After a few bad years of peach crops in 1968-69', the Brenda family had to start over from scratch.  The family sold the farm and opened up Valley Tool & Manufacturing on Santa Fe Avenue in Hughson.  The entire facility was only about 1000 square feet.  Valley Tool began as a tool sharpening business for bay area machine shops and over the next decade began to do bid work for companies in the steel industry such as US Steel and Lockheed Martin. 

Fred developed Valley Tool into a full-fledged fabrication shop with a wide variety of capabilities.  In the 1980’s Valley Tool began to diversify again by purchasing the Vrisimo ag mower brand from Gould International and later Windmill Spraymaster.  Vrisimo has always had a loyal following all across the Western United States and continues to live on for generations.  Valley Tool later created its next brand RockHound Attachments – an equipment company focused on contractor and forestry equipment.  RockHound's innovative EX Series of excavator brush mowers has been a gem in the competetive compact attachments industry.