An Old One...

Yesterday afternoon 56 of the most interesting people showed up at the ranch. The rumors were flying before their arrival – Russian or Danish royalty, European aristocracy, etc. After their staff of 15 arrived, including lighting directors, party planners, florists, personal assistants and all of the necessary entourage members arrived, the truth was out. Andrew Ipkendanz, a very very wealthy Australian businessman, who can literally say, “money is no object,” has rented out the entire ranch for his 50th birthday. After three days in the MGM sky suites in Las Vegas, where one night the men (all 25 of them) were given full Elvis impersonator suits and the women (another 31 of them) were given Marlin Monroe dresses and wigs, the “Ippy” party flew on a private jet to Mountain Sky. Andrew or Ippy, has footed the bill for everything. The base expenses come to around 2.2 million dollars, but he has also opened the gift store here at the ranch and they made a stop at Murdoch’s, a high-end western wear store in Bozeman, where every guest bought wranglers, cowboy boots, some pearl snaps and cowboy hats. The guests are from all over the world – Brazil, Hong Kong, Sydney, London, as well as a smattering of European countries. There is a Russian prince in the mix and plenty of old aristocracy.

The ranch was transformed yesterday into a party planner’s dream. We moved all of the dinning room tables so they could put in their own, custom made tables in for the welcome dinner. Gas lanterns were put up everywhere; fresh fruit was strewn across the tables, which had burlap runners and slate placemats. I spent an hour tying new linen napkins with leather cord and a sprig of wheat. A canvas tent was put up on the front lawn for an outdoor bar where $150 bottle champagne was being served alongside vats of mojitos and, hilariously, Coors Light. Every night there was a new party, each more crazy and ridiculous than the last.

The ranch’s biggest event was the Bachelor and Spinster Ball they held out at one of our satellite cabins. It was a “white trash” party, we had a mechanical bull, candle holders were largely 40 oz bottles of beer (which we had to dump out… err… or into water bottles) and the guests wore boas and sequences and blue tuxes and tuxedo shirts, etc. I started work that day at 1 pm and ended around 2 am, only to wake up three hours later for another 9-hour shift. I think I died a little. While an awesome idea, it was raining so hard that the entire cabin area turned into a giant mud pit. We couldn’t get the van out with all of the kitchen equipment, not to mention the kitchen staff. Another Cook and I were left by the sous and executive chefs around 10 because they thought we would be done by 11… which we weren’t obviously. I had to make Pavlova (a meringue cake with fruit that’s very popular in Australia), which of course couldn’t be assembled until right before it was served. So I was in this little tiny kitchen assembling a three-tiered showpiece Pavlova along with 70 individual plated servings. There were plates of meringue everywhere! All over the couch and the bunk beds and the stove. Josh and I just shuffled around the room with raspberry sauce and fruit, literally throwing blueberries onto the cakes. I started doing this around 9, because everything was supposed to be served by 10:30… but they ended up not wanting the cake until 12. By that time almost all of the staff had left the party, leaving about 5 of us to break everything down in the rain and mud at 1 in the morning. It was ridiculous! Looking back it was pretty hilarious in a lot of ways… but I am very glad the crazies have left. As are the rest of the staff. Almost everyone worked 13-hour days, every day, for the entire week they were here. I’m still recovering and they left two days ago!
Making good use of the 40s.

It was pretty awesome to see the ranch transform so much and for all of the staff to rally around this party, but family season is a relief! And family season it now is! We are on to our bread and butter, the heart of the ranch’s season and supposedly the most hectic. Although it was nice for two wonderful days (I even laid out next to the pool), I’m currently listening to a hailstorm destroy the tin roof of my cabin. These are literally golf ball sized. I fear for my car.

Also exciting! I moved into a cabin! No more upstairs in the staff lodge next to crazy old lady (one of the AM cooks who is slightly scary)! So now I have my very own, very cozy cabin, which I love dearly. Yeah Montana!

Another trip into Yellowstone!

Yellowstone National Park

On my day off this week I had the opportunity to tag along with a group of guests on a tour of Yellowstone National Park. Mountain Sky is holding a special program called “Visions of Yellowstone” where everyday the group goes down into Yellowstone with different guides and different focuses. The first guide was Jim Evanoff, the Environmental Sustainability Coordinator for the park. Although I wasn’t able to go on his tour, I was able to listen to his presentation the night before. Jim is a bigwig with green initiatives and quite possibly the most informed person on Yellowstone. He was the guy to initiate the reintroduction of the wolves to Yellowstone, a very successful and highly controversial issue for Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. He has introduced a massive composting program for the waste created by the park’s annual 3.3 million visitors, which in turn has diverted 75% of the waste away from landfills. He spoke about the history of Yellowstone and hopefully where the future is headed. Yellowstone is the United State’s first national park and this initially meant that the Calvary was charged with the task of protecting the natural resources, with no regard for visitor enjoyment. With the creation of the park service in the early 1900s the focus radically shifted to the visitor’s experience, largely at the expense of the natural resources. There was a golf course at the northern entrance, bath houses diverted the geyser ’s hot water into shallow pools, open dumps encouraged wild animals such as bears to become habituated to humans for show, and the most shockingly, all animals considered predators were killed off. Thus the distinction of the wolf from the park. Only animals that could be petted or habituated were tolerated. Even the pelican was killed off because they were eating too many trout and taking away from visitor’s fishing experience. It wasn’t until the 1980s that the park service again shifted the balance to focusing more on the preservation and defense of the wilderness area, something the park still struggles with today.
Mammoth Hot Springs... this square mile of springs creates over 50 tons of new rock every day!

My guide for Wednesday, however, was Tom Murphy, a renowned and world-class nature photographer. He’s on the books for National Geographic, Time, and Life, to name a few. In his mid-60s, graying hair, tall and wiry from his daily hikes and ski trips into the parks, Tom was the perfect guide for my first trip to Yellowstone. He repeatedly spoke about the importance of the history and of the story behind each photograph he takes. With no short answer, Tom explained the geothermal features in just as much detail as he explained bison behavior and photographic tips. He moved to Livingston over 30 years ago and has made a point of spending at least 100 days out of every year in the park.
Tom and I becoming best friends.

An Elk (right next to the road) in velvet.

Yellowstone is spectacular. You travel from valley to valley, go over and follow raging rivers, and summit mountains – and this is only 20 miles into the park! Although Yellowstone is unique as a national park because it has four entrances and more roadways than most parks, you can only see 6% of the park if you stick to the pavement. Which I really like actually, its nice to think that 94% of the park has maintained a truly wild nature. On our trip we saw practically every animal one associates with Yellowstone. Right off we saw a black bear mother and cub, being approached by a very curious bull bison (the bison are about three times the size of the bears). Followed by three buck elks right next to the road way and in velvet, the stage right before they shed their winter coat (their antlers look soft and fuzzy for example). Not to mention the antelope, the big horn sheep, and the endless number of bison and elk with their calves and colts. The most exciting animal sighting, however, were two wolves feeding on a bison carcass, either their own kill or one they took over. These dogs are huge! And dangerous and so beautiful – basically wolves are badass.

Click to enlarge and see the wolf!

In 1995 there were no more wolves in Yellowstone or even in the regions surrounding the park. Now there are over 340. The elk population is back under control, which means vegetation in flatlands has been able to thrive again and the wolf is being seriously considered for delisting as an endangered animal. Cattle ranchers, however, now have to worry about the wolves as predators to their herds and complain that the elk population has been compromised for hunting. (Which isn’t necessarily true; the elk population has largely been re-balanced.) Between 1930 and 1996, the elk really didn’t have any major predators other than bears. The reintroduction of the wolf has forced the elk to revert to defense tactics forgotten by many generations and has reestablished a natural food chain. Ironically, those who used to complain that there were too many elk (so they could hunt more of them) are now the ones on the other side of the fence who complain there aren’t enough of elk so they should be allowed to hunt wolves. It’s a complicated issue.

Big Horn Sheep!

My first trip into Yellowstone was perfect. Tom was probably one of the coolest people I have ever met and we already have a hiking date in July! A week later a few of us were able to return to Yellowstone and do some hiking, truly the best way to see the park. I can’t believe I live so close to such a cool place.

I've decided I really like awkward animals... sheep (big or little), bison, moose, etc.

P.S. The nicer photos are curtesy of RC, the activities director, and his fancy pancy camera.

Graduation and The Real World

The Watershed Boys and Girl

“Welcome to the real world,” they tell me. And truly, Mountain Sky is starting to feel more and more real. The reality of living here in this gorgeous landscape, having to work my butt off in the kitchen, and living away from my closest friends, feels all too real. Bittersweet graduation.

Three of my crazy and wonderful friends

Last weekend I headed back to Walla Walla to see my wonderful friends, clean up my house, and walk in graduation. Graduation from college! How did that already happen? The last 17 years of my life have been dedicated to academics and a clear plan for my life. And now what? I think this is a question every single one of us from the class of 2010 is asking. Do I go on to grad school? Do I try to find my dream job? Can I find my dream job? Or do I ski bum and finally take a breather?

Duncan came for a brief visit at the ranch

Right now my answer is at Mountain Sky, but come October I can do anything. Or try to at least. All very exciting and frightening. The kitchen is proving to be a challenge. I make a lot of errors, or rather, the things that I think should work and that I feel like I do completely right - fail. My cake decorating skills don’t look professional enough, my cheesecakes didn’t rise and then they deflated, I used the wrong pan on my first go for my Basque cake, etc. “Oh la vasche,” as one French cook once told me. On the other hand, my chocolate decadence was great; as were my second try Basque cakes, chocolate peanut butter tortes, and blackberry mousse cakes. So it’s a learning process and a semi-stressful one at that. The kitchen is composed of a good team, fun personalities and hard workers. They’ve largely been here for years and years and have a pretty set way of doing things and while at times I exceed expectations, I still have a lot to learn.

Jordan the wrangler and our guide for the evening

In other news, the staff on a whole seems to be getting really close. Granted there are only 30 of us now and in four days 40 more people are coming, but for now we have become quite the community. Whether it’s sitting in the hot tub or next to the fire outside the bar, hiking, riding, or just having breakfast, we spend a lot of time together and have a pretty good time doing so. Yesterday I not only went on a hike, I even went on my first horseback ride since, well, many years. Although I am definitely very allergic to horses, and broke out in hives despite my pre-medicating, I still managed to have a lot of fun. My horse Brutus did not care what speed I wanted him to go because he was either going to stroll or run, with very little in between. So my first time on a horse meant I had very little control in a few cases. But man is it fun to lope or run.


Until next time, love you all and miss you dearly.

Where I Live

My new running route, where I carry bear spray and yell every 30 seconds... but you can't beat the view!

I’m currently sitting in front of the staff lodge with my computer and six deer are walking across the pathway, obviously not realizing or caring I’m sitting two feet from them. Yeah Montana.


The staff lodge, where I am currently sitting and where my lovely room is.

Another week down! And yet, my week has really just begun. My weekend is Wednesday –Thursday right now so the order of the week has lost some of its meaning. Today was another day alone in the bakeshop, I never know what to expect!


The main lodge and location of the kitchen

The usual order of things is as follows: 5:30 am set up for the day (get butter, eggs out, turn on oven, etc.) by 6:45 I need to have made a dozen muffins for the continental breakfast. By 7:45 two pastries, today was croissants and blueberry turnovers. Of course my croissants went haywire in the proofer (large humidifier) and I had to start over right before time. So that was how my day started, rushed. I spent the rest of the morning making the bread for dinner, challah again, beautiful and easy, ten loaves of banana bread, two types of cookies for lunch, and some sauces and a strawberry coulis for the Marjoline (pistachio meringe, with vanilla, coffee, and chocolate buttercreams) dessert tonight. It’s a crazy feeling to look up at the clock and see that its only 10:30 am, but you’ve been working for five hours already. Although I hit some roadblocks (my crème anglaise got all foamy the first run through) I often found myself smiling today. I loved bringing out a plate of hot banana bread and peanut butter cookies for the staff today, just because I could. And I loved braiding six loaves of challah and watching the breadbaskets come back empty from the dining room. I love the act of baking and the rewards it incurs.


My domain: the bakeshop.

The ranch is putting in a three-hole golf course and driving range, so the owner was out here this past week with some golfing bigwigs. I have no idea who Johnny Miller and Something Macavoy are… but they’re walking around looking very official. This weekend is another Wild West Women group, much younger and much more down-to-earth it seems. I now have an invitation out to North Carolina to bake for a lovely lady named Dottie this winter. I think, however, that I’ll be using Pam’s connection at Bridger Bowl (local ski hill) to slide in as one of the resort’s bakers. Perfect seasonal work!


The hiking is unbelievable... the ranch is just down in that little gulch on Big Creek.

It has finally warmed up here. No more snow at the ranch and big blue skies. Everyone seems to be in good spirits. There’s even a dance tonight up in Whilsal to celebrate the end of branding season. The hiking remains wonderful and the people are great. I’ve finally started to really feel at home here and everyone has really come together, new staff and old alike. So here are some pictures of where I live! Don’t you just want to visit? Please do!


Bear warnings are everywhere and for good reason.


East to the Absaroka Mountains


West to Big Sky

FYI: you can click on any of the photos to enlarge them!

Conde Nast Article

Here's a link to a recent Conde Nast article about the ranch! Very exciting, lots of great pictures of some of the staff and of the beautiful valley!

http://www.cntraveller.com/photos/photo-galleries/ranch-holidays-in-montana

Just copy and paste!

Cattle Branding and Other Things

Warning: Not for the vegetarian minded

The Shields River Valley

Yesterday I had a ridiculous Montana experience. Three of us from the ranch headed up to Whitsal, Montana, about an hour north of the ranch to help out, that’s right we participated, in a cattle branding. We were out on the Lazy S ranch, where they have thousands of head of cattle, including around 800 calves, which needed to be branded. So we drive out to the Shields River Valley and have to hop in this old cowboy’s truck to get up to the corral where all of the calves are being held. There were probably 25 people standing around, wrestling calves, branding calves, roping calves, injecting calves with vaccines, and drinking a whole ton of beer. Everyone other than the three of us was dressed in chaps, cowboy hats, and pearl snap button downs. These were real cowboys, working ranch hands and horse trainers. Working dogs were running all over the place, including an old blue heeler with three legs who was never far from his weathered and wrinkly owner with a big old gray handlebar mustache, wranglers, and even spurs on his boots.

Basically what happens is as follows: about eight people herd all of the calves on horseback from the pasture into the corral. Once in the corral a couple people on horseback go in and rope the calves, that is to say, they try to slip a rope underneath their back legs so that they can be dragged out of the corral towards the lines of people waiting to do the dirty. The bigger guys grabbed the calf’s upper body, while smaller folks like myself grab their back legs. So I had to hold the bottom leg down with my leg, untie the rope and then hold the upper leg out so the guy with the red-hot brand could come over. The brand itself made a horrible smelling smoke, but after maybe my tenth wrestle it didn’t seem all that bad. I feel like I got an inordinately large amount of feisty calves, no runts for me, just big over-fed calves that loved to try, and sometimes succeeded, to kick me. So that was cool. And it actually was. It was really interesting to watch and really fun to participate and I got to hold and feed a lamb called Winona, further strengthening my love of sheep.

The hiking around Mountain Sky is epic. Wednesday was my first day off, so I set out with an all-around staffer Blair and a guest for what turned out to be a four-hour hike. You could hike all the way into Yellowstone or over to Big Sky from the ranch, plus Emigrant Peak is right across the old highway. The wildlife out here while frightening to think about is also pretty cool. For example, on our hike we saw about seven deer right off the bat, wolf tracks, fox tracks, and moose skeet. There are fairly constant grizzly and black bear sightings and I definitely need to invest in some bear spray.

After my hike and chowed down on some guest leftovers, Parmesan, sundried tomato, and spinach stuffed and breaded chicken – we eat pretty well out here. And headed into the town of Livingston, where I was able to get cell phone service, go to a coffee shop and pick up some essentials. I definitely felt pretty out of place there, it’s only a town of 7,000 and people seemed to be staring a lot, but there are a lot of good (and semi-famous) restaurants, coffee shops, and little kitchy western stores. Back at the ranch I ate a quick dinner and then, shortly after I made the comment that it had not snowed all day, it started to snow, hard. But that didn’t stop Barrett, the maintenance guy and me from going on yet another hike around the horse pasture – which was even more beautiful in the snow.

It was the general managers birthday on Wednesday and so we ended up having a little staff shindig in the Saloon. I feel like dirty hip-hop, strong margaritas (cinco de mayo you know) and after full days of work with at times, needy, guests resulted in some serious bonding. The wranglers and the all-around staff don’t get to spend a huge amount of time together in the season, so it was good to have everyone together for a bit.

After work a few of us went on another hike around the ranch (so many trails!) and it was quite possibly the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. I really need to get a charger for my camera! We could see the whole Absorka Mountain range, still covered in snow, the beautiful Paradise Valley and about fifteen miles in the other direction the largest downhill ski area in the West, Big Sky. Right after we started the hike we saw huge grizzly tracks in the snow and they were really fresh, it was awesome and also scared the crap out of us!

Getting Settled

Sunday in the kitchen Pam and I still were working together and we really didn’t have that much to do. We still found 8 hours worth of baking, but a lot of it was prep for the next day, etc. I love not having a ton of guests here! I made blueberry turnovers all on my own and some poppy seed muffins. We plated the raspberry mousse cake, which I decorated with a rosette of whipped cream and chocolate shavings, as well as raspberry and chocolate sauces. We also made pizza dough, onion bread, pate fermente (a French bread), chocolate chip cookies, apple crisp, lemon olive oil sorbet, and Basque cake. Basque cake is really interesting because it’s a Spanish cake with very bready crust and a pastry cream filling. It’s a very very rich cake and apparently a favorite of ranch guests. I already feel like I’m learning a lot and am hopefully getting quicker on my feet.
Another shot of the ranch covered in snow

It’s been interesting trying to fill my afternoons, during which every other staff member is still working, but the nights are so far a lot of fun. A bit of pool is played in the very classic billiards room and many drinks are consumed – helpful for my 9’o’clock bedtime. Things are slow up here these days, but every day more staff members show up. Right now we’re about 20 at most, but at the height of the season we’re over 60! I better enjoy this relaxed atmosphere while I can. Pam took me on my first hike around Mountain Sky, up around Big Creek, which is in fact a big ole’ creek – perfect for floating when there aren’t a few inches of snow on the ground. This whole area is so beautiful and it seems like the hiking trails are endless. Its nice to finally be sitting down!

Nights at Mountain Sky vary. A couple days ago I went sledding for an hour with the general managers five year old son and Sunday night after a brief hiatus in my cabin to recuperate after 8 hours of baking I meet a bunch of the staff in the ranch bar, where the staff are spoiled by unbelievably cheap drinks, country music plays consistently, and guests and staff alike do line dances. Then last night it got pretty raucous when the DJ started playing Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas. Its Wild Women of the West week here at Mountain Sky, and these ladies like to party. (It’s pretty hilarious.) The wranglers are in high demand as dance partners – its like Dirty Dancing, but better.

In fact, I recently watched Dirty Dancing, one of many wonderful VHS tapes here at the staff lodge – (others include Michael and Grease… somebody obviously has a John Travolta inclination). Anyways… Dirty Dancing is about a summer resort, although in Maine and not in Montana, many things are very similar, including the fact that both states start with M. There are areas with large signs that read Staff Only, which of course Baby ignores. There are charades in the west lobby. We both have talent shows with dance numbers. The owner is a very wealthy man and the guests are very wealthy too, while the staff works seasonally to just get by. We have staff parties and dances and apparently all sorts of relationships, which everyone is aware of within two hours. Instead of dance teachers with sexy bods and black muscle tees, we have wranglers with sexy bods and five-gallon hats – who I am told frequently have flings with older lady guests. So as you can see, if you need a clearer picture of where I am living you should probably rent Dirty Dancing.

EQUALS...

Today was my first day alone in the bake shop, because Pam leads the all day hike once a week and today was that day. So I came in a little early and made muffins, some pastries, and the bread for dinner, which was, hilariously, challah, a bread I only make every Friday. So when I whipped out the six braider they were all so impressed... bwhahaha. It was a good day, I was nervous at first but then actually enjoyed being in the little space by myself and sort of in charge of when I do things and how I do them. I even stayed an extra hour to make some extra breakfast goodies, its nice to finally have a kitchen stocked with everything you need to play with ingredients. I freakin' love this job. After work I went on my first 6000 feet of elevation run, which was an experience. One I had to watch out for grizzlies, which were apparently spotted on the same trail I ran on, just yesterday and it was at 6000 feet! So a bit of nausea resulted, but dang is it beautiful out here.

Tomorrow is my first day off and I'm going to head 20 miles up the road to the grand ole' town of Livingston, population 5,000, to get some basics and maybe sit in a coffee shop with a different group of people. Woohoo! Love you all!