Lazy H Magic

It's not very often you get to experience something that has a deep connection to your family's past.

My Grandpa Flake was an Arizona cowboy-- literally grew up sleeping under the stars herding cattle on horseback in Arizona. After he and my grandma got married, one of the jobs he found was working at dude ranch in Idaho (where my grandma was from). This dude ranch was so so remote, in the primitive Sawtooth mountains 3 hours from civilization. Yet in the fall of 1941 they decided to move up there and live in a tent house. They had my Uncle Denny at the time, and before they left in 1942 my grandmother had given birth to my Uncle Lawrence right there in those mountains on the Lazy H Ranch.

By 1941 WWII had started, and my grandpa wanted the job security (and hopes of not being drafted) by becoming an "essential worker" (yes, just like during the pandemic) and got a job manufacturing defense parts.

They only lived there for a short time so this seems like a nice little anecdote about their life. But what is incredible about this story is that because of how remote the Lazy H Ranch is, it's stayed basically untouched in the 80 years since my grandparents have lived there. And what is even cooler, a couple of decades ago someone built a LODGE up there for retreats and such.

So while it was a small blip in their life, our family had the incredible opportunity of staying at the Lazy H Lodge at the beginning of June. We stared up at the same Greylock Mountain that they came to love. And traced with our eyes the same horse trails that they surely rode in 1941. And walked into the very house that was built FOR my grandma, as wife of the foreman of the Lazy H Ranch, one of the few buildings that are even on the property.

There was something about that place. While it was incredibly beautiful (one of the prettiest unknown places I've ever been), there was just this spirit there. Certainly a peace and calm like you've never experienced, so far away from everything tucked up in the secluded mountains. But there was another spirit too. Almost like my grandparents' spirits were there, set free in this earthly Eden place.

I don't know how the stars aligned that we got to spend time there. That there is a lodge there just for people to stay in and visit 80 years later. It can't be coincidence can it? One of my grandpa's favorite things to say was "Great experiences are the result of great appreciation." Even though he only lived on the Lazy H for eighteen months, and even though I never knew my Grandpa in this life, I know he would have loved to have been able to appreciate the Lazy H with me. I'd like to imagine my grandparents are up there in Heaven helping to manufacture these "great experiences" we can "appreciate" and helping us learn to honor and revere my grandparents' lives at the same time. I'm grateful for grandparents in Heaven, and grateful for families on Earth we get to spend time with!

Lazy H Ranch-- in the glory days