Shoemaker’s Ridge Road Tree Farm
1128 County Road 1500E, Urbana, Illinois 493-3571
Open Thursday through Sunday, 8 am to 5 pm and til 8 pm on Fridays
Be sure you get a fresh tree--cut it yourself!
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Shoemaker’s Ridge Road Tree Farm 1128 County Road 1500E, Urbana, Illinois 493-3571 Open Thursday through Sunday, 8 am to 5 pm and til 8 pm on Fridays Be sure you get a fresh tree--cut it yourself!
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Members, and Past President of Illinois Also members of the National Christmas Tree Association
and the Mid-America Christmas Tree Association.
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Photo of farm taken in August, 2007 (click on photo to enlarge)
Our Farm is for Sale The owners of Ridge Road Tree Farm have decided to retire and are now ready to sell their home, farm, and Christmas tree business. Our plan is to sell the entire operation as a package, including 34 acres of farmland, the home, pond and outbuildings on about 3 acres, and all farm and tree equipment as well. Also included are the 18,000 planted Christmas trees on 21 of the 34 acres (the remaining 13 acres have been planted to corn or soybeans each year). The 2,400 square foot home has a large living room with wood-burning fireplace and propane gas starter, huge family room, kitchen with fruitwood cabinets, dining room, 3 over-sized bedrooms, 2 full baths, washer/dryer closet, 4 walk-in closets, Pella windows and carpeting throughout. The lower level is a full basement which is unfinished except for one room which was built as a 4th bedroom. The original home was built in 1974 and a 1980 addition added the family room and the 3rd upstairs bedroom. There's a 2 car attached garage with 8 foot insulated door and automatic opener. That's also where the furnace room is and in 2007, a high efficiency Bryant propane furnace with electrostatic air cleaner was installed to replace the original. The home also has a second furnace, a Water Furnace heat pump, which extracts heat from water pumped from the well. This is the primary source of heat down to about 30 degrees, when the system switches automatically to the higher capacity Bryant. Because of the Water Furnace, the home qualifies for electricity at 5 cents per kilowatt for 9 months of the year, according to the rate structure of the electricity supplier, Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative. Only a few months ago, a new 85 gallon electric water heater was installed. Home hot water is also generated by the Water Furnace, and that's especially effective in the summer when it's operating in air-conditioning mode. One other recently updated item is the roof, which had new shingles installed in 2006. Outside of the home is an attached redwood deck on the North side accessed by a sliding door from the family room. It's connected to a cedar deck under a permanent roof on the West side of the house. By the deep end of the half-acre pond is a two-story deck, which was popular with our kids as a diving platform. There are two large steel outbuildings. The newer of the two is attached to the home with a passageway from the garage. It's a 36 x 45 Morton building constructed in 2004. It has 16 foot interior height, 4 walk-in doors, a 14 x 14 insulated door with electric opener, concrete floor and full insulation. It has a complete kitchen and customer bathroom and is heated with a propane stove. The primary use of this building has been as our Christmas tree sales room. After cutting their tree, our customers come here to get warm with a hot drink, shop for various other items we sell, and pay for their purchases. The other building is a 36 x 63 machine shed built in 1988. It houses most of the production equipment included in the package offered for sale including a John Deere 4020 tractor with cab and loader, 4 mowers, 3 tree trimmers, 3 tree shakers, 2 tree netting machines, 2 gas-powered tree planting augers, one stump cutter, a tree driller and 30 tree trailers, along with numerous other related items. We've planted 2,000 to 2,500 conifer seedlings each year since 1994. There are now about 18,000 trees in various stages of growth, with 3,000 or so typically tall enough to sell during the Christmas season. We originally planted mostly pine varieties, but since the 2000 planting season, have concentrated on higher-value firs, especially Fraser fir. Our sales each of the last 4 years have been between 1,400 and 1,600 trees each year. A few of those have been balled and burlapped and sold for landscaping but most have been sold as "choose and cut" Christmas trees. This has been a profitable and fun part-time business for us and we expect it would be of interest to others who wish to both live in a modern home in the country but still be close to Urbana. Most unusual is that the farm and business provides income sufficient to pay a significant portion of the mortgage for the entire package.
Other statistics: 2006 Real estate taxes: $4,860 School District: Unit 7 Location: Section 3, Philo Township Distance to the intersection of Windsor Road and Philo Road: 3.25 miles Total farm sales in 2007: $65,000 April, 2008 appraised value of above package: $
Following is the main home page of our website (all of which is also included with the farm sale as described above):
Have
fun finding the perfect tree—explore the farm
We have over
3,000 trees available in eleven different varieties this year: Scotch pine, Eastern White pine, American Red pine,
South-Western White pine, Balsam fir, Canaan fir, Concolor fir,
Douglas fir, Blue spruce, White spruce and Norway
Spruce. All are the freshest
possible, since they’re not harvested until you select them. Unique to our farm is the option of using our electric golf
carts to tour the farm and find a perfect tree.
All customers receive a free cup of hot chocolate or coffee in our
heated salesroom and we have
numerous other delectable goodies for your selection.
Use of our tree shaker is also free and we have a tree baler or
wrapper available, too. In
addition, we have fresh wreaths, tree stands and gift store
items for sale (a modern restroom is also available for customer use). Visa,
Mastercard, personal checks and cash are accepted.
We are open from 8 am til dark every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We'll also be open the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 17th and 18th. And on Fridays, we'll be open until 8:00 pm for busy families, romantic couples, or those who simply want to enjoy the farm by flashlight (and we'll loan you the flashlight!). Tree delivery and setup service! We are now also offering tree delivery and setup service. Once you choose your tree, we'll mark it as "Sold" and arrange a time during the coming week for delivery. We'll wait until just before that time to cut your tree so it will be absolutely fresh and then bring it to your home. If you like, we'll even carry it inside and set it up on your stand for you. After the holidays, we'll also return to remove it for you and recycle it. Tree recycling service! We also now are offering our own tree-recycling service. Anyone who wants may drop off their tree after the season and we'll turn it into wood chips and use them to protect the new seedlings we put out in the Spring. Use of tree trailers, hand saws--Free! Tree shaking--Free! Photo of your family with your tree--Free! Hot chocolate or coffee--Free! Tree recycling--Free! Our pricing structure is very simple: all trees are $27.95, except for a few that are marked otherwise. We're confident you'll love our huge variety of trees available for your selection!
Scenes at the farm from February 26, 2002 snowstorm:
Scenes at the farm from December 18, 2007:
The extended Shoemaker family, your hosts at RRTF
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Cut your own Christmas tree 
