The Bar B H aka The Ranch

I promised to tell of our ongoing family, what would you call it? Project? Adventure? Probably Livelihood would be most descriptive and accurate although Project and Adventure will certainly be elements.

Some backstory:
Ron and I each had a dream for our family.  The only overlap was the desire we shared to provide for our children to be near enough to us that we could be helpful resources to them and that we could play with our grandchildren when ever we wanted to.

Ron's vision was a neighborhood with our home in the middle and the kids homes on each corner and playgrounds of various sorts in between the houses.  Five manicured yards and four well equipped playgrounds with something for every age.  He even found an abandoned housing tract not far out of town but his sickness overtook him before he could make any serious inquiries.

My vision was twenty acres out of town where we could build a house on each corner for the kids and build our home in the middle.  We would have outbuildings to house a tractor for turning over the big community garden; a few chickens, maybe a calf for the freezer, a couple of big dogs and a cat or two.  (Those of you who know me know that I don't fully appreciate house pets, but yard dogs and outdoor cats have a job to do. I like them.)  A small yard around my house and various playgrounds scattered on the 20 acres.

My plan could never be considered because of the prized corvette and cobra.  Too much dirt and rocks that would mar and chip the paint on the cars.  Too much dirt to track into the house.  Too much dirt on the porch. Too much dirt everywhere.  His plan was workable if we had just had the time together.  We agreed that we wanted a gathering place for our family. This plan was tabled but individually we kept our ears and eyes alert to promising possibilites.

After Ron's passing each of my children and myself longed for a large piece of property where we all could gather for any length of time to visit and reconnect but not be on-top of each other.  We shared our Wyoming adventure and being out on the Greet Ranch as a family just firmed our desire for some place out of town.  Joseph started looking.  I looked at a couple of places and was ready to place an offer when the seller changed his mind on a few details and took it off the market. I waited too long to make the decision.  Another piece caught Joseph's attention and he took a drive out to look it over.  In his mind it was more acreage than what we were hoping for but the price seemed right.  We did what we needed to do to secure the property and on November 28, 2012 escrow closed on 319.3 acres north of San Miguel, California.  Our northern property line is on the Monterey / San Luis Obispo county line.

Just a few pictures to give you an idea of the landscape at the Bar BH.

Looking East from the house. The road is well maintained by the county. 

Eastern View.  Property line is over the top of the hills.

From one of the eastern hillsides toward the west.

View from an eastern hilltop looking south west.  Property line follows near the second ridge inside the trees.

From a hilltop looking down on the house.

Also looking from the east toward the house.

From the deck of the house toward the north east. 

Directly east from the deck of the house

Directly south from the deck. Just slightly west of this shot is our fire pit, tire swings, picnic area, and out door movie theater.  

Directly north from the deck. Property line is the green line behind the shop. That is a vineyard in Monterey County.

Directly West from the house. Property line is the far fence.  Our second major purchase,  the Kubota and a couple of its attachments. The first big purchase being a generator to run the house when the solar batteries are low.

We feel especially blessed to have found this piece of property and were able to have everything fall into place so that escrow could close within 30 days. There is a lot of dirt.  Only three miles of dirt road and although I asked that Ron's vette be trailered in Joseph opted to drive it VERY slowly to its home in the shop. Where it occupies a corner all covered up. Never to see the light of day... well never say never.

Can you guess where I will be spending most of the summer?