We’re officially in our off-season now that all of the staff have gone home and our last guests of the season (hunters) have departed as well. Normally we don’t have staff stay this long, but we felt with the huge project of taking out dead trees positioned close to ranch buildings, we needed the extra help.  They did a fabulous job of getting the trees down without incident, reducing the limbs to piles of chips, and hauling the big logs up to the sawmill.  Each tree that comes down allows you to see two more that are standing dead, but at least the ones that would do the buildings harm if they were to fall have been dispatched.  We feel very good about the progress made.

David is enjoying his new job at the Chico Basin Ranch near Colorado Springs.  He is helping them with their fall cattle work which involves long hours in the saddle each day gathering, sorting, doctoring, weaning, and shipping.  He is working with some fun guys who are becoming good friends, so I don’t think he’s missing us as much as we miss him. 

Spencer and Hannah are working hard on school.  Spencer just took a test and received 3 more college credits in Principles of Marketing.  He said it was all theory and very little practical application for the ranch, but I’m sure he’ll be thinking of effective ways to get the word out about the fabulous vacations we offer here at Latigo.

Randy has been working diligently on the final stages of hooking up our new central boiler.  This energy efficient wood fueled hot water heater has its own new little house in our back yard and will soon use the 20 cords of wood we’ve cut, split, and stacked to heat water which will heat our house.  With the rising cost of propane, we feel confident that this system will pay for itself in just a matter of years.  I’m thrilled to finally have a personal purpose to my chainsawing!