08/04/2022
Happy belated fifth birthday to Iron Oak Canyon Ranch!
What a journey this has been. When I brought the idea up to my husband in fall of 2016, he agreed-- to my utter shock. Later, he admitted he never thought it would actually happen.
Well, it did, and I remember by the end of 2017, we had a little breathing room, so I made us a new sign. It was cobbled together with craft store supplies and plywood, hand stained and assembled using my calligraphy/lettering experience.
And it was great, until it rained.
The plywood peeled, and the stain faded, and I resurrected it a time or two, but it just got worse again. So this year, for our fifth birthday, I got the ranch a new sign.
I lucked into a bunch of weathered mahogany from a Victorian house nearby, and I designed us a new vector logo online using free software. The only part of the sign I had to pay for was a very talented metal cutter I adore who cut everything out and enameled it for us. (Thanks, Langley Metal Works!). Scott built the backing out of the mahogany, and then, once again, I painstakingly spent hours in our yard in the dark lining everything up.
Then Scott dumped it on accident trying to move the sign and I had to do it all again 😅
But, that's life doing this. You have the best intentions, and the skill, and the wherewithal to get it done, and something else just happens to set you back. There's not enough time. You need supplies. Something out of your control comes along and shoves your priorities around. We rarely get things done when we want to, but starting the sign in May meant that gosh darn it, we had it up in time for August 1st.
We've learned so much the last five years. And it's been incredible, full of joy and tears, gains and losses. Feeling anchored while a storm rages around you and simultaneously battling swamping waves with no life jackets.
I wouldn't trade it, but it's also been the hardest thing I've ever done. Happy birthday, IOCR. Cheers.
