A Conversation with
Dan DeVaul
Sunny Acres Founder Dan De Vaul sat down with recovering Banana Slug (and Columbia Journalism School alum), Chris Hart Nibbrig, for a conversation.
Chris Hart Nibbrig: How’s Dan DeVaul today?
Dan DeVaul: Oh, I’m okay, I guess.
CHN: How long has your family been on this land?
DeVaul: I don’t know exactly, but I know my dad and my uncle, who were in business together, the DeVaul brothers, first rented this ranch in 1936. They leased it from the Morganti family. This was their first business venture together. My dad’s mother’s father bought the ranch at Madonna and Los Osos Valley Road in the late 1800s.
CHN: When were you born?
DeVaul: 1943.
CHN: Who made up the DeVaul household when you were growing up?
DeVaul: I have a sister three years older than me, a brother who died, who was three years older than her; and another sister three years younger than me. My sisters are Deanna and Donna. My dad was Alva, “Alvie,” Mother was Evelyn.
CHN: How big was the ranch when you were growing up?
DeVaul: I believe this ranch was two-fifty acres, something like that. They [the DeVaul bros.] started out by milking cows, grade B. They planted sorghum, beans, pink beans… various root crops.
In about 1949 or 50, they built that concrete building over there (points). They ran a Grade A Dairy business.
CHN: How many people worked at the ranch?
DeVaul: They had an average 4 people year round. Between running cattle, bringing them from one ranch to the other, keeping the dairy going, a bunch of crops. This was a going operation.
CHN: Did you work?
DeVaul: Yes. I got a social security card when I was about eight years old. They would pay us starting out at 25 or 50 cents an hour. My uncle was not as strict or as motivating (laughs) as my dad. My dad used to say his kids were his most important crop. Since I was the only boy, you can read into that whatever way you want.
CHN: What is your education?
DeVaul: High School, and in and out of college.
CHN: Did you finish?
DeVaul: No…
CHN: What did you study?
DeVaul: Everything from mechanized ag; to business administration
CHN: Did you go to Cal Poly?
DeVaul: Cal Poly and Arizona State.
CHN: What are some of things you’ve done occupationally?
DeVaul: I did a lot of welding. I worked in gas stations repairing cars, pumping gas. I briefly did legal process serving. I was a inside sales with a large welding company. I was an industrial salesman, outside sales, with the credit card, the car, the expense account, and the quota. For the outside sales job, I sold everything from paint to motors to tools. In the back of the car I had all of these catalogs.
CHN: I understand you had an accident.
DeVaul: It happened in 1970. I was living a very wild life. Drinking a lot. I had done a lot of impetuous shit. I had over forty moving violations by the time I was twenty years old. In 1970, I was in Arizona. I had two houses there. I had been working in a steel mill pouring steel. Then I went with a company that sold heavy equipment, bulldozers for International Tractor, big cranes. I left them, and I was once again going to attend ASU full-time and finish my degree. I had two houses and was renting out rooms. I thought I could knuckle down and finish the degree. Two weeks after the semester started, I was out in my dune buggy. I had been out drinking very heavily the night before, and had gone on my second date with my to-be second wife. We’d gone way out in the boonies, and coming back I rolled the dune buggy and it crushed my neck. I was paralyzed from the neck down. I was first taken to Scottsdale Memorial Hospital. I was there for two days and three nights. I was then transferred to Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. I was transported to the Barrow Institute in a box van, because I was already immobilized in a ‘circle bed,’which was too big for an ambulance. I was at the Barrow Institute for about four or five months. I was finally transferred to Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix and was there for another four-to-five months. They were shooting the drugs in me like it was going out of style. They were shooting me with 128 milligrams of Talwin every three or four hours. They had to keep me still. I had a little bit of movement with my left hand movement. Time passed slowly. The seconds turned into years, the minutes into centuries.
CHN: What happened after you left the hospital?
DeVaul: I wanted out of that hospital so bad, and to get back to normal life so fast. I made a deal with the last one after the eight months that I would come back for therapy five days a week.
CHN: Did you?
DeVaul: No. I didn’t go to the doctor. I didn’t go to the hospital. I just checked myself out. And at home, I just dragged myself around the garage. I didn’t have a lot of money, but I could cover my expenses … and I was out of the hospital, I was free.
CHN: So, how did you end up coming back to California?
DeVaul: Okay, I’m living in one of my basement apartments in Arizona. I had just ended a relationship and was deeply depressed. Not eating. Smoking a lot. My ex-wife came by to check on me and told me to go back to California. So, I fly out here. And I’m talking to my Dad. For the first time in my life, he says, “I’ve always loved all you kids.” Then I got back on the plane and flew back to Arizona and pick up the pieces.
So, I muscled through it, got better. Had all these houses. Then one day I thought, “Why am dealing with this shit?” I thought I just want to get the fuck out of town. I want to go back to the ranch. I wanted to establish a relationship with my dad. I don’t care how hard it is, how painful. I was stronger now. This isn’t touchy feely. I’m going to go around in the truck with him, and work with him, until I can establish a relationship. That’s what I did.
CHN: How did Sunny Acres begin on this land?
DeVaul: After my dad died, I eventually came to own this ranch. I was working putting in a well on the property, and there was this homeless guy who was in the area a lot. This guy had AIDS, Hep C, you name it. No teeth in his head. He would take anything, like in a Cheech & Chong movie. The guy was clear out of his mind. One day, he says to me, “The county has bought me a camper, but I don’t have a place to park it. I can live in it and be your night watchman.” Technically that was the start of Sunny Acres.
CHN: What year was that?
DeVaul: ‘96
CHN: Why do you keep Sunny Acres going?
DeVaul: Since the start of Sunny Acres, I wanted, number one, to work with the indigent population. It wasn’t a money-making venture. But I didn’t want to put a bunch of my money into it. I knew I was going to have to put some money up, I was glad to put the money up, but I knew in time that I could make it self-sufficient, and it is. I wanted to help the homeless, and the addicts and incarcerated people that were either in the creek, or on the streets. I wanted to help them help themselves.
CHN: Why do you want to help these people?
DeVaul: I have learned that there’s a number of them that can, and want, to help themselves. I wanted a program that would build itself by the people who come through it.
CHN: Why do you keep doing this?
DeVaul: First, I’m hyperactive. I like to be doing things. When I was in my greatest depression my doctor said to do something every morning. Make yourself get up and started. I remember I went down into my shop. And there were a bunch of hammer heads with the handles busted. Then I went and found a bunch of handles and put all those hammer heads and handles together. I found that very therapeutic. I realized that working and creating, fixing something -- an old car, an old tractor or a hammer without a handle -- is very rewarding.
CHN: You like to restore things.
DeVaul (smiles): I like to restore fucked up people because I are one.
Dan DeVaul
Sunny Acres Founder Dan De Vaul sat down with recovering Banana Slug (and Columbia Journalism School alum), Chris Hart Nibbrig, for a conversation.
Chris Hart Nibbrig: How’s Dan DeVaul today?
Dan DeVaul: Oh, I’m okay, I guess.
CHN: How long has your family been on this land?
DeVaul: I don’t know exactly, but I know my dad and my uncle, who were in business together, the DeVaul brothers, first rented this ranch in 1936. They leased it from the Morganti family. This was their first business venture together. My dad’s mother’s father bought the ranch at Madonna and Los Osos Valley Road in the late 1800s.
CHN: When were you born?
DeVaul: 1943.
CHN: Who made up the DeVaul household when you were growing up?
DeVaul: I have a sister three years older than me, a brother who died, who was three years older than her; and another sister three years younger than me. My sisters are Deanna and Donna. My dad was Alva, “Alvie,” Mother was Evelyn.
CHN: How big was the ranch when you were growing up?
DeVaul: I believe this ranch was two-fifty acres, something like that. They [the DeVaul bros.] started out by milking cows, grade B. They planted sorghum, beans, pink beans… various root crops.
In about 1949 or 50, they built that concrete building over there (points). They ran a Grade A Dairy business.
CHN: How many people worked at the ranch?
DeVaul: They had an average 4 people year round. Between running cattle, bringing them from one ranch to the other, keeping the dairy going, a bunch of crops. This was a going operation.
CHN: Did you work?
DeVaul: Yes. I got a social security card when I was about eight years old. They would pay us starting out at 25 or 50 cents an hour. My uncle was not as strict or as motivating (laughs) as my dad. My dad used to say his kids were his most important crop. Since I was the only boy, you can read into that whatever way you want.
CHN: What is your education?
DeVaul: High School, and in and out of college.
CHN: Did you finish?
DeVaul: No…
CHN: What did you study?
DeVaul: Everything from mechanized ag; to business administration
CHN: Did you go to Cal Poly?
DeVaul: Cal Poly and Arizona State.
CHN: What are some of things you’ve done occupationally?
DeVaul: I did a lot of welding. I worked in gas stations repairing cars, pumping gas. I briefly did legal process serving. I was a inside sales with a large welding company. I was an industrial salesman, outside sales, with the credit card, the car, the expense account, and the quota. For the outside sales job, I sold everything from paint to motors to tools. In the back of the car I had all of these catalogs.
CHN: I understand you had an accident.
DeVaul: It happened in 1970. I was living a very wild life. Drinking a lot. I had done a lot of impetuous shit. I had over forty moving violations by the time I was twenty years old. In 1970, I was in Arizona. I had two houses there. I had been working in a steel mill pouring steel. Then I went with a company that sold heavy equipment, bulldozers for International Tractor, big cranes. I left them, and I was once again going to attend ASU full-time and finish my degree. I had two houses and was renting out rooms. I thought I could knuckle down and finish the degree. Two weeks after the semester started, I was out in my dune buggy. I had been out drinking very heavily the night before, and had gone on my second date with my to-be second wife. We’d gone way out in the boonies, and coming back I rolled the dune buggy and it crushed my neck. I was paralyzed from the neck down. I was first taken to Scottsdale Memorial Hospital. I was there for two days and three nights. I was then transferred to Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. I was transported to the Barrow Institute in a box van, because I was already immobilized in a ‘circle bed,’which was too big for an ambulance. I was at the Barrow Institute for about four or five months. I was finally transferred to Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix and was there for another four-to-five months. They were shooting the drugs in me like it was going out of style. They were shooting me with 128 milligrams of Talwin every three or four hours. They had to keep me still. I had a little bit of movement with my left hand movement. Time passed slowly. The seconds turned into years, the minutes into centuries.
CHN: What happened after you left the hospital?
DeVaul: I wanted out of that hospital so bad, and to get back to normal life so fast. I made a deal with the last one after the eight months that I would come back for therapy five days a week.
CHN: Did you?
DeVaul: No. I didn’t go to the doctor. I didn’t go to the hospital. I just checked myself out. And at home, I just dragged myself around the garage. I didn’t have a lot of money, but I could cover my expenses … and I was out of the hospital, I was free.
CHN: So, how did you end up coming back to California?
DeVaul: Okay, I’m living in one of my basement apartments in Arizona. I had just ended a relationship and was deeply depressed. Not eating. Smoking a lot. My ex-wife came by to check on me and told me to go back to California. So, I fly out here. And I’m talking to my Dad. For the first time in my life, he says, “I’ve always loved all you kids.” Then I got back on the plane and flew back to Arizona and pick up the pieces.
So, I muscled through it, got better. Had all these houses. Then one day I thought, “Why am dealing with this shit?” I thought I just want to get the fuck out of town. I want to go back to the ranch. I wanted to establish a relationship with my dad. I don’t care how hard it is, how painful. I was stronger now. This isn’t touchy feely. I’m going to go around in the truck with him, and work with him, until I can establish a relationship. That’s what I did.
CHN: How did Sunny Acres begin on this land?
DeVaul: After my dad died, I eventually came to own this ranch. I was working putting in a well on the property, and there was this homeless guy who was in the area a lot. This guy had AIDS, Hep C, you name it. No teeth in his head. He would take anything, like in a Cheech & Chong movie. The guy was clear out of his mind. One day, he says to me, “The county has bought me a camper, but I don’t have a place to park it. I can live in it and be your night watchman.” Technically that was the start of Sunny Acres.
CHN: What year was that?
DeVaul: ‘96
CHN: Why do you keep Sunny Acres going?
DeVaul: Since the start of Sunny Acres, I wanted, number one, to work with the indigent population. It wasn’t a money-making venture. But I didn’t want to put a bunch of my money into it. I knew I was going to have to put some money up, I was glad to put the money up, but I knew in time that I could make it self-sufficient, and it is. I wanted to help the homeless, and the addicts and incarcerated people that were either in the creek, or on the streets. I wanted to help them help themselves.
CHN: Why do you want to help these people?
DeVaul: I have learned that there’s a number of them that can, and want, to help themselves. I wanted a program that would build itself by the people who come through it.
CHN: Why do you keep doing this?
DeVaul: First, I’m hyperactive. I like to be doing things. When I was in my greatest depression my doctor said to do something every morning. Make yourself get up and started. I remember I went down into my shop. And there were a bunch of hammer heads with the handles busted. Then I went and found a bunch of handles and put all those hammer heads and handles together. I found that very therapeutic. I realized that working and creating, fixing something -- an old car, an old tractor or a hammer without a handle -- is very rewarding.
CHN: You like to restore things.
DeVaul (smiles): I like to restore fucked up people because I are one.
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