Have you ever been to the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park?  If you have, you know about the highest suspension bridge in the world, the world’s longest single-span Aerial Tram, the world’s steepest Incline Railway, and the world’s highest Skycoaster®.  This is all located in one park that spans the Arkansas River.  This is where looking down from the bridge that is 1054 feet above the Arkansas River provides

Suspension Bridge above the Arkansas River

spectacular scenery and breath-taking dizziness if you are prone to acrophobia.   Now, for even more excitement, the Royal Gorge Park is planning on installing 4 zip lines across the Gorge at a height of 1000 feet over the river.  This is an unbelievable feat of engineering and will thrill the young at heart.  I’m sure it will be an impressive sight for those who take the train ride along the river that is far below.   From the train you will be able to look up and see people zipping across the Gorge at a top speed of 50 mph.  Not sure I want to try this!  The Royal Gorge is a half-hour drive from the Ranch and a great place for the family to spend the day.

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OUR RANCH CHRISTMAS TREE

As we move past the winter holidays and into the New Year, we do hope that you had a great year in 2009.   We certainly had a great year at Maytag Mountain Ranch and we are very much looking forward to 2010.   We started the year with a Management Planning session in which we established our Ranch Goals for 2009.   This was as much an exercise in team-building as it was in defining our Goals for the year.  Our Ranch Goals were very oriented towards creating “brand” awareness in the local community.  That is, we were interested in making our Ranch activities better known in the community and using that as a means to leverage our direct-market beef sales.   We did this by being a sponsor for the very popular, local High Mountain Hay Fever Blue Grass Festival and sponsoring a one-day Sustainable Ways conference at the Ranch.  In the spirit of team-building, owners, Mary and George conducted a team-building class with the Ranch staff.  This involved everyone completing a personality test and then having a friendly discussion of the different personalities that comprise the Ranch Staff.  Thanks to Mary and George for their involvement with the Ranch activities.   While we are expressing our appreciation for owner involvement, we want to thank Kim and Molly for their generous donation of an ATV and numerous shop tools to the Ranch.  The Ranch Staff very much appreciates the donations and involvement of the Ranch Owners. 

Also during the cold months of January and February we spent time deciding the new seeds and plants to purchase for our permaculture garden and working on our Organic System Plan.   We have received our Ranch Organic Certification for the past 3 years in a row.  There is a significant amount of work involved in keeping the Organic Plan up-to-date, meeting with the Organic Inspector annually, maintaining the necessary Ranch records and answering all the questions that allow us to maintain this USDA certification.  We are very proud of our Ranch Staff and the accomplishments in this area.  

 Winter quickly gave way to spring and we were busy building permanent fencing along Cowboy Way.  In all of our Spring excitement we had a family visit the Ranch who became our most recent owners.  Kim and Molly along with their 2 children are the newest members of our Ranch Owner Family. 

Much of the Spring and Summer were devoted to direct marketing our Grass-Finished beef.  We have steadily built our customer base as more and more individuals are interested in how their beef is raised and processed.   We have also

tried new and innovatinve techniques for selling our beef including selling our ground beef in the local supermarket, selling Sampler Packages of beef, and selling our beef to a local restaurant for their use in preparing gourmet meals.   The popular Summer movie, FOOD, INC, supports the idea of purchasing locally grown, grass-finished beef rather than feedlot, grain-fed animals.   We strongly recommend buying or renting the movie and watching it as a family

affair.   We are proud to say that we were able to increase our direct-market sales by 100% this year.  This sets a high goal for further increasing our direct-market sales in the coming year.  

Spring and Summer brought many improvements to the Ranch.   We have a new and improved (and very organized) Tack Room for all our horse paraphenalia.  Our new Facilities Manager stained the Cookhouse and Managers’ homes giving our facilities a clean, new look.  Our Facilities Manager also developed a very organized maintenance schedule for all of our Ranch vehicles and equipment.  This helps keep all of our equipment in top, working order.  

Fly-fishing is a big part of the Summertime Ranch activities and to that end we restocked our ponds with rainbow trout, cutthroats, and brookies for the avid (or novice) fisherman (or woman).  Additionally we cleaned out and rebuilt the lateral ponds and restocked the lateral ponds for fishing.  

And we spent a good part of the Summer and Fall of 2009 beautifying the landscaping.  Additional trees have been planted, existing trees were pruned, the rock retaining walls in the garden were rebuilt and we are working on repairing the permaculture garden grape arbor. 

And last, but not least, we purchased two fine looking (and great riding) Ranch horses named Zip and Jack.  We have expanded our trail riding program to include riding along the Rainbow Trail in the Sangre De Cristo mountains.  We look forward to providing lessons and trail riding experiences to anyone interested in a great riding adventure. 

In summary, we have had a great year in 2009.  We look forward to seeing all of you at the Ranch in 2010.  

For those owners who missed the Annual ROA meeting held in December 2009, we do hope you plan on attending in 2010.   The meeting will be held on the first Friday in December 2010.  Hope to see you there.