Welcome to the official Grapevine Canyon Ranch Blog. Here, Eve will post the latest news from the ranch and we have added some extra goodies such as recipes, and history snippets entitled “Did you know?” Enjoy and we welcome your comments and suggestions! Please e-mail Ben any time with your thoughts and ideas! Please be sure to visit the ranch site for details on specials and information on how you can plan the horse riding vacation of a lifetime!
Dear Friends,
Some time last year we needed to have a press release, and it occurred to me that where best to get one than from the people who come and visit Grapevine and so see it with fresh and unbiased eyes. So we had a competition, and, after quite a while, collected all the entries and picked the three winners. These will be sent to various magazines and papers with our press release kit, hopefully to good effect. However, even the ones that didn’t win were so good we thought we would publish them here, on the Grapevine blog.
Now Sit back and relax and catch up on all that is happening at the Grapevine!
You are likely quite sick of hearing about our green grass, but as a final comment on it, let me just say that we had the summer round up a whole month later than we should have had it because of the muddy corrals, and, because of the delay and the rains, the late calves we branded were probably 100 lbs heavier than we had expected. Not a bad problem to have, of course, except that the little bulls were far too developed to be castrated, and so will have to be sold, when the brands dry up, in October, as bulls instead of steers – so generating a lower price. There is always a drawback, it seems! But even as I sit here writing this, the ones we sent off this week are probably being loaded onto the buyers’ trucks in Willcox, and on Tuesday we will get the check and see just exactly what they brought. Continue reading
I finally gave up on my fat, lazy horse, Scotty, and sent him over to Grapevine for wrangler RJ to ride. RJ is not only a good horse hand, but he is also tall and much heavier than I am, and I thought he would be the best to work all that fat off Scotty. I don’t think Scotty appreciates the fact that this is all for the good of his heart, though – he misbehaved with RJ on the trail, and the other morning, before setting out, he put on quite an exhibition of silliness, shying and huffing and puffing at the water tank in the arena. Finally I’d had enough – “Scotty-o!” I bellowed, “QUIT! Behave yourself!” It was quite funny – he rolled an eye in my direction and immediately quieted down, and turned into a normal, civilized horse about to go on a trail ride. Continue reading
The great annual happening, the monsoons, are always eagerly anticipated here in the high desert, and the other day Danny launched once again into the annual conversation we all like to have at this time of the year, the discussion of thunder in the distance and the glimpse of faraway lightning, way down in Mexico. This conversation spans the centuries – I bet that the ancient people, who lived here all those years ago, were even more obsessed with weather than we are now – imagine that not only was there no faucet to turn on, but there was no well to get the water from, and, if it didn’t rain and fill the lakes and little water holes, you were pretty well done. Continue reading
Had another GREAT stay at the Ranch! Everybody looks great and things seem to be going very smoothly after the recent transitions…We both rode different horses from our first stay and they were just as GOOD…Can’t wait to come back…see y’all soon…
Hi All, Just a line to say how much I enjoyed my stay at the ranch. Glad you’ve had some rain – we’ve had plenty here in the UK !!!! Thanks for your wonderful hospitallity and hope to see you all in january 2011. Steve Thompson
Thanks to Grapevine for sponsoring our horseshow!
Hi to everyione at GC
Yet another fantastic stay at the Ranch. Cow camp is a experience I wont forget. For those who have not tried Cow Camp you dont know what you are missing. Great time great people and of course great food.
Jimmys Steaks are Fantastic
See you all soon.
Bill Phoenix AZ
Hi Bill – glad you enjoyed it. We have a secret agenda there, you know!! Graduates of cow camp make great help at the round ups! It was lovely having you back, and I look forward to the next time.
Eve
Hi Eve and all at GC,
Only 2 weeks left until im back out to see you all 6th May cannot come quick enough!!
Can’t wait to see every one and all the Horses again!
Counting down the days until we get there.
See you all soon
Laura Hertfordshire England
Hi Laura,
The weather has been near perfect ! A little cool at night, but just great during the day. See you on the 6th.
Bonnie
Hi y’all.
Thank you for a wonderfull time,and an unforgettable experience.It was great to see what a ranch in the southwest is like and to hear the history that I am so interested in.We got back home ok,and I have the silage made for the winter feed,very important! Give my regards to Dakota,and my special thanks to Danny for his kindness.Gladys sends her best wishes and thanks to all of you ,as I do,and perhaps we may make it back to see you sometime.
All the best And take care,
Des
Hi Des and Gladys – glad you enjoyed being here and good to hear from you. Dakota is doing well, I said hello to him and he said he would like some of that silage! I do hope you can make it back one day for a good visit. All best and good luck with the farm.
Eve
Hi Jerry and Cindy, Sorry Danny and I missed you this time. Heard you had a great time and Sarah really enjoyed riding with you. Hope to see you in January…
Hi all, it’s a long time since I was a visitor at Grapevine but I still recognised the ranch when I saw it on the Martin Clewes program yesterday. Danny looked well and I hope the rest of you are. The show brought back a lot of great memories and Martin was obviously having a great time.
Regards to you all
Lesley Dipple
Hi Lesley – so glad you saw the segment and recognized the ranch! Martin was awesome, such a nice guy – as were the rest of the crew. I liked the segment very much – we finally got to see it on U Tube, as we can’t view British TV here, but it was great to see. They had also filmed a segment with Danny and Martin around a campfire, with Danny playing the guitar and singing, and, darn it, it didn’t make it into the program. I say darn it, because it took forever to film – Danny had to play and sing the same four lines over and over, picking up at exactly the same time each take, and, being the true professional that he is, he did it perfectly. But too bad it didn’t make it in after all that! But we loved the rest and I thought the photography was wonderful, relly captured the sweep of this land. Come back and see us! The place looks better than ever, with the new building and other improvements.