What We've Been Up To....

Recently I had a friend remind me that we needed to do a blog because we haven't done one in a while. I guess that's a good sign - meaning we are so busy at work that we don't have a lot of free time to catch up on Blogger :)

I'll admit that since we have recently gotten into twitter and started paying more attention to our RHD Fan Page on Facebook, we have put the blog on the back burner. It's a lot easier to put a one liner on those pages than write a blog!

So what have we been up to for the past two weeks? Well lots! Everyone here enjoyed a short work week with the Memorial Holiday. We have implemented a summer office hours policy for the web division, which means they get to leave at 4:00 p.m each day instead of 5 as long as all of the web updates are done. Which, since we are so fast at updates, this has become a daily occurrance for Jessica. I guess that extra hour in the summer sun is motivation to get the updates done promptly! :)

We have been posting a lot of videos to client web sites. A lot of you ask if this is a possibility and yes - it definitely is! Videos are the "hot thing" it seems right now. Last week we put up videos for Bauman Cattle which were done by the famous Kassi Bauman herself. I thought they were great! If you are looking for someon to do your videos, I'd recommend Kassi for sure! We also put up a lot of videos for another Wyoming ranch - M Lazy Heart. Everyone always loves the M Lazy Heart calves -- we always look forward to getting those pictures in. Both of those sales end this weekend so check out their sites.

Last weekend was the opening week for the pool at the Wharton Country Club - which I am now a proud member of. So I was excited to start my summer tanning regime and enjoy a few hours poolside reading and relaxing.

We also met with Catherine's wedding planner last week and finalized their wedding menu -- it's going to be delicious! Next week we are doing invitations and we can't wait for that.

We've also been doing the "Boling thing" quite a lot lately, going to all the end of year functions. We hit the Boling FFA Banquet, where Christa's husband Jason is one of the ag teachers. Rachel and Catherine are both past presidents of Boling FFA and so it's always a treat to see how succesful that chapter is and see all of the talented members they have. We will be hiring two Boling FFA members to work as student workers here at RHD starting this summer -- Emily Forgason and Dollie Petrosky. So we are especially proud of those two young ladies and their accomplishments in Boling FFA.

We then hit up the Boling Athletic Banquet, because we are so athletic -- NOT! Our family and the Forgason family gives an award each year in honor of Lanier H. Forgason who is my great granddad. This is the "Fighting Heart Award" and is a real honor for a senior girl and boy athlete to receive. We have a new football coach this year at Boling so hopes are high for the Bulldogs next year!

So here it is 4:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon and we've got all our work done, all updates done, all ads submitted, and 3 new web sites posted this week. While I'm here at work waiting for my Garmin update to be completed (it's taken all day fyi) I've checked out all my favorite sites -- Cattle.com, Steer Planet, and J. Crew. So we decided to call it a day and start our weekend a little early!

Be sure to check out our twitter and Facebook pages!

RHD Print Item in Druckenmiller Benefit Auction

We invite everyone to check out the Druckenmiller Family Benefit Auction, going on now through May 25th at Clubcalves.com.

This online auction is set up to help support some of our fellow friends in the cattle business. Bode and Brystol Druckenmiller of Iowa are two wonderful boys with loving, caring parents. Both are hemophiliacs with Factor 8 deficiencies and Brystol was also born with a complex heart defect requiring multiple additional cardiac surgeries. Each has has multiple recurrent hospitalizations over essentially their entire lives, yet today they are strong, bright young boys that I hope the cattle community will see fit to help.

RHD has donated a 1 page ad design that can be used for your ads in the August 2009 State Fair issues. We will create and design your ad for you that you can place in any magazine(s) you wish, or even have flyers made of this ad if you don't plan on advertising anywhere.

We are also working on getting a web site donated too!
Our print ad donation item is at http://members.boardhost.com/druckenmillers/msg/1242931832.html

If you are the winning bidder we will need your ad materials by June 25th and you will need to contact the publication of your choice and let them know that you are wanting an ad.

If anyone is interested and has questions just email rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com

My Dream PROM

Oh yeah, that's right, it's PROM time!! I know for me personally, anytime I stroll through Dillards or Macy's at the mall I always want to stop and admire all the beautiful prom dresses. I love them all...especially the ones that are sequined, beaded, or strapless!

Let's back up to 1996 and 1997, the dates of my very own junior and senior proms. Despite the amazing sophisticate I am now, I'll admit, back in my high school days I wasn't really into fashions and I didn't even highlight my hair! My token outfit was jeans and a polo t-shirt. So a fancy prom dress really wasn't on my radar.

My prom date in 1996 was my good friend and fellow Brahman showman Matthew "Peabo" Bryson. He kindly came down from Dallas and was my dream date (just as friends). We went as a big group of people with myself and my best friends Russell Sciba, Justin Walker and their dates. Our vehicle of choice was my mom's suburban (no stretch limo's here). We went to eat at Pappadeaux's in Houston before-hand and I remember thinking we were SOOOO COOOOL because we all ordered strawberry daquiri's sans alcohol obviously.

In 1997, I had decided I wasn't even going to the big Boling High School prom, because I'd rather go to a cattle show instead. But as it turns out I changed my mind at the last minute, and this time my date was another one of my best friends, Taylor Burns. Taylor was a sophomore so he was pretty cool by having a date with a senior girl. (Just kidding, I was no catch!) We had a great time again, but nothing too out of the ordinary. I don't even remember what we did after prom, I think we might have went bowling. This time we went in Taylor's Ford truck.

So for most girls, the exciting part about prom is choosing your dress and getting your hair done. Again, not so much for me. My junior year, I got a dress at Dillards that was a short, red Nicole Miller dress that was somewhat of a halter top. It was cute, but nothing special and certainly no beads or sequins. I did my own hair in hot rollers at my own house. Fun fun.

For my senior year, I guess my dress was a little fancier, but I purchased it at this old lady boutique in our hometown. So it definitely wasn't a "prom" dress, it was more of just a fancier dress. This one was a long black dress that kind had a sheer mid-driff. That was about the most risque thing I ever wore in high school, and embarassingly I continued to wear it a couple times in college at some formals. But again, no beads, no sequins.

Finally, in 2008, I got my dream prom dress. Well, sort of. I was hanging out at my cousin's the Forgason's house about a month ago and my 16-year-old cousin Emily offered to show me her prom pictures. After looking at them, I saw my dream dress, and it was owned by Emily. I said..."hey, I want to go put on your prom dress". I think she thought I was lying, but I said again, "no, I really want to".

So, up the stairs we go to Emily's bedroom and start putting on the dress. It was the coolest dress I've ever seen. Red, strapless, very shiny, and lots of beads. The back is laced up and gorgeous. So Emily laces me in the dress, and for a brief moment, I close my eyes and picture myself walking into the BHS Prom Grand March of 1997, complete with the Clay Walker "Keeper of the Stars" song playing in my head since that was our prom "theme". :)

After getting all laced in, we went downstairs and proceeded to take pretend prom pictures, i.e. on the stairway, posing, etc. The funny part was that ironically, my still good friend and fellow 1997 BHS Prom-Goer, Russell Sciba also happened to be at the Forgason's that night clipping some of their calves. Emily and her sisters tried to talk me into walking out to the barn where Russell was clipping and ask him if he'd be my date to the prom. But, I was honestly a little scared that if I stayed in this dress too long I might bust it open since Emily is a little bit skinnier than me!

So.....I finally have gotten my dream prom dress, if only for 10 minutes. And I have to admit, it looked a lot better on Emily and her date! But if I ever do need a dashing gown to wear to some big formal event, I know who to ask if I can borrow this dress!

April Web Site Update Winners

Results are in for the April Web Site Updating Report! This month to give it a fun twist, we're going to pretend like we're at a show and we're picking Supreme Champions.


So, for April 2009, our Grand Champion Web Updater is......
(suprise suprise)
Matt Lautner Cattle

Matt has been on the road this spring and he has done a great job of keeping his web site updated almost twice weekly with calf reports, semen specials, and news from the road. It's a proven fact that the more you update your site, the more people will visit it. Matt's web site visits DOUBLED in the month of April. His site is averaging about 330 visitors a day....and he broke 10,000 visits in the month of April alone. Now that's not the bogus term "hits"--- that's actual individual visitors. (If you want more of an explanation of hits vs. visits check with my good friend Jeff @ Cattle.com .....he knows a lot more about this than me!)


Our Reserve Champion Web Updater for April 2009 is....
American Brahman Breeder's Association.

ABBA tried something new this month with online entry packets for Junior Nationals instead of mailing them out as a way to cut some costs. They also have lots of events and sales going on this spring and have been updating also about twice a week.

3rd Overall Web Updater for April: V8 Ranch
Holy smokes we have updated our web site!! After about 2 years of total inactivity on the V8 Ranch site, we finally gave it a re-design in February (way to go Luke, Cat and Rachel). So we have been making an effort to really update it a lot and keep it fresh.

4th, 5th, 6th Overall Web Updaters for April (TIE)

The Charolais Association, Top Sires, and La Muneca cattle all tied for spots 4-6 with at least weekly updates to their sites. Of course, the Charolais always has lots of stuff going on. Top Sires updated his site with new for 2009 sires. LaMuneca is always in our top update spots. They slipped a little from their normal volume of updates because Victor (their site coordinator) is studying up for his law school exams. So we're going to cut him some slack about not updating as much as usual.

We hope you'll check out these sites. And if you're a current customer, send us those updates!

Average Turnaround Time for April Updates: 3 hours
# of Web Updates done in April: 214

Man-Eating Snake!!!!

This past weekend Jim, Luann, Catherine, Sam (the dog), and I all headed to South Texas for a weekend getaway. We always enjoy going down there because you are never sure what you will see and also the food in that region is great. When we normally we start to drive through the brush we see deer, quail, turkeys, and a huge variety of birds and are always on the lookout for something new. (On a side note Catherine was telling one of her friends about all the wildlife we see at the ranch and reported that there are Caribou and Spring Squirrels. She was thinking of the exotics that are on the ranch but could not think of their actual names which are gazelle and Springbucks.) Anyway, we are always thinking that we are going to come up on a rattle snake but in the many trips that we have taken down there we have not once seen a rattler.

So it is about dusk and we are heading back to the house for the night after a great evening of riding around and looking at the deer and other animals. Well Catherine and I are up in the lookout seats on top of the truck and Jim and Luann are in the cab with Jim driving. Catherine and I are looking around and all of a sudden we see this HUGE snake stretched across the entire road. We started yelling "SNAKE, SNAKE!!!" Well our driver was looking around for deer sheds and not right in front of him. You would think that when we started yelling he would stop right away, but no. He was trying to find the snake and in the process did not stop the truck until we were right on top of the coiled up snake. At this time I think, this is it, this is how it ends. I was positive that this man-eater snake was going to crawl up into the truck, bite me, and then have me for dinner. I am 110% horrified of snakes. So now we have to tell Jim to back up and I am sure that in the excitement of Catherine and I that he could not understand a word we were saying because we were both sure that this snake was now on its way to get us.

We finally backed up and right in the middle of the road in the "I am going to eat your lunch" pose was this snake. Well Jim gets out, grabs his gun, and shoots. Needless to say, his first attempt was a failure. The gun did not even fire. Now I am thinking that this snake has called its snake friends and we are all doomed for sure.

Try #2: Successful. Jim just blew the middle of the snake into pieces and exposed the rat that was the snakes dinner. Then the rat ran off into the brush thankful we had saved it before it was too late. (Ok, that last part did not really happen, but that would have made for a good blog.) Now the snake is wondering why he cannot move his rear end. Jim shoots two more times, aiming for the head (I think) but hits the body instead. Regardless of what the intended target was Jim was blowing this snake into smithereens. After 5 shots this snake was still slithering all around and rolling into a ball and then trying to slide away.

So we watch the snake until it is not moving anymore and head back to the house. As Catherine and I are looking on the trip back in we think that every stick laying in the road is a snake, but we only saw one that night.

The next morning Jim and I head out to look around some more before we go to church and to check to see if the snake is still there or if something has eaten it during the night. We stumble upon the snake and notice that something has eaten the rat that was in it stomach but the snake was still intact. Jim grabs a piece of paper towel and holds up the snake for a photo opt. As you can see from the picture this snake was over 6 feet long. However, after a diagnosis from Catherine on the breed of the snake, we find out it was a Bullsnake and not the deadly Rattlesnake. Still we thought that our lives were in danger when we first saw this monster.

I also added the pictures of the weekend on www.ranchhousedesigns.com/southtexasranch. Check out all of the wildlife that we saw!