The Rockin' Z Page

The Rockin' Z sits on top of a mountain about 25 miles outside (to the Southwest) of Denver at a little over 8000 feet. The Ranch is 35 acres of horse property, foxes, hawks, eagles, bears, bob cats, coyotes and an occasional Yankee or two. We have the required crazy man on the mountain (and this time it is not larry). Elk and deer all over and only a half mile dirt road leads to and divides the ranch. We have stars in the sky just about every night and sun and "Colorado Blue" sky just about every day. and some pretty good views of the city below. So sit back, relax and read about the ranch as it progresses and plan when you can come and sit a spell! We'd enjoy some two legged company for a change!

Ranch Development Continues in 2008!

Make your Reservations Early - Guest Rooms for 2007 Going fast

Ranch Welcome Sign Complete

Rockin' Z Ranch Finally a Reality (kinda)

Ranch Development Continues in 2008!
2008 has continued to see the Rockin' Z grow and develop. This year, despite numerous surgeries, Lezlie and larry have continued to develop the ranch having the drive and parking areas black topped to combat the winter mud and changing the corral/round pen configuration into a small 30 x 60 foot training arena. Two summer horse camps have been filled for the summer (one for children with learning disabilities).

During the off season larry took on two teenaged helpers/apprentices (sisters Kaylie and Kylie Bunce) who  helped keep the horses in shape while he was laid up and who have really enhanced the training business with their insight and input. The afore mentioned horse camps will run for 4 hours a day for one week each and we are very excited about having the opportunity to share knowledge about horses with some young cowboys and cowgirls. Obstacle courses have been built and tested and development toward a therapeutic riding center for kids and adults with learning disabilities and emotional issues continues. In early Spring we formed a non profit Colorado Corporation and are working on gaining approval from the Feds for the same status.

With all the positive things going one we did have one tragic event occur in July, we apparently lost Squiggy the cat to coyotes or other vermin as he dashed out the door early in the evening and has not been seen since. He was admittedly our favorite and is greatly missed by all. Hoping against hope we still stare at the front door hoping to seem sitting there waiting to be let back in. Just afterward we had a bear take up residence in our barn totally destroying grain containers and generally making a nuisance of himself. After warning shots failed to keep him away larry was forced to move all grain products out of the barn and secure them in the garage, After the food source dried up he apparently moved on. Life in the mountains...you get tired, but you never get bored!

Make your Reservations Early - Guest Rooms for 2007 Going Fast
If you are planning a visit to "the Ranch" this summer take my word for it friends and neighbors you need to get your name on the list early as the rooms are going fast. Why just the other day my very own sister said, "Ya know, I just might come out and visit y'all one day". Yep she said it and that signals the rush is on. For 2 years now our neighbors have been speculating, first behind our backs and now openly, that we are in the Witness Protection Program and the pictures and such we have around the house are not family members but merely the pictures that came in the frame. Though we have tried to explain many times that relatives changing jobs and losing vacation time and grandbabies coming along have gotten in the way of family visits it has long been suspected that this to is a ruse! So by my sister making the firm commitment that she did we are pretty sure visitation and tourism will be on the rise this year and we are preparing in advance by stocking up on beenie weenies and such "company food" in preparation for the rush. In fact Larry is pretty sure we are going to get a visit soon from motion "Pitcher" Star Reese Witherspoon. After he heard her and her husband split he figured she would be lonely and called her office and suggested she come out for a visit. The nice lady who answered the phone apparently couldn't give an exact timetable for the visit but did mention something about a "Cold Day" so though we were expecting her sometime in February, we figure anytime until April might be the time frame she was thinking of.

Ranch Welcome Sign Complete The ranch welcome sign has been completed after a winter layoff. The sign is constructed of leftover logs from the house which larry and Lezlie stacked and bolted to supporting posts and then cut, sanded, stained and added lettering and snow capped peaks. Next a local mountain artisan (Cheryl, next door) was called in to add the emblem. From some old rusty metal, larry traced and cut out a small moose to meander along the river. The emblem was created based on Lezlie's Peak Performance Resources logo. The sign stands a little over six feet high and is 10 feet wide at the base. Planned next is some mountain landscaping around the sign and a solar light to shine on the sign during evening hours and welcome all who want to come.

Rockin' Z Ranch Finally a Reality (kinda)

It all started with a crazy idea in late September of 2003. Larry was retiring and having promised Lezlie he would take her back out west when he did (and of course her remembering the promise) set the wheels in motion. Tired of Lezlie tearing up every time she saw a truck or Coors commercial with mountains in it, the old boy decided he just had to make the move. Besides, Atlanta really never was our kind of town. It was a wonderful place to be when the kids where there, but after they grew up and took off to pursue their dreams and their own lives there just wasn't anything left to hold us there.

So instead of retiring to the Buffalo Mountain Colorado townhouse we had held as a rental, we up and decided if we were ever going to build that log home we had always had in the back of our minds and maybe get a horse or two, this would be the time. Besides if we moved to the townhome, larry would do nothing but sail on Lake Dillon in the summer, sit around and play the stock market and get fatter all winter (in between hospital stays from the occasional OK, FREQUENT ski accident). So we did it. We found a beautiful tract of land on top of a little mountain southwest of Denver with mountain and city views and the Rockin' Z Ranch and Wildlife Sanctuary was born.

Technically the property is 35 acres in size. How-some-ever, the way they do things out in this neck of the woods is that they plat out a few acres, in our case about 18 and then they give you a small connection to another 15 acres a mile or two away only accessible by pack mules or parachute, (if it's there at all!) and that, friends and neighbors is your little slice of heaven.  This is done because to put in a well you must have 35 acres of land and since one tract would take up the entire mountain top and limit the sales possibilities for the old geezer that owned it, they split it up. Which as we are finding out is pretty common out here behind enemy lines.

Stories of larry clearing the land and the building process are numerous, humorous and down right scary. But then those of you who know larry and "The Lezlie" well would have expected nothing less. Time and memory do not permit the telling of them all here so we'll just save those for when you visit. Or as Daniel J., (a great American and a legend in his own mind) told our neighbors...."if it wasn't so funny watching those two next door it would be pretty frustrating living that close to them"!

After the house was OK'd by the Jefferson County Building Nazis, we quickly began decorating and fixin' up the guest quarters. Next a corral was added and "the girls" arrived. The girls being two American Indian/Mustang horses we purchased in Briggsdale, Colorado. Later the "Vanderbilt" estate was recreated in detail by the local barn builder Daniel J. (a legend in these parts as well as a great American and a legend in his own mind). The barn turned out very nice and the only funny stories connected with it is of larry going out every morning and yelling "damnit Daniel J. I'm not living in the damn thing, Just build a CHEAP horse barn and get on with it"! So, after an entire summer of bickering and name calling, the barn was completed and Phases 1,2 and 3 of the ranch were complete.

When Spring arrives we'll begin Phase 4, fencing across the road to allow "the girls" and any further critters we acquire to have a small pasture to graze and frolick (or whatever critters do). And no, larry was not aware he was marrying Elly Mae Clamppet when he hooked up with his lovely bride! But she has taught him to be kinda partial to little and big furry things. This is in stark contrast to our best friend, Isaac next door, who, being raised on a farm, thinks all things furry should be eaten! Wonderful friend and neighbor but no concept of pets.

We compromised on the decor of our little cabin and think we found a pretty good mix of all things Moose ("The Lezlie") and cowboy (being larry!).

We were also fortunate to stumble into the most wonderful bunch of neighbors. Cheryl and Isaac next door have made it their personal mission to keep larry out of harms way, a full time job to be sure. Every time Cheryl hears any power tool or mechanical device sound coming from our property she immediately starts screaming for Isaac, the I-man as larry calls him, to "get over to larry's house now...he's got a power tool in his hand!"

Down the road, we have our "Yankee Neighbors" from California. Fortunately they have been here long enough to have lost some of that "Wild Hickory Nut" way of thinking. Mo-reee and Denise have a beautiful home with probably the best view of all from the mountain. Denise is a kindergarten teacher and sings "Mary had a little lamb" every time she washes her hands! (go figure). Mor-eee is retired and runs a handyman service where his job is to go in and keep little old ladies company while he sprays WD-40 on a squeaky door hinge and hopes they'll cut him in on part of their will! Good work if you can get it!

We are also fortunate to have all of "The Lezlie's'" friends from school here. The best part being that some of them have teenage boys that larry can press in to forced labor at "Uncle Larry's Bataan Death March of the West"! Two of which, Brad and Spencer Miller (albeit mostly Spencer, who is young and still impressionable) have been the forced labor that built the ranch. Without their help, larry would have been older or probably dead by now!

Even the horses have a view at the "Rockin' Z! (notice the window in the front of the barn which our next door neighbor Cheryl thought of and dragged up to the building site).

So there it is the first look of the Rockin' Z Ranch. Please feel free to come see us anytime. We don't get a lot of two legged company here! Mostly bears, deer, elk and the occasional bobcat!

Y'all come back, ya hear?