Bill and I: Building William Shatner’s Belle Reve Ranch

Previously untold anecdotes of William Shatner’s hidden life at his Belle Reve Ranch in the foothills of California’s majestic Sierra Nevada mountains including his buying a horse by mistake, what he likes to wear when cooling off in a secluded creek, how his adventures on the ranch cause acting scripts to be rewritten, and other surprising events revealing his private personality--the really casual Bill Shatner seen only when he is not being cued by writers and directors.Written from the memories of his quarter horse ranching partner including why a most unlikely partnership worked to everyone’s advantage some of the time, and why it didn’t last longer.

Dalan Smith was raised on a small Idaho farm, where he learned how to work and play while making his own entertainment. He began working summers for neighboring farmers and ranchers at the age of twelve, yet realized the value of education to improve one’s potential and remained near the top of his class scholastically. Dalan was never prone to follow the path of the multitude. His individualistic ways led to over five decades of primarily self-employment, while supplementing income as necessary with ＂jobs＂ from the corporate world. He developed a successful real estate brokerage with multiple offices and an attached home-building business, while emphasizing to his agents the development of their talents by choosing options with the most benefits to the customer or client, rather than the most money to the agent in the short term. Writing as a major part of life rather than a hobby began in 2007 after a heart surgery motivated a sale of his businesses and a refocus of efforts to expand the minds and lives of those around him. Dalan and his wife, Judy, live happily in Emmett, Idaho where the majority of his continuing efforts to encourage the building of self-confidence and natural abilities in those with whom he comes in contact are directed primarily through his church and supplemented with occasional mailings to those he ＂adopts＂.