Connecting Life with my Stories

Wallowa Whitman Forest

The other day, I thought of a great rant to put on my blog and today, when I need a blog post, I can't think what it was....

I'm currently working away to get the next Tumbling Creek Ranch book done to go in another box set. I like writing these novellas for the sets. It gives me a chance to spend time at a dude ranch.

Many years ago, one weekend, one summer, I worked as a prep cook at a secluded ranch in the Wallowa Mountains. They had people stay there, ride in on horses, hikers used it as a base camp, and as a base camp for hunting trips. There were only two ways to get there: by horseback or to fly. The plane was a tiny single prop  that held two people. The pilot and the cook. I had to sit in the back with the supplies. Which considering how precarious the landing was, finding a strip of dirt between towering pine trees and the side of the mountain, I was glad I couldn't see where we were going.

Wallowa Mountains

The ranch was private land in the middle of BLM land.

That weekend, I helped prepare meals, learned how to knead bread dough, and washed dishes. I didn't care for the plane ride. I hate the smell of airplane fuel and this small plane reeked. The scenery to and while at the ranch was amazing. But I worked from sun up to sun down and didn't get a whole lot of time to really enjoy the seclusion and explore.  I think that's why I enjoy making up my own ranch. 

But that experience stuck with me and I use it in the Tumbling Creek Ranch books, and I'm trying to figure out how to make it work for my next mystery series.

Have you ever been to a Dude Ranch? Do you want to go to one?

Photos: Taken by Paty Jager