A Most Unlikely Cowgirl: #13 The Stable

After I left the guest ranch, I didn't know what to do with myself. Many things went through my mind, but the main one was, that I loved this life.

By chance, a little riding stable came up for sale. I went and looked and knew I wanted it.

When things are right, it all comes together and so it was with the little stable. A deal was struck and soon I was to be the owner. During that time, my relationship with My Cowboy had grown from friends to much more. He was very interested in my little business to be. It seems it was his dream too.

We forged a partnership... both business and personal.

The stable was tiny and in poor condition. I spent the first months just cleaning it up. My Cowboy kept his day job.

Slowly we built new stabling for the horses, corrals, tack room, customer office as only excited new owners can do. We worked very hard and created a cute but very clean stable. The only thing was... we didn't have any business.

Against my better judgment, My Cowboy quit his job that summer. Things were very slow, only diehard horse people wanted to ride in the summer heat and they all headed up north. My Cowboy lamented his involvement every day. He had so little faith.

I did what I always do... I immersed myself into the business and learned the secret to success... marketing.

In the fall of our first year, business began to improve and things were looking up. But looking up showed only a darkening sky. In a few days it began to rain and for one solid week, it never really stopped.

It was the year of Tucson's great flood. A once in a lifetime event... the one hundred year flood!

Actually it was a perfect storm. A tropical depression off the western coast of Mexico which moved inland, combined with an El Nino year bringing extra moisture and days of rain to Mexico, filling rivers running north. The rivers in this part of the world run northwards... and they were already flooded before "our" storm even shed one drop.

Modern city growth was based on WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and all that the planners saw were sunny skies and dry river beds. No one ever went... "but what IF."

Buildings and whole communities were built in flood plains and the torrents of rain did just that... flooded the plains. The flood waters savaged any area they went through and then moved to join the flooded rivers. Half a years rainfall in a couple of hours whipped down the mountains, filling every wash and arroyo to overflowing. These connected with the large watersheds and into the raging Santa Cruz River.

Normally fifty feet wide, this sleepy river wound along dry channels and for most of it's expanse, ran underground. Now the sleeping giant awoke with a roar.

Our tiny stable was on the west side of the river. A large bridge spanned the Santa Cruz and took us to town. The flood filled river tore away access to the bridge on both sides, and expanded the river to over a mile wide. Our bridge held but not so five others, south and north of it.

Everywhere in the city, homes and businesses were swept away. My Cowboy and I, from our safe shelter higher in the mountains, watched as a house raced by in the raging current. Huge electrical towers shuddered before us and crashed into the water, exploding as they did.

The destruction was massive, the loss of human life minimal but the loss of animal life great. Farms and ranches were destroyed and a dear friend had her ten horses (in a pasture) all drown. Their pasture was on the "other" side of the river. No one was able to rescue them in time.

For us we were immersed in mud but safe. Our biggest and most crucial problem was being cut off from town. An inconvenience at first but life threatening to our tiny business.

In the months that followed, my marketing lessons would be challenged. Making the best of a bad situation was secondary to finding creative ways to attract business.

But something worked... or maybe it was that God smiled at us from above... whatever it was, we survived and in the next year, we thrived.