Top Secret Project — Coming Monday 11/9

Big things are happening at RHD.

We've been working on a new development at RHD and we're just about ready to share our big secret project with you! Rachel and I have been working and planning for about 3 months on a new endeavor for RHD and we're in the final stages before we will launch our project and share it with you.

Be sure and check back Monday, November 9, for the unveiling of our newest project at Ranch House Designs. We will announce our news on the blog. We are so excited to share it with you and can't wait to hear your feedback.

Stay tuned!

Colburn Cattle

Last week we posted a new web site for west coast show cattle breeders Colburn Cattle of Visalia, California. The Colburn program began in 1992 when parents Ron & Lisa Colburn began buying show heifers for their sons Tyler and Ryan. As their interest in cattle grew, so did the breeding program, which was initially based on their two oldest sons' show heifers. Today, the Colburn cowherd includes approximately 300 head of breeding females.

In 2003, the Colburn Family developed a partnership with Kevin and Christy McKinzie of McKinzie Cattle, to produce top quality cattle for the youth in today’s highly competitive junior livestock arenas. This partnership has built one of California`s most functional show cattle facilities where junior showmen can learn all aspects of the livestock industry. From daily care of show steers to Embryo transfer to AI, this program has many opportunities for the youth of today.

November is a busy month for the Colburn crew -- with  the Central Valley Showcase on November 7, Champions Choice Cattle Camp on November 14-15 and the Triple Threat Female Sale and Show on November 21.  Ranch House Designs also created the catalog for Triple Threat, which can be viewed online at http://colburncattle.com/sales.html.  





We hope you will take a minute to view the new Colburn site at http://colburncattle.com/

Blueville Nursery

We are very happy to present our first ever landscaping and garden web site -- for Blueville Nursery of Manhattan, Kansas.

The Blueville Nursery team has been Manhattan's complete landscape company since 1962. Their business includes landscaping, irrigation, maintenance, nursery, Fort Riley and eroision control. They also operate a "Garden Store", pictured here, which is a landscape store that is open year round. Most all of the products offered in their garden store are grown at their own nursery. During the Christmas season, you can find the Garden Store loaded with freshly cut Christmas trees and poinsettias. They also maintain the landscaping at the historic Fort Riley base.

Welcome Blueville Nursery!

Cutest Halloween Costume Contest

Send us your photos of the Best Halloween Costume and we'll post our favorites here on the blog! We know that all of the RHD clients have some adorable little ones who are going to look as cute as ever in their costumes this year. Or, maybe you're an adult who likes to dress up too and you want to submit yourself in costume.

So send us your kids Halloween photos and show off your cute-ness (or scary-ness) to the rest of your friends at RHD!

Please send photos to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com. We'll give everyone a few days to get their pics off their digital camera and post the photos here in a week or so!

Favorite October Ads

We are happy to announce the winners of the October Ad Design contest at RHD! This month's contest was judged by Courtney Coufal, who is the communications specialist for the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University. Courtney and her family live in College Station, Texas. Courtney coordinates all of the marketing and communications for the department including being the editor of the weekly e-mail newsletter called "Animal Science Weekly."

We sent all of our October ads to Courtney and asked her to pick her top 3, but she said there were so many she liked, she had to pick more! She said: "Overall great ads! I love the work y’all do. The ads I selected as my favorites really stand-out!" So here are this month's winners, in no certain order. Congratulations to these clients!

Clay Farms - At first glance, this ad stood out and caught my eye. There’s something attention-grabbing about a giant boar standing firm staring you in the eyes! Definitely attention-grabbing!

Forgason – Again, very attention-grabbing with the large image of the calf. Very cute image, overall soft feel, welcoming and makes me want to call these people because they appear friendly and inviting.

Dismukes-Ranch – Great use of colors and graphics. Love the image! The image and tagline “…Something New in the Barn?” entices me to read on.

J-R Farms – Overall very nice, clean, classic ad and feel. Sometimes less is more. Great use of color. Professional. I may even like this one more than the other three but the other three are more attention-grabbing and memorable.

Brad-Harrub – Again, attention grabbing with “does God exist?” Makes me want to read on. Nice use of typography and colors. Great use and placement of the opened hands.

V8-Ranch – Love the colors and typography. Eye-catching.

Sandpoint – Great tagline “power of the point!” Enjoy the layout of the logo and text.

November "On The House" Cover Photo Contest

Send us your favorite fall photo and win a Ranch House Designs cap! We are asking our friends and clients to choose their favorite fall photo or Thanksgiving photo to be used on our November cover of "On the House", the online magazine for Ranch House Designs.

Photos can be sent to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com by October 28th. The winner will be announced on November 3rd when the new magazine will be published online.

Also just a reminder to our clients, if you have an ad to send in for the magazine, please send it to liz@ranchhousedesigns.com by October 28th. All ads designed by RHD are automatically included in the publication but any of our web site clients are also able to submit their ads for the publication too!

Fan Pages on Facebook

When we created the V8 Fan Page on Facebook earlier this summer, this was the first ranch fan page I could find on facebook. Now I'm not going to "officially" say this was the first ranch fan page on Facebook, but at the time, I searched and could not find any other ranches, show cattle companies, or showpig operations online. Actually, this was my mom's idea to get a fan page for V8, and she has a pretty good grasp on what's cool and not cool online so we went ahead and created one for V8. at that same time, we created a fan page for RHD too.

Now, there are tons of ranch-related and livestock-related Fan Pages on Facebook. It seems like every time I log in I get a suggestion of becomming a fan of some other ag-related business.

So if you're on Facebook, you might want to consider starting a fan page for your business. It's really simple, it's free, and it's another great way of using a social network tool to help promote your brand. The easiest way to start your own business' fan page is to go to another fan page, like the V8 Ranch one, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and look on the left hand column for a link that says "Create A Page for My Business."

If you are a RHD client, we can easily provide you with graphics to go on your fan page, such as a Facebook sized logo or other options for you to post. One thing we do caution clients about is that you would want to consider what photos or graphics you post on facebook, because of copyright restrictions. By agreeing to the Facebook terms of service you release any copyright on any photo you upload to their site. So if you upload your photos or logo, just be aware that you are releasing fb to use it if they want.

If you're new on facebook, please add Ranch House Designs to your list of fan pages. Also all of the RHD staff is on facebook, so search for your favorite designer and add us as friends. Here are also some other Fan pages of RHD clients....

• V8 Ranch
• Tusa Show Cattle
• Williams Show Cattle
• The ShowTimes Magazine
• Michigan State University Beef Barn
• Melatonin Implants
• Southern Jewlz

Louisville Display Banners

With Louisville just a month away, now is the time to order your display banners for the North American! We can do banners of all sizes, but the most popular are the 4x4 square banners and the 4x8 long display banners. Whether you have a new sire to promote, or just need a banner for your farm to put at your stalls, we can design a banner for you that will get you noticed and fit your budget! Call 979-532-9141 to order or e-mail tricia@ranchhousedesigns.com to get started.

Denver bull banners will be due December 10th for standard orders. For the past few years, the RHD banners have been the favorites in the yards. If you have a bull to promote, you need RHD to do your banner. So be thinking about that and we'll be looking forward to hearing from you!

Upgrades to Maximum Exposure Video Service

After working with Maximum Exposure Photography for several years now, we were very pleased a few weeks ago when we got their videos to post on Jeff Miller's web site. Maximum Exposure has upgraded their technology and now offers video hosting to those people who use their service, which is much better for clients.

By Maximum Exposure hosting the videos, it saves clients money in web hosting expenses, and offers a standardized video player which should help in accessibility of the videos.

Kudos to Mark and the rest of the Maximum Exposure team on this upgraded service!

Boneso Livestock

For a few years now we have gotten familiar with the Boneso Family because of the success of their children Wes and Maggie. These two young people have had a great track record of success in California, winning the State Fair steer show and several other prospects shows in the past few years.

So now we are very happy to launch the new web site for Boneso Livestock, which is owned and operated by Steve, Mary Ann, Wes and Maggie. The Boneso family is from San Miguel, California.

They will be hosting a private treaty sale on October 17 at their farm in San Miguel, California. This sale will feature a select group out of donor cows hand-picked for the Boneso's by Blaine Rodgers and Nick Reimann. After very successful show careers, the cows went into production at their farm and raised top show prospects that will be sold at the sale.

You'll also recognize the Walks on Water sire, who was a display bull in Denver 2009. This is a Heat Wave son.

So we hope you will visit http://www.bonesolivestock.com/ and check out the sale information and donors in this great west-coast program.