My father was right. No matter how far I’ve gone, from city to city to earn degrees and teach, my hands and heart lead me back to the land where I was born in Cortez, Colorado.

Since I was four years old I grew up in the “Pink House,” which I have now transformed into my “hands on healing” massage and educational workshop studio for guests and locals. My Pink House memories are rosy: I would run out with my little dog Minne (who I loved for 17 years) and a swimsuit to meet my grandpa in the pasture to play while he worked.  I still remember his leather gloved hands on his shovel and the shovel digging in the moist loam soil.  I fell in love with the soil. The feel, the smell, the color. All of it. My grandpa nicknamed me Podunk at birth and never refereed to me by any other name.

I don’t remember a time that I wasn’t on a horse.  My father began taking me for rides as an infant and I started the sport of rodeo at age 5. My love of horses continued throughout my childhood up through high school and college where I participated on the Montezuma-Cortez High School Team, the Colorado State High School Rodeo Team, and the Central Arizona Community College Rodeo Team. 

I graduated with a BS in Agriculture, a Vocational/Career Readiness Teaching Certification, and two minors—one in Renewable Natural Resources and the other in Wildlife Biology and Fisheries Sciences from the University of Arizona. Now, back on Podunk’s Ranch I have one horse, working on getting my seat back and plan to ride often and hope to run barrels again someday.

Soon after receiving my degrees, I married and began to have children. I practiced my love of teaching by homeschooling my four kids over ten years. I value those years so much as I can see what a benefit to my children it has been for them. I think it was the hardest, lowest paying job I have ever enjoyed so much. Our land was a rich environment for teaching life skills, such as, cooking, nutrition, health, animal husbandry, tool use and building, small business management, art skills and so much more (my kids even had their own business selling golf balls at the age of 6 and 9)! The values I instilled in them were: to work from your heart, listen to your body, and don’t let fear dictate your life moves.

Later I began my journey as a high-school teacher for 10 years and received the State of New Mexico's "Most Passionate Rural Teacher" award. I also founded and directed the first-of-its-kind "Family and Consumer Sciences Program" where I taught nutrition, life skills, culinary arts, hospitality tourism and recreation, and  FCCLA leadership.

Teaching, combined with taking care of my children, the land, our horses and other animals taught me the power of my hands to heal. To this day I love to use my hands to mend fences, feed my cows, cook nutritional meals, and give
Podunk’s Ranch is my dream come to true: To live on my family’s 3^rd generation land and make a living by enriching our soil, providing our guests and community with grass-fed beef, culinary classes, and creating a truly healing space for locals and visitors to stay for an hour, an afternoon, an evening or more.

See you soon on Podunk’s Ranch!