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Photo by Jim LincolnCustom Ordered Pete Scarmardo has built a successful business buying cattle that meet his customers' needs. In quarter horse circles, Scarmardo's name is widely associated with horse racing. Over the past 15 years, he and his wife, Jo, have built a reputation for owning many of the top winners on the Texas tracks. But the Caldwell, Texas, horse breeder jokes that if you are going to race quarter horses in Texas, where the smaller races tend to offer small purses, "you'd better have a good day job."
Photo courtesy of Nell Rains
Raining Roses Despite her surname, Nell Rains knows a thing or two about drought. The third-generation farmer and longtime Capital Farm Credit customer owns farmland in Swisher and Hale counties in the Texas Panhandle, and her son and husband farm an additional 3,000 acres. She has seen her share of bone-dry weather, dust storms, blazing heat, freezing cold and gale-force winds. Now retired from active farming, she nevertheless maintains her passion for growing things. "When my first husband passed away, I found solace in the soil — it helped me to mend, " Rains says. "I still find that my real interest is digging in the dirt."
 Paula Williamson turned to Trae' Ottmers and Capital Farm Credit to help her winery grow. A More Pressing Engagement For winemaker Paula Williamson, Fredericksburg in the early 1990s was the right place at the right time. It just took her about a decade to get there.. It was on trips to Europe that the San Antonio attorney first fell in love with vineyards and the winery lifestyle, and an emerging Texas wine industry made her realize that she could have that life at home. Once she made up her mind to become a full-time winemaker, she started a search for the perfect property, first in Bandera and Boerne, then in Fredericksburg, where she eventually relocated her main law office to prepare for the transition to a new career.
 Photo by Sheryl Smith-Rodgers
Texas Tough Demand for the bigtooth maple and other hardy native trees has resulted in an unexpected nursery business for a retired couple. This year was a tough year to be in the tree nursery business in Texas. Sweltering temperatures and a severe drought damaged or killed vegetation across the Southwest. But Sam Watson's trees came through the summer showing only minimum stress, thanks largely to compost, mulch and drip irrigation.
Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum Real or artificial? That's a question many Texans ask themselves as the Christmas season approaches, and they start wondering which type of Christmas tree to purchase. As far as Capital Farm Credit customers Kenneth and Kathy Radde are concerned, there's only one answer — and it has nothing to do with an aromatic scent or a natural look. |
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