01.13.2003 | 8:27 pm

The nut tree was quiet and somber today. As I checked through each of the returned progress reports, I took a mental note of each report, remembering the significance of each S, S- (sometimes follows rule) or N (needs to improve) in each of the various categories. I knew I had made the right decision in each case. Children who normally have received all O�s (often follows rule) had not last Friday. I thoroughly expected to get some curt remarkes from parents, but such was not the case. The opposite held true. �Thank you, Mrs. B. for bringing this to our attention.� Another mother called and said, �Thank you for letting us know. We have started a behavior plan at home to try and help you.� What nice news.

A friend, summer-gale just returned from Las Vegas. She also took a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. I had signed her guest book and mentioned we have a summer ranch just a �stone�s throw� from the Grand Canyon, and I hoped she had waved. She replied with a question about �the ranch� and how it fit into our life. I wrote a very short reply to her query, but I think I will tell you all about our wonderful ranch.

Hubby�s maternal Grandparents did many things during their lives to support themselves and the family. Grandpa R owned a Rambler dealership in our town, he served in public office, and he ranched during the summer months. He was able to lease land inexpensively from the BLM. The land is located northeast of Flagstaff in a small neck of the woods know as Parks, AZ. Early on, the ranch was rustic and primitive. The adults would sleep in an ancient home built in the late 1800�s. All the kids would bed down in the bunk-house which was really just an old horse barn. Although there was running water in the old ranch house, it had to be hauled in from the railroad crossing, so it was used sparingly. Sometime in the 60's, grandpa built a newer house, futher back into the pines, away from the road. This house is the one we use today.

During the summer months, when the temperatures soared in the desert, all the cousins would head for the hills with their grandparents to stay and work at the ranch. During the days, grandpa and the boys would brand and herd cattle, mend fence, repair and build. The girls would help grandma cook everything from apple and lemon meringue pies to bread and cowboy beans. On rainy days, everyone would be inside for crocheting and knitting lessons...including the boys. Grandma and grandpa had five kids, so that meant here were plenty of cousins at the ranch during any given time, to make for rollicking good fun. In the evenings, grandpa would pull out the harmonica and play while everyone danced till the floor shook. Often my mother-in-law would have the telescope out and all the kids learned the names of the stars and constellations. The hall closet is filled with every kind of game for self-entertaining. The games have been worn well over the years. Since I wasn�t part of the family at that time, I don�t know all that went on. I do know that hubby, his siblings, and all the cousins LOVE the ranch and have the fondest of memories of life there, with their grandparents.

Eventually grandpa, then grandma passed on. My mother-in-law, the oldest of the children, and executor of the estate, had the foresight to set aside her own funds to allow her children to buy the old house and surrounding 10 acres. This has made it possible for all our children and their cousins to love and enjoy the ranch throughout their childhood, teen-age and now adult years. Since my own little grandchildren have spent many hours of relaxation and enjoyment at the ranch, I consider it to be one of the greatest treasures my mother-in-law left to her posterity.

To look at the old buildings, a stranger might not see the beauty and meaning to their stature. In our eyes, the ranch has been a place of refuge from the modern world of hassles and stressors. The ranch is the one place that we can go to sing, break bread, dance, play, pray, work, and renew our family ties....from days gone by, well into the future.

catsnapples~ in first grade and at life

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