Ranch status
We are so proud to announce that we are finally back to operational status. We are still working on the final clean up list so that we can reopen for visits. We pray we did enough when the monsoons come. The forecast is that this summer should be quite wet and with little vegetation upslope of us we are quite worried. To date we have had less than an inch of rain and the washes have not yet run.
Our northern fence and our escape hatch out of the canyon is now complete as well. One of the property owners in the canyon divided their property into five pieces and we have been blessed with five new families. The bad part is the road infrastructure served us and the other sole resident of the canyon well for the last decade but is woefully inadequate for that many new people. We have had several head on collision near misses. We appreciate that people want to move out here and enjoy the beautiful area, but they don't quite understand why burn barrels, target shooting and campfires - especially when the red flag warnings are up are a VERY bad idea. Their property lies between us and the Highway so we put this road to the other corner of our property that borders the Tonto National Forest so we can evacuate when they start a fire.
The 4H team was out again yesterday to make more seedballs for the El Capitan community. We distributed the thousands of seedballs made previously to our neighbors in the El Capitan community who were also burned out to help them revegetate their property. This last batch will actually be deployed here. This will help restore some of the forage area that was lost in the fire. Our road back has been much longer than we ever expected, and we are well ahead of the neighboring ranches who have several years of repairs to return to operational status.
The University of Arizona has completed the research set up and has deployed their seedballs. Their research will continue for the next three years. We expect to see several visits from them. They also plan on bringing several study missions here as well. We hope that this research will benefit all the ranchers who are dependent on public lands for operations.
Beef Update
Please let us know if you are interested in ground beef. We have both Brangus and Highland ground beef. The price for our current customers is $7 for a one-pound package and $10 for 1.5 pound package.
We are currently sold out for 2022 and scheduling standing orders for 2023 for our current customers. Demand for direct ranch beef has really exploded and we thank everyone for your continued support.
We can put you on a waitlist for 2023 if you would like in the event that somebody changes or cancels their order because we know changes will happen when things are scheduled this far out. We really appreciate everyone who is supporting local ranching.
We don’t want to expand beyond the numbers we currently have because we believe the fact that my husband and I do everything at the ranch means that the cattle know us and therefore are calm around us which means the meat is better because they are not stressed. The Angus are even getting used to us are now coming up to scratched and petted. Each animal has their own personality. We have our eyes on the whole herd every day and checking each animal to make sure they are okay. No hired hand would have the same care as we take when we can daily handle the cattle personally so that limits how many we can do. Consistent high-quality grass fed and finished beef for your table is our priority.
We would like to wish each and every one of you a very happy summer barbeque season. Please stay safe and well and have a wonderful summer.
