My Christmas tree farm got Federal disaster relief funds for the extreme heat last year.

Hello rob here from the flanigan Homestead going to take a little bit of A break from the chores at the house and Share with you uh how i did all my Disaster relief money so if you’ve been Following the channel You know that our christmas tree farm Saw the record heat i mean not just Record heat but blew the doors off Record heat as in my farm the hottest Day it had ever seen before was 104 Degrees it got to 118 degrees And uh last year and that was during the Growing season not when the trees were Supposed to be going dormant but it was In june when the trees are still Supposed to be growing so it just Devastated my christmas trees And So I i have tried in years past i contacted The usda united states department of Agriculture And asked if i could get crop insurance Because i’d had other former friends say You can get crop insurance through the Usda well i talked to them it turns out That’s not true You could get crop insurance if you are A food crop But they they said for christmas trees We wouldn’t do it and they were Recommending the other places that were Private but private insurance companies

Are in the business of making money they Insure you against great loss but they Need to make money so you end up paying Them more than you end up getting back That’s how it works the usda Is trying to protect farmers and Especially our food sources so uh my Friends that did food crops they said That they would get more money back Every year than they paid in for crop Insurance so i i tried to get crop Insurance for the christmas trees Couldn’t do it so anyway when all my Trees died in the heat last year I thought well that’s it and you know i I couldn’t get insurance and i didn’t Have insurance so they’re just a loss And i it’s just part of farming uh you Have some bad years where you lose a lot And you have some good years so i was Ready to go And then my brother calls me who’s was Going to his son’s college football game And he said and he was riding with his Father-in-law who now is a county agent For the usda and said you know your Brother can get uh relief for his Christmas trees and so glenn calls me Says you can get and i said no i can’t I’ve tried to Get insurance there is no insurance and So he texts me back no he’s pretty sure You can get some money and i said no I’ve investigated this i can’t but it

Turns out i didn’t have insurance but The usda has disaster relief funds and So after talking to My father my brother’s father-in-law no Relation of mine technically uh then i i Contacted the count the Area Represented the hub which is in Goldendale washington which is not Really close to us it’s on the other Side of the mountains but they said yeah We could potentially do that so anyway They made me uh show me the loss they Came out i had to there’s a great of a Map of my farm and put blocks and what Percentage of trees i lost but i had Planted 2 000 trees last year and i lost 1 970 of them i had 30 trees survive Out of all of last year and so i gave Them that and i showed them some of the Other trees that have died and anyway So they saw the loss they documented it With pictures and everything and then They said okay save your receipts and Expenses for replanting so so i saved my Resp receipts and listed my expenses and They we got to count some of our own Hours uh they only allowed us to count 15 an hour for our own hours So our labor was getting paid more than Us but uh anyway i turned in expenses to Replant my 2000 trees of a little over Four thousand dollars because That’s about what it costs anyway about

Two dollars a tree to get replanted they Said i could uh count the cost of the Trees labor uh field preparation Uh all those other things and so i had a Little over four thousand dollars in Receipts i turned in i turned those in They came back just a few weeks ago and Saw that all the trees were replanted Checked the receipts and i just got Payments of uh 2248 And reimbursements for disaster relief This is insurance i didn’t even pay for It’s just through the usda and because We had a natural disaster it happened so And i called him back and i said you Know i turned in re you know You said i had ex you i could claim Expenses up to 4 300 And i had 4 100 i think i turned in i Said how come i only got 22 and they Said well sorry for the misunderstanding We could only pay out 65 percent of Whatever then there’s a Fee that had to come off of that but Anyway i did get 2200 and almost 250 Back which is better than the sharp Stick in the eye i did not pay an Insurance premium this is just a Government aid uh disaster relief Because we had a natural disaster so Anyway i Hope that helped you uh if you find Reasonable christmas tree insurance let Me know uh there are private companies

That do it and it’s quite expensive and They only ensure They don’t want to ensure The uh first year plantings which are The ones that you’re most likely to lose So Anyway that’s my story i was happy to Get some of that back get me started uh Get my trees growing again so thanks for Joining me on the flanigan homestead Where christmas trees are my business Teaching including horticulture is my Job and outdoor projects are my passion Be blessed everyone hope your trees Don’t die on you i hope mine take off And do well this year