All in favor?

It was a cold but very fun weekend. Friday afternoon we drove out to Elko, NV with my parents and brother, Dave for the annual shareholders meeting for Ellison Ranching Co. We checked into our motel and then went to dinner at the Basque restaurant, The Nevada. I ate way too much, but it was delicious! Then we went for a soak in the hot tub and hit the hay.

Saturday morning, we drove out to Spanish Ranch in time for the share holders meeting. It is about an hour and a half drive northwest of Elko. There isn't very much out there, but it's still very beautiful country. Ann and Travis had camped out Friday night and met us there. After the meeting, they fed us lunch. And again, I ate too much.

We learned that Nevada has a lot of natural hotsprings and there are many on Spanish Ranch. A Nevada power company is leasing land from ERC to build a Geo-Thermal plant on these hot springs and we went for a drive to see the site. Very interesting! The water on the surface in some places was well over 100 degrees, but below is said to be as hot as 400.

On our way back home we stopped at the 71 Ranch. This one lies about 25 miles east of Elko and, in my opinion, is the most picturesque. A couple of years ago, they started a Guest Ranch at the 71 and it seems to be doing really well. This last summer there were a lot of wildfires that damaged a lot of land and maimed or killed many livestock. The cowboys had to do a lot of the work putting them out.

It had been about 7 years since I had been out there last for a family reunion. I'm always so impressed by their way of life. It's very different than mine. They are very hard working people.