Somehow my blogging habit got buried in the snow this past month. It’s not hard as it has been snowing almost non-stop until this week. Although most of us love fresh snow and it makes for a lot of fun adventures, after a certain point we all need a little vitamin D therapy when it snows day after day after day….
For those of you who like to keep up on what’s happening at the ranch, I’ll give you a little update.
In the barn, Sam and KP continue their horse shopping spree. Each year we need to add to our herd to ensure that we have enough solid and sound riding horses. In the dude ranch world as the horses age, they get upgraded to kids only. I say upgraded as it’s a pretty cushy life taking short rides out with the little kiddos. As these horses move out of the adult riding string, we have to replace them with younger mounts. In the past we tend to attend a number of horse sales in the spring. But, this always leaves us biting our nails as you don’t know what you’ll find, or if what you see at the sale is really who the horse will be once you get them home. So, in the effort to always try to do things better, we are shopping a little differently this year. Sam and KP have been perusing the online horse sale listings, traveling all over the state to try out horses, and bringing them home one by one. It’s a little more time intensive, but we’re hoping for great results with this new approach to horse buying. So far they have acquired some great ones. They’ve found Turtle, Blondie, Bugs, My favorite is a mother-son pair who look almost identical. The seller showed Sam and KP the son, named “Bugs”. After he watched them really like Bugs, he thought about how his wife had been bugging him to get rid of more of his horses, so he ran back to the barn and pulled out “Sadie”, the mom, to add to the mix. Like mother like son? Yep, it was a two-fer on that day.
Moving down to the dining room, it’s been a great season of hearty winter food and fabulous pastries. We’ve committed to the weekly wine-pairing dinner all winter long, and I got to join the fun last week. Chef JT and Chol had decided to change up the menu so it was fun to see the new food and wine pairings put into play. My favorite was the chicken liver pate ravioli. Note that this is a big deal, as I can have a bit of a “ewww” factor when it comes to unusual foods. But JT made me try it, and despite the fact that I thought I’d hate it, I loved it! What really impressed me was watching Chol move from table to table as he prepared for each course, touching base with the guests who have dietary restrictions and let them know how he was modifying the dish for each of their needs. I had such a sense of pride knowing how much work goes into preparing a elaborate 5 course dinner as it is, and then seeing how seamlessly Chol and JT accommodated a variety of dietary restrictions without pause. Those guys rock.
Across the drive, the duplex remodel is coming along. This week they installed the sound-proof wall in between the units. Charlie and Bill had fun testing it out yesterday, trying to yell at each other from either side. It “sounds” like the wall works pretty well, and should be even better once the units get further along in the process. We are booking both sides up for the summer already as people are planning their summer vacations right now, and we’re looking forward to our guests enjoying the gorgeous view of the winter horse pasture from their hot tubs on the deck.
Last in the updates is the mad pace of interviews that Beka and Ben are on right now. Every couple days they head into Steamboat where bandwidth is more of a reality than a dream, and they Skype interview dozens of potential employees. The summer staff is coming together and Beka has her hands full juggling applicants, reference calls, and fielding lots of questions. As always, we’re hiring for character and attitude, so if you know of a great young person who might fit the dude ranch culture, send them our way!
And that’s a wrap on this week at the ranch.