About Us

Eleven Roses Ranch was born of a courtship, with a bouquet of yellow roses and a paraphrase of a song lyric. …”take the eleven roses and stand before a mirror, and the twelfth rose will peer back”. (From the song ‘Eleven Roses’ by Lomar Morris & Darrell McCall and sung by Hank Williams, Jr. 1972)

Add a red mule named Jumpstart, Anne’s Grandpa’s Doctor’s Buggy, a blushing bride and a handsome Groom, and we not only launched our life together but a business as well!

Sometimes life just hands you opportunities whether you think they are or not. They came with the names of George and Toby and were the prettiest matched team of dapple-grey mules you ever saw. They helped us launch Eleven Roses Ranch & Mule Co. by enabling us to offer mule-drawn carriages and wagons so that we could share this experience with others. One thing always seems to lead to another and with the purchase of an authentic 1880s Chuck Wagon and James’s love of cooking we found ourselves sought-after for Chuck Wagon BBQ catering (and Anne, who burned water, went along for the ride!!!)

In 1993 two lovely ladies dropped into our lives with the names Belle and Blue. They are Percheron Draft mules and fit in quite nicely as they were dapple-grey as well. Where George and Toby could be rascally boys these two were elegant-mannered ladies and they have taken us into realms of “mule skinning” that we had not yet seen. They are still our mainstay team while George and Toby enjoy semi-retirement.

In 2000 we purchased a seventeen-passenger motor coach (our iron mule!) and launched Lake County Wine Tours when there were only four wineries in all of Lake County. My how it has grown, today there are over 20! With the bus we were able to consider opening our lovely home to visitors, so in 2004 we started our Historic Ranch Day Trips that feature an aspect of everything we do. We have even been given the fancy label of Agri-tourism by the County of Lake!