As we head into our long winter, we savor the last of these beautiful fall days. Actually, we cling to these days with all our might--our fists clenched as tight as possible on the coat-tails of these final warm, sunny hours.The colors this year were phenomenal. Have a look!
It's that time of year again. The guests have all gone home, the nights are getting colder and the leaves are changing. And, the cows are headed home. Every fall, Randy Sue spends a week or so finding her cows on the open range and bringing them back to Drowsy Water. With luck, the whole herd comes home looking healthy after a summer eating green mountain grasses. Lucky for me, I was invited to help on one big round-up day. I've done one a time or two, and I have to say that there is something in my soul that just sings when I [...]
The coolest thing about raising ranch kid is watching them get to do fun things for the first time. We took Peyton to her first day of pre-school on Monday and, in the last week, she has had a few other firsts.Her uncle Ryan recently flew home in his newest obsession--a 1977 Piper Turbo Arrow III. It might be older than Justin and I, but it is a perfect first plane for Ryan's flying and flight instruction. He's been taking his family on flights, teaching Justin and Ian for a private pilot's license, and doing other fun things liking buzzing the supper ride last [...]
Thursdays at the ranch start out slow. We lolly-gag to the barn then mount up for a leasurely ride up the mountain to our breakfast point dining room. There, atop the mountain, you relax while enjoying the majestic view and the magnificent food. After riding back down from the point, the morning is filled with ample opportunity to read a book, relax in the yard, play in the creek, or take a little snooze. After lunch, the tone around here changes. Teams are named for the afternoon's event and normally calm guests start slinging foul names and gestures at one another. Sweat starts gathering [...]
We have a few mouths to feed around here this time of year. Yes, we feed our guests first and foremost, but then we also have the horses, the cows, the pigs, the chickens and the ducks. Probably our two biggest eaters this time of year are the horses and the pigs. The horses eat grain twice a day and then hay and grass throughout the day and night. The pigs are treated twice a day to gourmet slop. We feed most of our waste food from our kitchen to our pigs. From steak and salad to eggs and pancakes or even homemade carrot [...]
He's the head wrangler and the horse-boss. He oversees the wrangling, feeding, saddling and doctoring of the herd and he manages the barn staff. With a herd of over 115 horses, this means a whole heck of a lot of work. But Ryan loves it. He knows the horses, the rides, the riders, and the ranch. You want to know anything about any horse, you can ask him. You want to be his understudy, do you? First things first then. Let's work on learning the horses' names. Here are a few of the herd. Can you guess who they are?
We get plenty of horse crazy folks here. They have horse shirts, horse pins, and horse posters. They know the sweet smell of manure, enjoy the feel of soft leather under their tush and the sound of hoof beats on the ground is music to their ears. But this horse obsessed life isn't for everyone. And for those less-horsey folks, we offer plenty to keep them busy during their vacation at Drowsy Water Ranch.One example of an alternative activity is Thursday afternoon's guided hike with Randy Sue. Yes, yet another Randy Sue adventure. (That woman is everywhere!)Yesterday we took a willing crew up to [...]
We pushed our cows out just a few weeks ago. Randy Sue heads up the operation--planning and executing the ideal procedure for moving the cows out onto open range for the summer. But now, the cows are out there somewhere and, as usual, they've been a-wanderin'. We've seen a few pairs here, a few pairs there, and a few way up there while a few others are way down there. We never know where they'll end up. Tomorrow, Randy Sue will head up one of her famed all-day cow rides. Now, not just anyone gets to go out looking for and mooooving cows (sorry, [...]
For flower enthusiasts, it might as well be Christmas around Drowsy Water Ranch. With our beautiful wildflowers blooming all over the ranch and the trails, our horseback rides are a real treat.And the star of this wildflower-holiday-season is the Columbine. The state flower, commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Columbine or the Colorado Columbine, is a marvelous lavender, white, and gold flower. The flower was discovered on Pike's Peak in 1820 by mountain climber Edwin James. The flower was then unofficially adopted as the Colorado state flower in 1891 when Colorado school children voted on their favorite flower. In 1899, a Colorado Women's club [...]
Sure, the ranch might be named after some romantic little trickle of a stream that runs through our secluded mountain valley here at Drowsy Water Ranch but, this time of year, the ranch name could easily be changed to Wild Rapids. This year's snowpack in our high country was around 130 percent of normal. That means we're bracing for high water and potential flooding in the coming days as our sleepy little creek roars through the ranch. Downstream of Drowsy Water Creek, the Colorado River is swelling. Folks along the banks of the Colorado are biting their nails as record flows threaten to approach. [...]