The Road That is Ever Winding

Its 6 am on Sunday morning. In a couple hours the kids will be awake and we will be frantically getting ready to make it to church on time. After church (hopefully not during church) I will sit in my chair and fall asleep instantly with kids crawling all over me. It seems as if my best rest of the week is Sunday afternoons when all systems are completely shut down and relaxed.

More stuff is happening each day this summer than what can begin to be written in this blog... Its an amazing, but yet somewhat difficult transition for me because I have spent the last 8 years with a camera in my pocket each day taking pictures and documenting the process of creating a lake and land management business from scratch. All of us Herman Brothers have been working nonstop like crazy focused on building this business, but now we find ourselves on a different path.

When we finalized the purchase of the Giant Goose Ranch in January, we had visions of being able to work there full time managing that property in 5-7 yrs... Well, here we are 7 months later and we have more work lined up to do on that property than what we can accomplish in the next 5 years!!! Our goal for the goose ranch for this year was to give it a face lift and fill up our 240 existing campsites, get 50 fishing memberships and 15 hunting memberships.

Those goals were met pretty much instantly so then we started working on years 2, 3, and even 4 of our 5 year plan! We are currently creating 70 more premium annual campsites and about half of them are already reserved before we are even finished! Also we are creating a cabins only section with 155 lake front cabin sites that also lease out by the year and we already have 58 of those sold! The cabin lots lease out for $2300-$3500 per year and we custom build the camping cabins 14' wide by 24-36' long. Camping cabins start at $25,000. These cabins you own, just like owning a camper or motorhome. At this pace we will be sold out by next year, but its gonna take a few years to get em all built.


We have alot of them under contruction now!!





We only have 2-3 fishing memberships left at $900 per year and then any new fishing memberships after that will be $2500 per year. 100% of the fishing membership funds goes directly to fish! The fishery at the goose ranch is well on its way to becoming not only the best in the midwest, but the most diverse in the nation!

The brook and rainbow trout in big lake have grown rapidly into the 12-18" range. The tiger muskies and walleye in spool lake are jumping up a bit better than expected as well. The hybrid striped bass and brown trout in ski lake will start stripping drags next summer. The northern pike for west lake and the smallmouth bass and yellow perch for highrise lake are coming this fall! We have started a walleye and crappie lake, and even have plans on creating the ultimate trash fish ponds with bowfin, gar, and carp!

Here are some pics form the goose ranch so far... you have to work for the big ones, but are rewarded big time for your efforts:Goose Ranch Fishing Pics

Anyhow, the goose ranch is a culmination of everything we have learned and experienced working for other people on their recreational properties. For the next 3-5 years HB crews will be working nonstop out at the goose ranch building cabins, docks, beaches, pavilions, bathhouses, swimming pools, archery ranges, playgrounds, orchards, gardens, and the best fisheries on the planet!

One other super cool note is that I am not the one documenting the projects any longer. Backroads Entertainment and the Great American Country channel are the ones documenting the progress and projects everyday with a full film crew. The show we are making is called the Lake Life and the Giant Goose Ranch in Canton, IL is the home base for the show! We will be filming everyday for the next 4 months.

We had an awesome Independance day celebration at the goose ranch!! lots of food, fun, rain, and then fireworks!








Couple weeks ago I took a group of 12 fishing at the same time, we had a blast:



Also a couple weekends ago we had 200 boys out for boys camp at our place. We did a
little catfishing Saturday morning. We needed a bunch of fish to feed them boys...


So the story of our lives is the path is ever winding. I can't quite say one chapter is closed and another is opening, but probably more like every experience is leading towards the next. God has big plans and we are excited every chance we get to peak around the corner and see whats next. He has instilled in us a passion for fish, wildlife, and family recreation. Our job the last 8 years has been helping families around the midwest develop their own private recreational properties and now our occupation will be helping families around the midwest spend time together outdoors at the Giant Goose Ranch!