 |
 |
|
|
|
In the Winter of 2000, Debbie happened upon a small for sale ad in the "then" Rocky Mountain News newspaper that was listing farm land for sale south of Wiggins,
in Morgan County, Colorado. We initially dismissed the ad, and in fact threw it away. Several days later, Debbie went and retrieved the small ad from the trash,
and called the owner, Bill. After a short conversation, it was decided I would go to Wiggins the next day to see the land, and meet with Bill. It seemed like it took all day to get the 72 miles Northeast of the Denver metropolitan area to the property that was in fact 10 miles South of Wiggins. I was beginning to have second thoughts, but I prevailed, and finally found the property. I toured the property in my Jeep Wrangler with the owner "Bill" in the late afternoon. I was very impressed with Bill as he was very engaging and very down to earth. I really liked him, and he was more than happy to answer my 2,000 or so questions I had for him. I was also very taken with the land, and after calling Debbie on my cell phone, I gave Bill a $500 deposit, and on a handshake, went back to downtown Denver, during rush hour, to pick up Debbie from work so she could see the "land". Bill had told me to let Debbie look at the land, and if she did not like it, he would give me my deposit back. Trust me, I know he would have. That is how he conducted business. His word was his bond. We were not accustom to that after living in Denver for over 30 years. We soon came to find out that much of the business we conducted to get the "infrastructure" of the ranch built was handle just that way. A truly refreshing change. Being 72 miles northeast of Denver, we arrived back at the land at dusk, and went up to the owners home to discuss the terms. We both loved the property, and decided to buy it. That fateful day, started our quest to develop then a "farm" and move to the rural eastern plains of Colorado. One interesting issue occurred during the property closing. After closing, Bill said to me, lets go over to USDA and get your money...Money he says ?...Turns out our property was under a USDA program that would pay us yearly if we did not farm the property. Not a problem for me. Would not know what to do anyway... You may ask, did we have construction, farm, ranch, or rural experience. The short and polite answer is NO. We now had the property, we had water to the south boundary, and power and phone, also at the south boundary, or so we hoped. But, we did not really understand what it would take to get the utilities to where we wanted it ? Once again, the short and polite answer is NO. While still living in the suburbs and working in Denver, we divided and re-divided the property several times, and placed the house we never built probably 10-15 times [I'll explain later]. We drew "plats", diagrams, etc. We also visited the property and had "picnics". That's all we could do, as we did not have any "facilities". Those were 10 miles away in Wiggins. It was very frustrating, and we were having problems getting started. What do we need to do first ? In 2001, when we finally decided we wanted to get some building started. Jim opted for outbuildings, and Debbie wanted a house. After looking at the economics of it all, we built a 42' wide By 64' long By 16' high main barn and a 30' wide By 30' wide By 12' high shop building, on what is now the North side of our "Ranch" for $25,000. That was a ton of money then, but as we found out, the buildings were the cheap part of the project. We were so "proud" of those buildings. We brought out our 24 foot Class A motor home, and we started going out to the "Ranch" [we realized we would ranch and not farm in the first year], every weekend we could. In the Summer time, we strung 500 feet of garden hose from the water tap to the motor home to give us running cold water, and Debbie did all the cooking on our BBQ grill. The motor home was used for sleeping, and heat, when we where not working. There was one reocuring sanitation issue to overcome however. The motor home had "facilities", but, you have to "dump" the tanks all the time. Where was the nearest dump ? Yes, 22 miles northeast of Wiggins in Fort Morgan, and it cost $25. In addition,the propane tanks for heating water and to provide heat were not very large. So we had to refill them often. Significant time was wasted to maintain the "facilities". But, we adapted and found unique ways to conserve our meager facilities. Don't ask, you do not want to know.... 
 We had some wonderful experiences, and some real horrid ones as well developing what is now the "Ranch". But we did survive them all, and do remember them vividly. They definitely gave us a real sense of what we would be up against living on the north eastern plains of Colorado, and also formed our "rural character" as well. Living in a rural area is not for everyone. We see folks all the time come out here, buy their dream land/home, and then leave in a year or two as they just cannot handle the unique aspects of this lifestyle. In some ways it is everything you think it is. And, in others, it takes some getting accustomed to. We are glad we did not just move out here. The years spent developing the Ranch, showed us the good, the bad, and the ugly. We would not trade for anything at this point. In later years, we added electricity, a full bathroom, with hot water in the shop building [we had a party to celebrate that being completed], and outside water up to the buildings as well. We were in "High Cotton" for sure. In the intervening years up to 2007, we went to the ranch as much as we could. We finished the inside of the Shop Building, and both the Barn and Shop had full electrical in them. We were able to plug in the motor home, and life at the ranch was good, very, very good. In later 2006, the neighbors to the south of us, were having some medical issues, and they needed to move to Greeley, Colorado. We decided we would sell our home in the Denver suburbs, and purchase their home and property. The beauty of this, was that we now owned property that was contigous, and we ended up with more property then we ever thought we would own, and a get very nice home as well. 
 Thus, the BAR JDP Ranch was born, and we moved in 2008 to the ranch on a full time basis. Once we were settled, we began talking about what we really wanted to do, now we were "Home". Debbie did not want to "watch the grass grow", so we decided initially on some animals. The first to arrive were two head of sheep. Two ewes [Bannie and Mallie]. Bannie and Maalie arrived, in very serious shape. Maalie was the worst, and required intensive care to save her life. We learned a lot about saving "Bummer Lambs" from Maalie. Mallie required intensive bottle feedings, and "probios" treatment to get her stomach working properly. We moved her to an infants play pen in our laundry room, so we could watch her closely. We almost lost her two different times. A call to our local Vet, and two antibiotic shots saved her life. She is now a full size white face ewe, who see's Debbie as her mother. Gee, I wonder why ? 
Maalie All Grown Up  Over the ensuing time we added two miniature horses [Cheyenne and Buster], four pygmy goats [Joanie, Chachi, Ralph, and Potsie]. We then we purchased from a local auction, our mammoth spotted donkey, Calvin, and recently, Arnold the pot bellied pig came to live with us. 
 Added to this mix is Ranger our English Border collie herd dog, and our cocker spaniel, Princess [yes, she lives up to her name] 
 Did I mention we also built a new 30 by 64 barn for the "pets" as well ? We did. Right behind the house.... The loafing shed next to the barn is our Fullblood Low Line cattle Calving Area...Can't have enough buildings... As a last chapter to this section of the site, much has been done to get us ready for housing and caring for our Lowline Black Angus cattle herd. We decided on Lowline Black Angus after raising standard size Black Angus steers for beef production. We were intrigued by the lowlines for their wonderful feed conversion abilities, their docile nature, and ease of handling. So we invested in registered Fullbood and Pure Bred Angus Heifers and Prospect Bull calf. We also added several percentage heifers [both Black Angus and Black Baldie] and a percentage bull calf, for our beef production program. As a later entry, we have also added lowline Belted Galloway genetics to our herd as well. 
  We intend to raise registered lowline Black Angus and Belted Galloway calves for sale to other breeding programs, and to raise our percentage cattle for beef production, as all will be fed on natural grass, and finished on steam flaked corn. Only the minimum of vaccinations will be used to protect the health of the animal, and the herd in general. We were very successful with our standard size angus herd with these procedures, and will use the same procedures on the lowlines. The last 4 standard size steers we processed averaged out as "Choice" quality beef. |
|
The BAR JDP Ranch Is A Proud Member Of  |
|
BAR JDP Ranch |
|
The Home Page |