Servant Hearts



Kelly, Kyle, and Sandy figuring out the baking thing

 Yesterday students from St. Mary's Catholic Student Center at Texas A and M came out, a whole slew of them!  They'd wanted to do a service project, and we said, "Hey, why don't you do a Halloween thing with our residents?  They'd love that."

Everyone was game, so we worked a bit from both ends to set up and afternoon of fun and fellowship, and it was a doozie!

Kyle rides his broom like the cowboy he is

The thing is, there's just something special about Aggies.  We do have a few straggling Longhorns at the Ranch (and one real one), but the Aggies far outnumber them.  One reason is that we've had a close relationship with St. Mary's since the late 90s, so much so that many of our campers and Ranchers either come from that area or have very close ties to the University.



Not Quiddich--it's just a broom race

 I guess it figures that Aggies would be attracted to Ranch life.  Whatever the reason, by now the ties are so strong that the Ranch can deck itself out in maroon for any occasion.

The day began with everyone getting to know one another, moved on to cookie-backing, continued with the great scarecrow-stuffing-broomstick-racing-pumpkin-rolling event, and ended up by carving faces on the surviving pumpkins.  In the middle of all that were hamburgers for lunch.
The St. Mary's students were easy and natural with the residents, and asked over and over how they could get more involved.



Alan gets down and dirty with his pumpkin carving

 I told them that kids and adults with intellectual disabilities spend a whole lot of time with people who are paid to be with them and precious little with anybody (excluding family) who just wants to be around them because they like them. 

Therefore the St. Mary's visit was pure gold for us.  Just give our people a chance and they'll steal your heart.

Soon they'll be on Facebook tagging their new friends, enjoying the chance to be like everyone else.  The students will become hooked on the fascinating news from Down Home Ranch as disseminated by the Ranchers themselves. 

Coram Deo

During staff meeting Friday Jerry said we'd cut it short because of a multitude of volunteers expected to arrive at any minute.
He asked Mr. Pat to tell the rest of the staff about the 85 or so fifth-graders we expected from Regent School of Austin. 

To my surprise, Pat lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Oh!," he said, "this is about the fifth year in a row they've come out.  I thought we'd wind up babysitting the first year, but those kids can work!  We love it when they come out."

Everyone dispersed to their sites to welcome the volunteers and get them going.  Soon there were groups working everywhere--around the foundation of Joseph House, behind Benedict, in the woods surrounding the camp grounds, and in the community garden  helping to prepare the ground for the next garden beds.

I looked out my office window and thought: That's a passle of 10-year olds! 

I grabbed my camera and went to the garden to investigate.  Moms, Dads, and teachers were all working with the kids, along with Michael, Matt, and their team leader Naomi, raking, busting clods, asking what we planned to plant when it was ready.

From there I went to the Village.  The children were levelling a huge pile of dirt left from the excavation for the foundation for the new Joseph House and carrying it by the shovel  full to pack it in around the slab.

But there was a problem: dozens of frogs and toads had buried themselves in the soft dirt and the kids didn't know what to do with them.  I suggested a relocation shelter near the Benedict garden and hoped the transition wouldn't prove too hard on our amphibious friends.

Wherever I went kids were working amazingly hard, amid scratchy vines, lifting heavy loads, dragging tree limbs long distances.  No whining, no grumping, no sass, no attitude but curious and respectful at all times. 

A few hours later everyone had lunch and Jerry gave them a talk about Down Home Ranch.  After that they piled into vans and headed back to school.

When Jerry came home that evening he said in wonder, "I couldn't believe the questions those kids asked me after my talk.  They were amazing.  They really listened to what I said. 

"I asked if anybody knew how many chromosomes we have in our bodies.  A mom said 23 and a student corrected her by saying it was 23 pair.  Then one asked me why the doctors couldn't somehow take out the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome.

"I said I didn't know, but that they were working on figuring out what to do and that I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't one of them that did it someday.  And I wouldn't."

Later, intrigued, I went on the school's web site and learned that Regent School was begun with 17 students in 1992, the same year Down Home Ranch was starting to get underway.  Today there are over 800 students K-12. 

The school's motto is Coram Deo, which translates roughly as "in the presence of God,"  a reminder that wherever we go, whatever we do, whenever it is, we do well to remember that there is a Witness.

And I have a suspicion that Witness is well pleased with Regent School.

Time to Call it a Day

Okay, the party’s over, and it was a grand success.
Were there glitches? Oh, yes.

However, they were not ones that were apparent to the assembled crowd, which overfilled the Parish Hall at St. William, and that’s a mercy.

Within the hall itself magic happened. The food from Southside was wonderful, as always. The sound system was just right—clear as a bell and loud close to the stage but conversation-friendly away from it.

The audio-visuals—a 365 rotation of beautiful slides assembled by our marketing friend Kyle, and a short clip of our Ranchers produced by UT student Michael David were incredibly touching, especially combined with Jerry’s little talk about the mission of Down Home Ranch and what we’re trying to accomplish here.

And the band—oh my gosh! The three impish angels of the Quebe Sisters Band fiddling and singing, guests shuffling and swinging, Ranchers mixed seamlessly among us all…and people actually drove from San Angelo to be there because of the band!

Magic, sheer magic.

Auctioneer Gayle Stallings gave the evening shape and focus, and ensured that all concerned had a fabulous time.

I was so tired at the start of the evening I thought it was something I’d just have to make it through, but as old friends and new filtered into the hall it had the same effect as the campers arriving for Ranch Camp: with each new arrival, my energy came back.

I danced the night away, with friends, with Ranchers, with Jerry, with nobody at all.

I have often said that the most wonderful thing about building Down Home Ranch has been the constant stream of people coming forth to offer the best of who they are and what they have.

Two of them showed up just before the Gala, in response to my blog of March 25, just a trial run to see if it was a match, and it looks like it is.

And the funny thing was, they hadn’t even read it.

Like I said.  Magic.

Volunteers: A Migratory Species

The Purple Martins are back! I was worried because we usually start seeing them in February. They arrived this year right along with the Campers on Mission, who are here to help us catch up on projects and oversee a rowdy bunch of frat boys here on a spring break mission.  The first to arrive were Paul and Pat Cude, and Lee and George Singleton.

The COM bunch are old friends and have been volunteering at the Ranch for years. They arrive in their RV rigs, hook up to the water and the electricity, set up their TV dishes, and get right down to work!

This morning the pictures were jumping off the walls in my office in the barn between the restless horses kicking their stalls at the west end  and the COM guys whacking away on the other, installing sliding doors on the east.


I heard the men laughing about our plans for the chicken house, looking at the pile of lumber we had delivered for it. They might think we’re a going a little over the top and building a regular Chicken Hilton, but hey--with 33 people living at the Ranch we need a lot of eggs! The Ranchers and I can’t wait to actually go and pick up our hens and rooster. More chores added to the workday, but ones that they'll love (mostly).

The Pi Kappa Phi guys begin arriving Friday night and Saturday. They’re part of PUSH America. They’ll build fences, a large deck, a chicken run, and other things while here. They’ll get their ritual spring break sunburn, even though we’ll try to convince them to avail themselves of our gallon-size jugs of sun screen.

The Ranchers will take it all in stride, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the week. They’re old friends with the COM folks, and will enjoy spending time with the college guys, too.

And at the end of the week the Ranch we’ll have made a lot of progress. Everyone will settle back into the routine, such as it is, and be thankful for good friends who help Down Home Ranch be what it is.

Valentine Volunteers

It’s Saturday, and three young boys stand outside my office window in the dank morning chill debating the best way to transport cedar fence posts to where their dads are digging holes to construct a decorative fence for our new miniature horses.

Our Oklahoma valentines from Sunnybrook Christian Church in Stillwater are back!

They almost didn’t make it, scooting past the Dallas area, barely escaping the clutches of the worst of the huge snowstorm that paralyzed north Texas. Most of the trip was made at 40 mph.

But make it they did, arriving right on time Thursday evening—some 45 souls all in all, of all ages.

This is their second mission trip to Down Home Ranch. Last year they gave our bunkhouses and Pavilion bathrooms a face lift. This year they’re sewing drapes for the craft and resident meeting rooms, building a fence for our new miniature horses, and working on the Village lamppost project.

For the Ranchers, it’s a heart-warming visit. Our guests have arranged craft projects to do with them, and are providing dinner three nights in a row, concluding tomorrow with, natch—a Valentine’s Day Party. And we do love a party!

We simply couldn’t have built the Ranch without churches and church-going people. St. David’s Episcopal of Austin gave us money to install our very first septic system way back in 1991. (Jerry used to cringe when I brightly told members of that august congregation, “We think of you with gratitude every time we flush!)

Blythe Island Baptist from Georgia came all the way here to build our beautiful horse barn, framing it up in a week during a punishing September heat spell, then returning later to help finish the job.

Countless other churches and church groups have contributed over the years—Episcopalians, Lutherans, Baptists, Pentecostals, Orthodox, Methodists, Catholics, Quakers, Presbyterians—the whole Christian church spectrum plus a sweet little bat mitzvah group of Jewish girls.

One thing we always hear from our volunteers is how blessed they feel to be able to contribute to the work we do and to get to know our Ranchers.

As for us, our gratitude knows no bounds. They’ve finished out our houses, built our fences, repaired our machinery, planted our poinsettias, dug out our gardens, and done everything else imaginable.

And they’ve also prayed for the Ranch, and for us, and for those in our charge.

And that has made all the difference.