By Steph
The hush that settled in over the ranch back at the end of March is about to be blown up with the energy, excitement and enthusiasm of an incoming crew of new staff, as well as some great returners. During the off-season, the seasonal staff headed out for their down-time, and those of us who stick around year round got out our oh-too-long to-do lists and started plugging away at them in the quiet of an empty dude ranch. For some of us it was a peaceful time of knocking out one project after another. For some (ok, mainly Bill) it is a frantic scramble of trying to get all the projects done that can only be done when we are closed. But, all that is wrapping up as we prepare for the start of our orientation weeks.
You see, we take training our staff very seriously. We invest two solid weeks into infusing the culture of the ranch into them, teaching them the ins and outs of their jobs, building a sense of community between all of them, and helping them wrap their heads around why we take all the little details so seriously. It’s a fun 2 weeks, but an intense 2 weeks.
Beka and Ben have spent the past couple weeks finalizing the housing list, pouring over the timing of the orientation schedule, and then panicking and finding new staff members when they get that dreaded call, “I’m not going to be able to make it out there to work after all.” Now, the arrivals are plugged into our calendars, Devyn is getting all the staff housing tidied up and ready (some spaces a bit more frantically as she waits for Bill to put the finishing touches on his bunkhouse remodel), and we’re all realizing that we have only about 3 more days to finish crossing projects off our to-do lists before they get put away for the summer.
If you are coming out to visit this summer, our promise to you is that we will pour everything we can into these amazing young people coming to work at our ranch, so that they can do their best guiding, helping, caring for and serving you on your vacation. We’ll leave it to them to share their talent, humor, intellect and varied backgrounds with you around the dinner table and on the trail. In the next week we’ll be updating the staff bios on the website so you can learn more about all these great people.
If you don’t have plans to visit this summer, keep in mind we’ve had a couple cancellations in June. So, it may not be too late to schedule an amazing dude ranch vacation. Just 17 days and we’ll be ready to share our beautiful backyard with you! Give Malori or Steph a call at 800-526-7433 for more information on openings.