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Founded in 2017 by Tim and Tami Purcell, Red Heaven Ranch is a working horse ranch focused on supporting the gospel of Jesus Christ through a wide variety of Christian ministries. Taylor Easterday leads and manages the ranch

Bed & Breakfast

Come stay with us and enjoy quiet time with the Lord. We offer a beautiful “Bed and (no) Breakfast” facility. We are a no smoking, no vaping and (sorry) no pets facility. Check in is 3PM and check out is 10AM.

Enjoy our 1700 square foot beautifully appointed rancher basement . No, unfortunately we don’t cook breakfast but YOU can! The unit has 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen and private restroom with shower. No cable, just an old school TV antenna and lots of family friendly and Christian message movies. Message us if interested in purchasing RHR Logo clothing or Red Heaven Apiary fresh honey.

The property you’ll be staying on is a private and gated 44 acre working horse ranch convenient to I40 and I75 (less than 5 miles to each). Spend time in Gods nature. We’ve got over 2 miles well marked walking trails with footbridges to enjoy. Lots of benches along the way to take a breather or say a prayer.

Along your journey you’ll encounter our Apiary with (at times) over 100,000 bees engaged in the magical work of making honey. You’ll get to see the horses that call Red Heaven Ranch their home (please do not approach as these animals are owned by clients). If you wish you can pack your lunch and make a trip out to the shaded and covered Gazebo. Watch the horses graze while you eat your prepared lunch.

When you’re done with lunch, take a walk up to the outdoor chapel. It seats 50 but accepts as few as one at a time for prayer and reflection. You’ll get to see the 12′ tall Red Cedar clad cross and a 200 + year old oak tree that was likely growing when our own nation was being founded.

Event Center

We offer a 1500 square foot casual style event center with seating capacity for up to 75 people

Facility Capacity, statistics and amenities:

  • Indoor seating for maximum 75 guests
  • Parking for 60 cars (most parked in a level/mowed field)
  • Seating at outdoor chapel is 50
  • Cafe style lighting
  • Adjoining restroom facilities
  • Outdoor fire pit with tables and seating
  • Movie style popcorn machine
  • We have 10 total 60″ round tables (8 max per table)
  • Moving disco ball and colored laser light show
  • Dance area smoke machine
  • 75″ LED TV with DVD and USB port (to share pics)
  • Club level sound system with 2 mobile mics
  • Outdoor high-top café tables with matching umbrellas (4)
  • Hay wagon ride to outdoor chapel provided for Weddings

Our Story

Hi there! I’m Tami and my husband Tim and our daughter Taylor live here at Red Heaven. In 2005 we took a huge leap of faith and bought a rental cabin in nearby Gatlinburg TN. We put a lot of blood, sweat and some tears into that cabin. We gutted it right away and began a basement to roof remodel. We had a few stumbling blocks along the way, one of which was our contractor quitting the job with only half the work done BUT most of his fee paid! My husband stepped in to complete the work (all the while working full-time at his regular job). For 2 months he would make the hour + drive to the cabin, arriving around 7pm and working until midnight or 1am, then drive back home and get up for work the next day. We put a red metal roof on it and Red Cedar shake siding. We were trying to find a name for the cabin and reminded ourselves that we both have red hair (including our daughter). We both felt the cabin was like a “piece of heaven” in the mountains, so armed with those facts we chose “Red Heaven” as the name. I shared this with my Mom and she loved it as she loved the Lord.

My husband Tim and I

Around this time I received word that my Mom had been taken to the hospital and was likely to never return home. She was diagnosed with brain cancer at just 57 years old. I packed up our daughter and moved us both back to NY to care for my Mom while she was in Hospice care. My husband stayed home to work and to keep the progress moving on our cabin in the mountains.

Mom and I had some beautiful moments between her diagnosis and hospice period. We travelled some and during one magical stay at the Grove Park Inn, we enjoyed some of her best days at the exclusive spa there. When it came time to pay the bill (thousands of dollars), we were surprised to find that some fellow Christian lady’s we had met earlier had already paid our tab. Amazing. What a gift of love.

I lost my Mom in 2005 after her battle with her brain cancer. Though I was devastated , during her last days, my Mom was not worried or fearful in the least. She was going to see Jesus and in her mind nothing was better than that. Because of Jesus, she no longer had the fear of death that plagues most unbelievers.

Fast forward to 2016. The now “famous” Gatlinburg mountain forest fire consumed more than 2,000 homes and buildings, killing 14 people who were trapped by it. Although our Red Heaven cabin was on the outer edge of the burned area, it unfortunately burned completely to the ground. A neighbor (who thankfully escaped the blaze) heard a noise coming from our cabin and looked out to see the entire exterior deck ablaze. Within minutes the structure was engulfed as he and his family escaped down the mountain with their lives. Shocked and saddened by the loss of so much effort and beauty, we decided to keep the property but not rebuild the cabin. I heard the voice of the Lord plainly say – “Don’t worry, out of ashes I will create beauty”. I trusted he would do just that.

Our daughter Taylor was soon to graduate college and we were already paying board bills for her English Hunter Jumper horse at another barn. We decided to start looking for a starter home for her AND her horse. This would eliminate a large expense for us and give her a head start. That Christmas Taylor and my husband had bought me a miniature horse as a Christmas present. This just added to the pressure we felt to find a spot for both horses and Taylor. We are not a patient couple and we spent about a week looking before I was looking at real estate ads on Super Bowl Sunday and found the (soon to be called) Red Heaven Ranch! It was only 29 acres at the time (we later bought another 14) and it only had a pole barn and the ranch house – there was no fencing, no barns, no run-ins, no trails, no event center, no greenhouse, no bees and no where for “us” to live. You see … we bought the place the very next day and did so knowing that we would move there with Taylor.

The plan was to live in the smaller ranch house for as long as it took to build our new home on the property. We were on track to get all of that done. We built 3/4 of a mile of 4 board fencing for the horses, we built a big 7 stall barn and a smaller barn for the miniature horses. We constructed run-in sheds for the horses. We cut up downed trees. We bush hogged acres of abandoned pastures. We added water lines, power lines and storage sheds. During this time, my husband and I lived downstairs and Taylor lived upstairs in the ranch house

Progress came to an abrupt stop in July of 2017 when my husband was diagnosed with heart disease and underwent a quadruple bypass. God is good as he came out better than ever and 107 days after his surgery he ran a 30 minute 5K and was “back in action” on the ranch. By fall of 2018 we were underway in planning the design and build of our new home on the property. We moved in during August of 2019 and the home is everything we expected and more BUT (and this is where you come in) we now had half of an entire house just sitting empty (the basement of the original ranch house after we moved to our new home on the property).

We tried the AirBnB route for a while but we just couldn’t get comfortable with the unknown of who each new guest was. At the same time, I was being reminded by the Lord that we should use our gifts and assets to advance his Kingdom. It became more clear than ever that “Red Heaven Ranch” was going to begin to fulfil it’s true mission of Christian service. Today we are exclusively available to serve Christians, by reference and appointment only. We like the fact that folks coming here are already brothers and sisters in Christ – family we both love and trust.

– Yours in Christ
Tami

Horses

We love horses here at Red Heaven Ranch. We are a full care stall boarding facility.

Included with Board*

  • Secure and gated facility
  • Security cameras on premises
  • Daily turn out
  • Feeding twice per day
  • Supplements given as needed
  • Free choice hay and slow feed nets
  • High quality hay and grain
  • Access to hot/cold wash bay
  • Tackroom with saddle racks
  • Bathroom facility
  • Sand arena with jumps/poles
  • Maintained 4 board wood fenced paddocks
  • Automatic waterers
  • Blanketing/fly gear
  • Stalled in inclement weather
  • Night turn out during hot months
  • Night check 7 days per week
  • Trailer on site for emergency use
  • Acres of mowed field free riding area
  • Veterinarian/Ferrier on call

Additional Paid Services

  • Body clipping
  • Riding lessons
  • Professional training
  • Exercise rides
  • Horse search and brokering
  • Veterinarian/Ferrier meetings

*Fees available upon request, please reach out via contact info on this website

On Red Heaven Ranch we have horses both large and small! Our full size horses are here under our care for our boarding clients. The tiny guys are all our own! The miniature horse is named Lord Tubbington (Tubby) and the miniature Donkey is name Kobie

The big horses all live in our custom built 7 stall barn. Priefert stall fronts on the interior make it easier to take care of them. The barn has a wash bay, 2 outdoor areas for grooming and a heavy duty washer and dryer set for horse blankets. There is a tack/saddle room and we added a dedicated feed room in 2021 to ensure there was plenty of secure storage to keep and prepare the daily grain and medication rations.