Upgrades and Updates ...

Wow, it's been a while since we've posted - sorry about that!

The ranch has had a pretty busy winter right until Mother Nature gave us a spring preview a bit too early and melted our snow a little too quickly down here! We had to stop our sleighs just after St Patrick's day... but we gave plenty of folks some good ol' Montana fun until then. The sleigh rides really never get old, you can be on your 20th one and it's still as cool as the first time you did it. We all already thinking about next year and more snowy fun!

The Steakhouse has had a pretty busy winter - and there is just one more week to enjoy the delicious food and then you have to wait all the way until June 10 for it again...SO you better mosey on down and get some of the delicious food they are cooking up ... I recommend the elk medallions or the pork - BOTH DIVINE! But then again everything on the menu is so it's kind of hard to pick!

Well, although things are quieting down we are working hard behind the scenes to get some things lined out for the summer to make the ranch better than ever.

First thing we are working on is expanding our kitchen. Chef Martin and his crew do a great job of putting out delicious food each and every day but we are busting at the seams in the summer when we have 2 or 3 events happening and we are running the steakhouse, so we have, with the help of Hackbarth Construction, starting putting in another partial line so we can handle the ever growing lists of events more easily. The new line will be up and running for the summer season and we are all so excited!

Secondly we are finishing the room renovations that we started last winter. All the cabins got new paint, carpet, tile, light fixtures, linen, and mattresses last year - this year they are getting new window coverings, furniture, lamps, headboards, alarm clocks (with Mp3 connections), Kuerigs, kitchenettes in the units that have those, new counter-tops in the units with kitchens, new appliances in the full size kitchens, refrigerators in the deluxe log cabins, new TV's and new artwork and a few other little things here and there to make everything look great. PHEEW that's a lot of upgrades!!!

We are working hard to make our cabins as comfortable as we can and keep them up to date but let them keep their cabin-y charm. We think that the upgrades are pretty great and hope that you do too!

We will try to keep you updated with pictures as things progress - all the projects are just coming to fruition and the hard work will start soon!!

We're new to this - but here's what's happening at the Ranch!

Well here it is near the end of the November and it's finally looking a bit like winter here at the ranch. Beautiful Blue Bird sky day... boy it sure reminds us why we all love this place!  We all filled our tummies full of wonderful Turkey and had a great time enjoying time with our families or our "Montana Families" and now it's time to get to work getting ready for the winter season. 

Marce has been checking on the herd up in winter pasture, they are fairing well so far this winter with Belgrade getting just some snow that has melted off. Winter pasture is always a double edged sword for us; we love giving some of our hardest working employees time off to roam and play and be horses - but they are so far away from us and we certainly do miss them. They all have such personalities and we love seeing them on a daily basis - but this is better for them and lets them all get good rest for next summer and the over 3,000 happy guests that they get to take out on our amazing trails. 

And we shouldn't be so glum, soon some of our favorite gentle giants will return to get ready for our sleigh rides, we can't wait to see Ace & Joe, Tim & Jim, Marty & Andrea, and Magic & Darla. Maybe even the old timer Mike will come and give us a visit. During the winter weeks we will do a little "meet our teams" blogs for you so you can get to know these guys & gals that work so hard to make our sleigh rides just perfect! They are all such gentle souls - we can't wait for you to meet them. 

We have been doing some work around the ranch, making improvements for the upcoming seasons. Today we have carpet installers in putting in new carpet in our dining room and banquet hall, we also have some roofing contractors here putting in some much needed heat tape in some valleys that keep getting ice built up. Marce and Austin (our newest wrangler) are refinishing one of our sleighs so it will look shiny and new. We also have ordered new window shades for our guest rooms to try out and if we like them all the cabins will have them before the summer season. We also have been working to replace some of the kitchenette units that are getting older with new cabinets and appliances rather than the old metal one-piece units. 

Chef Martin has the winter menu nearly finalized and we can't wait to dig into that on December 14th when the dining room fires back up for the winter season. If you haven't checked it out be sure you do... but more on that another day... 

Until then - happy trails!