At the Ranch

Saturday was one of the highlights of our time here. We headed out to the Rodriguez ranch. Rene Rodriguez works at Innotec and this is his dad's ranch, about 1/2 hour outside of Saltillo. (The pictures are in no particular order--sorry about that!)

They had lots of horses there--about 15 colts and another 15 still to be born. This one was less than a week old.


It was pretty much a whole afternoon of eating. When most of the food was done, Senor Rodriguez brought out these jumbo marshmallows for the kids to roast!

Our family was able to stay overnight, so we enjoyed a beautiful sunset...

...and a campfire!

There was also a beautiful sunrise the next morning!

This is a picture of the ranch. The home is small and simple but very "ranch-y"--lots of wood and leather. They own most of the valley. We had fun checking out all of the different cacti and watching the prairie dogs pop out of their holes!

OK, this is just a random picture meant for Grandma Van! She used to tell us how they would do prank calls asking "Do you have Prince Albert in a can? Well, let him out!" We never knew what she was talking about. I looked in the windowsill of the ranch and, lo and behold, it was Prince Albert in a can!!

A picture of the ranch house.

Rene and Claudia have two daughters--Valaria and Ximena. Ximena was so good with the horses and took our kids on ride after ride.

A picture of all the food. Mexicans certainly know how to grill. They always throw on these little red sausages (down in the corner). They also did shish kebabs, potatoes, green onions, gorditas, and lots of meat. One of the best meats is arrechera which is cow diaphragm--something we throw away in the states.

Trina taking her turn on the horse. By the end of the day, they were pros and were riding alone or leading others on the horse!

Mike talking with Senor Rodriguez.