The Ranch Online finally decided to relocate their online web site in mid June when they were told by their web site provider that they had again, for about their fourth time, exceeded their maximum amount of space permitted for them to use in order for them to design their web site with, which totaled 3k. When this message appeared on their webmaster's screen for the fourth time, staff decided that it was time to move. Ranch Staff are still requesting that additional information be added to the site including information about the Ranch Patrol Services. The Ranch's new web site allows much more additional information to be included on the web site, up to a total of 11k of web space.
If you attempt to visit the old Ranch Web site, you will be shown a notice that The Ranch has moved to a new location with a clickable link directly to the new web site.
The Ranch Webmaster has already had a chance to add many new areas and features to the web site including a new and improved survey that really lets visitors become very active with their thoughts and includes questions about ranch recreations, services, and more. If you do not wish to take a moment to fill out a survey, we would appreciate it if you could fill out a super short entry into our guestbook so that we know that you came by and seen our site.
Ranch Staff have also included a brand new area to the site entitled Calendar of Events. This area of the site will include all information regarding all planned events, barbecues, season opening and closing days, camp outs, and even picnics. If you have any ideas for an activity or idea that would be appropriate either monthly or annually to take place, or even a one-time thing, please contact us and let us know about it. We would be more than happy to hear from you and consider your ideas.
Another one of the newest pages on our site is our new search engine in which allows you to search either The Ranch web site in particular or the entire web. Please note that our search engine does not function properly with all web browsers.
Lights came back on in Building F on June 21 after a Ranch Employee finally discovered the problem late that day. Ranch Employee Jim Collins discovered the power outage problem when he was in the process of moving his Peterbilt truck to a new location. He saw a lose hanging wire directly above the Ranch Patrol Main Station in which was sparking and sending showers of sparks on the roof of the station. The problem wasn't visible to anyone else since the problem was not visible from the ground, but only from the height of the wire itself, in which Jim saw when he was in his truck which was almost adjacent to the height of the wire.
"It took me by surprise when I first saw the wire," he claims, "but then it occurred to me that it might have something to do with the power outage of the barn."
So Jim went into the Shop/Automotive Quad, found some heavy duty electrical tape, climbed up to the wire, and went to work on taping it up, only after he took the time to first turn off the circuit breakers first though.
After he taped up the wire, he turned the circuit breakers back on and the power in Building F worked, as well as the power in the Ranch Patrol Main Station, or Building E. Ranch Staff where very thankful and happy, as well as the Ranch Patrol Officers.
Jim said that he hopes that the electricity is looked at and inspected more often so that other outages similar to this one don't occur. This minor power outage could have caused a large blazing fire if the problem was not found soon.
"The wire must have been sparking for an entire month," said Jim. "We are lucky that we didn't have a major fire on our hands."
Jim also commented that he hopes that a certified electrician will look at the problem soon so as to determine that the wire is safe. He claims that the durable electric tape that he covered the dangerously sparking wire with is only a short term solution for the problem, and that in reality, the entire section of the wire should be replaced with a new one.
Ranch Staff are working hard and putting in much effort in every attempt to improve the playing status and popularity of the Ranch Golfing Recreation, which has always been a popular favorite to visitors in the past, but numbers of visitors to the recreation this summer have decreased slightly for some unknown mysterious reason. Ranch Staff hope that the complete remodelization of the recreation will help to attract visitors back to the recreation.
Currently, visitors must pick up their golfing supplies in the small building located on the western side of the course and then walk over to the entrance on the far northern side of the course. The remodelization will include the entrance to be relocated directly to the right of the small golfing supplies building if you are facing the building from the west looking east. The exit to the Ranch Golfing recreation will remain where it is currently at, left of the small golfing supplies building if facing the building from the west looking east.
All four current golf holes on the course will be taken out and will be replaced with nine holes of assorted alignment, making the course a true "mini-course." Golfers will play a full game on the Ranch Golfing "mini course," by putting all nine holes and then putting them through once again. Many golfers are excited to hear about the reconstruction of the recreation and can't wait until the recreation is reopened sometime in late July.
An adequate lighting source will also be installed on the course in order to permit golfers to play well into the evening.
The new golfing holes will be much more sophisticated than the current ones. Some holes may feature a pillar or two to golf through, whereas other holes may have a hill or a dip.
When the Ranch Golfing recreation reopens sometime in late July, Ranch Staff will charge a golfing fee of $1.50 for the first round, and $1.00 for every round thereafter that day. However, on the Re-Grand Opening day of the recreation, Ranch Staff will permit golfers to golf for free an unlimited number of rounds.
Ranch Staff expect to know the official Re-Grand Opening date of Ranch Golfing soon. The opening date will be posted on The Ranch Online as soon as it becomes available. To find the date online when it becomes available, visit The Ranch Home Page and click Calendar of Events.
After two weeks of back-breaking preperation and work, Ranch Staff finally announced the Grand Opening of the new Swimming Quad recreation and themed area.
The Swimming Quad will be open from spring to fall, actual dates may vary according to weather conditions. It will be open from the hours of 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
The new swimming pool installed is a Catalina brand deluxe swimming pool that is fifteen feet in diameter and four feet deep.
Everyone can have fun if certain rules set by Ranch Staff are followed. Warning signs and decals are placed in several various locations within, around, and throughout the swimming pool and the entire Swimming Quad. There are no "special" pool rules, and almost all of the rules are just common sense, which needs to strongly be exercised when in and around any pool.
The old and small completely enclosed and indoor Goat Exhibit was expanded in the early month of June. The exhibit is now four to five times larger than the previous exhibit. The new exhibit provides a fairly large outdoor area that visitors to the exhibit have access to and can enter to pet and see the goats. If you remember back to the March Edition of the Ranch Gazette, we had asked that visitors please not feed the goats any longer.
The Goat Exhibit will remain open the same hours that it has previously been open daily. There will be no fee to visit this exhibit.
The Ranch would really like to thank Ranch Patrol Services for their ongoing and tireless efforts to improve The Ranch and to keep safety and order. Ranch Patrol has been keeping a close eye on traffic at The Ranch and has only had to site two traffic violators this season, compared to 12 last season. Officers would like to thank everyone for their careful driving skills and following instructional signs and cones while at The Ranch, and hope to continue to only have to give out a minimumal number of citations. Both citations that were issued so far were issued for very minor offenses; one was for a parking violation and the other was for careless driving.
Ranch Patrol Officers have sponsored a number of events so far this season, including the Annual Fireworks Show on Independence Day, July 4. Officers will be at the scene to help ignite and set off the fireworks as well as to maintain the order and safety.
Ranch Patrol Services has also sponsored another fine upcoming event called the Swimming Bonanza in mid July. Officers will remain on the scene throughout the day to make sure safety precautions are followed and that the "pool rules" set by Ranch Staff and posted within the Swimming Quad are followed.
Officers would like to thank those who chose to donate equipment such as signs, cones, barricades, etc. to the Ranch Patrol Services department. The donations have made officers jobs much easier this season since they were equipped with the right equipment. If you would like to donate any equipment to Ranch Patrol Services, please write to the Ranch Patrol Services at The Ranch, or you can Email: TheRanch@Iname.com, making the subject of your message Ranch Patrol Services. All donations made will be graciously accepted, and we will print your name in the donators section of the Ranch Patrol Services News column following in the next edition.
Did you know that right now there are three completely different ways that you can be reading this newsletter? You can now read this newsletter by a copy mailed to you, an Email version Emailed to you, or right online on The Ranch Web Site!
The advantages of reading a copy of the Ranch Gazette mailed to you are that you can always save the newsletter for future reference to look back to and that you can browse through the newsletter rather quickly.
A copy mailed to you also has its disadvantages too though. When web addresses, sites, and Email addresses are listed in the newsletter, you can not just click on them and then go straight to them and view them as you can if you are reading either an Email version Emailed to you or right online on The Ranch Web Site.
The advantages of reading an Email version of the Ranch Gazette Emailed to you are that you can always print the Gazette Email format out and save it for future reference; all of the same information is posted in the Email version as the copy mailed to you version and the web version. If you do not have a printer with your computer on happen to be a subscriber with Web TV, you can always save the message in your folder to look back to for future reference. Another advantage of receiving an Email version is that if you have access to Email only and not to the internet, you can receive the newsletter much more inexpensively by Email then a copy mailed to you would cost.
The biggest disadvantage of an Email version of the Ranch Gazette Emailed to you is that the format of the newsletter is greatly changed to format your screen and the newsletter tends to lose much of its newsletter look, although all of the information is still contained within the format.
The advantages of reading the Ranch Gazette online on The Ranch Web Site are that, as with the Email version also, you can click directly on the web addresses, sites, and Email addresses and go straight there, but with the online web site version the newsletter still maintains it original newsletter format. With the online web site version, you can turn the pages in a flash with the click of a button; if you are reading an article on page 2 and it says continued on page 5, as this article does, on the online version, continued on page 5 is clickable for the viewer, the viewer clicks on it, and it taken to page 5 in a flash. When they are done reading the article on page 5, they would click on back to page 2 at the bottom of the article that they just finished reading. When reading the online web site version of the Ranch Gazette Newsletter, each standard page printed out equals one page on the web. At the bottom of each page of the Ranch Gazette on the web, there is links that let you skip to any page of the newsletter that you wish. For an example of how you would be reading the Ranch Gazette Online Web site Version, go to The Ranch Home Page and click on The Ranch News, and then click on Example of the Ranch Gazette. You can also print the online web site newsletter format on your printer since one standard 8 1/2 x 11 page equals one standard gazette web page. The format will look exactly like a copy mailed to you.
The prices of the different formats of the Ranch Gazette are as follows:
Mailed to You: $12.00
Email Version: $10.00
Web site Version: $10.00
Sometime on the night of June 14, the biggest goat in the Goat Exhibit recreation, known as Abbey, broke out of the Exhibit on got out onto the El Cobblestone Patio. No one seen that she had broken out until around 6:00 A.M. the next morning, and almost every green plant, shrub, leaf, tree, and anything else green in site was gone. Staff saw that there was nothing green in the themed area and then looked around and saw her sitting over on the side of the patio eating one of the last green things on the patio.
Staff put Abbey back into the exhibit and replaced the boards that she had broken and exited the exhibit through, and then went to work on cleaning up the mess that she had left on the El Cobblestone Patio. It took staff nearly a full day to clean up all of the destruction that she had left.
Staff are now in the process of replacing the plants and shrubs that she had eaten. They are trying to plant the same things that she had eaten back in their original positions, but are having a very hard time doing so, since almost everything just looks like dirt and that there had never been anything there at all before.
Ranch Staff say that the patio should be back into shape with all new plants and shrubs by late August if all goes well. The El Cobblestone Patio is supposed to have all native plants only, but now the plants will have to be mixed with others as well.
If you have any further questions about the replanting of the El Cobblestone Patio, or would like to donate a plant, shrub, bush, or tree to The Ranch for the Patio, please Email Ranch Improvements at: 206@Iname.com
Ranch Guests staying in Building C are now offering something quite perplexing and completely different then anything that you might have ever heard for sale at a small outdoor sale. Sarah and Rachael are selling food at their sale! When Gazette Staff interviewed them and asked them why they were out selling food adjacent to Gate 2 just outside of the Community Yard, they replied that the profit they made is going to help them pay for college.
The unique Food Sale, open biweekly from 11:00 to 11:30 AM, 2:30 to 3:00 PM, and 6:00 to 6:30 PM daily, features a wide variety of canned goods, including ravioli, spam, apricots, peaches, and more. It also features some boxed goods such as jello and macaroni & cheese. Prices on these foods range anywhere from ten cents to a dollar and fifty cents. Staff would describe this sale as more of a clearance sale than a regular sale since goods are priced at a record breaking low, even bringing competition to the prices of items at a local supermarket.
This food sale is open to the public, and seems to get a fair amount of traffic brought to it. Food clerks Sarah and Rachael have went around the neighborhood and posted signs stating the dates of the food sale and the times.
Sarah said that since the food sale has been getting a lot of business, they are going to sell cookies and candy, such as m&ms and skittles, in their future sales. Both girls also stated that they are going to start selling items such as coloring books for little kids, pencils, crayons, colored pencils and more. They hope to attract more attention from kids in the community to the sale.
The food sale will not be active until shortly after Independence Day, but will return the week after. And to this growing and prospering food sale, it seems like this is just the beginning.
The campout that was scheduled for May 30 and then was cancelled due to a large amount of rain has been rescheduled. The new campout date is set at September 2, 1998. All activities and planned themes for the original campout will still take place. The campout will still take place on the Ranch Golfing Recreation. Ranch Staff apologize for the delay.
The flies that were causing problems on the El Cobblestone Patio are gone. Ranch Staff purchased two Rescue fly traps, and the two fly traps caught all of the flies within three days and staff disposed of the flys and traps. So far they haven't been back.
Ranch Staff are in the midst of designing a new themed area called the Lounger's Patio in place of where the old "Patio Cover" used to be. This is a simple themed area design. Patio chairs, lounge chairs, patio benches, etc. along with tables will be located under the patio cover. It's main purpose is to tie in with the Swimming Quad themed area/recreation adjacent to it.
Kitty Village, established July, 1996, is currently celebrating it's second birthday. The Village has had a very successful two years.