Texas Rocker

If you’re in the market for quality, made-in-Texas wood furniture, check out Texas Rockers. Don’t let the name fool you; the site features much more than just rocking chairs. They carry a full line of handmade chairs (ladder back, straight back, bar stools), tables, benches, entertainment centers and more. And if you’re in the market for something you don’t see on their site, let them know. Their motto is “If you can dream it, they can build it”, so just ask!


Texas Rocker Company is a family owned and operated business located in the Piney Woods of East Texas. They began building handcrafted furniture from beautiful hardwoods in 1975. Their work has been featured in such publications as Better Homes & Gardens and Texas Highways magazines.

The hallmark of the company is the Texas Rocker, many of which can be found in the homes of Texas governors, other politicians, and popular country music stars. With more than 35 years in business, Texas Rockers has a sound reputation for producing custom-made furniture that is sure to add beauty to any home or office.

Visit http://www.texasrocker.com/ today and see for yourself their selection of custom, rustic furniture.

Taylor Family Shorthorns

Like most of the people we know in the shorthorn business, our newest web site for the Taylor Family Shorthorns is full of character, life and just plain fun. The Taylor family, who live in Oklahoma, have been raising Shorthorn cattle for many years.

They are especially excited about their herd sires, which include Cody, Gus, and Ace, and their newest addition, Indian Outlaw.

Taylor Family Shorthorns has a good crop of steers and heifers for sale this spring. Be sure to check them out soon! They will be hosting their 2nd annual Bid Off Sale Valentine’s Day – Sunday, February 14th!

If you’re ever in the northern Oklahoma area, stop by and visit Justin, Melisa, Holley, and Sadie Taylor, who live outside Sharon, Oklahoma, or GW and Vera Taylor who are just outside Vici, Oklahoma. Here is an example of one of the calves selling in their sale. We picked this one to feature because it's sired by Gus, who is owned by another RHD client, Fischer Cattle Company of Kansas. As a Shorthorn breeder, I love Gus and we are excited about our calves by Gus coming soon too!

Shout Out To Top Sires on Facebook

If you're like me, you've probably been recently bombarded with requests to join "fan pages" on Facebook for various livestock businesses, farms, ranches, etc. We sort of like to stake claim that we started this craze, when we created the fan page for V8 Ranch early in 2009 and at that time, couldn't find another cattle ranch with a fan page. Now, it is so fun to get requests to be fans of other livestock businesses on facebook and keep up with what they are doing.

So of all of the fan pages on facebook, I really have to say that Top Sires has really taken their social media networking up to a whole new level. Their Facebook fan page is awesome!!! I'm not sure who deserves the credit for this wonderful fan page, Mike or Christina, but I'm guessing a combination of both.

My favorite thing on their recent fan page is the "Guess the Bull" Contest". This is where Top Sires posts a random photo of a club calf bull -- sometimes a current one, sometimes a really old one -- and you have to guess who the bull is. Personally, with my experience in 8 years of working with bull clients, I thought I would be pretty good at this. NO WAY! There are people on the Top Sires fan page that can instantly ID these bulls that I have no clue who they are. I love it! I love guessing and then seeing other people's guesses.

Anyway, if you're on facebook, check out the Top Sires fan page - http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Maple-Park-IL/Top-Sires/248599394388. It's a whole lot of fun!

Friend of the Month - Ramona Petrosky

Last month, we created a new contest at RHD which is our "Friend of the Month" and is awarded to the person who makes the most comments on our blog or facebook page. This was a lot of fun and gave us a way of making more friends and interacting with people from all over the nation who are fans of RHD.

So for our first "Friend of the Month", our winner is Ramona Petrosky, who is a special friend to RHD in many ways. First, she's a fellow Boling, Texas citizen who can be found at just about any event in Boling. She is a loyal Bulldog fan and helps out with lots of things like the FFA, Athletic Booster Club, and lots more!!

Secondly, Ramona is a fellow cattle person. She and her family show Red Brangus Cattle along with our good friends Charles and Sue Atkinson of Wharton.

And finally, Ramona is DOLLIE'S Mom!!!!! Dolllie is our newest web site update team member at RHD and has gotten to be friends with lots of our clients in the past 6 months she has worked here.

At RHD we are so lucky to have the support and friendship of people from all over. It makes us so happy to hear from people who follow us on the internet or through the magazines our ads appear in. Ramona is one of those very special people who encourage us, support us, and believe in us. So thanks Ramona, for everything you do to help us at RHD!!

Skinner Cattle

When RHD’s Rachel Williams was conducting interviews on the grounds in Denver for Cattle.com, she visited with Sam Skinner of Skinner Cattle about his new bull Smilin’ Bob. The bull was such a big hit in Denver, Sam decided to talk to Rachel about updating his web site to help promote his bull.

That conversation took place about the middle of January and the new site went up February 2nd. Sam was anxious to get the word out about Smilin’ Bob, so be sure to check out his photo and video on the Bulls page at skinnercattle.com.

Skinner Cattle is centrally located in Bryan, Texas, and they have been raising quality cattle for years. They’ve had champions at most of the major shows in Texas, as well as a few out of state. If you are in the area and want to visit with some friendly Texas cattle ranchers, stop by and see the Skinner’s. Here's a photo of of Smilin' Bob...

Bexar County Youth Gardens Program

A fun, colorful and creative site we recently put up for the Bexar County Youth Gardens Program should be attractive to youth and adults alike. One of the many programs of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, the Youth Gardens Program provides educators, volunteers and community leaders with innovative techniques for using gardens as outdoor classrooms.


The program’s concept of teaching students in a non-traditional way, while striving to improve the state-mandated assessment tests scores, makes learning more enjoyable. And if students are having fun while they are learning, I’m betting they are learning more.

Brady Yecker, the coordinator for the Bexar County Youth Gardens Program, was a pleasure to work with and he gave us lots of free reign to create a fun site that will be appealing to the kids. He is excited about having the site up and running, just in time for him to promote the web site and the program at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo Feb. 4-21. We had the pleasure of actually meeting Brady face to face this fall at the San Antonio Farm and Ranch Expo.

After working on this site and seeing the benefits of an outdoor classroom setting, I’m thinking when spring finally arrives we should explore an outdoor office!

So check out http://www.bexaryouthgardens.com/!

Gulf Coast Surplus

This week we launched a web site for a local business that specializes in restaurant and grocery supplies. Although we have clients all over the United States and a few other countries, we take special pride when we are given the opportunity to work with our friends and neighbors, who we might just run into at the grocery store or our favorite restaurant.

This site was also especially fun because two of the team members at Gulf Coast Surplus, Bart Worthing and Clint Powell, are about the same age as Rachel, and they all knew each other in high school. Bart, who is the owner of GC Surplus, is married to the former Andrea Rod, who was a fellow 4-H'er with Rachel when they were youngsters in the Wharton community 20 years ago. Rachel and Andrea were both on the junior livestock judging team together and had lots of fun memories in the 4-H organization. So now, we were very honored to design this site for two of Wharton's young successful businessmen.

Gulf Coast Surplus has been in business for more than 10 years and has 40 plus years experience in the grocery/restaurant industry. They offer new, used and refurbished equipment and they have everything to keep a restaurant up and running.

In addition to their restaurant and grocery supplies, they also carry warehouse equipment. Check out their new site at www.gulfcoastsurplus.com.

1 Hour Turnaround in January!

One of the best things about Ranch House Designs, in my humble opinion, is the great people who work here and their dedication to our clients. Just when I think we can't get any faster on web site updates, they go and blow me away once again!

This month, Jessica, Christa, Dollie and Stacey completed 291 updates in the month of January. And their average turnaround time was 1 hour. Yes, that's correct -- on average, our clients web sites were updated within 1 hour of their request. Now of course, we can't guarantee this on EVERY update, but as always we do our very best to provide timely, accurate service, because we know how important it is to have your web site updated when you want it updated.

This month's top update winners were:

January Champion Web Updater: American Brahman Breeders Association
January Reserve Champion Web Updater: Southern Jewlz
Honorable Mentions:
Beefmaster Breeders United
O.H. Kruse
V8 Ranch

Don't forget to send in your updates! This year's contest for all time most frequent updater is just beginning so keep sending in your news and photos.

Meeting Terry Starnes of Squaw Creek Silver

This year on my first of two trips to the Fort Worth Stock Show, I had the priviledge of meeting one of our RHD clients, Terry Starnes of Squaw Creek Silver.

Since we do most of our business with clients over the phone or e-mail, anytime we get to meet a client face to face is always a fun deal for us. And though probably not to many of our blog readers would recognize Mr. Starnes face to face, I'd bet you $5 that you would know his voice. Why?? Because he is the announcer of the Fort Worth Stock Show livestock show! Just imagine him saying..."First place in the class goes to....."

Meeting Terry was also special for me because, if you'll notice in this photo, I'm wearing a nifty new custom made belt buckle, made by Squaw Creek Silver. I ordered this belt buckle for myself and all of the ladies on V8 Ranch for Christmas. I absolutely LOVE the belt buckle! Honestly, I haven't worn a belt buckle since probably my sophomore year of college, when I made the switch from belt buckle to concho belt. But, when I saw the work Terry did, I just couldn't resist. So now, I'm back to wearing a belt buckle.

When visiting with Terry, he let me know how happy he was with his web site, and shared a great story about the power of online advertising. After his web site was posted online by RHD, his wife sent out an email to several of their friends inviting them to check out the new site. Within 2 hours, they had their first order. And, according to Terry, within 34 hours of their new site going online, they had enough orders to pay for the design fee and one whole year of maintenance!!!

How about that for a testimonial!

If you love high class western jewelry and buckles, visit this web site. I'm trying to talk Terry into using my buckle as a sample online! http://www.squawcreeksilver.com/

Circle D Cattle

If you want to meet a fun-loving family that's having a great time in the cattle business, then check out Circle D Energy and Cattle Company at http://www.circledcattle.com/.

Circle D is located in southern Ohio and is owned by Pat, Loretta, Caitlin & Colton Decker.


One quick look at the Circle D web site and you'll see that the Decker's are hooked on Hereford cattle and are a family that works together and has a lot of fun in their breed.

The Decker's made a family goal to have a cattle operation when they were young adults, and began their farming operation in 1995. Their children's interest in cattle has been a springboard to creating an excellent herd of Hereford cattle. Their goal is to produce high quality problem free cattle that will make money for our customers.
So as you're surfing around on the Internet, check out http://www.circledcattle.com/ and see the great photos and great Herefords owned by some wonderful people in the cattle business!