October 26, 2019, Volume 14, Issue 41
Howdy folks,
Happy trails, Boys!
What a monumental week we have had at McGinnis Meadows 🙂
Foremostly, our herd of steers left the ranch on Wednesday. With great circumstance and celebration the entirety of the herd were brought up to the corrals for a final time in the scales. Once through the scales, they were all inspected by our brand inspector and prepared to be shuttled onto the truck. After watching over these boys and working with them all summer long it was a bit of a sad moment to see them all packed up and moving away.
The team moving the steers into the scale
However, there is consolation in the knowledge that these steers had the best life they could have possibly had. For a whole season they were given freedom to roam over our many mountains and meadows surrounding the ranch. We had a great season with them and are happy to report that all 218 head completed the season healthy and sound.
Some of our pumpkins 🙂
Following the departure of our steers, all of the staff around here had a bit of celebration after work. The activity: pumpkin carving! Anna and Ash invited everyone over to carve pumpkins at their house. Afterward we watched a movie. In the midst of our busy days it gave us all a good time and some fun laughs.
For the rest of the week it is all hands on deck as we prepare the ranch for the winter transition. Anna, Ash, Kevin, Scott, Brenda, and Maddie are all working very hard to prepare the winter pasture. They are going through and delimbing a lot of trees and clearing away the brush to ensure that when the horses go in that pasture for the winter time they will be safe. Other projects around the ranch include closing down the saddling barn and taking down our big white tent.
Nancy and Paco
Up in the office this week, Janice and I have the great opportunity to work with our accountant, Nancy. She is visiting for the week and has been exceedingly helpful in streamlining some of our policies and procedures to make everyone’s stay the best it can be.
As we are moving further into winter horsemanship, a lot of the horses are being changed from a full set of shoes to a half set. They will have front shoes until a bit later in the year when many of them will go barefoot. Anna and Scott, our farrier extraordinaires, could not be more delighted. After keeping our herd well shod and sound all season they will get a bit of a break.
Maddie and Janice jingling out the herd
I am going to take a moment for a little bit of staff recognition. Anna-Bananna is a very dear friend to everyone here at the ranch. She is the hardest worker you will find and is exceedingly dedicated to the excellence of her trade. In a very real sense she binds us all together; her generosity, thoughtfulness, and aptitude for laughter make her priceless.
Well, everyone, next week we’ll be back to a bit more horsemanship as we dive into our winter program! Yayayaya! Stay tuned for the tid bits of wisdom that will inevitably follow as we soak in all that Shayne and Des are teaching.
Happy trails,
Anna
