{"id":65,"date":"2015-10-29T01:43:55","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T01:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silveridge.com\/sun\/?p=65"},"modified":"2015-10-29T01:43:55","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T01:43:55","slug":"a-farm-girl-discovers-life-at-the-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silveridge.com\/?p=65","title":{"rendered":"A Farm Girl discovers… LIFE AT THE PARK"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen you grow up on a dairy farm, cows don’t take a day off. <\/em>
\nSo you work everyday. My dad always said, <\/em>
\n‘No one can outwork you.’\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Pat Summit (legendary women’s basketball coach)<\/em><\/p>\n

Where do you go to find a good old-fashioned work ethic? It doesn’t grow on trees, but maybe it does grow on farms… or at least it used to.<\/p>\n

A ‘farm’ today means 100,000 chickens in a space<\/em>
\nthe size of a Motel 6 shower stall.<\/em><\/p>\n

P.J. O’Rouke<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Rhonda<\/a>
Rhonda Ciacco, teaching her granddaughter about life at the park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What got me thinking about farming and work ethics was talking with Rhonda Ciacco, the General Manager of both The Resort and Silveridge. She credits her
\nSouth Dakota farmupbringing with instilling in her a whatever-it-takes attitude. Here’s one of her farm memories:<\/p>\n


\n\u201cMy family raised beef cattle, milk cows, wheat, and corn. I was the oldest of five and my dad started me early, helping him out. I used to drive the
\npickup while he pitched out hay to the cattle. I was too young and too short to reach the gas pedal, so I’d have to scrunch down under the steering
\nwheel and push it with my hand. My dad would yell and I’d press the gas. One morning I pushed too hard\u2014the truck lurched forward and he went flying off
\nthe back end of the truck. He broke both wrists. But he was back out the next morning and so was I.\u201d
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Rhonda moved from South Dakota to southern Colorado and that’s where she fell in love with Frank Ciacco. That was 39 years ago this month. He eventually
\nwent to work for one of the old phone companies, US West, while she became what she jokingly calls a Domestic Engineer. When the kids were raised, she went
\nto work for her brother’s trucking company. Then Frank took early retirement, although the day after he \u201cretired,\u201d he took a job with another firm, setting
\nup back-up power for phone companies facilities all over the Southwest.<\/p>\n

That’s when Rhonda traded in the stationary life for the road. They bought a 43-foot fifth wheel, which she pulled behind a pickup truck, while Frank drove
\nthe company truck he was required to use. They rented out their house and spent eight years on the road, driving separately across Arizona, Utah, Nevada
\nand New Mexico, but always headed back to one another.<\/p>\n

\"trailer\"<\/p>\n

Did she mind the lonely highways? She says,<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe only time I can remember resenting it was one Valentine’s Day. We were meeting at a truck stop for dinner. I had to park the fifth-wheel out with
\nthe semis and Frank got to park right by the door. Other than that one night, I learned to love the road.\u201d
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

But one day her husband said to her, \u201cI’m ready to retire again. This time I’m done and I’m going to follow you.\u201d She said, \u201cThen we’re going to Phoenix.\u201d
\nOr, as it turned out, Mesa. After all those years in South Dakota and Colorado, she was ready for life in the desert.<\/p>\n

She wasn’t ready to retire, and having spent all those years pulling the fifth wheel, it seemed natural to call a nearby RV park and see if they were
\nhiring. That call was to The Resort and they told her the only opening was Gate Guard. She took the job.<\/p>\n

BUT…<\/p>\n