Merry Christmas from Colorado!

Good morning and Happy Holidays to each of you,
It's a bright, sunny, Cold morning here on the ranch. I just looked at the calendar and realized that there are only a handful of days left before Christmas and I am running behind on getting things done. I know that's really nothing new, but there are a few things in life that I really enjoy doing and keeping all of you up-to-date on the latest ranch happenings is one of those things. This year it's also going to have to serve as our normal holiday letter as well, since I'm not sure I have time to get one written and mailed rapidly enough to get it to you before February. Mostly just because the mail from the sticks where we live is pretty slow though, not through any fault of my own.

It has been a busy fall/early winter for all of us here at the ranch. We have weaned and shipped our biggest calf crop to date and retained a few more head to grow our herd. We'll breed around 20 cows in the spring, which will be a big increase from last year. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure where we'll calve them all in 2011, but I'm sure we'll figure it out down the line. We'll worry about the dozen calves we have coming in February and March first. Gosar the Destructor has been very busy this year and is now taking a well-deserved holiday break in the pens down here by the house. Quite frankly, I think he appreciates the break from the rest of the herd. He's made his hay bale nest by tearing apart most of a 1,200 pound bale of hay and doesn't move far from that spot most days unless he moves to stay in the sun. It's really pretty funny to watch. We will be saying goodbye to Gosar this spring to move in a replacement. Wyatt is a little distraught about the fact that Gosar might be going to a new home. He loves that big brute. We've discussed the plan to ship him and Wy is adamantly opposed to the idea. So much so that he brings it up every time we do chores together. He's just now starting to understand some of those "ranch facts of life" and so I've had to work on my explanations of why sometimes there are fewer animals in a given pen than there were the day before. For the most part he accepts it and moves on, but not with Gosar. I'm not sure we'll be keeping a one ton pet around, but I'm also not sure I can gracefully avoid it at this point either.

The rest of our herd is also doing well. So far, after an early stretch of cold, snowy weather, it has been relatively mild here and it has been pretty nice for ranch work for all of us. We just stacked our second semi-load of hay yesterday and now should be set through the winter. It's taking about 50 tons +/- worth of hay a year now to winter the herd and I have to say it's awfully nice to be using big bales rather than trying to stack that many small bales by hand into the barn. I wouldn't mind a few, but putting in all the hay like that would be a back-breaker. It's nice to look up in the lot now and see the two big rows of bales stacked there.

The rest of the animals are also doing fairly well. Other than an ongoing strike by the chickens over the temperature of their coop, we're all weathering the winter in good shape. The hens are a little upset about the fact that the days are short and the nights are cold, but I suspect that will sort itself out in due time. For the time being though, we're down to about one egg a week. I mentioned to them yesterday that we will get food out of them one way or another, so we shall see if that proves to be any kind of a motivator for the 24 birds who are wandering around and eating, but doing little else. I bet stubborn employees taste pretty good with dumplings.

As for the two-legged variety of ranch inhabitants, we're also doing nicely. Wyatt has been doing great in his preschool program and is growing up so fast, it's amazing. Just the change in the past four months has been unbelievable. He's now out of school on Christmas break and is really excited about it. This is the first year that he truly understands the holiday thing and it's really fun to see it through his eyes. Since we put up the tree, the weekend after Thanksgiving, he's been growing more excited by the day. So far we've managed to divert his attention from the big pile of presents under there, but it's becoming a little more touch and go now as we get closer. I think we'll manage to keep him from them until Christmas day, but it's going to be tight. I'm sure all bets are off for next year though.

We had a chance to see Wyatt "perform" last week in his Christmas Pageant and we were very proud of him. Although he didn't perform in the traditional sense, he did participate and managed to stay up on the stage in front of about 200 parents and didn't cry or bolt like a couple of the other kids in his class. Amy and I were pretty proud of him for that little accomplishment. It was a pretty intimidating thing for those little kids and they all did very well at it. Considering that he's a year younger than most of the kids in his class, I'd say he did remarkably well, just going through with the plan, even if he didn't sing.

Amy has a really good group of students this year and is enjoying the challenge and variety of teaching both Language Arts and Science. She loves both subjects and the chance to have some different lessons in her day has been a lot of fun for her. She is also the head coach of the Forensics team(speech, not the CSI kind). They had their first meet a couple of weeks ago and most of the kids did pretty well. I think the only trophies the school has collected over the past two years (beyond the awards for also ran) are the direct result of the efforts of the forensics team. It's become a bit of a running joke among the sports coaches actually. The school's trophy case would be mostly empty if not for Amy's team.

There's a pretty good deal about what the future holds for Amy's school and that's cast a bit of a pall over the staff this year. Unfortunately, the school board has voted to turn the school into an elementary school and cut staff, so there is some concern about what that will mean for Amy next year. For now though, she's doing the best she can to be positive about the situation and is working to be the best teacher she can for the sake of the kids. I'm pretty sure that being a public school teacher may be the toughest job she'll ever love.

For me, I'm still at Western livestock Journal as managing editor. In fact, at the present time, I am the only editor, so there is a lot of work to do. It's been a pretty challenging road to put together copy every week to get a paper out and as the busy spring sale season is ahead, I am sure it's going to continue for a few more months. At the same time though, the spring is really the most dynamic time of year to live, work or write about ranching. It's always busy and tough, but it's also the time when all the big decisions get made. Starting in early January with the National Western Stock Show in Denver, one of the biggest livestock shows in the U.S., through calving in February and March and running into breeding season in May, it's non-stop work but it's always the best time of the year. There's nothing more satisfying about the work than seeing those first calves born in the middle of a dark, cold February night around my birthday. The spring bull sales are a good time of the year to see old friends and make new ones as we decide the genetic future of the herd and breeding season paves the way forward for all of us. If you ever want a chance to see what it's all about, the next five months are when it all happens.

So, that's our life on the ranch. It's still a challenge, but it's still satisfying for all of us and we're looking forward to the year ahead as we close out the year behind. We hope that this note finds you all doing well and loving your life wherever it has taken you over this past year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you, wherever you may be.

Best wishes,
John, Amy, Wyatt, Allie, Paige, Roofie, Merlin, Koko, Mr. Skinner, Sam, Orion, Oliver, Gosar the Destructor, Reka, Delta, Gertie, Kate, Rosie, Lady, Bertie, Bella, Tenderfoot, Posie, Fuzzy, Aspen, Willow, the calves, Dexter, the hens and the rest of the crew here on the ranch.