Spring Photo Fun Contest

I don't know about our friends up north but here in Texas, spring is in the air! We had such a blast with our Fall on the Farm photo contest that we are hosting another Spring Photo Fun contest to share and celebrate the beauty of life out in the country, on the ranch, or in the barn.

So are you a photographer? Here's how you get in on the fun....

1. Email your photo to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com between the dates of now and March 17, 2013.
2. The photos will be posted on our facebook page during the week of March 18-22 and the photo with the greatest number of likes will be chosen as the fan favorite winner.

The winner will receive a float wrap print of their winning photo. If you don't know what a float wrap is, it's like this....it's a print that kinda sticks out from the wall.

Now we should say, if you do happen to win, you will have to provide us with a high res photo of your entry to print it on the float wrap. So like an instagram photo won't be high enough resolution. But don't worry, if you do win, and you don't have a high res picture, we'll find something else cool for you to get.

We loved seeing the fall photos, and we can't wait for spring! So go ahead and email those photos in to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com and let's get started on the fun!


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Official Rules To Join the Fun....

• By sending us the photo you grant release to RHD and Facebook to post your photo on the RHD facebook page.
• This game is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with Facebook. It's just something fun we're doing at RHD. 
• Winners will be selected by a panel of judges here at RHD along with input from fans. The winner is not selected on how many likes they get. 
• The winner will be notified by email if they are selected.

Do you bleed purple?

Denver Photo A Day Challenge

Join us for a fun way of showcasing what's going on at Denver this year! Post your pics on Instagram and tag @ranchhousedesigns and #rhdphotoaday. Post your photos from ANY of the categories on ANY day. Each day we will choose one favorite photo to win an RHD prize. Prizes will vary each day but will be t-shirts, caps, RHD hoodies, inspirational metal art and more. Then, after Denver, we will post each of our daily winners on our Facebook page and our fans will choose our "Best in Show" Denver photo. That winner will receive a free ticket to our April Livestock Marketing Workshop!

History: "David" The Hereford Bull

One of our popular facebook fun items is our "History Lessons" where we post old photos and then our friends share what they know about the significant animals. It's an awesome way to hear good old stories from people nationwide.

One of these recent "History Lessons" included this family bull, named "David." As we gathered comments and stories on facebook, here are the great stories behind this famous bull.

• David was owned and exhibited by Bright Bros. Herefords of Le Grand, California. Sandy Meyer shared that his sire was the bull named "Lerch"
• 1981 Denver, National Western Stock Show
• Caroline McMahon shares:  It sold for a record $301K at auction!
• Matt Leo (James Bright's son), shares:  As the story goes Goliath was his competition and a popular bull at the time James Bright thought he could beat him so he named him "David" . Lerch was his sire the 1978 Reserve Grand Bull. David won Denver in 1980 under Bill Jacobs and in 
  1981 got beat by another Bull Bright's sold named Centenial shown by V Bar Ranch af Stanton, Tx . " David was bought buy Born Herefords and Granite Hills for $301,000 and still the Denver record. We still to this day work out of the showbarn and ranch " David" built! 
• Val Reiss of Kansas shares: " David was very line bred, same grandfather both sides. Legend has it David was conceived when Lerch jumped fence and got in with show heifers next door. Our black baldy steer that was Reserve Grand at Michigan 5 years ago shown by Ryan Smoes had a Hereford grandmother by David. Good genetics fit everywhere"

To this day, David holds the record of the highest selling bull of the Hereford breed. And, the Bright Bros. and Leo Bros. is still a great cattle operation in California. Thanks for sharing the photo with us!

History: "The White Heifer that Travelled"

In August we posted this famous Shorthorn photo to our facebook page where our friends take part in our "History Lessons" where we post old photos and then everyone shares what they know. This photo features "The White Heifer That Travelled", an old Shorthorn photo.

Here are some great tidbits about this significant animal.

• J.E. Ranch first identified her as "The White Heifer That Travelled", and later Jeannine Doughty identified that she lived in the early 1800s and was a freemartin heifer.
• Charles Anderson helped us learn that she was bred by Robert Colling and that the freemartin weighed over 2,300 pounds at maturity! He also said that she was so fat that the groove down her topline was so deep that locals would drink their favorite "beverages" out of her back with straws!! John Mason corroborated this story, adding that the drink of choice was whiskey!
• Grant Alexander (a Canadian Shorthorn breeder) helped us learn that she got her name because she was displayed all across England as "the model beef animal" of that time.

And finally, WB Show Cattle intrigued us with the question of: "Wonder what would happen if we bred her to Heat Wave!"

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Crafty Cattle : Cattle Gifts

Get out your credit cards, because after reading this blog I'm  pretty sure every one is going to want to order one of these awesome "Crafty Cattle" wooden cutout gifts.  

Crafty Cattle is a family owned business that offers custom wooden cattle cutouts to show the pride of cattlemen. They look great as home decor, desk decor, or home decorative accents. Crafty Cattle is a partnership between father-and-son Michael and Cody Bond. They were referred to us by their relative Levi Bond, who has been a longtime client of RHD. 

If you visit their website, you can see all of the great items they offer, ranging from business card holders to clocks to wooden cutouts. 

To place an order, call Mike Bond at 580 231 2257 or email mikebond00759@yahoo.com.

Livestock Motivational Posters

As you have noticed, each Wednesday we post a new livestock motivational graphic on our facebook page, and week after week everyone seems to love them. We have gotten many requests to make these in a poster format. So guess what, we did.

The posters are available for $7.99 each or you can buy a pack of 7 posters for $29.99 each. These posters are 11 x 17, poster weight, and coated in gloss laminate. They would be awesome for room decorations, bulletin boards, classroom decorations for ag chapters, Extension office decorations, and more.

We have made available all of the graphics we have done so far, and will be adding more weekly. So check them out at http://ranchhousedesigns.mybigcommerce.com/categories.php?category=Posters!

Best of the Barns Winners

Well it is only January 2nd and it seems that the cat is out of the bag on the highly anticipated winners of the 2011 Best of the Barns competition! Congratulations to all of the winners!

If you haven't had a chance to see the official announcement of the winners in January's The Showbox magazine, you can also see the winners here. If you're wondering why some winners don't have a bio written about them, it's because they did not send it in. If you happen to be one of these businesses please send your stuff to emily@ranchhousedesigns.com so we can add you to the winners featured on the website.

We send a big congratulations out to all of the winners. The livestock industry is full of very talented businesses and individuals and we consider it our honor to run this contest to help recognize those who do so much for the industry we love.

P.S. Winners...trophies are here and ready to ship! Be expecting them by the time you get back from Denver!

Christmas Gifts from RHD

Is it just me, or does it seem like it gets harder and harder to get gifts for those people in our lives that seem to have EVERYTHING already! Or, to find something unique? It never fails that year in and year out, lots of our livestock friends turn to RHD to help them come up with something really cool for Christmas designs.

Last year, one of our hardest kept secrets was the Christmas gift of a blog header design that Jon Blin gave to Crystal Young.

Barn banners are another really popular Christmas gift, like these shown here at Tusa Cattle.

In some cases, we have even done websites as a Christmas gift! The way we have found it works best is that you go ahead and book the website before Christmas. We will put up a special message like "Merry Christmas Dad...Welcome to your new web site to be designed by RHD" on the web site home page. On Christmas, you can tell the person to go to http://www.yourranch.com/ where they will see the special message. This is really cool and always is an exciting gift!

Another cool thing we have done is special photo collages mounted on canvas or gallery wrap. These are really neat too. We did one of these for the Klug family last year and they loved it.

So while it's never too early for Christmas gifts, there is a time when you can be too late. We need to get to work on Christmas items right away, preferably by December 1st.

Also if you are looking for some great unique items, visit these client web sites:

• http://www.sjcattlecreations.com/
• http://www.classicleatherdesigns.com/
• http://signaturesignsandawards.com/
• http://www.twistedstitch1.com/
• http://bunkhousedesignstexas.com/
• http://www.countryflaredesigns.com/
• http://www.msqueenbling.com/
• http://silverdivajewelry.com/
• http://www.squawcreeksilver.com/

More Pinterest Quotes

Here's a few more of our recent favorite quotes that we'll post for your pinning pleasure :)

Megan Cullers = Awesome!

This summer we were so honored to have Megan Cullers as our summer intern! And today is her official "last day" (until we can beg her to come back next summer) and so we just wanted to say a special THANK YOU to this wonderful lady! (Megan is the red head in the picture)

Megan started with us in May, when she came back home to Wharton from being at Abilene Christian University, where she is studying to be a nurse. Or actually I think it is something a little more advanced than a nurse, but it's in the health care administration and nursing field. Trust me, she is SMART.

Megan immediately became such a big part of our team here. She brightened all of our days with her sweet smile, her kind personality, and her great attitude. She was always coming up with new ideas, fun things to do, and ways that we could do things better here at RHD.

She was a HUGE asset to The Brahman Review. During the summer she helped us ad over 1500 new subscribers to our mailing list! HUGE! She is a one of a kind, go-getter, and we love her!

Last week, we went to a special lunch at Scheller's Cafe in Glen Flora, Texas to celebrate and honor Megan as a way of saying "Thank you" for the great job she did here! We had a great lunch, and each of us treated ourself with a hand-dipped Blue Bell ice cream cone!

Megan, we just want to say THANK YOU for everything! We're going to miss you so much. You have a job here during Christmas Break, Spring Break, Next Summer, or anytime you want :)

RHD Clients in the NAILE Trade Show

We had a great time strolling through the trade show and chatting with all of the RHD clients that were participating in the NAILE trade show. If I had to guess, I'm sure lots of you also stopped
by these booths....it seems like they were packed every time I walked by.

Our leading lady of fashion - Randa Yezak with the Southern Jewlz booth. Of course I had to purchase something from there :) Congratulations Randa on all of your business success!

We met up with Katy Kemp of ABS Global, a new client we have recently started developing e

-mail marketing plans for. Katy reported to us that they had lots of people stop by the booth and say
that they loved getting the emails from ABS that were sent out by US! Woo hoo!!! If you haven't
signed up for the RHD mailing list, you can easily do it on our facebook fan page (join my list) or at the very bottom right corner of http://www.ranchhousedesigns.com/

Another big hit of the show was SJ Creations! They had tons of awesome custom metal

creations on display. These make great ideas for Christmas gifts. Check out all of Stephanie's work at http://www.sjcattlecreations.com/

Our last stop on the trade show tour was at Twisted Stitch. I fell in love with the stuff here!! They had some awesome cattle artwork and also a really neat wooden cattle cutout. They promised us that after Louisville they would be posting these on their web site too. So check out http://www.twistedstitch1.com/. Their stuff is fabulous!

What our pets do while we're at work

Here's a pic of Stacey Forgason's pet, looks like we know what she does all day while Stacey's here at RHD.

Community Support

Ranch House Designs is always happy to give back to the communities we serve and especially welcome the chance to help our college alma mater Texas A&M University. Several members of our staff, Aggies and non-Aggies alike, will be attending the Gulf Coast Aggies Coach’s Night Thursday, July 22 in Richmond, Texas.


A&M head football coach Mike Sherman will be the featured speaker for the evening and I’m sure everyone will enjoy hearing what he has to say about the upcoming season, as well as the controversy surrounding the football conference drama earlier this summer.

The event is being held to raise money for the Ft. Bend County, Wharton County and Katy A&M clubs’ scholarship funds for students attending Texas A&M. Their fund raising goal is $25,000.

RHD will be donating a web site package to the auction. If you’d like more information about the event, or would like to attend, visit the Ft. Bend Aggies web site at http://www.fortbendags.com/.

Can’t wait for football season to begin! Gig ‘Em!

New Office Remodel - Exterior Paint Colors

Wow, if you think choosing the color of a print ad or a web site background is hard, try choosing the color of an office! I'm sure many of our readers can relate to this fear of painting something whether it be your home or show equipment. I can definitely relate to a few bad paint choices in my day.

So this weekend, Brandon and I did lots of office remodel work, including removing the stick on sign letters from the new office. Just a note. If you have ever considered purchasing big giant letters to stick on the side of your building or office, think again. These were a nightmare to remove. But, we got it done, so now we can move on to the next part of the remodel, which is painting the exterior.

Since we're so handy with Photoshop, I did the sample painting in Photoshop. Sort of. I realize this isn't exact, but here are the choices we had.

Original: Yellow

Choice #1: Cardboard Color

Choice #2: Outerbanks Color

Choice #3: Tree Branch Color

So, here are the three options we've narrowed it down to. Of course this is a Photoshop simulation. We're going to give it a few days to sink in, and make our decision. Meanwhile, we'd love to hear your thoughts on what color looks the best....Original, Cardboard, Outerbanks, or Tree Branch.

Spring Parties!

It always seems like once the weather warms up that everyone is ready to get out and about and socialize! Springtime means lots of parties! From birthday parties to graduation parties to baby showers!

If you have an upcoming event like these, we hope you will consider choosing Ranch House Invitations for your invitation needs! We've been placing lots of orders through our affiliation with Tiny Prints. You can choose from thousands of designs, and even upload your own photos if you want! Here are a few designs recently ordered by our Ranch House Invitations customers. Check it out! Everyone needs a reason to have a party this spring!

This one was recently chosen from our affiliation with Tiny Prints for a baby shower invitation....

And another recent baby shower invitation choice from the Tiny Prints catalog...

And finally, another cute choice from our partners at Tiny Prints. Here is one that Rachel chose for her wedding rehearsal dinner celebration...at where else? Larry's Mexican Restaurant!

Crystal Young: Be Very Jealous

This past week I had the opportunity to take a "vacation" and go with the V8 Ranch Brahmans down to the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show in Mercedes, Texas. For those of you who aren't familiar with Texas geography, this is a little town approximately 6 miles from Mexico.

But...even if you haven't heard of the town of Mercedes, I would bet that most of our readers know something about this little Texas town, also known as the home of Rios of Mercedes and Anderson Bean boots!

Being the self proclaimed boot snob that I am, I was ecstatic to get myself within the vicinity of the Mercedes boot store. As soon as I could tear myself away from the stock show, I headed over to the boot store. Now there is a rumor going around other boot snob circles that you can go to this factory store and get boots for next to nothing. Or, that you can drop off your worn out boots there and get them re-soled and re-conditioned. And I am  happy to report, yes, these rumor is true. There were boots priced there from $100 on up.

Though I perused the store for about 30 minutes, unfortunately I did not find anything that I felt I necessarily HAD to have. But, one of my friends picked up 7 pairs of boots at the show, and another friend of mine got 2 pair.

Nonetheless, I'm still happy to say that yes, I have personally visited the Rios of Mercedes and Anderson Bean Boot headquarters. So go ahead Crystal, be jealous. :)

Shout Out To Top Sires on Facebook

If you're like me, you've probably been recently bombarded with requests to join "fan pages" on Facebook for various livestock businesses, farms, ranches, etc. We sort of like to stake claim that we started this craze, when we created the fan page for V8 Ranch early in 2009 and at that time, couldn't find another cattle ranch with a fan page. Now, it is so fun to get requests to be fans of other livestock businesses on facebook and keep up with what they are doing.

So of all of the fan pages on facebook, I really have to say that Top Sires has really taken their social media networking up to a whole new level. Their Facebook fan page is awesome!!! I'm not sure who deserves the credit for this wonderful fan page, Mike or Christina, but I'm guessing a combination of both.

My favorite thing on their recent fan page is the "Guess the Bull" Contest". This is where Top Sires posts a random photo of a club calf bull -- sometimes a current one, sometimes a really old one -- and you have to guess who the bull is. Personally, with my experience in 8 years of working with bull clients, I thought I would be pretty good at this. NO WAY! There are people on the Top Sires fan page that can instantly ID these bulls that I have no clue who they are. I love it! I love guessing and then seeing other people's guesses.

Anyway, if you're on facebook, check out the Top Sires fan page - http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Maple-Park-IL/Top-Sires/248599394388. It's a whole lot of fun!

My fastest Denver trip ever!

Well I have officially completed my fastest trip to the National Western Stock Show in my 21 year history of attending the show. I made a quick trip in on Friday afternoon, spend the day Saturday "In the Yards" and then flew home on Sunday morning, so I could head on up to Ft. Worth for the Open Brahman Show.

Though I was only at the stock show for one day, it was still a great day and as always, Denver is Denver. It's always been and always will be one of my favorite stock shows, because it's a show for real cattleman, and I love it.

Seeing old friends is probably my favorite part of Denver. Being from Texas, the only time I get to see most of my midwest friends is at Denver or Louisville. A quick stroll through the yards or on the hill and I was able to run into tons of my friends that are quick with a smile and a hug! I love catching up with everyone face to face, which is always definitely better than over e-mail or text. Anytime I get to a show I love to get with Brooke Bennett, and this year she was there working for ShowChampions.com.

I also enjoyed watching the Angus show, where I was cheering for our clients Topline Farms, Michigan State University, Sankey 6N Ranch, and Pembrook Cattle. I also stopped by the Topline stalls to see Topline Mackinaw, who is a new bull for 2010 and is owned by Topline and my dear friend Craig Blint. The funniest observation of my entire trip occurred during the Angus heifer champion drive. As the animals entered the ring, "Eye Of The Tiger" started blaring over the loudspeakers. I'm certain NWSS planned this. I kept thinking, if I was out there in the ring and I heard that, there is no way I could keep a straight face. I happened to be standing by Dylan Evans at the time, so we played a game of coming up with some other cheesy songs to play, and We are the Champions was our top pick.

It's always great to see our RHD clients. Of course, we saw our many clients who we did bull banners for. It was great to meet 2 of our new bull clients, Stan & Clark Bixler and Gary Fillmore and Justin Hartman for the first time.  I also loved visiting with Levi Bond at his display for Titanium where his semen give-a-way was a huge hit. I had a great interview with Alisa Neil and Ryan Habeger.

Wherever I go, I always enjoy meeting new friends, or maybe better described as putting a face with a name, since most of my correspondence is done over e-mail or the phone. On my short trip, I got to meet one of our newer clients, Steve Boneso,  who was displaying the Walks on Water bull. I also finally got to meet the great photographer, Chris Rosa, who was responsible for the creative side of the Walks on Water display. I was really happy to meet my Facebook friend, Christina Wernicke of Top Sires. I'm so glad she's married to a Shorthorn guy because she is FUN and hopefully we'll get to hang out at many more Shorthorn shows in the future. And my 4th new person to meet was my blogging friend, Crystal Young, who was videoing stuff for the Angus Association.

Doubletree vs. Embassy
As a loyal Doubletree guest for forever, unfortunately this year I was unable to get a room there so I had to bump down to my second choice, Embassy Suites. I had heard of Embassy Suites after recommendations from Jeff Schroeder at Cattle.com and I was very familiar with the 4444 North Havana address of that hotel because we usually ship a lot of Denver promo items there. So after staying at Embassy, I have to say it's a toss up. Embassy is a little more old school in terms of decor, but their free complimentary breakfast is awesome. Their stock show shuttle wasn't running on Friday, and I had to get a cab, so that was a setback. Of course, I did go to the Doubletree and hang out in the lobby and socialize for a little while on Friday afternoon. It was packed with the judging teams but as always it's a great hot spot for seeing Shorthorn friends and livestock judging friends.

Cattle.com
For the second year in a row, I helped my good friend Jeff Schroeder at Cattle.com with the Denver bull interviews. I think my video interviewing skills have improved since 2009. It was so rewarding to be able to talk with all of the new bull owners and hear first hand about their bulls. Everyone always thinks theirs is the next big thing, and the rest of us will just have to wait for a few years to see how things shake out of who actually IS the best! Jeff and his brother Ryan do the bull videos and owner interviews totally free of charge, as a service to those who can't make it to Denver.  These two guys have a huge dedication to education in the club calf business and it's an honor to work with them.

So, as I'm fixing to head out the door again and go to Fort Worth, I'll share a few photos from Denver.

As I sign off, I'll share my favorite picture on the trip. I only took about 5 photos though. But here are two good friends and fellow ag technology buffs, Jeff Schroeder and Brad Hook, taking videos of each other in the yards.

Heading to Denver!

As I'm writing this blog, in just a few hours I'll be boarding on a plan and headed up to the mile high city for a quick trip to Denver and the beginning of our whirlwind 6 weeks of travel for RHD while we go to Denver, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Houston, etc etc etc. 

I am absolutely ecstatic to get ready to go to Denver this year, for a couple of reasons! First, I'll be helping my good friend Jeff Schroeder at Cattle.com by doing Denver bull interviews again this year. I've been practicing up on my skills by watching Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America for the whole year, and hopefully will not be doing a silly laugh like I did last year as my mom so kindly pointed out. I can't wait to see all the bulls and talk to all the owners. I'm hoping this year I can actually manage to get an interview with Matt Lautner to hear about his new bull, since last year he turned me down!

Next, I can't wait to get to the big city and go to all those good restaurants, since I'm pretty much sick of my daily McDonalds and choices of food at Wharton, Texas. Since my birthday is just around the corner, I'm going to celebrate one night in Denver,and I've got it narrowed down to a few of my favorites.

Another thing I'm really excited about is seeing the Stock Show issue of The ShowTimes Magazine. Brian Reid has done a wonderful job with this new publication and it is always fun to read his articles and junior spotlights. I have an article in that issue coming out in Denver....actually it's a compilation of several mini-interviews, so I didn't do that much actual writing myself. But make sure to check that out.

And finally, of course, I can't wait to see all my friends and all the amazing cattle that will be at the National Western!!! I'm still a little miffed that my stock show buddy Ashley Hueber is going to be absent at Denver this year, but I guess I'll have to manage. I'll only be there for a few days, but I can hardly wait for that cold crisp air and a great couple of days in Denver.

So we'll be looking for all our friends, and be looking for me and Emily! We'd love to talk to you about a new project like a new web site or a print ad for this spring.