Happy New Year! Snow covers Shepp Ranch and the river is iced up. Rex is caretaking this winter and he has his hands full taking care of Paris, our milk cow, and the mules and cats. He has caught a few fish and is keeping busy with saddles and other winter projects.

Mike and I acquired a new puppy, a black lab by the name of Bess. Cane, our young springer spaniel, is enjoying the company and when they are not wrestling and running they are curled in a tight ball napping. We are heading to Baja Mexico for a few weeks of fishing (a real busmans holiday) and reading and relaxing.

Charles returned to his job at Berryhill & Co, a Boise restaurant, for the month of December and is ready to hit the road and get a little R&R in during January before returning to fix more wonderful meals at Shepp Ranch during the 2008 season. Anneliese has signed on with an international volunteer group and will travel to Peru for six weeks to teach indigenous children Spanish as a second language. She is excited and will return to the ranch in the spring for a few months before starting Stanford in the fall. Ashley will return as housekeeper, for which I am thankful since it was so nice last season to have someone so thorough in charge of keeping things picked up. We all felt a lightening of our loads with her arrival. Allison and Jeff have been spending time hunting, snowmobiling and doing winter recreation. Allison has to return to school soon and Jeff will start getting ready for the farming season. He has assured us of his presence for guiding this year which makes us smile! It was great to have Dave and Gini at the ranch last fall for their 23rd season and they are back at home in Driggs enjoying their home and the winter there. Cheyenne spent a semester in Bellingham and is hoping to meet up with Mike and I in Baja Mexico soon for some surfing and fishing. Chuck is spending time in Boise doing some construction and getting the boats ready for another year and also hopes to join us for some fishing and sun.

Our “Wilderness Wellness Retreat” put on by Darcy Williamson May 8-11 is filling up and we are all very excited to have her come and share her knowledge. We still have a few spaces so let me know if you are interested.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and we hope to see you in the New Year!