With our winter staff rolling into the ranch this week, and orientation kicking off into high speed, the off-season has officially come to an end. The ranch doesn’t open it’s doors for guests for a little while still, but the pace and activity level is at full throttle again.
During the last few weeks of off-season, those of us at the ranch have been busy getting the finishing touches on our many projects. One of the exciting ones we have on the front burner right now is gearing up for a full remodel of our duplex to make it guest ready for next summer. The other day Bill, Ben, and I spent the whole day at the interior decorator’s shop picking out tile, carpet, counter tops, fireplace stone, and more. Now, you have to understand that none of us relish in this, especially Ben. But, we gutted it out under the amazing guidance of Yvonne, and came up with some great picks. The North Fork and South Fork units are going to be gorgeous and have a serene views of the Winter horse pasture.
In other exciting off-season news, Bill has been moving into his new house. It’s been on his radar for years to move off the ranch and buy a home of his own, and he took the plunge this fall. After over 20 years of living on the ranch, he’s finding all sorts of treasures as he packs up!
During a moment of weakness, Ben got talked into joining the board of the Colorado Dude and Guest Ranch Association. He’ll be heading to meetings throughout the year to help the board oversee the marketing, policies, and direction of the association, which is made up of about 30 ranches in Colorado. It’s a great organization that encourages industry cooperation, and we’re proud to have Ben serving on the board.
Beka is a blur today as she gets ready for all our staff to arrive. Grace put the finishing touches on the staff housing in anticipation of the staff coming in today. The chefs are prepping dinner for our Welcome Dinner, and we’re having our first manager meeting of the season to regroup and get everyone back together again.
To top it all off, we got another 3 inches of snow last night, and there is more coming tonight. It’s beginning to look a lot like Winter around here!