We had an interesting speaker at the monthly dinner meeting of the Fountain HiIls and Lower Verde Valley Historical Society.

Yes, I said monthly. The Historical Society’s board recently approved the addition of the monthly schedule of dinner meetings from October through May (except for December).

The first speaker in this new schedule was supposed to be Harold Payne, manager of the Fort McDowell farming operations. However, he was on a trip to Chile and sent his son, Michael, who proved to be an excellent replacement.

He began his talk by giving some background on the Fort McDowell tribe. The farming operation originated after the defeat of Orme Dam, which, if it had been built, would have flooded some two-thirds of their reservation land.

That was in 1981.

With assurances from the federal government that they would be keeping their land, the Fort McDowell Yavapai began their various business enterprises including a bingo operation, a sand and gravel plant and a farm. They would later convert the bingo facility into a full gaming casino.

The farm covers 2,000 acres. There are 1,000 acres for pecan trees, 300 acres of citrus and 700 acres are used for field crops (alfalfa and barley).

The pecans are the money crop for the tribe. The trees were planted 16 years ago. They are a variety called Western Schley. The pecan trees yield about 10 cents a nut.

The tribe earns around $15 million on pecans. An interesting thing is how they get picked. A tractor-pulled machine is pulled up to each tree, hooked up and the shaking session for each tree is five seconds.

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Changing the subject, the day that I long for from the time the last man is out in the World Series is finally here on Friday.

That is the opening day of spring training in the Cactus League. Yes, baseball is back!

You can read all about it in the Play Ball issue which is inserted into this week’s edition of The Times. Copies were also mailed to every household in Fountain Hills.

It contains previews of the teams playing in the Cactus League including a schedule of games and locations. There is also a wrap-up of last year’s unbelievable season which saw the Chicago Cubs win a World Series title for the first time since 1908, the longest dry streak of any major league team.

There is also a story about the Cactus League Hall of Fame honoring four African-American players who broke the color barrier in the Cactus League. They are Larry Doby, Willie Mays, Monte Irvin and Ernie Banks.

Each of these stories was written by Charlie Vascellaro.

Charlie worked at The Times, writing sports while he attended Arizona State University.

It has become tradition that we attend at least one game together during each spring training season.

And that’s where you’ll find us on Saturday when the Giants play the Cubs in Scottsdale.

Play ball!