City Girl Gone Ranch Mama

4/8/13

G is for Green

Our resort tries to be very environmentally friendly. There are many things that we do to decrease our footprint as we educate our guests. For starters, we are owned by a Nonprofit Organization. All of our profit goes right back to that Nonprofit, and we, ourselves are therefor, nonprofit.

To see the garden in it's late summer splendor go here.

We grow as much of our own produce that the growing season will allow and everything is organic. This means that when we buy from local farmers, they too have to be organic. We only use local, grass fed meats. And everything else is as local as we can get.

We have a greenhouse to aid us through the short summer months. And we use river irrigation to water the lawns and gardens. We compost as much a we can.

The office uses solar power. This photosynthesis panel produces electricity. (At least I think that's what Adventure Man called it?)

We also use wind power to make electricity for the office. Isn't the little wind turbine cute! We get a lot of wind up here!

The pool water is heated by solar as well as each guest cabin's water.

Our paper products are all from recycled paper. Even bathroom tissue. We offer locally made soaps for our guests to use, and we give them a full sized bar of soap with the request that they save the box and take it home so we don't have to throw it out.

We use recycled paper plates and plastic wear as well as recycled cups when we have our Volunteer Weekend, to get ready for our opening. We rip these up and compost them. And we recycle everything that can be recycled but can't be composted.

As you can see from these shot's, this is not our prettiest time of year. The snow is just melting and the grass, where we still have it after our well work last fall, is still dead. The leaves have yet to make an appearance.

4/6/13

F is for My Fireman

When it comes to my fireman, I'm not clowning around.

Out here in the sticks, firefighters don't get paid.

• Of the 1.15 million firefighters in the United States, 812,150 are volunteers

And according to this, they drive VW's and paint their noses red and run around the rodeo.

• 94 percent of volunteer firefighters serve communities with fewer than 25,000 residents

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Our volunteer department is a group of men and women who would drop anything to come to your aid. I know this because I've lived on the side of the road before. I've heard the pager go off at 2 am and seen my man run out the door with EMT kit in hand. I've seen his face when he lost someone to a car crash. He's seen what a drunk driver can do. Can do to a mini van. To an arm. To a soul.

I've smelled the smell of blood and death when my man came home at 4 am.

• 86 percent of fire departments are all or mostly volunteer; they protect 39 percent of the population

We don't live on the side of the road now. We live up in the sticks. It's not likely that it will be Adventure Man coming to the rescue if there was a call tonight. It would take him 30 minutes to get to town. But he's pulled people out of the snow. And he's helped guests a time or two.

• Volunteer firefighters save local communities $37.2 billion per year in taxes

He trains with them all. He's worked on forest fires.

And controlled burns that aren't so controlled.

And they're getting a grass truck out here.

• 72 U.S. firefighters died in the line of duty in 2010; 44 were volunteers

They are starting up the search and rescue team in the area again.

He'll be on that. He'll be good at that.

• There are 21,235 all volunteer and 4,830 mostly volunteer fire departments in the United States

They're all good men and women. No matter where they are.

And out here, "They haven't lost a foundation yet."

Facts from here. Pictures by Adventure Man

4/5/13

E is for Elevation

We live at a very high elevation.

We are the only year round residence who live this far up.

Well, not this far up. To get here you have to hike.

It took Adventure Man all day to do this one. I have yet to do it.

This is more the view I see. Not so high up, but still higher than I'm used to.

my friend Crush in Maui

My heart tends to drift somewhere else...

I got this quote from Classically Amber. I follow her on Instagram and she posted it there.

I used my own picture to share it. Yes, that's me in the picture.

There really is nothing I'd rather be doing than diving.

I guess you could say I'm a regular fish out of water!

All Photos by Adventure Man

4/4/13

D is for Diapers. And Dog.

You already know the dog, now meet the diapers. For the most part, I cloth diaper. This was helpful living so far from town. Only, we have found that the trips to town made lugging soiled dipes around more of a pain. So we do use disposables for long travel. And then we have hard water here and that has messed with the cloth. So we started using sposies at night too. But for the most part…

I'm a Fuzzi Bunz Mama. But I also have a stash of prefolds. I have found that for the price, Econa Buns is great and I wish I had started off with them.

I'm at the point in life where I'm ready to start getting rid of some. I only have one in dipes and the other day I bought her a pack of panties. Yeah, we're talking the talk! Hopefully she'll start walking the walk.

She's growing up so fast! Already two! Where does the time go? Today is also Embrace the Camera, so here is my attempt at getting a shot of her and I. She wasn't really cooperating!

4/3/13

C is for Cubs

These cubs are growing and we hope we get a chance to see them again soon. As you may recall, these pictures are from last year, when they where a year old. But you can see more of the family and compare how they've grown here.