Gualala Arts Lecture Series presents:
Ranching in Colorado

with David Griffith
Monday, September 12, 2011, 7:00 p.m.
Admission is $5

More than one person going through the proverbial midlife crisis has dreamt of quitting his job and pursuing an idyllic dream. On Monday, September 12, David Griffith will recount how he and his wife left his law practice and her prosperous business in Boulder, Colorado, to take up ranching in Plateau Valley nestled in the Rockies at 7,000 feet near Collbran, a Western Colorado dot on the map.

Their future home that the realtor described as a "sleeper" was seven miles up a dead-end branch of a dead-end road with a half-mile walk to the abandoned homestead. Over the crest of a hill appeared a hidden valley of irrigated meadows surrounded by rim-rock cliffs.

When the seller offered to show all 1,200 acres on horseback, Griffith, the Boulder greenhorn, said he preferred to walk. Without any preparation, he closed a deal and completed escrow in ten days later. That's when the seller asked about the cow permit. Twenty-five years as a trial lawyer hadn't prepared him for what would follow.

Learning how to tend a herd was only one of the obstacles he and his family had to overcome. Although he was a native of Colorado, born and raised in Pueblo, for the locals he was an outsider who was viewed with suspicion. The neighboring three ranches had been in the same family for generations.

In this entertaining and informative talk, which might be a cautionary tale for any disgruntled "forty-somethings" in the audience, he recounts how his herd grew to 500 mother cows and 200 goats and his ranch expanded during the twenty year romance of living at the No Brainer Happiness Ranch.

Griffith eventually sold the property and three years ago moved to the Mendonoma coast where his mother-in-law lived on Sea Ranch. Now he can reflect on his experiences without the stresses that accompany life in a picturesque valley watered by Plateau Creek. A $5 admission will be collected at the door. The talk begins at 7:00 p.m.

The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA,
is open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information, or email info@gualalaarts.org.

Join us in celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Gualala Arts, 1961 - 2011

Serving the coastal communities of northern Sonoma & southern Mendocino Counties.