Our first annual harvest festival is now just a good string of memories, as alumni from years past, and new friends converged on MCR to pick, crush, and party!. Music by the the Salt Lake City band Ghost Dance, and a full harvest moon made for a great two days. Don’t miss it next year!
Jose’s brother, mother and sister
For all the amazing things this canyon has blessed us with, the arrival of Jose Garcia into our lives was right there at the top. We came to know him as the only slightly more ambulatory half of Chuck Burand’s “seasoned” construction crew, and we watched in awe as the colorful fellow scampered up and down scaffolding, all skinny legs and bare chested under overalls, greying hair braids flying as he balanced on swinging roof beams, in almost single-handedly building Chuck’s cabin. His colorful pan-racial appearance, able to look vaguely Navajo when it suited him, and Mexican when it didn’t, was matched by his language; a conversation with Jose (uniquely pronounced “Ho-see” by his friends and family) always included enough colorful, unconstrained language to make even a construction hand blush. Jose’s foot injury mid-way through the cabin job created an opportunity for Danny to join the crew, and in turn learn the construction trade, and how to curse in three languages at the same time. We watched with hilarity, and not a little parental concern as Burand, rodeo-bowlegged and past his best roof-climbing days, and Jose, right leg in a cast to his knee, shouted directions at Danny, who did the roof scrambling, and hammer and nail work. Somehow it all worked out; Chuck’s house was finally finished, and by the time the 3 builders signed their name in the wet entry-way cement, Jose was truly part of our lives, and of our never-ending canyon project crew.
Jose lived in a well-traveled trailer, which he had towed down and placed near the North Cave, setting out steps, a small rock and odd-treasure garden, a chair, and a generator, and he could be found there in the evenings drinking his Budweiser, playing his music, smoking something or other, telling whoppers to the amusement and wonderment of the WWOOFers, and talking to the canyon animals that he loved. Part cowboy, part artist, and usually only a step or two ahead of the authorities, Jose loved to craft beautiful things, in a kind of timeless ancient peoples’ style. His Dreamcatchers belonged in a museum, but Jose would work weeks or months on one, and then give it to someone he just met, and connected with. He was as generous a person as I have ever met.
In the four years he was with us, he left his mark: He found, cut and hauled many of the cedar posts that anchor our vineyards and gates, sometimes, belying his size, one on each shoulder. He built the straight and long grapevine trellising north of the west orchard, and worked endlessly one year doing nothing other than making our deer fencing higher, tighter, stronger, and then higher, tighter and stronger again. The deer herd had their way with him at first, and would confound us all by finding the tiniest rent in the fence to crawl under, or the perfect single spot to vault over. But Jose doggedly went higher, tighter and stronger, until the deer just finally gave up, and moved on. If you look on the west side of the property, you can see fencing way up on the slick rock, where he surely had to rope himself in to drill the holes for the posts into solid rock, amid the spiny cactus. The deer never really had a chance against Jose.
The WWOOFer cabin owes its stout foundation to Jose’s unique improv design and construction style. Canyon walls may erode, but Jose’s cabin foundation will still be there, something surely for 25th century archaeologists to scratch their heads at.
Jose’s big heart gave out this year. We never got a chance to say goodbye. I am surprised by how much I miss him, a what a big hole this unlikely person has left in our universe.
Our bunkhouse for WWOOFers at MCR is finally operational. Sleeps 8 in, well, in a certain style. A fully functional bathroom and giant shower, lots of deck space for relaxing, or partying, after a day in the vineyards. A wood stove keeps it warm on both ends of the growing season. We have started construction on a saloon in the North Cave, a few steps from the bunkhouse. More to come…..
Students and faculty from New Mexico’s prestigious Albuquerque Academy visited MCR again in 2012, and got some up-close organic farming experience. 
Part of the private prep school’s Experiential Education Department’s program for two years now, the group stayed at the ranch and in addition to exploring the canyon, worked together to plant the vineyard block above. See the grades 6-12 academy at www.aa.edu. More on this visit coming soon.
We are done with planting for this year! So far we have 2500 Chardonnay, 750 Riesling, and 250 Chenin Blanc in the ground, and as a week ago leafing out. All the projects are coming along nicely, but are too numerous to plow through in this short update. The main reason I am updating is to point everyone over to the newest picture albums, so you can get a feel for what we have been up to around here and also to show that the video section has been updated as well. We also have lots of new additions from around the world to the ranch through the WWOOF program keeping it more interesting than usual around here.
Spring appears to be arriving early this year in Montezuma Canyon, and with it a ramping up of activity on the ranch. A massive vineyard project is in the works, which will eventually total around 21 acres of trellising. Check out the new property map and the full facts and figures. Another surprise we got recently was getting to see an absolutely beautiful landscape painting of Martha’s Apricot Tree! It was painted by the talented Lee Chew of Sandy, Utah, from a picture she took during a visit to MCR last summer with husband Mike and sons Ty and Bennett.
In other cool news around here, our neighbors the Tracy family were featured in the magazine Living Cowboy Ethics by the Paragon Foundation. You can check out the article on the three generations of the Tracy family, and their nearby Wagon Rod Ranch right here online. To find out more about the Paragon Foundation, check them out on the web. It is a great organization that educates ranchers on their rights and opportunities to help save the ranching lifestyle in the west.
Keep checking the interactive webcam through april to see the trellising progress. Also Check out the Raw Feed for the latest pictures and videos from the ranch, before they are organized and cut down to slide shows. The Raw Feed gallery is 10,000 photos and videos and growing.
The Christmas storm that hit the Pacific Northwest, but only grazed our friends in Southern California, dropped more snow on Montezuma Canyon than locals can remember. We spent Christmas doing all the things Southern Californians like to say they escaped, in moving from wherever they came from: shoveling snow, fixing roof leaks, trudging through thigh-deep snow for more firewood, and wearing four layers of clothing – inside! With perfect timing, Chuck was able to get away to visit family and friends just as the first flakes flew, the week before Christmas. 
So, with Chuck decamped to warmer climes, Mopit the cat spent his second Christmas with his adoptive family, entertaining us, and generally avoiding going outside, where he would have to burrow through fresh \”overhead\” snow. We rediscovered the adrenaline rush of fast ATVs in the snow, and generally enjoyed the canyon’s unending parade of wildlife: the mule deer herd, our turkeys, a few feral cats, and the eagles. Neighbors have all seen the elk coming through, but so sightings so far this winter at MCR. The deer have outsmarted every attempt to keep them from eating green shoots in the vineyards and orchards. We’d exhaust ourselves chasing them out, and locking the gates, only to see them leap over, or in some cases, through the fences and gates. It’s a war, though, not just a battle, and we all stay up late at night thinking of new ways to win this one. Spring will likely see taller deer fences and vertical reinforcement at all the known weak spots.
New Year’s Eve was spent not watching balls drop two time zones away on the tube, but hosting a warm dinner created by Martha for canyon friends, followed by a Mule ride through the snow down to Danny’s Men’s Club barn – a perfect oil-lamp lit setting to say goodbye to a tough year, and to look with optimism and friendship to the new one. We huddled around a Chuck-created campfire, told lies, sang a song, blew some noisemakers, drank some hot cider, and watched Danny light off some definitely-not-safe-and-sane fireworks in the snow. 
A donkey down the canyon brayed noisily as we ended our week-late and wrong-pitched version of Silent Night; we laughed at his perfectly timed, thumbs-down critique.
We made some improvements to our small wine operation, some adjustments to the process, and added the trellising for a third vineyard, as yet unnamed. Jose (pronounced locally \”Hosey\”), who worked with Danny and contractor Chuck Burand on the house that Chuck lives in, returned to the canyon in the late Fall to do the trellising and staking, using cedar posts we found in Southwest Colorado to make the \”H\” pattern end stakes. If there is a straighter, prettier vineyard hardscape around, I have not yet seen it. We’re thinking about planting Riesling grapes, as the new very dry style Rieslings are making a comeback, and the European and Midwestern tourists who frequent the Four Corners wineries generally like them. As you can tell, the work never ends at MCR, but these are labors of love, and we never tire of the process.
There is a new interactive webcam up! Just click on the image to re-cetnter where you want to look, and the camera will pan and tilt to give you a 180 degree view of the canyon facing south.
The 2007 Montezuma Canyon Ranch Red Table Wine is ready to go, just in time for the holiday celebrations! The number four “barrel” was a mix of 80% Pinot Noir to 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and is the first of the 2007 vintage to be ready for pouring.
We are also working on plans for a new third vinyard, filled hopefully with dry reisling graps. You can read more about plans for that here.
San Juan County is going through its biggest snow season since 1968 according to the San Juan Record. Record Snowfall has consistently covered the county since early January. 
Montezuma Canyon has been cut off from the world for large tracts of time due to the continuous storms. Many residents have gotten stuck trying to get in or go out of the canyon. Check out more pictures of the snow storm courtesy of the San Juan Record.
But one of the biggest problems came not in the form of ice, but in the form of falling rocks. Chuck sent out an email this afternoon describing what happened. Well Dan you wanted some exciting pictures for the site; will these due? [...] At about 10;00 am I was standing in front of the garage when I heard a rumble and the ground started shaking. I looked up at the cliff above the vineyard and saw two huge boulders coming down. One landed in front of the water cave and the other kept on coming. It hit a glancing blow to Chuck B’s trailer and trashed it. I waited about an hour and went to check out the damage. I started moving what was left of Chuck’s tools to the cabin. I was leaning inside the trailer when I heard another tremendous rumble. I just turned and started running as a second and bigger boulder came roaring off the cliff. I realized I wasn’t going to make it so I dived and took a blow to my right leg that sent me flying. Legs ok nothing advil won’t cover. Chuck’s trailer wasn’t so lucky it took a direct hit, see pic. The boulder smashed it flat and everything in it. The second boulder broke apart with one piece going through the fence and onto the road. Wait until Craig sees that tonight, hee hee. Luckily Chuck and Josie weren’t down today and the boulders missed the cabin also. The quad got knocked into the first boulder but I think it isn’t damaged mechanically just isn’t so pretty. Rocks are coming down all along the road but nothing this size. There’s more mud and water running down the road than in the creek, can’t get out one out of three days. Am I having fun yet? Check out the full screen version of the Boulder Falling Set.
Along with boulders the cold itself has been one of the biggest issues. For the first time the pipes have frozen underground, leaving Chuck without water. It even froze the rain spouts trapping tons of ice on the roof. Check out what the storm looked like from the webcam in the Winter Storm Timelapse.
Update: The Falling Boulder story made it on the Front Page of the San Juan Record.
The pumps have shut down on our third year at Montezuma Canyon Ranch, and the snow has come to stay. Each of the past years have been marked with great progress. It is always fun to look back and see how far we have come. And even more fun to plot out how far we want to go. So beyond the immense task of just running the property day to day, we constantly try to find a new way to improve and utilize the property. This year we built a log cabin, made an assortment of jams and jellies, and tried our hand at winemaking, just to list a few. 
Projects like these have added up over the years to begin making this property our own.
The year started out with a pretty mild winter, and so we were able to begin some projects before Spring arrived. Chuck’s winter wheat came up beautifully, to the delight of the deer, birds, and other canyon crittters. The big project teed up for ’07, though, was the remodel or rebuild of the old cowboy line house, which sat under some cottonwoods on the south end of the property for decades, in varying forms. It apparently began life as a bunkhouse for wranglers driving their herds through the canyon, later morphing into the main house on the property for some years, as rooms were literally nailed and plastered onto the original rectangle. As dusty and dilapidated as the line house was, with its ancient fixtures and old stove and fridge, it had a certain appeal, and represented the history and roots of the property; we had hoped to save it’s bones, and rebuild it into a cool little ranch house for our friend Chuck to live in. 
That little fantasy ended pretty quickly when we had our new contractor, the colorful, entertaining and competent cowboy Chuck Burand of Monticello take a look at the foundation. Surprise! There wasn’t one! So we began thinking about a replacement, rather than a remodel, and ultimately agreed on a Burand-drawn plan for a new log cabin style home, with covered porches and decks, but still set in the summer shade of the big cottonwoods. A deal was struck, permits obtained, the line house disappeared, and a real foundation was laid. After a summer of cement work; cedar log cutting, sanding and raising; nail-pounding; and general noise making by Chuck Burand, his sidekick Jose (don’t try to say \”ho-zay\”, it’s pronounced \”hosey\”!) and their apprentice Danny B, the exterior of the all-wood structure is complete as of this writing. Danny learned a lot while listening to Chuck and Jose all summer, and some of it seems to even have been about construction. The interior work is going a little slower, with the onset of a pretty serious winter, but the new incarnation of the old historic line house should see chimney smoke by this Spring. You can check out the project pictures here.
In March, Chuck G set about planning what to plant in his new \”Martha’s\” garden, and ordered seeds. All of the work he did on the garden structure and soil prep paid off incredibly; 
a modest-sized patch, well engineered, planted and tended, produced a cornucopia of veggies that kept us amazed, amused, and well-fed into the Fall. Even the late-summer bears had their turn in the garden, but left enough so that we never missed what they ate.
Also in March, Danny and Jon rehabbed the southern-most of the two small vineyards on the property. This one has a north-south orientation, and is now named the Cottonwood Slope vineyard. New trellising was required, so posts were cut and sunk, wire strung, most of the surviving vines were pruned radically, and dead vines were replaced with a dormant rooted cuttings of chardonnay – Clone 37, on its own rootstock. New drip irrigation was installed, with some of the work done with snowflakes still in the air. The new grapes, though, were a 100% success, and seemed to thrive nicely over their first summer. In April, Chuck selected and planted maple trees to line the driveway to the main house, after setting new irrigation pipes; 
they managed to survive a hot first summer with sometimes iffy irrigation, and Chuck even somehow kept them from becoming deer food. In a few summers, they will change from sticks to shade trees, welcoming neighbors and visitors to our home.
In early May, a freak snowstorm brought winter back; for the vines, not a problem, but for the fruit trees, a disaster. New buds were frozen; the canyon’s huge squirrel population was completely denied their annual crops of cherries, and the varmints were forced to share the meager surviving apricot and peach crops with the two-legged folks who supposedly own and run the place. Battle lines were drawn, trees with a surviving peach or two were identified, staked out, and the enemy engaged. In the end, Martha’s dreams of a great canning summer were diminished, but not scrapped. That of course left her with more time for reading and enjoying her new swinging chair, but left the rest of us with fewer precious jars of preserves, jellies and chutneys. If you got one of those as a gift, you’re high on her list.
Waging but winning the battle with the squirrels, we were distracted and missed the flanking attack by the black bears, who had their way with the pear crop, and more seriously, with the pear trees themselves, before 
we realized that we had a problem. We quickly decided that we needed to strip the trees of all the remaining pears, and most of the apples, and at the same time, called the trapper. Eventually, with no fruit on the trees, the bears tired of us and moved on, leaving the donuts in the trap uneaten. We plan to get ahead of them next year with more fencing, and shut gates, as the crops ripen.
The summer saw more work that we had intended — Danny and Chuck on the property and house, Martha on keeping her boys fed, watered, and cleaned up after, and Jon on his office computer. All that left little time for the intended canyon exploration, fast ATV rides, and fishin’. But at the end of every summer day, tired but happy, we all got together for a great Martha meal, a cigar or two, occasionally a margarita, and more than occasionally a beer, and life was good.
We were all together at Christmas time, too, and got to spend quality time with our dear neighbors. Chuck made the main house feel like Christmas with old and new-found decorations, Danny and Jon got a permit (5 bucks gets you eight feet), and hiked (actually, crawled, swam, and rolled) up into the Abajos in hip-deep snow, found and cut a perfect tree, and Martha made it flash and glitter. We ended last day of the year with our very own canyon fireworks display, egged on by our always-amusing neighbor Craig, and waking up neighbors Phil and Barbara. Happy New Year!
Check out the Year in Review Photo Gallery.
