Eve was born in Czechoslovakia, and lived through World War II and the Russian front. After the war, her family moved to India where she attended a boarding school in the Himalayas. The Indian civil war intervened, and the family was unfortunately caught right in the middle of it.

They escaped to Karachi, Pakistan, and later Bombay, India, where she continued her schooling. Her family then moved to Australia, where she finished her schooling and later became a flight instructor. In 1971, she moved to Mexico and two years later to the United States where she fell in love with horses and ranching. She met her husband Gerry on a cattle round up, and they bought Grapevine Canyon Ranch. They began the guest ranch in 1982, and later bought the adjoining Cobre Loma Ranch. Gerry died in 2006, and Eve continues to run both ranches with the help of her excellent staff, who are also her friends. Contact Eve at eve@gcranch.com.

Annie Rentschler
Wrangler

Annie came to us in 1991 as a guest, from the most citified of city jobs. Although she worked in an environment of pantyhose and make-up, Annie's heart was always with horses. In her teenage years, she had worked around various barns and always dreamt of a "horse job". She first began with us in the office, but her heart was out in the horse corrals. When a wrangler job came open, she took it, did well at it - and the rest is history. She became a competent, popular wrangler, who enjoys training horses.

Danny St. Clair
Cowboy/Musician

Danny is the cowboy of the outfit, and he takes out the popular twice weekly “cowboy ride”, where guests accompany him while he rides through the herd to check on the cattle, move them, medicate .... whatever needs to be done that day. He enjoys sharing his knowledge of cows and the country, and people come back from his rides with an appreciation of the art of cowboying.

Together with Adam and Gerry, Danny was one of the mentors for would-be-cowboy Patrick on the recent, popular reality television show of “Faking It”.

Danny is a great guitarist and singer, and he is also our official musician. He performed professionally for quite a few years - his first professional engagement was at age fifteen, and he spent some time in Nashville. The lifestyle there didn't appeal to him, and he was happy to return to his quiet life in the Sulphur Springs Valley. He and his "Grapevine Canyon Ranch Band" made a CD called "Ride For The Brand."

Before coming to Grapevine, he worked on his father's farm and later ran a business repairing pumps and windmills. His hobbies are hunting, fishing, golfing, and playing music.

Monique is a long time friend of Gerry’s and in fact, she took riding lessons from him way back in the sixties, and took part in some of his more hair raising riding episodes while breaking horses and running cattle on the inhospitable terrain of the Rincon Mountains near Tucson.

She was born in French Morocco, when it was still French Morocco, although she is of Spanish and German origin. Later she married in the USA, lived in California, then in Tucson, where she worked for many years at the Kino Hospital in the cardiac unit.

She now lives in our valley, and wrangles here when needed, generally riding her irrepressible mare, Peppy, who won’t tolerate any other riders!

Ed Craig
Head Cook

Ed Craig, is a native Arizonan, having been born in Tucson
His hobbies are rockets and astronomy and for the latter, he has certainly chosen the right place to live, as our clear night skies are perfect for star gazing.

His home companion is a fluffy little Lhasa Apso called Princess Leah, and she is often seen taking Ed for a walk down the front drive.

Ed has been a professional cook for a long time, and after several years at Grapevine, he took over the Head Cook position when Nancy changed over to Housekeeping.

Bob Mucci
Cook

Bob was born in Massachusetts, but has spent the last 33 years in Salt Lake City.  He came to Grapevine 3 years ago with a “date.”  Three months later he returned to the ranch with the same “date” and he and Laura were married here in the rose garden.  He has now returned permanently to become one of our cooks.

He and Laura live just off the ranch with their four dogs and four horses.  When he is not fulfilling his love of cooking he can be found fulfilling his other passion which is riding with Laura and training his own horses.

Bob has competed in team penning and reining competitions and won a buckle (which now graces his wife’s pants) in team penning.  He has also participated and sponsored kids in 4-H, junior rodeo and is now sponsoring a bull rider in Utah who is competing in High School rodeos.

Robin Peterson
Reservations / Guest Services

Robin is almost a local, as her parents have lived in our valley for over twenty five years. She moved here to be closer to them three years ago, and joined the Grapevine office staff. She has a daughter and a grandson, who live overseas. Robin grew up in the San Francisco bay area, and then lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico for several years. She says she has always been drawn to the Stronghold since the first time she saw it, and that she loves being in a rural area – a feeling we all share!

Diane Allen
Bookkeeper

Diane is that rare person – a native Arizonan, born in Tucson. She is married to Brian, who once wrangled at Grapevine, and they have two children, Brianna and TJ (Tyler Justin). Her hobby is, she says, perfecting the task of motherhood, and her favorite sport is softball.

She has returned to Grapevine to her old job as bookkeeper, following a break of a few years for the children, and we are very happy she's back with us. She lives about 6 miles from our front gate, so her commute is short and her office time fits in well with her motherhood tasks.

Below are photographs of TJ taken during the filming of a Norwegian reality show based right here at Grapevine.

Jo Ann Bryant
Tech Support

JoAnn is another of the guest-turned-employee, which is the best way to come here - you already know the ropes, and all you have to do is learn the job!

She was born in Indiana, and she has a son, David, who lives in Colorado, as well as a daughter, Kelly, back in Indiana - and the pride of her life, her granddaughter Abbey, Kelly’s little girl.

Her hobbies are horses – for which she is definitely in the right place, and water sports, for which she is not! She also enjoys computers, which is a good thing, as her job here at Grapevine is as the technical guru, who fixes recalcitrant computers and gets us all out of our all-too-frequent computer messes!

She says that the achievement she wants to mention in particular is being grandma to Abbey!

Cesaria "Nancy" Guillen
Head Housekeeper

Nancy was born in Modesto, California, and lived there for many years before moving to Arizona. Nancy's hobbies are horseback riding, hiking, and cooking. She also likes reading, football, rodeos, and going to the beach. I'm afraid she'll have to forego this last - here in Arizona - the best we can offer her are a couple of cattle ponds.

She lives on the ranch with her younger daughter, Jamie, who attends school in Willcox, where she excels at track. Jamie hopes to get a college scholarship to study veterinary medicine.

Nancy enjoys working with people and seeing them have a good time, and her dream was always to visit Europe some time in her life. She achieved that dream in 2002 when she and Annie went on vacation to the UK.

Her efficiency and her organizational skills make her perfect for the Housekeeping Mnagement position.

Jim Brady
Head of Maintenance

Jim was born in Chandler, near Phoenix. He spent most of his working life in the aerospace industry, in which he has a degree. However, after some twenty years with turbines and such, he opted for a change in lifestyle. He joined Vision Quest as a trail cook, and traveled over 30,000 miles on a wagon train around the western United States. He is a competent teamster, having driven a four-up while with Vision Quest.

If we're picking you up from the airport, then his will likely be the first Grapevine face you see, as he is also our Official Airport Driver.

His hobbies are art, music, gold prospecting, and treasure hunting. Oh, Jim also makes some attractive Indian-style jewelry in his spare time...

Daniel Stricker
Maintenance

Dan was born in Kansas, but has lived in Arizona most of his life.  He has five children – four daughters and a son, and his hobbies are horses, race cars, biking, hiking and water sports.  He’s in the right place for the first four, but as for the water sports, that may have to wait!

He also enjoys rodeo, in which he took part in his younger days, football, basketball, softball and golf.

He particularly likes auto racing, and is an automotive master technician – his job at the ranch is as the mechanic and fixer of our collection of vehicles, ranging from Gators and trailers to heavy trucks for hauling the horse trailers, and it doesn’t seem as if he will run out of work any time soon!

He says he is particularly proud of having raised five fine kids, and having, so far, put three of them through college – and that is, we agree, quite an achievement!