It feels like both forever ago and just yesterday that Lorie and I met in a Statistics class at UW–Madison. We’re proud Badger fans and lifelong Cheeseheads at heart—but we’ve adapted well to Chiefs Kingdom and never miss a good football game.

Lorie continues to pour her heart into teaching Kindergarten in the St. Joseph school district. She’s gifted with a passion for sewing, quilting, and cooking—and she has an extraordinary talent for caring for her husband, which I’m grateful for every single day. 😊

We tied the knot during my senior year at the UW, though Lorie still had a year to go. Truth be told, she’s never really stopped learning. She earned her first degree in Retail and Management from Mankato State, followed by a second in Family and Consumer Sciences (formerly Home Ec) from UW–Stout, and later completed her Master’s at Fort Hays State. Her professional development with additional classes continues to this day. Her dedication to growth and education has always amazed me. Teaching kindergartners and a class size of 20+ to boot, now that is something to be proud of and she is amazing at it.

After college, we had no clear roadmap—just a lot of desire and a willingness to ride the roller coaster of life together. My first job was in commodity trading, which I did for six years. Then, life took a turn: my uncle retired from the family’s original 80-cow dairy farm in northeast Wisconsin, and my dad needed a new partner. So we dove in headfirst, expanding the farm to 500 milking cows between 1991 and 2006.

Eventually, we faced a personal bankruptcy—an incredibly humbling chapter that taught us more than we ever expected. In hindsight, it was probably the only way God could get my attention and nudge me toward a new path. We sold the farm in 2006, and I returned to commodity trading, this time in renewable fuels and the ethanol business.

Since then, our journey has taken us through seven different states, chasing opportunities and growing through each move. Most recently, I worked with a major oil company in Houston, helping site a renewable jet fuel plant on the Houston Ship Channel.

As college sweethearts, we have been married over 40 years, and over time, our family has grown to eight members—four biological sons and two adopted daughters. It was our daughters who inspired the evolution of this dream. Witnessing the stark difference between the boys' pre-iPhone days on the farm and the impact those same devices had on our girls, we decided to take action. And so, Selah Hills Ranch was born—a name rooted in the Biblical term often thought to mean "pause and reflect."

In 2025, we finally turned the page toward the life we’ve always dreamed of. Back in 2010, we bought an old horse pasture and that’s been our home base ever since. That first summer, our family lived in a camper and tents, followed by two years in a garage—seven of us, no debt, and a whole lot of grit. We cleared the land ourselves, bit by bit, and poured our hearts into it. We purchased a few cows and chickens along the way and now we are building a second home on this property to share with you as soon as able.

Today, with sweat equity and unwavering determination, we’re proud to call Selah Hills Ranch home. It’s our little slice of heaven, and we’re thrilled to share it with you while we continue to grow and improve.

We look forward to meeting you, hearing your story, and learning what’s on your heart—if you feel comfortable sharing. In the meantime, we invite you to sit back, relax, and soak in all the beauty and peace that God has to offer.

Welcome to Selah Hills Ranch. It truly is a wonderful place to be.

Life Has Been A Roller Coaster