enjoy one's life.


Lot's to do in the weeks ahead.


Major priority is to secure the needed funding to expand our production capacity. 


Have initiated several different strategies to pursue toward that objective, any of which in and of themselves can work to make that happen.


I am very confident we will be successful in getting those funds over the next few months. 


In addition to creating a significant number of jobs, being sustainable, environmentally very friendly, bio-secure, our system is also very profitable. 


I will be meeting with various individuals and agencies to get that process fully moving forward.


Meanwhile on the site we will begin to start harvesting the in the various ponds we stocked to do growth and system trials back in January and February. 


Then, we will begin to re-stock the respective ponds according to the parameters of the commercial production model we established a few weeks ago.


The second half of 2012 should see some significant harvests that will approach the densities and the size yields we have in our farm and financial models. 


Our system really does benefit from size. The larger our ponds, the better the system performs.


This 1/4 scale model, impressive as it is with over 1 acre under roof, simply does not give us the economies of scale and a larger enough environment to optimize our system's capabilities. 


That said, once we build the first of our full scale production modules in 2013 this current facility will be an excellent juvenile rearing facility. 


On another business front all three books we published under Delight Publishing last year, "Undercover", and my book about "Growing up with my Uncle Joe", (both authored by me) and "Half-Baked Confessions of a True Anti-Chef" by Lori are now available as E-books and can be downloaded on Kindle or other electronic readers, That is very cool. 


I have already downloaded all three on my I-Pad 2. 


I also just got out my 8 weight fly rod and rigged it and have it standing in a corner of the room ready for me to take out one morning and sight fish for those large "red fish" now starting to make their way up on the flats near the shoreline, as they follow the smaller bait fish during high tides. 


Now that I have settled in and recovered from my long trek to and back from Texas to Maryland it is time to get my lazy butt back into  an exercise routine again. 


Life can be very challenging but sometimes simply enjoying a moment in time and place, like today, is a reward for all one's efforts, in itself.  

Random Thoughts

Back in Texas.


Project going very well.


Shrimp are approaching significant sizes in ponds 9 and 11.


This initial production module was a compromise.


 I wanted it to demonstrate the complexities and genius of our system.


I never thought it would perform even close to the full scale designs.


It is surprising me. 


We are that rare system that really gains from size.


The bigger the better for us.


That said, this 1/4 scale module is knocking my socks off. 


We have something very special. 


Next few months should be interesting.


On less important considerations.


I really like that song "Call me, Maybe".


How strange is that ? 


I just ordered new book by Clive Cussler.


His writing is a guilty pleasure.


My book, "Undercover" with no promotion continues to sell. 


Go figure ! 


I miss my black labs. 


For the first time in my life, I am tired of traveling.
been all around the world. 


Worked in over 50 countries.


Finally, happy to be in one spot. 


That said, I am not slowing down, just focusing on a more narrow geographical scope. 

Genius

Everyone is back and settled in Maryland.


I have some business to attend to while I am here but I am already starting to look at dates to head back to Texas.


As I have written before on this blog, our recirculating aquaculture system is (in my opinion) represents a paradigm shift in how marine protein can be grown on land.


It is environmentally friendly, sustainable, and very efficient.


We will probably do a partial selective harvest of one of our ponds in mid-May to get a feel for the quality of our shrimp as well as finally get a small amount through processing and into the market.


I suspect the next few months will be very exciting.


We need to select and secure a site on which to build our next production modules. We need to hire some new people and expand our labor force. We have to interview and select an engineering firm to work with as we design and construct the next phase of our operations.


We are finally actually going to start selling shrimp and increasing our production capability. 


Exciting times indeed. 


This could not, would not be happening, without the abilities and efforts of the very special team of individuals associated with this project. 


They are the driving force making this all work. 


Edison supposedly once said that "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration". 


If that is so, than this team working to make this project a success are all geniuses".  


We may not always have a lot of inspired moments, but we sweat a lot, figuratively and metaphorically.