Back at the Ranch :: Blog from Ranch House Designs

Texas A&M University Cattle Sale - April 18, 2010

2009-11-16T09:05:00.000-08:00

One of my best friends in the cattle business, or actually just in general, is Paul Maulsby, the Beef Center manager at Texas A&M University. When I was just starting my job at A&M in 2003, Paul was also a new staff member in the Department and we instantly bonded because we were both so passionate about working in the Department of Animal Science, and we both shared a huge interest in purebred cattle marketing and promotion. I remember sitting around the office for hours with Paul talking about how awesome it would be if Texas A&M offered a class in livestock merchandising like Oklahoma State or Michigan State, and how even more awesome it would be if one day Texas A&M could have a production sale like these other schools.

A couple of years ago, Paul instrumented bringing the livestock merchandising class to A&M Department of Animal Science. Catherine and I were fortunate to be invited as guest lecturers, and it was exciting to see one of Paul and my ideas come to fruition.

Well now, 6 years later, Paul has accomplished probably his biggest goal to date at A&M, which is establishing a production sale for the TAMU Beef Center. If I had a dollar for every time Paul and I have talked about this idea, I'd have enough to retire from RHD. Every time I drive by the beef center and I see the excellent qualilty cow herd Paul has established at A&M, I feel so proud. Paul and his team have really taken the A&M cattle herd to the next level, and have a showcase operation that all former students can be excited about.

I met with Paul last week and Ranch House Designs will be handling all of the sale advertising and promotion for the "Spirit of Aggieland" Inaugural Cattle Sale which will be held April 18, 2010 at the TAMU Beef Center. I can hardly wait! Of course, more information on the sale will be forthcoming all spring, but here are some of the key points.

The sale will be held on Sunday, April 18, which is during the TAMU Parents Weekend activities. The Saddle and Sirloin banquet will be held on the night before, and so this will make a great activity to end a big weekend at A&M. The sale will include 65 head of primarily Simmental and Angus genetics. A select few show heifer prospects from other breeds will also be included through guest consignors. TAMU will also be offering a group of breeding bulls and herd sire prospects.

Guest consignors lined up to date will be several progressive breeders who support the Beef Center, including WW Simmentals of Missouri (the Walthalls), Lastovica Angus of Texas, Satree Angus of Texas, and V8 Ranch of Texas. More guest consignors are in the works.

Probably the neatest aspect of this sale will be the educational component for the students at A&M. Paul is establishing a mentor program where a former Aggie student will serve as mentors to the students, who will be the sale staff. So for example, Catherine and I are the mentors for the students interested in advertising. While RHD will be actually doing the actual design work, we will be discussing with students and helping them learn the ins and outs of sale promotion and catalog design. There will be other mentors for hospitality, sale cattle preparation, sale clerking and settlement, photography, working the sale, etc.

We will be featuring the sale in popular magazines starting in February, so keep your eyes out for this exciting event! Oh, and since it's Parents Weekend at A&M, it might be wise to go ahead and make your hotel reservations early!

Sieren Swine Farm

2009-11-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

We are happy to post a new web site for a great Iowa showpig family - the Sieren Family of Keota, Iowa. We have worked on the Sierens print advertising since 2007, and they recently took the big step on the Internet and got their very own web site.

Here's a fun fact....Boling FFA (my hometown) purchases pics from the Sierens....or at least I think they do. Because....Friday night when I was attending the big high school football showdown battle for a playoff spot, I went to the FFA concession stand to purchase my token hot dog, and Jason Guidry was spotted wearing a Sieren Show Pigs baseball cap. For those of you who may not put 2-and-2 together, Jason is one of the 3 ag teachers at Boling High School (my alma mater) and he is the very talented and very cool husband of RHD web udpates manager, Christa Guidry. Jason is the swine specialist at Boling FFA and takes his job very seriously. I know they purchase hogs from several places, including many RHD clients. I just thought it was cool to see Jason wearing the Sieren cap when I knew we would be posting their new web site very soon.

Sieren Swine Farm, is owned and operated by Jayme & Scott Sieren. The Sieren brothers grew up on a family-operated, diversified, commercial farm. The Sieren’s are currently involved in crop and livestock production, including corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle, and sheep.

Currently the Sieren’s own & manage 300 cross-bred sows and a handful of purebreds. Litters are farrowed every 4 weeks which allows them to have show pigs available for any show. Looking for the next winner? Give Sierens a call!

Favorite Halloween Costumes

2009-11-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

We are happy to announce the winners of our Favorite RHD Halloween Kids for 2009! Thanks to all of our clients who sent in photos of their adorable youngsters all dressed up for Halloween! We had so many great photos sent in, it was impossible to choose just one. So, we chose a cutest girl costume and favorite boy costume. RHD clients are the best, and we loved seeing all the photos!

Cutest Halloween Girl Costume: Avery Blunier

Miss Avery Blunnier, daughter of Julie Blunier and granddaughter of Bob Duis. Neice of Robbie and Chelsea Duis. Avery represents RHD client Duis Farms of Illinois. Avery's grandmother Duis hand-made this adorable teddy bear costume! How cute is this little angel!

Favorite Boy Halloween Costume: Heston Turner

Our favorite boy costume winner, Heston Turner, must have been so busy helping his dad Matt Turner with the shipping of all of their melatonin implants that he decided to take on a job as a UPS man to help with all of the deliveries! Heston is the son of Matt and Kristi Turner of Texas, and Heston represents RHD client MelatoninImplants.com.

Congratulations to these winners, and thanks again to all of our clients who submitted all of the great Halloween photos! They really brightened all of our days!

We proudly introduce... RHD Boot Camp

2009-11-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

We've been in the business for over 10 years now, and we've always been asked if we accept interns, or if people could come job shadow us, or if we could teach people how to design their own ads, or explain how to build and update a web site. Basically, people are always dying to know how it is we do what we do.

Well... here is your chance. We're at a point in our business where we feel confident enough to share our knowledge. We're ready to give you the tips and tools that we've learned over the past 10 years and help you learn what you want to know about graphic design and web design.

Ranch House Designs, Inc. is proud to introduce the RHD Boot Camp. Boot Camps are a one-on-one, all-day training seminar. We offer 2 different tracks for Boot Camp based on your interest — you choose: print design or web design. Of course we realize that we may have campers who are interested in both, and if you are, we can offer you a discount off of the price of the 2 camps.

Today is the official launch of RHD Boot Camp and also the launch of the web site RHDBootCamp.com. If you're wanting the full-scoop on Boot Camps, be sure to check out the web site. The web site has detailed information about the Print Boot Camp and the Web Boot Camp and what you can expect. The bottom line is, come hang out at the RHD office for a day, visit with us, have lunch at the place of your choice, let us teach you everything we know, and you can take what you learn and run with it. It's your day and we'll do what you want.

We've already 'leaked' the information of our Boot Camps to a few people and we're overwhelmed by the positive response and interest. Take a look for yourself. We're currently booking Boot Camps for the remainder of 2009 and on into 2010. Why not pack your bags and come to the Texas Gulf Coast for a Boot Camp getaway? We're ready for you!

October Web Update Winners

2009-11-08T09:05:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to our October web update winners at Ranch House Designs! This month our average turnaround time was 3 hours.

Grand Champion October Web Updater: Dismukes Ranch

After that, we had a 4 way tie for Reserve. So we'll just list the remaining top updaters for October.

Gorman Milling
J3 Cattle
Stock Horse of Texas
Tusa Show Cattle
Williams Show Cattle

Remember it's super important to keep your web site updated. So keep your updates coming in to us and we'll do our best to get them done in the fastest turnaround possible!

November Blog Discount - Display Banners

2009-11-06T08:52:00.000-08:00

The "blog specials" have been a huge hit with our blog readers -- last month many of you took advantage of the special on business cards. Thismonth, the "Blog Special" is a 10% discount on your design fee for a display banner.

Our display banners are printed on all-weather-resistant vinyl and include full color digital graphics. All sizes are available but the most popular sizes are 4x4, 3x5, 4x8 and 5x10, depending on how you will be displaying the banner. They will have gromments in the corners ready for hanging. With Denver and major stock shows in Texas coming up, now is a great time to purchase a banner.

Here are a couple of ideas of how you could use a display banner:

Barn sign or farm sign (like the A Cut Above or Burke banners below). Hang it in your barn, or at your farm entrance during special times of the year like your private treaty sale. These usually have your business name and contact info. These are non-dated so you can use them year after year.
Winners Banners - We just wrapped up a few of these for the Tusa's and Brinning's. Pick your favorite winner or your biggest winner and have a 4x4 banner made that you can proudly hang in your barn. These usually have a big photo from the show along with the award you won and the show name. These make a great keepsake you can treasure forever.
Sire Banner - With Denver coming up, if you already know you'll be displaying a bull....get a jump start on things and save a little money in your promotion expenses.

Display banners would make a great Christmas present! So give us a call today and save 10% on display banners and signage.

Our non-ag related clients can also benefit from display banners! The possibilities are endless!

Ranch House Designs is known for the best display banners in the business! Last year in Denver we designed more banners than anyone else in the yards! So give us a call, mention the "Blog Special" 10% discount and talk to Tricia at 979-532-9141 or email tricia@ranchhousedesigns.com

Bar-Nel Ranch

2009-11-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

Exciting things are going on at Bar-Nel Ranch in Franklin, Texas! Barney and LaNelle Allen along with their grandson Brandon have recently updated their web site with a fresh look and updated information.

The Allen's have been in the Brahman business for over 30 years. In 2001, one of their dreams came true when they bred and exhibited the International Champion Brahman Bull. They operate two cow herds: a Registered American Brahman herd, and a Certified F1 (Brahman and Angus) herd.They raise about 40 - 50 F1 calves and 40-50 registered Brahman calves every year.

The Allen's ranch is located in Franklin, Texas, which is about halfway between Houston and Dallas. They will be consigning a small group of Brahman females to the Blue Ribbon Brahman Sale held on November 18th.

We hope you will visit http://www.barnelranch.com/ and see what's new and exciting going on at the -N- Ranch!

Top Secret Project — Coming Monday 11/9

2009-11-04T11:59:00.001-08:00

Big things are happening at RHD.

We've been working on a new development at RHD and we're just about ready to share our big secret project with you! Rachel and I have been working and planning for about 3 months on a new endeavor for RHD and we're in the final stages before we will launch our project and share it with you.

Be sure and check back Monday, November 9, for the unveiling of our newest project at Ranch House Designs. We will announce our news on the blog. We are so excited to share it with you and can't wait to hear your feedback.

Stay tuned!

Colburn Cattle

2009-11-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

Last week we posted a new web site for west coast show cattle breeders Colburn Cattle of Visalia, California. The Colburn program began in 1992 when parents Ron & Lisa Colburn began buying show heifers for their sons Tyler and Ryan. As their interest in cattle grew, so did the breeding program, which was initially based on their two oldest sons' show heifers. Today, the Colburn cowherd includes approximately 300 head of breeding females.

In 2003, the Colburn Family developed a partnership with Kevin and Christy McKinzie of McKinzie Cattle, to produce top quality cattle for the youth in today’s highly competitive junior livestock arenas. This partnership has built one of California`s most functional show cattle facilities where junior showmen can learn all aspects of the livestock industry. From daily care of show steers to Embryo transfer to AI, this program has many opportunities for the youth of today.

November is a busy month for the Colburn crew -- with the Central Valley Showcase on November 7, Champions Choice Cattle Camp on November 14-15 and the Triple Threat Female Sale and Show on November 21. Ranch House Designs also created the catalog for Triple Threat, which can be viewed online at http://colburncattle.com/sales.html.

We hope you will take a minute to view the new Colburn site at http://colburncattle.com/

Blueville Nursery

2009-11-02T08:40:00.000-08:00

We are very happy to present our first ever landscaping and garden web site -- for Blueville Nursery of Manhattan, Kansas.

The Blueville Nursery team has been Manhattan's complete landscape company since 1962. Their business includes landscaping, irrigation, maintenance, nursery, Fort Riley and eroision control. They also operate a "Garden Store", pictured here, which is a landscape store that is open year round. Most all of the products offered in their garden store are grown at their own nursery. During the Christmas season, you can find the Garden Store loaded with freshly cut Christmas trees and poinsettias. They also maintain the landscaping at the historic Fort Riley base.

Welcome Blueville Nursery!

Cutest Halloween Costume Contest

2009-10-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

Send us your photos of the Best Halloween Costume and we'll post our favorites here on the blog! We know that all of the RHD clients have some adorable little ones who are going to look as cute as ever in their costumes this year. Or, maybe you're an adult who likes to dress up too and you want to submit yourself in costume.

So send us your kids Halloween photos and show off your cute-ness (or scary-ness) to the rest of your friends at RHD!

Please send photos to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com. We'll give everyone a few days to get their pics off their digital camera and post the photos here in a week or so!

Favorite October Ads

2009-10-27T08:28:00.000-07:00

We are happy to announce the winners of the October Ad Design contest at RHD! This month's contest was judged by Courtney Coufal, who is the communications specialist for the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University. Courtney and her family live in College Station, Texas. Courtney coordinates all of the marketing and communications for the department including being the editor of the weekly e-mail newsletter called "Animal Science Weekly."

We sent all of our October ads to Courtney and asked her to pick her top 3, but she said there were so many she liked, she had to pick more! She said: "Overall great ads! I love the work y’all do. The ads I selected as my favorites really stand-out!" So here are this month's winners, in no certain order. Congratulations to these clients!

Clay Farms - At first glance, this ad stood out and caught my eye. There’s something attention-grabbing about a giant boar standing firm staring you in the eyes! Definitely attention-grabbing!

Forgason – Again, very attention-grabbing with the large image of the calf. Very cute image, overall soft feel, welcoming and makes me want to call these people because they appear friendly and inviting.

Dismukes-Ranch – Great use of colors and graphics. Love the image! The image and tagline “…Something New in the Barn?” entices me to read on.

J-R Farms – Overall very nice, clean, classic ad and feel. Sometimes less is more. Great use of color. Professional. I may even like this one more than the other three but the other three are more attention-grabbing and memorable.

Brad-Harrub – Again, attention grabbing with “does God exist?” Makes me want to read on. Nice use of typography and colors. Great use and placement of the opened hands.

V8-Ranch – Love the colors and typography. Eye-catching.

Sandpoint – Great tagline “power of the point!” Enjoy the layout of the logo and text.

November "On The House" Cover Photo Contest

2009-10-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

Send us your favorite fall photo and win a Ranch House Designs cap! We are asking our friends and clients to choose their favorite fall photo or Thanksgiving photo to be used on our November cover of "On the House", the online magazine for Ranch House Designs.

Photos can be sent to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com by October 28th. The winner will be announced on November 3rd when the new magazine will be published online.

Also just a reminder to our clients, if you have an ad to send in for the magazine, please send it to liz@ranchhousedesigns.com by October 28th. All ads designed by RHD are automatically included in the publication but any of our web site clients are also able to submit their ads for the publication too!

Fan Pages on Facebook

2009-10-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

When we created the V8 Fan Page on Facebook earlier this summer, this was the first ranch fan page I could find on facebook. Now I'm not going to "officially" say this was the first ranch fan page on Facebook, but at the time, I searched and could not find any other ranches, show cattle companies, or showpig operations online. Actually, this was my mom's idea to get a fan page for V8, and she has a pretty good grasp on what's cool and not cool online so we went ahead and created one for V8. at that same time, we created a fan page for RHD too.

Now, there are tons of ranch-related and livestock-related Fan Pages on Facebook. It seems like every time I log in I get a suggestion of becomming a fan of some other ag-related business.

So if you're on Facebook, you might want to consider starting a fan page for your business. It's really simple, it's free, and it's another great way of using a social network tool to help promote your brand. The easiest way to start your own business' fan page is to go to another fan page, like the V8 Ranch one, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and look on the left hand column for a link that says "Create A Page for My Business."

If you are a RHD client, we can easily provide you with graphics to go on your fan page, such as a Facebook sized logo or other options for you to post. One thing we do caution clients about is that you would want to consider what photos or graphics you post on facebook, because of copyright restrictions. By agreeing to the Facebook terms of service you release any copyright on any photo you upload to their site. So if you upload your photos or logo, just be aware that you are releasing fb to use it if they want.

If you're new on facebook, please add Ranch House Designs to your list of fan pages. Also all of the RHD staff is on facebook, so search for your favorite designer and add us as friends. Here are also some other Fan pages of RHD clients....

Louisville Display Banners

2009-10-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

With Louisville just a month away, now is the time to order your display banners for the North American! We can do banners of all sizes, but the most popular are the 4x4 square banners and the 4x8 long display banners. Whether you have a new sire to promote, or just need a banner for your farm to put at your stalls, we can design a banner for you that will get you noticed and fit your budget! Call 979-532-9141 to order or e-mail tricia@ranchhousedesigns.com to get started.

Denver bull banners will be due December 10th for standard orders. For the past few years, the RHD banners have been the favorites in the yards. If you have a bull to promote, you need RHD to do your banner. So be thinking about that and we'll be looking forward to hearing from you!

Precise Genetics

2009-10-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

To many progressive ranch operations, their embryo transfer team members are some of the most important people on the ranch. I can't even begin to count the times we've all anxiously awaited the news of how many eggs Catherine's Shorthorn Myrtle Bo or my favorite Brahman donor, Miss V8 98/6 gives.

Well for us at V8 Ranch, Precise Genetics are the people we depend on and trust for our ET services. The great team of Dr. Harley Schneider, Kim Petrash, Jeff Jones, and Casey Ballard are just about monthly visitors to the ranch to handle our flushes. We see them so much they're like our extended ranch family, and they do a really great job for us.

So naturally, when Precise Genetics wanted a web site, they would come to Ranch House Designs. We are happy to publish their site, and invite you to check out http://precisegenetics.com/. If you are looking for an ET team, Precise Genetics is definitely a leading firm to consider!

Upgrades to Maximum Exposure Video Service

2009-10-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

After working with Maximum Exposure Photography for several years now, we were very pleased a few weeks ago when we got their videos to post on Jeff Miller's web site. Maximum Exposure has upgraded their technology and now offers video hosting to those people who use their service, which is much better for clients.

By Maximum Exposure hosting the videos, it saves clients money in web hosting expenses, and offers a standardized video player which should help in accessibility of the videos.

Kudos to Mark and the rest of the Maximum Exposure team on this upgraded service!

Boneso Livestock

2009-10-15T14:33:00.000-07:00

For a few years now we have gotten familiar with the Boneso Family because of the success of their children Wes and Maggie. These two young people have had a great track record of success in California, winning the State Fair steer show and several other prospects shows in the past few years.

So now we are very happy to launch the new web site for Boneso Livestock, which is owned and operated by Steve, Mary Ann, Wes and Maggie. The Boneso family is from San Miguel, California.

They will be hosting a private treaty sale on October 17 at their farm in San Miguel, California. This sale will feature a select group out of donor cows hand-picked for the Boneso's by Blaine Rodgers and Nick Reimann. After very successful show careers, the cows went into production at their farm and raised top show prospects that will be sold at the sale.

You'll also recognize the Walks on Water sire, who was a display bull in Denver 2009. This is a Heat Wave son.

So we hope you will visit http://www.bonesolivestock.com/ and check out the sale information and donors in this great west-coast program.

Working Ranch Magazine

2009-10-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was sitting at Catalena Hatters in Bryan, Texas while Brandon was getting his new cowboy hat shaped. I saw this magazine sitting on the bench in their store so I picked it up and started browsing through it. LOVE IT! This is a great magazine for anyone in the cattle business.

A relatively new publication, Working Ranch is what I would consider similar to a Sports Illustrated, Cosmo, or Cowboys & Indians type magazine for ranchers and those who love the cattle business. It's very trendy, has great articles, and really relates to those who are living the ranch lifestyle day in and day out.

The great thing about this magazine is that it is free! That's right, you can get a free subscription if you visit their web site at http://www.workingranchtv.com/.

Their next issue that will be arriving is the November/December magazine, so you might want to go ahead and subscribe so that you'll be on the mailing list for that issue.

And, for our advertising clients, this is a great publication to consider advertising in. Their rates are very affordable and they have a great circulation. If you're a livestock person wanting to advertise the person to talk to is Todd McCartney and his e-mail is todd@workingranchmag.com. This is a great outlet for advertising bull sales and other registered cattle events.

Enjoy reading!

St. Paul Lutheran Church of Wharton

2009-10-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

"We believe God’s purpose for St. Paul Lutheran Church is to
boldly teach, preach, and live the love of Christ." - St. Paul Lutheran Church of Wharton

What beautiful words from a great group of people! This month we were very happy to create a web site for St. Paul Lutheran Church, one of our community's churches. With a very rich and deep tradition in Wharton County, this congregation celebrated their 110th anniversary in 2005.

At RHD, we love to work with churches to help share the good news of God's love with others. Because of this, we offer special discounts and even in some cases pro-bono work to faith-based organizations. This month, we created the new web site for St. Paul Lutheran, we designed flyers for the Abell Street Church of Christ gospel meeting, and we have other church web sites in the works.

We encourage you to visit http://www.stpaulwharton.org/. If your church or association needs help with your church web site or church promotional materials, we're glad to help.

New Web Site - Top Line Angus

2009-10-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

We are happy to introduce our newest web site client, Top Line Farms of Tremont, Illinois!

Top Line Farms is located in Central Illinois about 15 miles south of Peoria. They are registered Angus breeders who strive to produce eye appealing cattle that will compete at any level while maintaining maternal strengths that make great cows. Their cattle will function in any climate and be versatile enough for all parts of the country.

The folks at Top Line have put together a great set of donors both raised on the farm and a few purchased from leading Angus operations. Their first production sale will be October 24th in Tremont, IL and a great sale preview of the offering is pictured on their Sales Page.

We hope you will visit this web site where you'll be very impressed with their Angus genetics!

Mock Livestock

2009-10-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for heavy muscled, good ribbed, structurally correct wethers with a killer look -- there is one place to go --- Mock Livestock!

We are happy to introduce our newest show goat web site at RHD -- Mock Livestock. ML is owned by two great young people in this business - Kevin and Megan Mock of Blanco, Texas.

The Mock Family, who will be growing very soon with the birth of their twins, are two very busy go-getters who have made quite a name in the show goat business.

Mock Livestock consist of around 150 show wether oriented embryo recip does and a small herd of elite embryo donors. Their program is built around predictable, line-bred pedigrees that are proven to produce champion show wethers. Such genetic lines include “900”, Schafer, Kohls, and Powell-Holman.
We have worked with Kevin for about two years now on a variety of projects before officially launching the newly-redesigned Mock Livestock site. Kevin is also a part of the Duelm's Prevailing Genetics team and a goat speecialist for Show-Rite feeds as well as a trailer designer for Sundowner Trailers.

We hope you will take a minute to visit their new web site and remember Mock Livestock whenever you need a killer show goat or show pig.

September Web Updates Blowout

2009-10-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

As to be expected with all of the busy club calf sales during the month of September, RHD recorded our biggest web updating month in the 10-year-history of RHD in September 2009!! This month we did a record-number 333 updates from September 1-30!!!

Recently I was visiting with someone who has a web site done by a company other than RHD. This person was complaining that they had sent in some photos to be added to their web site and 5 days had passed, and the photos still weren't added. Their sale was coming up, and they wanted their photos up right away. Wouldn't that be FRUSTRATING!

At RHD, we know that time is money. That's why we make it a top priority to keep our clients web sites updated as soon as possible. Of the 333 updates we did this month, 271 of these were done on the VERY SAME DAY the client requested the update. The remaining updates were done within 1 day of the client update request.

So yeah, we're tooting our own horn a little bit, but we feel this is important.

Our Grand Champion Updater for September 2009 was Beefmaster Breeders United. This is a great group of people to work with. By and large, their updates are due to the very popular Buy/Sell listing on their web site which is a great service to BBU members. They had twice as many updates as any other client.

Our Reserve Champion Updater for Sepember 2009 was the American Brahman Breeders Association.

Other sites in the final drive for this month's updating championships were:

RHD's On The House Online Magazine

2009-10-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

New from RHD! Introducing our "On The House" online magazine! We will be publishing this issue online each month specially designed for RHD clients. We created this opportunity as an added value to clients we design print ads for, and also clients we do web sites for.

How can you get your ad in this magazine? Simple, be a RHD client.

If we do your print ad, we'll automatically include your ad in this publication for as many times as you want. For example, if we design a bull ad for you, if you want us to include it in every online issue for the entire year, just let us know. If you have a sale ad, we'll include it in every month publication until your sale happens.

If you have a magazine or someone else do your print ad, but RHD does your web site, we'll still include your ad free of charge. All you have to do is get your final, camera ready ad to us by the 20th of the month to be included.

How much does it cost? It's free to all RHD clients!

So we invite you to check out this month's "On the House" by visiting Ranch House Designs. The magazine is posted on our home page. We welcome your feedback and ideas! This month's cover features our good friend and RHD client Travis Pembrook judging at the South Dakota State Fair, taken by Lacee Caffee of LC Promotions. If you have a cover shot you'd like to submit, e-mail it to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com

RHD Speaking at San Antonio Farm and Ranch Expo

2009-10-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

This Thursday night, I've got plans to be enjoying a nice Mexican dinner and margarita at Casa Rio on the San Antonio Riverwalk!

Why? Because on Friday, I was invited to be a speaker at the San Antonio International Farm and Ranch Expo at the San Antonio Livestock Show.

This is the 1st Annual expo, hosted by Texas AgriLife Extension, Texas Farm Bureau, Texas Department of Agriculture, and the San Antonio Convention Bureau. It will be held at the stock show, (San Antonio Livestock Exposition) and is free to attend.

The conference runs from October 8-10 (Thursday-Saturday) but I will be speaking twice on Friday. My first appearance will be at 10:00 a.m. on Friday as part of the "Spouse's" program, then later in the day at 2:00 p.m.

So if you're a south Texan, stop by the Expo and come listen to my talks. And even if you're not interested in my talks on web design and advertising, there are over 50 different educational programs and a big trade show, also free to attend.