california dude ranch

Solitude on the River

2011-11-12T05:09:35Z

My normal day is filled from sun up to sun down with endless tasks: Feed the horses, clean the cabins, rake the leaves, harvest, can the harvest, feed the horses, watch our grandchildren, drive the shuttle, breakfast, lunch, dinner for our many guests...well you get the idea. Life is full of little payback moments though. They all add up to a joyous, happy, and well lived life. Today, as I often do, I took a few moments of solitude after getting everyone off on the river. It was barely light. River mist filled the cold air that frosted my breath. The river felt cold as I waded out even though I was in waders. Once I was standing in my desired space I cast my line across the river and watched as it slowly swung across the current, cutting it's own path through the water. I looked up at the mountains, trees, and clouds of this beautiful place I am blessed to call home and peace filled my soul. Fifteen or so casts later all of a sudden my line squeals with delight as my rod bends toward the water. Twenty-five minutes later after much jumping, diving, and tail walking I am holding a 22" adult steelhead and gently removing the hook from his mouth. I bend over and cradle him in the water letting him take the initiative to swim away. He flips his tail at me as he rushes away and once again I am left in the glorious peaceful solitude of the river.

Girls at the Dude Ranch? You betcha!

2011-01-14T15:34:00Z

While our primary target audience at Marble Mountain Ranch is families traveling with kids, we often have clients seeking a serene spot sans the distraction of young-uns. For us, the answer is simple: come when the kids are in school.

After September first, it seems that most of the schools are in full swing. Our ranch guest population, by default, now turns into a more adult crowd. The guest profile now is composed of couples, solo travelers, and groups of women/men traveling for a common purpose.

One of our popular Fall offerings at Marble Mountain Ranch is our Bed and Breakfast Cooking Retreat . This event emphasizes the culinary experience here and is ideal for couples or women's travel. The Fall season also coincides with the prime fly fishing season and one fun variation of the "couples travel" theme is to mix daily fly fishing for steelhead trout and upscale dining and wine pairings in the evening.

Groups of women/girls traveling is a growing travel trend and has been a common theme at Marble Mountain Ranch. The emphasis for these groups has been on the horses, with group trail rides, and on team rafting or the dining experience...and getting crazy at times. Yes, we call these "GURLS" groups.

Solo women travelers also will find the dude ranch experience to be a safe and rewarding option. Here you can mix adventure with an outdoor venue that is comfortably managed for solo traveling.

The opportunity to enjoy spectacular Fall colors, serene mountain settings, horseback trail riding, fly fishing, and rafting without the intrusion of children makes this the ideal time to plan for your girls outing or that romantic get-away you are dreaming of.

See you this next Fall! Doug

My Favorite Things

2010-12-22T17:13:00Z

My favorite things...
Family, friends and flowers are my favorite things.

Saturday I got to spend the morning with Taylor hiking along the Klamath river and teaching her to cast. We had lots of fun, saw a huge salmon (didn't catch it), followed some bear prints, and collected rocks.

I am looking forward to lots of family time and time with friends this coming week for Thanksgiving and am very grateful for family, friends, and flowers in my life.

Heidi

All Things Pear

2010-11-15T02:41:00Z

All things Pear…from Heidi at the Marble Mountain Ranch kitchens

Most of the fall is usually fishy, with fishermen coming and going for our steelhead fly fishing trips , or nutty, with walnuts and pecans dropping both nuts and leaves faster than I can pick them up. However, today all things centered around Pears at our family ranch. Although we did not have much of a pear harvest from our own trees this year, due to odd spring/summer weather, we were blessed to be able to obtain pears from our church farm in Medford Oregon. Today I woke up with the daunting task of figuring out what to do with 120 pounds of pears after having already processed about 60 pounds of Bartlett pears. Today I was working with Comice, D’anjou, and Bosc pears. My counters are now covered with beautiful jars of pickled pears, pear honey, and pear mincemeat. We enjoyed the pear mincemeat with our pork tenderloin tonight and smothered our corn bread in pear honey. YUM! Hope you are all having a marvelous fall. It’s a glorious time of year filled with lots of color and the harvests of the season.

Here is a another of my "what's in the refrigerator" blog entries, title Autumn Pear Torte

Autumn Pear Torte

Ingredients

* 2 1/2 cups flour

* 8 oz. (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into 1 inch lengths

* 1/4 cup sugar

* 1/8 tsp. salt

* 1 egg yolk

* 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

* 2 tsp. water

* 1/3 cup fine breadcrumbs (or ground almonds)

* 6 ripe (d’Anjou or Comice) pears

* 1/2 cup sugar

* 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) butter, cut into 1 inch lengths

* 1 1/4 cup blanched or unblanched almonds

* 1 egg

* 1 tsp. flour

* 1/2 cup heavy cream

* 8 oz. mascarpone

Instructions

To make the pastry, put the flour, butter, sugar, and salt in a food

processor, and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the egg yolk, with the vanilla and water. With the machine running, pour in this mixture and process until the dough just comes together. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of a 10 inch springform pan and chill until needed.

Meanwhile, peel, halve, and core the pears. Spread the breadcrumbs over the bottom of the prepared tart shell, and arrange the pears all over the bottom with the rounded side out. You may need to cut some of the pears to fit in the shell.

To make the filling, put the sugar, butter, almonds, whole egg, flour in the food processor and process until smooth. Cover the pears with the almond mixture. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven until golden brown, approx. 1 hour. Let rest for an hour before serving (This torte will keep in the fridge for a week). Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream mixed with mascarpone. Serves 8

This year we are starting an new program of Bed and Breakfast culinary retreats . The pear torte will be highlighted on one of our upcoming classes. We hope you can join us!~ Heidi Cole

Peter's Horse Camp

2010-05-09T16:23:00Z

When Peter, our eldest son, left San Francisco and his career path of law to return home, I doubt he thought about the possibility of his running horse camps at Marble Mountain Ranch. Of all our activity offerings here on the ranch, horses are his least favorite. He loves the whitewater, enjoys the guiding for fly fishermen, and the shooting, and the background raising of his two daughters in the old-school nuclear family setting. Oh yea, the gardening suits him well also.

But, he would just as soon shoot the horses. If one gets out of the pasture, shoot it. If a horse doesn't run straight to him and stand still waiting for a halter, shoot him. Tolerance, patience, compassion and horses are not words he knows how to join in concept.

So, this week Heidi and I left to visit our second son, and to celebrate their daughter's third birthday in a quick visit prior to the arrival of a 51 person charter school horse camp on the ranch. I think the karmic fate of Peter must have had some sort of cosmic pull in the natural course of events, because I am now sitting in a hospital room in Portland, waiting for my wife Heidi's acute gal bladder failure to be rectified, and my son Peter is looking head-on into the lights of a solo directorship of his very own youth horse camp.

Heidi will eventually be discharged from the hospital and life will go on normally. However, I wonder how my son will survive an equine baptism by fire as he runs and directs this horse camp over the next three days. He has plenty of good support around him. Our new wrangler from Humboldt State University, Lanadawn Nusz is doing an early season showing to help with the horse classes, Chelsea's father Ken will be on hand to manage infrastructure, and our friends from Happy Camp are coming down to assist in the kitchen. This is another good reminder of how vitally important a good support system is and a confirmation that again: Nobody gets there on their own. Nobody certainly can get their on their own trying to run a quality family dude ranch .

Public thanks to the team for being there. We love you. Doug

horse camps

Memorial Day package at Marble Mountain Ranch

2010-02-05T02:04:00Z

Are youlooking for a great get away for this Memorial Day? Come enjoy thesplendor of the Klamath Corridor in its springtime beauty. At thistime of year we have both the Klamath and the California Salmonavailable to meet all levels of rafting abilities. The canyons aregreen and lush and wild flowers are everywhere. Spring snow melt makesthe California Salmon one of the Northwest's premier spring runs. Ifyou are not up for the Class IV –V drops of the Cal Salmon join us onthe Main Klamath in the afternoons and take the mornings to enjoy somebeautiful spring trail riding, shooting on the range or hiking. Asalways Marble Mountain Ranch has something for everyone!

3 night / 4 Day Cal Salmon Package – $ 810.00/person
3 nights private lodging
2 days on the California Salmon
Monday morning trail ride and Shooting Range
All meals from dinner Friday night thru lunch on Monday

3 night / 4 day Klamath River Package - $810.00/person
3 nights private lodging
2 afternoons on the Wild and Scenic Klamath River
3 mornings trail rides and shooting range
All meals from dinner Friday night thru lunch on Monday

Preparedness, Self Reliance, compassionate service

2010-01-30T04:21:00Z

Marble Mountain Ranch is far removed from any connection to municipal services such as electrical power, drinking water, and septic disposal.   If we want these services, we have to create them. When we came to the ranch in 1994 I recall the paradigm shift in my thinking as I came to realize that throwing on a light switch did not necessarily mean that the light would glow. I previously always took it for granted that the water spigot would flow freely every time I opened the valve.

We regularly have natural events here that make me realize just how exposed we are by living in the human condition. Our forests are endemic to fires, the rivers regularly flood, the roads slip off the mountain, the mountains slip to the rivers, and on - and - on. A few weeks ago we had a 6.5 magnitude earthquake 10 miles off the coast from Eureka and the North part of the state was well shaken. However, decades of following our civic leaders in construction practices utilizing the uniform building code, and the grace of God helped us to survive this one without any fatalities and with relatively small increments of damage. Just as I was feeling smug about how in control and self reliant we are here, we got word about the quake in Haiti. Now my heart bleeds for a nation broken.

I am not really sure where I am going with this blog entry, other than to say my heart hurts and that I commit to be as self reliant and prepared for emergency as I possibly can be.    I suppose this is the point, now that I have arrived: There is little I can do as an individual for a distant nation, but there is much I can do as an individual for preparing myself, my immediate family and for being at the ready for service to my home community.

We do in fact, already open our doors to host firefighters during those Summers that we are called to battle forest fires in the area.   We have opened our doors to neighbors with riparian homes threatened by floods.   We continue to live as much in a self reliant and prepared fashion as we are capable of doing.   Still, my thanks go to those who are dirtying their hands and growing their hearts while in service to the souls of our neighbor nation - Haiti.

I think that self reliance and preparedness goes beyond having the physical infrastructure to survive a natural catastrophe or personal life trauma. I think it connects to emotional stability, and generally optimistic views of reality. It means more than fiscal preparedness or owning deep savings accounts. It means having a full memory bank of good life moments while navigating the vicissitudes of our lives.

OK< time to step off the soap box...Meanwhile, here are some views from some good times

at our home on the Klamath River:

Later,
Doug

And now, changing world fashion trends from Marble Mountain Ranch

2009-09-12T14:05:00Z

It seems that our past season has not only motivated movie producers to change life styles, but we have invaded the realm of teenage fashion trends! This is a fun response from our last Thanksgiving e-mail blast that you might enjoy reading as well:

Hi guys,
Phil and I so want to do this, but Phil’s great-grandmother will be visiting over the holidays whom we never see. She lives in Miami. So the families are all putting together a family party that weekend. I was waiting to talk with Phil’s mom before I responded.

The ranch has provided the girls with such fond memories. During their first week back at school they needed to write about their summers in class. They both wrote pages and pages about their experiences at Marble Mountain. We hope to make an annual visit out to visit you guys. Also, I thought you’d appreciate this – I took Breanna to buy an outfit for school. We walked around and around and she could’nt decide on any one thing. I finally said: “Why can’t you pick something?” She said: “Well I think the problem is I’m a cowgirl now, and I don’t really fit here J.” She ended up with a plaid shirt and jeans…

We hope you are all well. Please keep us in the loop with updates, and we haven’t forgotten about the photos. Phil will send.

Hugs to the family…
Aly Ben-Joseph

Heidi and I felt an unusually close kinship to the Ben-Joseph family and we look forward to to many return visits. As to the fashion trends, we suggest that Breanna visit our daughter Cierra in the forthcoming "Marble Mountain Ranch cowboy fashion walk" as the girls demonstrate the proper application of the cowboy boot in formal dining settings. I particularly am fond of the fixed blade bone handled sheath knife as a strikingly daring fashion statement. Oh, Breanna, also never under estimate the attention demanding qualities of the foot-Teva tan. This is a sure sign that you are a tenured river runner. The foot-Teva tan is also particularly effective as an attention getter in highlighting minimalist shoe styles at formal events. Ya know, I think it also might be a good time to build a ranch retreat with an agenda of "How to properly accessorize for a dude ranch holiday"

On a closing note Breanna, let me highlight a couple of our favorite forward thinking fashion trend setters that you can aspire to imitate in your dude ranch fashion aspirations. Please pay special attention to the on-going development of their "Teva-tans" and we suggest less dependence on the plastic cup as a fashion accessory.

Well, gotta go find my plaid shirt and start the day.Doug

changing the world from Marble Mountain Guest Ranch

2009-09-10T15:21:00Z

We have enjoyed reading the responses from a short e-mail blast we did to this years customers. We simply wanted to say "hi" and to put the word out about a Thanksgiving program we are offering. Everyone has responded back with wonderfully heart-felt thanks for the experiences that they had with us. One response in particular was overwhelming.

The family I am talking about was a father (Hollywood producer for special effects on movies such as Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc) and his sons. Mom had to stay back to tend the newborn family addition. Their visit with us was so profound, that he sold is current production, moved to Omaha, and changed lifestyles to more closely mirror what they found here! I think you might find this interesting enough that I am going to post it in it's full form with the names removed:

Dear Cole's:

Thank you so much for your invitation to spend Thanksgiving with you, but we're going to have to pass this year. You see much has happened since our visit, and a big part of it relates to you. Our visit to Marble Mountain had a profound effect on the boys and me, and Erin and I decided to pack our bags and head back to the Midwest. We're living in Omaha now and looking at several farms in the general area.

I sold the rights and screenplay to my project, which funded our decision, and I'm currently producing and directing a musical theater production in Omaha. It's an original thing that I wrote based on the civil rights movement in Omaha, which was quite tumultuous - the damage created is still an intense problem that haunts the city. Hopefully, I can build some bridges. At least I feel it's God's work, so it's all good.

In any event, have a great holiday. We'll be thinking of you. It sounds fabulous.

All the Best,
John Doe

Sometimes I feel a bit like our business has a second calling in the Karma of the globe. In addition to the obvious fiscal funding of our "families Cole", the profit motive is intertwined with a welcome invitation to the world to enter our home and for a brief period experience the net result of the traditional nuclear family raised in a rural, work laden, God fearing, peace filled setting.

As we serve our guests in the course of the week's activities, we are able to bond with new friends of every religion, race, creed, politic, and lifestyle. It seems that the vast majority of our guests are joined by a common search for soul enriching experiences. Sometimes these moments come at unexpected moments as we share our time together in clean recreation, relaxation, and soul sharing. Over 40 years ago, I experienced a connection with my life calling when I leaned back on my guide raft in the morning and felt the warming rays of the sun as I waited for the rest of our guide team to finish rigging their boats. I have spent much of my life recreating that very moment from my first year of guiding

The growth and enrichment is not just uni-directional, but lightens the lives of the Cole family as well. This last Summer, I saw our guest, Joan, and I new she was experiencing her version of that same moment as she watched her son playing in Rock Creek, and as she too was warmed by the sun.

We love our life together on the ranch, we hope you can join us in the future, and we hope all of our guests who joined us this past year have had their lives touched and enriched. Doug

Thanksgiving at the California Dude Ranch: Marble Mountain Ranch

2009-09-09T05:58:00Z

"Over the river and through the woods, to Marble Mountain we go...." Plan for the best Thanksgiving ever! Imagine spending your holiday fishing for steelhead, horseback riding, cutting your own Christmas tree, shooting sporting clays, or taking a thrilling jet boat tour to the mouth of the Klamath! To top it all off, we will do all the cooking and the dishes! Get ready to enjoy the most relaxing and memorable Thanksgiving ever.

This all inclusive Thanksgiving vacation package is 5 nights/ 6 days and costs only $1100/adult, $999/youth (4 - 13 years), and $500 / little Buckaroos (2-4 years). Give us a call so we can go over the details. The food will of course be stellar and set to holiday themes.

Hope to see you here! Doug and Heidi

Western Weddings at a Dude Ranch

2009-04-20T00:51:00Z

Last week we took an unusual call from a couple asking if they could be married at the ranch on the following day.   My first thoughts were questions about the nature of the wedding, but it turns out that our Siskiyou county court house simply does not perform weddings and they hoped to get married NOW!   Since I am licensed to perform marriages, and since I find good karma in doing such, I said "yes - come on down"

I don't charge for performing a marriage. It seems somewhat blasphemous to go there, so I do it for free. The ranch was in it's spring glory of flowering bulbs, and the lawns were somewhat long, but they wanted simple, natural, and quick. They got all three. Both sets of our family in-laws were visiting for Easter, so we even had a bit of a seated crowd.   Here is a shot of the couple's hands...no permission yet to show the glowing faces!   Oh,...my daughter sang a marvelous rendition of "the prayer"

Sometimes the Somes Bar Redundancy club of Somes Bar rears it's ugly head, and here I go again with the Doug montra:   I love my job.
I get to ride horses, shoot guns, and marry people.   Some times all on the same day.   I love my job!

What's in the Fridge?

2009-03-10T05:33:00Z

What’s in the Fridge?
Just as I expected the Orange Mustard Sauce is great on Salmon. We even tried it on some steak the other night with grilled mushrooms and zucchini and liked that as well.
Yesterday I had to throw a batch of cookies together in about 30 minutes. With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner I wanted something with chocolate and mint. I whipped up a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies found in our cookbook – Simply Good – and substituted one of the teaspoons of vanilla for 1 tsp. of mint extract and used giant milk chocolate chips. They were yummy! If you have any recipes that you would like to have some new variations for please email me at guestranch@marblemountainranch.com. See you in the kitchen soon.! Heidi

Spring has arrived at Marble Mountain Ranch

2009-03-10T05:24:00Z

Spring has arrived at Marble Mountain Ranch!
Even though mother nature is still in the snow mode (for which we are very grateful), the animals are moving on with spring. New arrivals this week are a baby bunny named ‘Oreo’. He is black and white all over and very cute as you can see from the picture. We also have 12 new baby chicks and two mamma dogs who are due to have puppies within the next few weeks as well as a mamma cat that will have kittens sometime soon. Whew! That’s a lot of babies. Our children’s petting zoo is going to be busy this summer.

What's in the fridge - Pear Cherry Tart

2009-03-04T06:44:00Z

What’s in the Fridge Tonight?

Well, I didn't’t expect to be searching my fridge again quite so soon, but today we had two delightful young women drop in from North Dakota who did not realize that March is COLD here on the mountain. While Doug took them on a horse ride during a brief break in the storms I madly searched for what to serve them for dinner. When I cooked the chicken for last nights meal I had cooked 4 extra pieces, intending to use them in chicken salad for our ongoing diet. I opened some jars of spaghetti sauce from our food storage and simmered it with onion, garlic, and basil. I cut up the chicken in strips and added it to the sauce. I served this over penne noodles with a green salad and some stir fried veggies along with a homemade loaf of French Bread. They loved it, but the crowning jewel was the dessert I pulled together out of 3 very ripe pears and 1 cup of dried cherries that was in the pantry. I am calling this one Pear Cherry Tart and it will definitely be showing up in the next version of my cookbook and on the dessert table this summer. I think it will work great with some of our fresh raspberries from the garden in place of the cherries. This one is company worthy!

Pear Cherry Tart

Crust:
1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup cold butter
1/3 cup chopped pecans

Filling:
3 medium pears, peeled and thinly sliced
½ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 cup dried cherries
½ cup orange juice

Topping:

½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
¼ cup cold butter
1/3 cup chopped pecans

1) Place 1 cup of dried cherries in small saucepan with enough orange juice to cover, approximately ½ cup. Simmer for about 10 minutes until cherries plump up and are softened. Drain off orange juice and set cherries aside to cool.

2) Crust: Mix flour, sugar, and nuts together in medium bowl. Cut butter into small pieces and work into flour mixture with your hands until it resembles coarse crumbs. Press into the bottom and sides of an ungreased 11 in. fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Be sure to build up sides of tart equal to thickness of bottom of tart.

3) Filling: Combine pear, sugar, cornstarch, cooled and drained cherries, cinnamon, and lemon peel. Toss gently. Pour into crust. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 -25 minutes.

4) Topping: In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, nuts, and lemon peel. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over tart and continue to bake for about 15 minutes until topping is deep golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Remove sides of pan and place on serving platter. Sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar if desired

.

What's in the fridge

2009-03-03T06:35:00Z

     As co-owner and executive chef at Marble Mountain Guest Ranch for the past 15 years I often have guests ask me or my family “Do you eat like this all the time?”, to which our children usually respond with “no, and thank goodness”. They get tired of the fancy guest meals and long for winter comfort foods. Living on the ranch through the winter presents many challenges, one of which is often the inability to get to the store due to severe weather, slides, and the 4 hour round trip. For that reason I have often found myself asking “What’s in the cupboard tonight?” While I’m sure all of you have found yourselves in the same situation, for me there is no possibility of just running to the store for a few missing items or ordering take out. Some of our favorite family meals have been created out of whatever was left in the refrigerator and on the pantry shelves. Tonight was another such night and I have decided to start a New Blog Entry entitled “What’s in the Fridge tonight?” In this blog I will share with you recipes that I create while scouring my kitchen. I invite you to send me a list of some of the items that you most often find yourself left with in your own kitchen on nights such as this and I will attempt to create recipes with only those items. No running to the store or borrowing from your neighbor!!

    To complicate the cooking for this evening, Doug, Cierra, and I are still attempting to loose those extra pounds we put on traveling this past fall, followed by a yummy holiday season. Low Calorie, high value, and filling are my main goals for this month.   So tonight here’s what I found between my fridge, freezer, and cupboards. Shopping day is Wednesday!!!

Leftover rice                                    Litehouse Cranberry Salad Dressing                  Celery
Cilantro                                         zucchini ( on it’s last leg)                                     onion
Canned black beans                       freeze dried basil                                                1 orange
Frozen Orange Juice                     3 chicken breasts                                               chili powder
Dijon Mustard                                 Guittards Champagne Dressing                        olive oil
Green Apple                                   fresh spinach                                                       Gorgonzola

Here’s what I created…

Winter Rice Salad

In a bowl mix 2 cups cooked rice, 8 Tablespoons ‘Litehouse’ Cranberry dressing, ¼ cup chopped celery, 3 Tbsp. minced Cilantro, ¼ cup peeled, diced zucchini, ½ cup black beans (drained and rinsed), ¼ cup minced onion, 1/3 cup diced apple, juice from one orange, 1 tsp. freeze dried basil, 1 cup cubed, cooked sweet potato, fresh ground pepper to taste! Toss all together and place in the refrigerator while you prepare the chicken. This made 5 cups. 172 calories per 1 cup serving

Orange Mustard Sauce for Chicken (I’m thinking this will be pretty good on Salmon as well)

1 cup reconstituted Orange Juice
2 Tbsp. minced onion
½ tsp. Chili powder
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
½ cup light Italian Dressing (I used Guittards Light Champagne)

     Place Orange Juice, onion, and chili powder in saucepan and simmer until it has reduced by half. Stir in Mustard and dressing. Set aside

Lemon Chicken

Place 1 chicken breast per person in hot pan coated with 1 – 2 Tablespoons Lite Olive Oil. Sprinkle each piece with Lemon Pepper. Brown lightly, Turn chicken and lightly sprinkle additional Lemon Pepper on other side. Continue cooking until done. Don’t overcook!!! It will be dry.

To serve:

Place about 8 spinach leaves on dinner plate. Put 1 cup of Winter Rice Salad on top of Spinach. Place chicken on plate, spoon 1-2 Tablespoons of Orange Mustard Sauce over Chicken. Place two slices of tomato on plate and sprinkle lightly with crumbled, Gorgonzola cheese and fresh ground black pepper. Enjoy! (Whole dinner is about 378 calories)

Talk to you again soon on “WHAT’S IN THE FRIDGE TONIGHT”

The Easter Elk

2009-02-26T17:09:00Z

As I continue to espouse the virtues of the Somes Bar Liars Club to friends, family, fishermen, and telemarketers, I reflect back on the club's humble origins in the "Somes Bar Redundancy club located in Somes Bar on the Klamath River" and how it all started by repeatedly telling the same stories over and over again in endless reiteration . Things like "liars clubs" and "redundancy clubs" are born when you have no where to go, and when you have eliminated mass media entertainment by throwing out all of your television sets (we kept the phones).

So, while at church this last week, Heidi and I were chatting with a friend in the kitchen facilities, while I casually munched on little fancy colored chocolate covered raisens. Our friend was watching me as I popped hand-fulls of these little morsels into my mouth, and when I was asked where the colorful snacks came from, the ugly side of the Somes Bar Liars Club was irrepressibly manifest.

"These are a gift from the Easter Elk" ...and I popped a purple globule into my mouth.

A pregnant pause followed, then a rather sick countenance fell across her face, and finally she erupted in violent and terminal laughter. The problem I have with the Liars Club, is that I seem to have no sense of propriety. None of us were later able to make eye contact in the chapel, at risk of spontaneous laughter mid-sermon.

I continue to pay the price for this one, and now the Lord's Karma has fully cycled, calling me to repentance for disrupting the "spirit" in the House of the Lord. Our local Klamath elk herd has now returned to the ranch with mayhem and destruction as the agenda of force and their "sign" is not a pile of pretty colored delicacies. 50 elk in a herd can decimate a pasture in a day, trample the berm of our water canals, consume the gardens, and drive away the dogs. The elk tactic to gain access to our horse pasture is to first assign a designated probe elk to walk through the hot-wire horse fence. Once the breach is established, the remaining 49 casually meander in and evict the horses. When the pasture is sufficiently clear, and residency is established, the party begins in earnest.

Here is a shot of one of their party games entitled "How Many Elk Can Fit Into A Horse Shelter?"

Notice the entrance breach through the hot wire tape at the back of the picture.

Let this be a lesson to the masses of un-schooled Liars Club minions: twisted humor stays on the ranch.

Cheers, from a fully repentant Doug.

The good ride

2009-01-26T16:49:00Z

It's been far to long since I have posted an entry, and I blame LIFE!. It certainly is not any reflection on ....me.. ahem.

So, here is a brief summary of some of our recent "ranch" life. My second son, Adam got married, my youngest child Cierra did a foreign exchange to Germany, forest fires swept through the Klamath forest all last Summer and left us untouched and unharmed, and I survived a pretty remarkable horse wreck on a green-broke horse. People tell us regularly that we need to write books about our life experiences here on the ranch, but I am afraid to scare the general public away with the magnitude of the events that are "normal" for us in this setting. So, I tone it down a bit with comments like: "That green-broke horse started frog-hoppin so I bailed-off to the side as she reared-up. Yep, it was a good ride"

This last week, my wife Heidi got too close to my chain saw as she tried to "help" with the work....she of course was injured, and is doing fine by the way, but here is a comment from our good friend Jeanne: "Geez, Doug! It was bad enough when you tried to take off your own leg, but now you are going after Heidi's extremeties! Ranch life was never so exciting! Sort of My Friend Flicka unites with Jason Krueger. Maybe it's best the February get together was postponed. Bob and I need time to prepare armor and brush up on our defensive skills. Perhaps we should bring our own chainsaws, just in case. What do you think??"

With reactions like that from best friends, you can well imagine how those that are outside our close circle of family and friends might react to a phone call and short tale about my pushing my femur through the back of my pelvis under a 1200 pound horse!....So, we simply say "I had a good ride."

Now that I have sufficiently scared ALL of you...please be aware that all of our family is doing great, that we still love each other, that we would not live anywhere else in the world, that we feel sorry for the rest of humanity living in climate controlled bubbles and that none of our guests ever ride a green-broke horse or run the 36" bar chain saw. The fires are all out, the river is not flooding, the roads are still in place, and bigfoot has not been on the ranch, recently ............ I hope all of you can join us as we share a good ride and taste some of the Western frontier in 2009.

Living Large At Marble Mountain Ranch

2008-05-09T13:49:00Z

Life is in-your-face-large at the Marble Mountain Ranch. During the dry Summer months we stage slash from tree trimmings, and ranch landscaping into a burn pile that grows to unbelievably large size during the course of the season. It becomes a tricky endeavor not tipping over the tractor while ramping up the pile with a back-hoe loaded with cuttings. The celebratory burn pile ignition has become a bit of a New Years Eve tradition, complete with projectile ignitions centered on critical mass fuel load cores saturated with highly flammable ignition exciters. In other words, we make giant smokey fires that light up the canyon on wet Winter days.

The "boys with big toys" game continues into the horse arena as we clean the corral and build equally giant compost piles with our endless supply of horse manure. The game here, is to NOT ignite the pile, and to stop it from even thinking about spontaneous combustion. The Maniacal Marble Mountain Manure Movers are county-wide recognized as the record holders for producing the single largest equine dung debris depot. Take a look at this years entry into the record books:

Local organic gardeners are always on the doorstep awaiting news of this years fertilizer production schedule and the Orleans Forest Service Fire Crews usually make weekly compost inspections to ensure that core temperatures do not exceed combustion thresholds. You see, I have a reputation as a bit of a fire builder.

For those knowledgeable in equine manure production, the real concern is in the economics of the pile. With current grass alfalfa selling at about $280/ton delivered, the production cost of this years manure pile is a rather depressing concept. Thank goodness for the therapy of the tractor and the capacity to live and stack large as a means to find relief from the emotional burden of manure production costs and other hazards of ranch life.

Coming Next: Therapy and soul corrections with ranch life!

Cheers, Doug

Nobody gets there on their own

2008-04-27T06:08:00Z

A frequently asked question from our guests is how we got into the "Dude Ranch" business. I don't want to go into all the historical details at this point, except as it relates to my recently passed "Uncle Bud". Uncle Bud (Calvin Cole) and Aunt Nola, were my first connection to ranches, farming, and horses. My father, seen here with his brother Bud, would appear to have been interested in horses, based on this photo from his early childhood. But this is the only image I have seen of my father even close enough to touch a horse.

As the two brothers made their life choices, Uncle Bud generally stuck to the simple ranch/ farm lifestyle while my father traveled the globe in the military, and in career paths that took him through several Western states. My Uncle Bud and Aunt Nola's central Utah ranch home became my youthful summertime exposure to horses.

Aunt Nola's charitable, giving persona made her a natural for sharing her love of horses with the local 4-H clubs, and with me, the ignorant city nephew who just wanted to jump from corral fence to horse back, and GO!

The horsemanship I gleaned from those early summer rides gave me more of a comfort zone around horses than a technically proficient riding skill. A typical riding adventure for me often included a LONG walk home with my cousin Gordon, while watching the back side of our horse as it galloped home with it's saddle under it's belly. Since I couldn't figure out how "old red" could have a snugly fit saddle at the barn, and a loose girth cinch away from home, I just resorted to riding bare-back.   Yes, I now know, horses can suck air to tighten up against the cinch and cleverly release the air once the ignorant rider (me) has mounted and cued the horse to move-out.

Nola and Bud were the epitome of loving, honest, good people. Here are some select Bud and Nola mantras:

1. "Remember Doug, Horses do Horse THINGS!"   yep, I have come to learn the truth of this one.

2. "Ya know Doug, lots of folks know how to get up on a horse, but not too many people know when and how to get OFF a horse!"   and yep, I have come to learn the truth of this one too.

3. "No riding today Doug, It's the Sabbath, and horses deserve a day of rest too".    Well, as a sometimes defiant youth, I must confess that there were a few Sundays when I didn't ride, but I did test the maximum distance I could jump from the corral fence while landing on the back of "old red". Since the rides didn't generally last too long, I figured it was not necessarily a breach of the Sabbath.

Uncle Bud passed this last month, and has rejoined his loving wife Nola. Uncle Bud and Aunt Nola were excited to come to help Heidi and I with the start-up of our stock program here in the first year of Marble Mountain Ranch, and my thoughts go to them on nearly every one of my rides. Here is one last parting shot of a great mentor and friend, my Uncle Bud. Bud and Nola took me to the basics, like learning how to return to the barn with the same number of horses the ride started with.   This is good stuff.

Till next ride, Doug

Klamath Wildlife as explained by the Somes Bar Liars Club

2008-03-19T15:36:00Z

Many of our guests come from a life centered in a highly populated metropolitan or urban setting. Some of the probing questions about conditions here are often quite entertaining and illustrate the dramaticly different lifestyle paradigms. For example:

"Which off-ramp do I take off of the I-96?"   answer:   "There are no off-ramps, unless you consider an exiting spur-road to be an offramp."

"If there are no off-ramps, how will I get into Somes Bar from the highway?"   answer: "Stop your car and open the door"

"But won't the Bears eat my children if I open the door?" answer: "uh....no.    Excuse me, I need to cough.   Hack, chortle, snort, snort, snort."

"Was that a bear I heard"   answser: "no"

"Do you have insects there" answer: "yes"

"Really? How many insects do you have?" answer: "lots"

As you can see, if you start getting one word answers to your questions over the phone, this could be a red-flag indicator that you are a likely candidate to become fodder for the "Somes Bar Liars Club".    As president, CEO, Secretariate, and founder of the Somes Bar Liars Club, I take personal interest in persons appearing to be gullible, since I am always on the search to recruit an audience for a liars club story.   Here is where the fun really starts.

"In fact, we have species of insects in the Klamath Forest, that are a Klamath biome dependant single niche entity.   Take the 'Flying Scorpion" for example.   This is the only insect that is predator to the bald-faced hornet, a wasp that is so potent in it's sting that it has been determined to be the single most important reason for the decline in the Klamath Elk population.   Whole herds have been decimated by swarming bald faced hornets. And as you know the bald faced hornet is also the most voracious predator to the yellow jacket.   The food chain is uniquely vertically structured here and is thankfully supportive of homonid populations residing near the top of the chain. You may not realize this, but the flying scorpion is a symbiote to the human form, acting as silent protector and guardian to the species.
Since bald faced hornets consider the human pheromone profile to be the compass to a nutritious complex-fatty-acid meal source, they would quickly decimate our population as well, were it not for the interference of the defending swarms of flying scorpion. It's really quite dramatic scene when viewed from horse-back.   The hornets in hot pursuit of a yellow jacket hive get distracted by the approaching scent of humans on horseback and we see the sudden change in flight path as they move in our direction.   Now, this is where it gets really interesting.

The increased wing-beat frequency rate of the excited bald faced hornet sends supersonic in-audible signals to the shy and often unseen flying scorpion hive that is called in to duty. While zeroing in on the sound of the excited hornets, these little Stealth Bombers swoop down and grasp the hornet, paralyzing it with a sting from the scorpion tail, then biting off the head of the hornet.   This continues until the invading hornets are entirely exterminated and their head-less corpses are neatly piled in anticipation of the ceremonial hornet feast."

Usually, I am talking to the dull drone of a empty-line ring signal about this time....oh well, another sale is lost, and my angry family is beating my body with what ever kitchen appliance is close at hand.

Where are the Scorpions when you really need them?

In closing, here is a picture of an elk family from last year.   Notice the perked ears and the anxious looks as they survey the horizon for the sound of the approaching hornet wing -beat.   Run!!! Run away!!!

Cheers:   Doug

Life Moments

2008-01-26T01:19:00Z

One of the most rewarding points to our life on a guest ranch is the intensity of our existence. In many ways we are living the 100 year-old frontier nuclear family life that our pioneer ancestors experienced. Life is always "in your face" with real urgency. It might be the foaling mare, the struggle to maintain our hydroelectric power-plant, the battle to survive the winter storm, or any other of the countless "moments" we live.

When our guests arrive on the ranch, those life moments come in equal intensity to them as they "push the envelope" into new territories. We see city born and raised kids scampering up mossy boulders to the waterfall and swimming through creek water that is so cold it HURTS! Wild-eyed excitement is contagious when we share a child's discovery of a "warm" chicken egg fresh plucked from the roost, or when a timid rider learns proper "presence" on the back of a horse.

I honestly feel that my life and my family is blessed beyond measure with the opportunity we have of making our living in this setting. My thanks then go to all who enable our life here, including you, our clients and friends.

Here is one of our campfire games that's an exciting new challenge for many visitors: the lariat toss.
Doug

"The best vacation ever!"

2008-01-08T05:12:00Z

January is our time to market, remodel, and reacquaint with our families. During our busy Summers, we are essentially on-call with our guests 24-7 and it becomes difficult at times to remember ourselves as individuals and family members. So, our quiet Winter months can in some regards be treasured times to re-prioritize and renew our place in our primary families.

But! We still love our guests and look forward to your return! To that end, I am going to share a testimonial from Summer:

"To all the Coles and Katie too...We had the "Best vacation ever" to quote Chris, Sam, Nat and Brandon. Thank you for your patience and hospitality. We all had an awesome time, even considering my elegant dismount., Thank you for all the New Memories to Cherish. The Coxes - Matt, Jan, Nicole, Chris, Sammie and Natalie

The Difference

2007-12-17T01:47:00Z

We sometimes get asked "What makes Marble Mountain different from other dude ranches?" I think I'll address that question for today's blog entry.   Two fundamental differences between us and other Dude Ranches are: "owner involvement" and secondly "product diversity."

OWNER INVOLVEMENT
Our family is directly involved in every aspect of Marble Mountain Ranch operations. While we do have employees, we still have family placed at some level in every operational aspect of the ranch. For example, Heidi is the lead chef but she has sous chefs assisting in the kitchen. Rafting guides number between 5-6 with current operations, but every trip leaving the ranch has at least myself, or one of my children (now adults) as a piece of the guiding equation. Wrangling also incorporates non family cowboys/cowgirls, but I am wrangling on every pack trip and on most rides leaving the ranch. This means that we have more control over risk management, quality control and guest relations. It also means we will never be able to expand to that 200 guest capacity operation you find in some locations.

PRODUCT DIVERSITY
I'll put it out on the table now that if you only want to ride horses on your vacation, you might be happier at another ranch. If you want a riding opportunity each day but also are interested in rafting, kayaking, fishing, sporting clays, hiking and group activities such as Karaoke, ranch crafting, and camp fire activities, then come here.   Yes, we have a great riding program with lessons, beginner rides, advanced rides, and wilderness pack trips, but our signature is in offering "mixed activity days" to meet interests of whole families.   Sometimes we use the cliche of "saddle/paddle" vacations or "raft and ride" vacations in our descriptions of Marble Mountain Ranch vacations. The truly amazing thing about this product diversity is that we are able to do it all "in house." We do not hand-off to a third party outfitter for the rafting, or drive you three hours one way to get to a kayak trip. It is done by our in-house staff and done without the long shuttles.

Of course there are other subtle differences and unique points to our operation, but these two points lay the foundation for our style and form our guarantee of quality and personal service.

I'll end tonight's blog entry with a visual of me, one of the owners, at work in the office.   Happy trails, Doug

"More than we ever imagined!"

2007-12-13T03:41:00Z

                                                                                                                                                     August 2007
I don't know what to say, (and that's a BIG deal for me)...You Guys have given us more than we ever imagined and were far more wonderful than we could have ever asked for! The Experience that you gave our kids will last them a lifetime. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! God Bless - Mr. Grant


   October 2006
Our stay at Marble Mountain Ranch exceeded our expectations. We feel like we discovered a hidden treasure in California. We all enjoyed our time away from the business of life. We rode our bikes in the dark, had good conversation, rode horses in the rain, and enjoyed the hospitality of the Coles. Thank You for this gift in October. Ed

                                                                                                                                                      June 2007
How can we say Thank You enough for such awesome memories. It was such a joy to watch our children grow as they attempted things they had never done before. We so appreciated the time and care that each of you put into every activitiy. The rafting and riding were not only exciting, but fun as well. The meals were delicious and the time spent on the ranch, picking crops, singing, playing - were wonderfully fun.   Thank you for a summer I know we will always remember. God's Blessings to all of You! The Burns Family

   June 2007
It is with a sense of adness, real sadness that our week here at Marble Mountain Ranch has come to an end. There was endless adventure, endless fun, endless hospitality and an abundance of new friends. This ranch vacation went far beyond any expectations we had. What really made this so special for us was watching the transformation of our city kids as they found a new sense of adventure and overcame most of their fears, fears of horses, fears of white water, fers of flying insects and fears of mosquito eating bats. They even gutted a fish! Our girls actually gutted fish!! We are so thankful for all the help, guidance and hospitality of Doug and Heidi, Adam and Chelsea, Aaron and his wife and beautiful newborn baby, Cierra and her beautifulvoice and special way with the kids, and Jason and Kate. Doug and Heidi you are blessed with a beautiful and wonderful family and even a special extended family. We look forward to our next visit. With a second/return visit do we then qualify as extended family? We hope so! Our best wishes to all of you for continued happiness and success. We feel so fortunate to have shared this week with you all. These memories will be with our whole family for a lifetime. With abundant gratitude, The Harris family

"Van Holt" lodge journal entry

2007-12-11T16:56:00Z

Until this blog gets known and gets current entries, I am going to periodically enter some of the comments from our lodge guest journal, and include a random highlight picture from this last year. Here is a comment from the "Van Holt" family and a photo from the Paddock family visit:

"This was an amazing experience and each day offered something new and different for us. The Coles are a wonderful family and make you feel like you are cousins here for a visit. We will definitely be ambassadors of your good will when we return home. Thank you for the best vacation ever. David & Claudia Van Holt, Seal Beach CA

Welcome to the California Dude Ranch

2007-12-08T01:29:00Z

Hi everybody, this is the first entry in the official blog for Marble Mountain Ranch. I am posting this blog to serve as a forum for our guests who want to offer testimonials about their experiences at Marble Mountain Ranch, and as a venue to keep our ever expanding family and globally distributed friends abreast of developments here at the "ranch." In addition, sometimes the amazing and often hard-to-believe scenarios that play out here on the ranch just need an audience willing to share the adventure with us (even if it is just electronically)! So, I hope you enjoy the stories, testimonials, and commentaries as you look inside the world of Marble Mountain Ranch. Let's end this introductory blog entry with a photo of the Cole family, your hosts here at Marble Mountain Ranch.