Ranch status
We continue to work towards our objective to get the ranch back to operational status. Last week the ranch was fully functional for the first time since last June! We were so happy to be able to move animals and get everyone where they belong. We can get things done but some things still remain difficult. We are working through the list of remaining items to be fully operational. We are hoping that will be by the end of June and then we can shift to final clean up. 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.
We are also going to be putting in an escape hatch. Currently there is one way in and one way out of the ranch. 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 are putting a road to the other corner of our property that borders the Tonto National Forest so we can evacuate when they start a fire. Fire season has already started in Arizona and we are very nervous and concerned for this summer and what it will bring.
The 4H team was out again at the end of April to make more seedballs for the El Capitan community. We are organizing the distribution to our neighbors who were also burned out to help them revegetate their property. Woody Cline, one of our county supervisors, has been there for us since the beginning. Woody has our deepest appreciation. He was able to secure funding to repair our road in from the terrible floods and assures us there are funds allocated for this summer as well. Woody is the only help we have seen from any government representative. The Gila County Emergency Management people have done an amazing job of securing what funding they can to help the county. Gila County was never declared a Federal disaster area and even though the fires were caused by the Federal Government, help has been nonexistent and repairs continue to be out of our pocket.
The University of Arizona has completed the research set up and will deploy the seed balls and other seeding options in early June. We expect to see several visits from them.
Beef Update
Tomorrow we will be harvesting our first Angus from Klondyke and retiring our oldest cow, Emerald. Emerald was one of our first cows so this represents the end of a era. However we have her daughter, Delta and several granddaughters that will continue her legacy. Emerald produced a calf every year for us and we never had a single issue. She represents exactly what we are breeding for. Please let us know if you are interested in Highland ground beef. The price 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. We have already scheduled our harvest dates with the butcher for 2023 and when we started to schedule just the standing orders, we realized we were already oversold for 2023. Demand for direct ranch beef has really exploded and we thank everyone for your continued support.
We can put you on a waitlist 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. 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.
If you need beef before we can provide it, please contact Diamond Quality Beef for grass fed and finished beef or Lyman Ranches for grass finished or grain finished beef. Lyman Ranches also has a retail outlet in Payson. They are both wonderful direct sources where you can meet the ranchers and see how your animals are treated. They are both larger operations so have more animals than we can provide. We know these families personally and are confident in recommending them.
We would like to wish each and every one of you a very happy start to the summer barbeque season. Please stay safe and well and have a wonderful year.
