Highlights of 2013

•  In November we received our Non-Profit status from the IRS

• Between March and November, there were 41 guests to the Ranch

• The Cabins were in use 238 days during our open season

• The Red Cabin Remodel was completed in April

• Our support has reached $900 a month!

• Over $15,000 in donations have been received this past year

• Bob and Ruth Silver joined our board of directors

• We discovered that Tiffany is expecting a baby in July!

  

              Looking forward in 2014

• Currently, we are working on converting an unused bedroom in the tan cabin into a laundry/storage room.  We hope to have this completed by March 1^st. We need to build a building for this eventually, but we aren't going to be able to complete a new building structure by April.  

• Currently, we are looking for a couple to be Living Springs Ranch hosts this summer.  We are praying for someone with a heart for ministry who has been in ministry.  We are putting an article in a publication for retired pastors asking for a couple to help host.  Tiffany will not be able to do everything with the baby in coming in July, so help is going to be much needed.

•  The month of March is dedicated to preparing the tan cabin for hosts for the summer.  We will be repainting the interior and doing general maintenance.  We will be hanging new curtains/rods and updating some of the décor. We are doing a Cowboy/lodge theme with the tan cabin.

•       Saturday, March 22^nd we are having our Spring Clean-up day to get ready for opening in April! We will need help with things like, raking pine straw, spreading gravel, uncovering the flower beds and general sprucing up.
     

  Thank you all for your love and support in making 2013 a great year.  Even though we had fewer individuals retreating this year compared to last year, our guests stayed longer and the cabins saw more use. It turned out to be the busiest year that Jay and I have been running the Ranch.  We were able to see the ministry helping several people in concrete ways. It was incredibly encouraging, humbling and exciting.  Seeing people being blessed makes us want to keep working to provide this for more people.

    We could use some volunteer help with all of our remodeling this spring… if you love painting or handiwork we've got a job for you!

    We would appreciate your prayers as we embark on the journey of this New Year!  

             Blessings,

                               Tiffany and Jay

   

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Red Cabin Remodel

Well! It's time for the Before and after pictures of the Red Cabin Remodel!

Here we go!

Living Room Before

Living Room After

Bedroom Before

Bedroom After

Kitchen Before

           

Kitchen After

New Closet 

Bathroom Before

Bathroom After

Beautiful new Bathtub!

If I had to sum up the last few months in one word, it would be ENCOURAGING!

• We now have several monthly supporters. Our total monthly income for the ministry has gone from $350 a month to $600 a month! We are now only $400 short of our monthly goal.

• Over $1,500 in one time gifts have been donated in the last 3 months! What a huge help!

• Other helpful donations include; a beautiful newer kitchen stove for the tan cabin; a full bed for the tan cabin; cool signs for directing guests in our driveway; and a washer and dryer set. 

• 34 guests have stayed with so far this year. Some of the folks include, retired missionaries to Cameroon; a Pastor who recently returned from serving in Africa, a traveling evangelist and his family, friends from Australia, and local pastors, their wives and families.

We value your prayers and support as we continue on in ministry here,

Blessings, 

Jay and Tiffany 

Ranch Happenings

 Look!! I'm doing something!! This proves that I do something other than just take pictures!

It's past time for a new blog update! So here goes!

• Living Springs Ranch officially opened its 2013 Season on April 1st

My Car full of cleaning supplies and bedding and towels for the cabins

• April 2nd we had Spring cleanup workday with a great turnout!

Campfire after an awesome workday

• April 31st we finished the Red Cabin remodel (pictures coming soon!) A big thank you goes to Bob and Ruth Silver and Roger and Dianna Ward for helping this happen!

My messy "to do" list for the Red cabin the day April 31 before guests arrived May 1st

Other random projects include-

Jay building a concrete protective wall for the water pipes behind the red 

cabin...hopefully there will be no  more frozen pipes now!

 Jay landscaping the hillside in front of our house

~ And Finally ~

• We have had 17 guests so far this season!!  A huge thank you to Dianna for helping me clean cabins. 

• As of right now we have about 20 more people scheduled to retreat on the books

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Blessings, Jay and Tiffany 

More Red Cabin Pictures

The red Cabin Bathroom remodel is coming along! We have been blessed the last few weeks with lots of help from our friend Roger. He's put up drywall, done mudding,  taping, sanding and a host of other things!  He's been a huge help to us!  What a blessing!  Jay and Roger have been working together and making lots of progress... 

Here's Jay installing the tub surround, I helped with this project and it was a task 

and a half to get that sucker to fit in there!

We got it in! The new tub, surround and the new vinyl flooring

 

And the drywall is up! and the Ceiling too... and the mudding, taping and sanding is done!

And Jay is very happy....haha

A picture of my feet- to prove I actually WAS THERE!! Now if I could 

just get a picture of me doing something...you guys might believe that I actually helped!

And we are getting closer!! We still need to put up the shower curtain and do

 various other sundries  I am sure a finished photo will be up here soon!

Lastly, this is the elusive but incredibly helpful, Roger. Hopefully,

I will get a better picture of him for the next post!

Thank you all for your prayers and support! 

Jay and Tiff

                                   

UM....see anything missing in this picture?

Yes! You are right...the stove pipe IS missing. We had a crazy morning.  We had a chimney fire early this morning. Thankfully, it was contained in the stovepipe and no part of the house was damaged. Jay and I had a few worried moments standing by with fire extinguishers. We discovered that one of the older pieces of stove pipe, located in our attic, had a rusted/burned hole in it. We are glad this happened when Jay and I were here. Jay tore out part of the stove pipe. And climbed up on the roof to investigate the pipe up there. 

  Those of you who have seen our house, know that the pitch of the roof is terribly steep. Jay ended up using an extension ladder and then building a 2x4 ladder that would hook over the ridge of the roof. 

                                                        

 There he is up there...

While we were dealing with the stove pipe, our guests from the cabin called us to tell us they had no water in their cabin. What?! We have been working in that cabin for weeks and have had no problems with the water!  Our guest arrived last night and had water...and woke up to no water. 

Oh, and did I mention that Jay was having an allergy/coughing attack the entire morning?! Let me just insert that in there...

So, to make a long morning short,

 The water issue was easily fixed. Troubleshooting revealed that a bit of fluff was touching a connecting hook-up wire to the pump. Removing the random fluff equals running water! 

The exterior end of the stove pipe ended up getting covered with plastic and left standing for now. Jay decided that he didn't have the proper equipment to get the job done and that needed to get help. His wife met that decision with great relief after holding the ladder for him and watching him  trying to get around up on the roof. 

I'd appreciate prayer for Jay- he went from not feeling that great, to being sick and feeling miserable. He has to get up and go to work in a few hours...it would be good if he felt better.

We've got so much to be thankful for on this crazy day...

-An intact house

-The fact that Jay was home while the craziness was happening

-That it was a good day to be working on the roof (no ice and snow!)

-That we didn't loose our source of heat in the middle of winter 

The fact that no matter what happens - God loves us and is with us

Blessings to you all-

Jay cutting the new sub-floor for the bathroom in the Red Cabin

  The renovations have started at Living Spring Ranch!  Our Project for now is remodeling the bathroom in the Red Cabin.

   Thanks to some generous donors we had several Home Depot Gift card to put towards this remodel. What a big help!

    Here are a few pictures of the process.

Starting to tear out the fixtures

The floor and walls are gone!

  The new bathtub, shower surround and roll of new linoleum flooring waiting to go in

The work station and the very helpful dog!

We'll keep you all updated as the work progresses! 

Jay and Tiff at the Yaak River in Montana December 2012

 With the cabins shut down for the winter, and the start of a new year, it’s a good time to look back at some of the highlights of 2012.

1.)    Guests  

·         65 people stayed at the ranch last year.

·         38 of those people were new guests of the ranch

2.)    Remodel

·         The blue cabin got new floors,  kitchen countertop, an interior paint job and a new bathroom

·         The red cabin also got new floors and a new interior paint job

·         The tan cabin got a new porch

·         The cabin area got refurbished picnic tables

3.)    Non-Profit

·         We received our status as a Charity from the state of Washington

·         The application has been submitted to the IRS for 501(c)3 (tax exempt)Status.  We are currently waiting for approval. The process generally takes 3-9 months.

·         We have formed a Board Of Directors for Living Springs Ranch

·         November 1, 2012 we held our first Board meeting to discuss the goals and direction of the Ranch.

4.)    Supporters

·         We’ve met many new people this past year who are interested in volunteering, encouraging, and supporting us.

·         We have our first monthly financial donors

   Looking ahead to 2013, it is exciting to contemplate the possibilities!

1.)    Guests

·         We are planning to reopen the cabins on April 1^st. 

·         We already have a total of 29 days booked this coming year by pastors and their family

2.)    Finances

·         Our financial goal this year is to have $1,000 a month coming in from monthly donors.  $12,000 a year will help to cover the minimum operating costs of running the Ranch.

·         We already have $350 a month coming in

·         We still need $650 a month to reach our goal

·         We are looking for supporters who would like to support us with a monthly gift of $25, $50, or $100. We would appreciate your prayerful consideration.

Thank you all for your love, prayers and support!

 Blessings,

    Jay and Tiffany