February Rancher of the Month

Meet Dave*. He's one of our Ranchers. Dave is a kind and gentle person who loves to help people. He's looking for a job right now and would like to work at a grocery store or some other kind of store. He's got experience in that kind of work.

Dave's got a great sense of humor and is an unrepentant teaser of other Ranchers, staff and visitors. He would like to have a girl friend, but God hasn't brought him the right one yet. Dave knows that women need to be treated differently than men because they have different likes and dislikes than men. He has excellent manners and makes friends easily.

Dave needs a few more seconds to answer questions than most. He thinks deeply and carefully about things and takes his time to put his words together, so it's always worth the wait. Dave is one of the best housekeepers in his house. He does the dishes and wipes the counters and stove top after every meal and nearly always responds when someone needs help with their chores.

Dave has a room full of DVD's that he likes to watch. He especially likes High School Musical 1 and 2. He's not very interested in live TV, although he got a very nice new television for Christmas. He wants to learn new things--things like painting with water colors, crochet, knitting, wood working, and carpentry. He's made a crochet chain several feet long and is now learning to turn it and crochet in the holes all the way back. Dave asked for help in painting a picture of red roses for his mother. He's also painting some ceramic green ware to fire in our kiln in the spring.

When people visit the Ranch, Dave is one of the first to shake hands and speak. He attends many Ranch tours along with the Director and offers his advice and guidance. As a valued Rancher, Dave knows that his input is not only important, but vital and eye-opening for others.

Overall, Dave is a wonderful and incredibly able person. He's a good friend and excellent companion. He'll never judge another person for making a mistake or for the way they look. He hates name calling and being treated in a mean way, so he'll never do that to someone else, at least on purpose. He's responsive, responsible and respected by the other Ranchers and by the staff.

"...bursting with abilities, capabilities and possibilities!!!"


*Triangle Cross Ranch does not use Ranchers' real names in our public posts.

The Weekenders

Meet two of our best and brightest weekenders--Hannah and Randee. They bring energy, creativity and joy to our Ranch while our full timers have some well-deserved days off. At any given moment they can be found arranging house to house visits, planning games, playing those games with a vengeance, making fun with very few resources, listening to Ranchers' stories and complaints, fixing problems, laughing and just generally being happy to be on the Ranch. Their attitudes are infectuous, as you can tell!!

Randee is a business student at the local university as well as the person who trains all of our new relief workers and gives the staff a great sense of security with her competence and good judgment. Hannah is a nursing student who has awesome common sense and brings a terrific sense of community and comraderie.

And this is Ryan, our full time floating relief person. Ryan works every weekend, along with

the other weekenders to ensure consistency and security. The Ranchers think he's "cool" and he thinks the Ranchers are pretty "cool" as well. Ryan spends a lot of time in the men's house at Peace House playing his guitar, playing video games with the guys, helping them with their projects and just hanging out.

There are two more weekenders on staff here, but they haven't stood still to get their pictures taken yet. I'll tell you more about them in the upcoming posts, but rest assured that they are just as young, energetic and awesome as these three.


We're blessed to have them all. God is so faithful to us!!

After a Loooooong Break...We're Back!!

After a few months of transition, we're back on the blogging trail. Things have been hectic at the Ranch recently, although life at a slightly slower pace for our Ranchers has continued right on.

In October, our lovely and oh so capable director, Lorelei, moved on to bigger and better things. We've missed her so much in the last months. The interim director has been yours truly, ME! I'm doing my best to keep the Ranch on an even keel, even though losing a valuable employee is always hard on everyone. A new director will be chosen by the end of February, and whether the board hires me or not, the Ranch will stay near the center of my heart. One way or the other, it will be nice to have the transition time over.

Our Prader-Willi House opened in October and promptly closed again in December after what we're calling a false start. The primary care giver abandoned his position and the resident was found to have much greater needs than we could address at our facility. It was stressful for all involved. We're now looking for reliable staffing for the house and continuing to take applications for Ranchers with the expectation of reopening full time in late spring. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

So here we are in a brand new year, 2009, and looking forward to things settling down in the office. We're getting our new website up and running, updating our presentation materials, and keeping up to speed on our licensing requirements. It all sounds very boring, indeed, but that's what makes our world go around, some days. Obviously, I haven't figured out the picture program yet, because there aren't any in this posting, but never fear! I'll get to that eventually and the visual feast can commence.

In the meantime, the Ranchers have been busy with their winter work; making felt, drying and packaging herbs, sewing bags and mittens, feeding the animals.............attending Christmas parties, shopping trips and movies, eating out, playing games, and visiting friends. Ah, I should have a life like that!

Thank you to all of the people who donated to the Ranch over the holiday season. With the poor economy this past year, I stand amazed at people's generosity. God has been faithful this year, and I have no doubt that He will continue to act according to His nature in the days to come.

So a great and happy new year to all! May there truly be peace and good will this coming year and in all the years that follow!

Suzzanne