The Journey

Part I - In the beginning, the birth of an idea, and our search is rewarded.

The beginning of this story is shrouded in mystery. I don’t recall as a child being interested in gardening, let alone raising livestock. I grew up in Corona Del Mar, close to the beach. I was a beach kid and liked the Pacific Ocean. I enjoyed camping as a Boy Scout but never had a garden until the early 1980’s after I bought my first home. I had no experience in raising livestock until recently. Elizabeth, on the other hand, grew up on a ranch in the high desert from age 10 until she was 18 when she left home for college. During that time she raised sheep and steers. From 1983-1985 Elizabeth served in the Peace Corps in Belize and taught a rural educational agriculture program. When she returned to the United States, she attended the California Polytechnic State University in Pomona where she obtained her Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture in 1990. She wrote her thesis on “Designing Sustainable Agricultural Systems”. I read the thesis before she submitted it and was intrigued by the idea of creating a ranch where the ideas she presented could be realized. However, for the next 30 years we were content with gardening in the backyard of our various homes in Carlsbad while we continued to work and serve at my Law Office.  Those years of backyard gardening were an enjoyable time of trial and error, although we did discover there are many gophers in the world. We explored different ways of vegetable gardening including container beds, raised beds, terraced beds but mostly ground beds. We planted many different types of fruit and nut trees with varying degrees of success and learned something along the way. Our efforts to raise livestock were limited to dogs, cats, birds, fish, and chickens. 

As retirement (or sabbatical as I like to call it) approached, we began to consider where we might choose to live after we no longer were tied to the Law Offices in Carlsbad. Our search included all of California, most of the southwest United States, and even southwest Australia (the Margaret River area three hours south of Perth). Ultimately our three children and two grandchildren, who live in San Diego county, tipped the scales to finding some land nearby where we could bring our vision to life. 

Our search began in northern San Diego county, however, we expanded it to include the entire county. We began searching in Carlsbad, Oceanside, and Vista where we considered buying a home with as little as one acre of land. Consequently, the large population increase over the years and the results of urbanization soon ruled those areas out. When planning, we determined that 5 acres of usable land would be ideal. We ruled out Bonsall and Fallbrook as they were no longer rural. We found a property in Valley Center, which had a nice home (although small), and several raised beds for gardening. The property was 12 acres on Betsworth Road. We made our first offer to purchase on that property. Our offer was not accepted and we were disappointed. However, shortly thereafter we discovered that the country had approved a very large subdivision of tract homes on Betsworth and Valley Center Roads, which has changed the character of Valley Center irrevocably. We had dodged a bullet and decided we had better look even further east if we wanted to find a truly rural property. The real estate broker we were working with, Lee Thomas, had years prior lived in Valley Center and had a neighbor who was also a real estate broker, Donn Bree. When the new high school was built near their neighborhood, they both moved. Lee to Escondido, and his neighbor, Donn Bree, to Mesa Grande. 

Lee suggested we work with Donn since he was (and is) the number one real estate broker in the back country of San Diego county. Lee correctly believed that working with Donn and Meriah would give us the best opportunity to find a home in the competitive real estate market in San Diego county in 2019.

In January 2019 we began working with Donn Bree and Meriah Druliner (and now partner), his sales manager, in the search for our dream home. The real estate market was on fire and there was very little inventory available in the back country so we knew it might be a long process. The first property they showed us was in Pine Hills of highway 78 on the way to Julian. We liked the house but the elevation was a little high and prompted some cold winters. On the way home to Carlsbad Elizabeth and I drove through Mesa Grande for the first time. Mesa Grande is not on the way to anywhere. It is located between California highway 76 to the north, highway 79 to the east and highway 78 to the south. We drove from the 78 to the 79 and after a couple of miles turned off on Mesa Grande road. Mesa Grande has been mostly large cattle ranches since the 1870s and 1880s and not much has changed. As we drove through the wide open countryside we fell in love. Cattle grazed on the side of the road and in one place on the road. As we headed for the back entrance to Mesa Grande (which is off highway 76 near Lake Henshaw) we approached a narrow bridge and traveling across the road was a flock of wild turkeys. I turned to Elizabeth and said, "This is where I want to live." 

It was two years before we found our home, but from that day forward we knew it would be in Mesa Grande. About one year later at the height of the pandemic Elizabeth and I decided to travel to Mesa Grande on a road we had not taken before. The land to the west of Mesa Grande is extremely rugged. There is no paved road to Mesa Grande from the west. There is however an unpaved road that begins in the area south and west of Ramona known as Black Canyon Road. On a beautiful sunny day in early April, 2020 Elizabeth and I traveled from our home in Carlsbad out highway 78 to investigate Black Canyon Road. You leave the 78 before you get to Ramona and navigate through rural neighborhoods to the east and north to get to the unpaved Black Canyon road. The road was initially well graded but became less so as homes became less frequent. Soon the road became almost impassable, even for Elizabeth's four wheel drive truck, with deep ruts caused by erosion and a thousand foot drop on one side of the narrow and winding road to the valley floor below. We persevered and eventually came to an intersection with the road to Sutherland Reservoir. Thereafter the road, while narrow and winding, became somewhat smoother and we breathed a sigh of relief as it appeared we were going to make it to Mesa Grande after all. A few miles up the canyon we came to a beautiful group of homes situated on a seasonal creek which runs through Black Canyon which are a part of Mesa Grande Indian reservation. Another couple miles up the canyon from there we discovered a gate with a dozen or more locks hanging from it and two white concrete block structures on each side of the private road leading off of Black Canyon road. I stopped the truck and got out and examined the gate and the concrete block structures and remarked to Elizabeth "I wonder who lives there". Little did we know that we would own property in that group of ranches in less than a year. A few months later we made an offer on a property just off Mesa Grande road with 17 acres and an adobe house built in the 1880's. The owners had remodeled it without permits, building a second story on an adobe house with a crushed rock foundation. Fortunately the property did not appraise for the sales price and we canceled the contract. Elizabeth and I would occasionally travel from our home in Carlsbad to the mountain town of Julian or through Julian to Agua Caliente park in the Anza Borrego desert. On our way home coming down the mountain from Julian you come to a place called Inaja Memorial Park dedicated to 11 firefighters who lost their lives fighting a forest fire in 1956. Shortly thereafter you have a 180 degree view of the Santa Ysabel Valley. On each occasion when we would travel this route I would remark to Elizabeth "This looks like a nice place to live"

In February 2021 we purchased 40 acres adjoining the Cleveland National forest in historic Mesa Grande. With a beautiful two story A framed house, adorned with three dormers in the front, situated in the middle of a forest of Coast Live and Engelmann Oak trees in a park-like setting, we knew at first sight this would be our new home. The land was essentially untouched. The house was built in 1989 by the Sellers. In the time they had lived there, they had built a storage shed for equipment and tools and a couple years before they sold it, a three (3) car garage across the road from the house. The only other "improvement" they had made was to plant their yearly Christmas pine tree somewhere on the property. We immediately began work to realize our vision of building a sustainable ranch. Recognizing the need for power, we contracted to have 24 solar panels installed on the top of the hill behind our home. Although we are on the grid we felt we should have sustainable power for our energy needs. We also installed a propane generator as a backup power supply when the power goes out. Next we had a new well dug. The property had an existing well, but it did not produce much water. It was barely sufficient for residential use and certainly not for the agricultural uses we planned. We had to drill 1,140 feet down to obtain a sufficient, reliable water supply. The water is pure but has a high mineral content. In addition to the well itself, we had installed a 10,000 gallon water tank and put two pressure tanks and a booster pump in the storage shed to provide power to move the water throughout an extensive irrigation system we installed to service the needs of the ranch. We installed two inch water lines from the water tank below the storage shed to virtually all of the arable land and that which is suitable for pasture which is about 6 acres of the 40 acres we own. We have four water storage tanks which are or will be attached to the roof rain gutter for the house and barn to collect another approximate 2,500 gallons of water for irrigation. We have also terraced the land and built a collection area to catch surface water run off. All of the water we use returns to the aquafer(s) from which it came.

Most of our land is forest consisting primarily of oak and manzanita. We are blessed with abundant wildlife. We have deer, wild turkeys, foxes, skunks, coyotes, bob cats and mountain lions. Recently there was a juvenile black bear spotted in our neighborhood. In consideration of this reality we wanted a safe home for our two dogs, Claire Belle, a vizslas and Sunshine, a standard poodle. One of my clients for thirty years was Kent Scott. Scott Fence in Carlsbad has built a lot of fences and enclosures for the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park so he knows the challenges of keeping the wildlife out or in. He constructed an 8 foot X 16 foot enclosed (top, bottom and sides) dog kennel behind the house. The kennel was completed in December, 2021. It wasn't more than a few months before the kennel was tested. At about three in the morning my son, who was pet sitting for us while we were on vacation, was awakened by the barking of our dogs. When he went downstairs and looked out the back door toward the kennel there was a mountain lion looking at the dogs. However she was not able to get to them. The kennel had done its job. We also purchased the materials for a chicken coop and chicken run which we constructed between October and December of that year to provide a home for our seven chickens. We hired an excellent contractor, E&G Builders, and throughout the fall of that year we did an extensive remodel of the home. While we were working on the house remodel we discovered that the hillside behind the house which was quite steep had eroded to the point where the ground was almost level with the wrap-around covered porch which surrounds three sides of the house. We decided it would be a good idea to build a block retaining wall behind and on one side of the house which we did. The remodel of the house included adding two French doors one upstairs in the master bedroom and one downstairs in the living room to provide more air and light, a reconfiguration of the master bedroom to make use of space that had been walled off when the home was constructed such that we were able to add about 100 sq ft in living space. We added a large shower to the master bath and created two doorways to allow the downstairs to flow more freely. We put in new tile flooring downstairs in the kitchen, office, and living room and hickory flooring in all three bedrooms upstairs. We added new chandeliers, in the entryway and dining room and added Belgian tapestries to the entryway depicting the harvest and crushing of grapes ("vendange" in French). This was fitting in that my three sons and I had planted about 225 vines of several different varieties of grapes on about one quarter of an acre of the property with a southern exposure. On December 30, 2021 I transitioned out of the practice of law after 44 years to become a farmer. 

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Part II - We move to the country, face the challenges, and bring sheep to the ranch.

On December 31, 2021 the house was ready and Elizabeth and I moved from Carlsbad on New Year's eve after two days of moving our belongings with the help of a moving company. In addition to our dogs and chickens we brought our ten year old cat, Emily, and our twenty five year old Derbian parakeet, Derbster. In February, 2022 we decided we should get another cat to keep Emily company. We went to the Escondido humane society and asked them about obtaining a kitten. We were told by a woman who worked there that they did not have any kittens. She then gave us a list of all the humane societies in San Diego county and suggested we visit them to find our kitten. We asked a few more questions and as we prepared to leave, another woman who worked there spoke up and said that in fact they did have one kitten who had just been returned from his foster home. We were asked if we wanted to see him and of course we said yes. The little tabby kitten we were shown had been through a lot. This three month old kitten already had extensive medical records. He had been given numerous drugs for various ailments and when we met him he was very tired. I fell in love with him at first sight and asked his name. Willem Dafoe we were told and so we took Willem Dafoe Macgurn home with us. He lived in the closet for two weeks and when he came out he quickly became surprisingly confident. When Claire Belle and Sunshine came into the house he was quick to explain to them who was boss. In fact he was a bit too confident for his own good. One day when I had to travel to Carlsbad, Willem would not come into the house. When I came home that evening he was nowhere to be found. I was deeply concerned about him being outside at night with the wild animals ready to harm him but there was nothing I could do. I woke up at 1:00 in the morning and thought of Willem. I went downstairs to the back door and there he was, very frightened. He had seen something that has given him a healthy respect for this place now and he is a lot more cautious. He is the best cat I have ever had and I have had a lot of them.

If our experience of gardening for many years taught us anything it was that gophers and other rodents can ruin a garden. I wanted a large garden that was as impervious to these animals as possible. I commissioned Scott Fence to build a fifty foot x eighty foot garden with ten foot chain link fencing and a solar hot wire on top. In addition, before the construction of the fence, a three foot deep trench was dug along the perimeter of the garden and we had vinyl material inserted as a gopher and squirrel barrier. This vinyl material was wired 18 inches up the chain link to create a barrier to garden varmints. We garden using organic practices so we do not use pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. The garden fence was completed by the middle of March, 2022 in time for spring planting of tomatoes, peppers, cucumber and corn. I brought in a truck load of compost and I put about two inches over the top of the entire garden. We also had a truck load of straw delivered and I covered the garden with straw. The ground was hard and the top quarter was covered with a layer of river rocks which made planting slow and difficult. Although I didn't get the entire garden area planted the first year, we still had an excellent crop which included Swiss chard, kale, perennial spinach in addition to tomatoes, peppers, cucumber and corn. 

We soon realized we needed a concrete driveway from our access road to the side of the house as well as a patio outside of the living room and a walkway from the driveway to the front porch. We had that constructed in the spring of 2022. We had a fifteen foot x sixteen foot greenhouse built to grow vegetable-starts for transplanting to our gardens. Elizabeth had prepared and fenced a smaller garden behind the greenhouse also in the Spring of 2022. There was only one more piece of infrastructure we needed and that proved to be the most challenging of all to have built.

In the last few years of practicing law, clients would ask me what I intended to do after I retired (or went on sabbatical as I called it.) I found myself telling them that I wanted to make sheep and goat cheese. I had a little experience in making cheese and had found it an enjoyable pastime. I enjoyed the chemistry involved and loved to cook which in addition to gardening was one of my principal hobbies. To make cheese you need milk. I was not interested in raising cattle but I liked the idea of raising sheep and perhaps goats. Thus was born the idea of becoming a shepherd, building a barn and starting a creamery. Since Mesa Grande has a fair number of mountain lions living in the area I knew I wanted to have a barn to put the sheep and goats in at night. Elizabeth and I also decided to get two guardian dogs to watch the sheep and goats during the day. We settled on the Polish Tatra dogs which look just like Great Pyrenees dogs. Elizabeth found a breeder in Waco, Texas who had a pregnant female and in March 2021 we flew to Austin Texas and rented a car and drove to Waco to pick up our two Tatra puppies. When we picked them up they were about 9 weeks old and already weighed over twenty pounds. There were six puppies in the liter but only one female which was the sex I had chosen. Elizabeth had to choose her puppy from the five boys. The father of the puppies was called Tobiasz and she had already decided on naming her puppy after his father, however I had not chosen a name for my girl. I wanted to watch her for a while to see what she was like. When I prayed about it I got the message that by the time I got home I would know her name. As I watched her I noted that she did not trust people (which is a trait of the breed and of guardian dogs generally) but otherwise was a happy and sometimes goofy dog. We planned to visit my legal assistant, Vincentia, who I worked with for thirty six years who lived in Canyon, Texas so it took us four days to drive home. We spent the last night before the drive home in Yuma, Arizona. We took the puppies to the Colorado river at the place where the early settlers crossed the river (close to the famous territorial prison). Both of them went in the water but the girl liked it the most, but I still had no idea what her name was. The next morning as we crossed the border into California we came to the agricultural inspection station. As you leave the station there is a sign announcing the name of a town and the number of its inhabitants. The name of that town is Felicity, population two. I knew immediately that was my puppy's name. Felicity means "Intense happiness" and there is no happier dog in this world than Felicity. She truly has "joie de vivre".

I realized we needed a barn to house our sheep and goats at night but did not know what kind of barn to build. I had an image of what a barn should look like so I started exploring the world of barns on the internet. I discovered the website for Sand Creek Post and Beam in Nebraska (who later merged with Timberlyne). The idea of a post and beam barn appealed to me not least because it is a type of construction rarely attempted in California. Most of all their barns were gorgeous. I decided upon a Western Horse Barn and began the design process. In August, 2021 I entered into a contract with Timberlyne to purchase their "Laurel" barn with a ten foot extension to the length and added a ten foot wide covered porch on one side. The other side would have four 12' X 15' stalls for the animals. The downstairs on the side of the covered porch would be an office, creamery, bathroom, and milking station. The upstairs would be a luxurious loft for guests. When I signed the contract with Timberlyne we were beginning the remodel of the house and all of the other construction projects mentioned above. We still had to get the architectural and engineering work done and finish drafting the plans needed for the county. I had one year to take delivery of the materials. When the work on the house, the hardscape and the greenhouse were completed in April, 2022 work on the barn could begin in earnest. Although Timberlyne provided the plans for the barn itself there was a considerable amount of additional drafting work required by the county to obtain a building permit. This included a septic system plan prepared by a civil engineer. We also had to add to the plans a site plan, details of how the space would be used and Specifications of how we would meet the strenuous fire safety requirements. In San Diego County if you wish to build a second story to your barn it must bean ADU (Alternative Development Unit). This required a dedicated 10,000 gallon water tank, pressure tank, and booster pump and four inch fire hydrant plus all the trenching and plumbing necessary. The building had to use materials which were fire rated which required either a Hardie board siding or fiberglass sheeting under the siding. A sprinkler system was also required. My contractor estimated that the State and County requirements added almost $200,000.00 to the cost of construction of the barn. We submitted our plans in mid September, 2022 and did not receive our building permit until mid March, 2023. It took four 18 wheel tractor trailers to deliver the wood for the barn. They had to be unloaded on Mesa Grande road and the materials transferred to smaller trucks in order to get the materials to the property. 18 wheel tractor trailers can only get into and out of our property with great difficulty and my contractor did not want to take the risk that one would get stuck. The materials were delivered near the end of the wettest winter in Southern California in decades. In Mesa Grande we received 50 inches of rain from October 1, 2022 through April 30, 2023. The trenches we dug for the foundation were twice their size by the time we poured concrete. The first effort to pour concrete had to be aborted as my road had become impassable for concrete trucks due to the rain. Building a barn was not going to be easy.

Once we submitted our plans for the barn to the county in September, 2022 we needed to choose the sheep that would begin our flock. I researched the various breeds of sheep and decided on the Katahdin breed for their ability of care for their young and their resistance to parasites. The deciding factor was that they are hair sheep so they do not have to be shorn. Wool is not particularly valuable and I do not know how to shear a sheep. They produce tasty meat and can be milked although they do not generate the volume of milk that dairy breeds produce. Elizabeth located a breeder in Ukiah, California who had Katahdin sheep with diverse genetics, so we scheduled a visit. When we met Mark, the owner and breeder, we were surprised to discover that he had been severely injured in a horseback riding accident about ten years earlier. He had to work for months and years to overcome the paralysis and other damage the accident had caused. It was clear that all these years later he was physically challenged. Yet he chose to embark on a career of horse and sheep breeding. His life was an inspiration to us as we began on our ranching adventure. We placed an order for four ewes and one ram and gave Mark a deposit. The lambs were expected to be born in January/February of the following year and we could expect to pick them up in about May, 2023. I was confident that the construction of the barn would be truck completed by then. I was wrong. In May of this year we traveled to Ukiah in Elizabeth's truck and picked up our lambs. We then began the twenty-nine(29) hour journey home. We put lambs in the back of the truck protected by the camper shell with straw, water and alfalfa on the truck bed. We drove from Ukiah to Le Bec in the Tejon pass and spent the night.

When we arrived home we realized that we had no place to put the lambs. I had completed a new chicken coop and chicken run but we had not put any chickens in it yet. We decided to put the lambs in the chicken run. All went well until Elizabeth let the dogs out and they ran around the lambs and barked at them. The lambs became frightened and slammed into the chicken wire, which was strong but the ties holding the chicken wire to the frame were not and they broke out. We now had five lambs and four dogs running everywhere. There didn't seem to be any emergency except corralling the lambs until I looked below the house and saw that Sunshine had one on the lambs on the ground and was picking her up by the neck a few inches and then dropping her. I could see she was bleeding and yelled at Sunshine and began running to the scene. I chased Sunshine away and examined the lamb who came to be known as Tabitha. There was a lot of blood on her neck but she didn't appear to be seriously hurt and she kept trying to get up. Elizabeth in the meantime was tracking down the other lambs. Two of our lambs were a couple months older than the two youngest and Tabitha was in the middle. We could carry the two youngest lambs but couldn't carry the older two. I washed Tabitha's wounds with a clean cloth which Elizabeth had brought me. She watched Tabitha while I put Sunshine and Toby in the fenced garden which was close by. Elizabeth then went after the two smaller sheep and carried them into the kitchen of our house and set up toddler fencing (which we used for the dogs when Claire Belle and Sunshine were in the house) to keep them there. I carried Tabitha to the kitchen and washed her wounds which were not significant and put antibiotics on them. Claire Belle is a wonderful dog and a bit of a princess so she was no trouble throughout the incident. Felicity had helped Elizabeth locate one of the larger sheep but she was too big for her to carry. I heard commotion on the back porch. As I ran outside to see what was going on Felicity had herded the other large lamb to the back porch where the lamb collapsed exhausted. I carefully dragged that lamb into the kitchen. That left four lambs in the kitchen and one still on the hill with Elizabeth. I went outside, grabbed the wheelbarrow and went up on the hill and we got the lamb into the wheelbarrow and brought her to the back door and into the kitchen. Not an auspicious start to my shepherding career. We decided to put the lambs inside the chicken coop (which proved to be a difficult thing to do but we did it).  The lambs spent the next two weeks there until my contractor created a secure area in the barn for them to live. They actually liked the chicken coop which is 9' by 6' and when we attempted to move them to pasture, they would often go back to the coop and climb in. Our five lambs are the sweetest and most wonderful lambs ever. The ram is named Buster. The two older lambs are named Hopper and The Skipper. The youngest ewe is named Lorraine and last but not least Tabitha.

Within two or three weeks, my contractor gave us his old metal stall enclosures which his daughter had used in FFA and created plywood walls around one of the stalls in the barn so we could move the lambs into the barn. The lambs like their old home but appreciated the light, air and additional room the barn provided. As our lambs grew during the summer of 2023 we contemplated the next additions to the family, goats.

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Part III - We bring goats to the ranch.

In May, 2020, at the height of the pandemic we rented a small house in Imperial Beach to celebrate Elizabeth's 60" birthday. Our three (3) sons joined us for a barbeque together with our daughter in law and two (2) grandchildren. We enjoyed a meal of fresh fish, salad and homemade pasta with a delicious sauce. The next day we went horseback riding near the border with Mexico. On our final day we went on a journey to look at goats. Elizabeth had done some research to find who was raising goats in San Diego county. She found two ranches run by women who were raising two different breeds of goats with different philosophies about how to raise and milk them. The first one we visited was a farm in Lakeside where they had about 25 Nubian goats. This breed was developed in England by breeding British goats with African and Indian bucks. Her goats lived outside in short fenced enclosures protected by dogs. The goats were very friendly and generated a lot of milk per goat. She sold the milk as pet food and did a brisk business. Her philosophy for raising the goats was to wean the goat from his mother at about 1-2 weeks and then bottle feed them until they were fully weaned at about 8-10 weeks. Although this was a lot of work the goats became very tame and easy to handle. You also could more easily control the weaning process and keep more of the milk for sale. The second ranch we visited was in Boulevard. There were also about 25 goats in the herd which were Golden Guernseys, a goat originally from a channel island between Great Britain and France. This dairy breed gives a particularly tasty milk in addition to all the other advantages of goat milk. Her philosophy was to allow the kids to stay with their mom until they were fully weaned 8-10 weeks. She would then milk the ewes in the morning and allow the kids to have whatever milk was available in the evening. She did not get as much milk with this procedure but believed she had healthier goats. This woman sold her milk only to family and friends.

Three years later, Elizabeth and I decided we would like to raise the Golden Guernsey goats. The quantity of milk is less important to us than the quality. So Elizabeth contacted the woman in boulevard and inquired as to purchasing a few kids. She was told that two of her does were pregnant and we could have the kids after they were born and weaned. She anticipated this would be in late September. We hoped to get two does and one buck. A few weeks before we were to pick the kids up we were told that we would not be getting a buck. We later found out that the reason involved one of the possible tragedies of farming. Our breeder's prize four month old goat was killed by another four month old goat given to him by a friend. This was a very rare occurrence which she attributed to having had her goat disbudded (horns removed) which did not allow him to defend himself. As a consequence the kids we obtained have their horns intact. On September 24, 2023 we drove to Boulevard and picked up three kid Golden Guernsey goats. The two does were named Molly Pritchard and Betsy Ross. Their brother was going to be goat meat and the breeder asked us if we wanted him. We said sure and we named our wether (castrated male goat) Benjamin Franklin, "Benji" for short.

When our ewes got to be about six weeks old we removed our Ram Buster from their pen and put him in a separate coral. He didn't seem to mind being alone because he could see the ewes. When we brought the goats home we put them in the coral with Buster and they took to each other right away, Buster loves his goats and is very patient with them. Goats like to climb and Buster is quite a bit bigger than they are so they climb on him. Whether he is standing or lying down it is not unusual to find a kid goat draped over the top of him. Buster does not seem to mind and they enjoy being together. This brought our animal count to over 50 but there was more to come.

We created a paddock just below the barn into which we can herd the goats and Buster without difficulty. In order to find grass for the sheep we have to move them about the property. We put Tobiasz with the goats to protect them during the day. Felicity is responsible for the sheep. Of course neither of our Tatra guardian dogs have been trained and in any event they are not herders. However Felicity has been getting better working with the sheep. At least she is not chasing them the wrong way as she often did at first. Fortunately the sheep and the goats like the guardian dogs. (I guess they know they are there to protect them).

Part IV - Charlie, the border collie, joins the pack.

Just after Thanksgiving 2023, Elizabeth informed me that she had made an inquiry with a woman about getting a border collie. I pointed out that the sheep were doing much better going to pasture although they still liked to goof around on the way back to the barn in the evening and seemed to enjoy leading us on a merry chase. I also mentioned that we had no place to put another dog since our 8' X 16' kennel was full with four dogs already. She brushed off these concerns with the comment that we needed a herding dog. She also comforted me with the thought that the woman who owned the dog probably wouldn't approve of us anyway. The next day Elizabeth advised me that the owner of the border collie was bringing him to our ranch to see if he was compatible. Kelley, a young woman in her early 20's arrived in the early afternoon with "Charlie" a ten month old border collie. He was a happy energetic puppy who ran all over the place. We decided to introduce him to the other dogs in the house one by one. Of course there was no problem with Claire Belle and Sunshine. They both barely acknowledged his presence. It was a different story with Tobias. He growled at him but otherwise was civil. Being the alpha dog he needed to let the newcomer know who was boss. Felicity seem to like him ok. Kelley explained that she lived in an apartment in Carlsbad and worked two jobs. Although she loved Charlie she didn't have the time to give him the kind of life he deserved. We agreed that we would take him but could not do so that day since we were both going to be gone the next couple of days with business "down the hill". It was agreed that Elizabeth would pick him up on Friday afternoon and bring him to his new home in Mesa Grande. Kelley explained that he had a little crate which we could have but that it was falling apart. We agreed to take it. That night when we brought him home we introduced him to the dogs outside. Within a short while the Tatras had ganged up on him and made him squeal. He told us he didn't want to go on the walk particularly since it was getting dark. So we put Charlie inside and went for our evening walk. That night we put together Charlie's crate so he could sleep with us in our bedroom. Kelley had not been kidding about it falling apart. Every corner was loose as she had lost a number of the fasteners. I tied it together the best I could and put all his toys and blanket in it and Charlie spent the night. Of course he spent the night trying to escape and tearing up his blanket. So the next morning Elizabeth started putting together the dog house she had bought for him, and I put together the metal kennel I had bought for him. A couple of hours later we had Charlie's new home next to our other kennel completed. Later when I went to move Charlie's crate it completely fell apart. Everyone is much happier with Charlie living in his new home. What came next was a surprise to us both. Charlie quickly became one of the pack and enjoys playing with all of the other dogs particularly Felicity. He squeals every now and again but if you want to play with the big dogs, you will get squished or pinched occasionally. He is utterly fearless and is having the time of his life. Since his job is to move the sheep and goats to their paddock, we enrolled him in herding classes. Each week on Wednesday (weather permitting) we travel to San Pasqual Valley to learn the art of herding. Charlie is a natural. 

As we finish the back patio for Casa de Granero and install the equipment into the creamery a new chapter of Rancho de la Questa begins. We are ready to welcome our first guests the weekend of June 15th. Green Acres meets Newhart (OK I'm dating myself, sitcoms from the 60's and 80's respectively) as our Ranch welcomes visitors from around the world to experience the peace and joy of Mesa Grande.

After 3 months of weekly herding lessons the instructor and owner of the Action K-9 sports informed us that we were impeding Charlie's progress since we are not the best herders in the world. The owner suggested we let her keep him for a couple of weeks and train him. On Memorial day Elizabeth drove Charlie to Pasqual Valley and dropped him off. It was a long week, everyone missed Charlie. On Friday we got a call from the trainer and she said we could pick him up. It seems all he wanted to do was play. The work that he did when we took him to class was to please us. Charlie was a wash out. We happily went and picked him up and brought him home. The other dogs were mad at him and wanted to know what he had been doing, then they ignored him. We remain convinced that Charlie can and will do what we need him to do in helping us move sheep and goats.

Part V - We add quail, ducks and more chickens and our first lamb is born.

I suppose I am to blame. In mid-May Elizabeth received some Japanese quail eggs she had ordered and shortly thereafter some duck eggs which she placed in two brooders on our dining room table. When I saw the little yellow chicks at Tractor Supply I guess I thought "the more the merrier" and in early June came home with 6 very cute chicks. They were a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a Rhode Island White and only a few days old. The heaters Elizabeth had bought wee a new kind. They had a flat yellow top and adjustable legs. The lower you set the legs the closer the heat would be to the chicks. Since they were very young and small we set it up with the top almost on top of them. This new heater was a distinct improvement over the old heat lamps which if they fell could cause fried chicken. The new chicks and the new heater also went on the dining room table. When the chicks go old enough we would put them in chicken coop #2. Although I had built coop #2 almost 1 1/2 years earlier it had seen limited duty as Elizabeth thought the chicken run was insufficiently secure. Months went by without it being used. We used it briefly for the newly arrived lambs as the barn was not ready for their arrival. Those misadventures were described in Part II of The Journey. After the lambs moved to the barn again the coop was not used. Then we had an episode where the dogs got to some of the chickens in coop #1 killed one and injured a few (a long story about how Elizabeth decided it was OK to let the chickens out during the day which proved to be true [so far] if we remember to put them away before we let the dogs out.) Anyway we put three injured chicks into coop # 2 to recuperate. So coop #2 became our infirmary. Later Elizbeth brought home three speckled Sussex hens and it also doubled as our nursery.

Well five quail hatched. The last one struggled to get out of her egg so Elizabeth helped her a little bit. That chick turned out to be severely disabled but was an enthusiastic little creature for the few days that she lived. Our prayer for her when we buried he was that she would get a better chance in her next life. None of the duck eggs hatched so the next time Elizabeth was at Tractor Supply she told herself if they have ducks I'll bring some home. Well they had four "Breeder's Choice" ducks and they were add to our menagerie. After a while 4 quail, 4 ducks, and 6 chickens on the dining room table became problematic so we moved the group to a vacant stall in the barn.

It wasn't long before we were able to execute our plan to move the new chicks to coop #2 with the two Dominique chickens and the three Sussex chickens. By then the three Sussex chickens decided that it really did take a village to raise children so all of them piled into the corner of coop #2 on a bunch of eggs. Their timing wasn't great since the weather had begun to heat up and it was like an oven in the coop. But there they sat piled on top of one another in the corner waiting to be mothers. Shortly after we moved the yellow chicks into the coop their patience paid off and baby chicks began to be born. Two the first day, then two more the next and then two more the next and one on the last day, yesterday. When Elizabeth went over to the coop just a while ago the proud mothers had brought the chicks out into the run. I guess they figured that was all the eggs that would hatch (although there are quite few left). It could be, however, that the 99 degree temperature at 2 PM dictated that they leave the oven (Coop #2) for the outdoors.

Last week we had Adam one of our carpenters build a quail pen which will eventually be placed into my garden. Quail are bug eaters and we have an abundance of them in the garden. We'll see if the quail will like it in the garden or instead choose to fly over the 10 foot fence and join the numerous mountain quail in the neighborhood. We have taught the ducks to walk from their pen in the barn stall out into the paddock and down the hill to the pond. There are few things in life as enjoyable as watching ducks in the water. They know how to have a good time, splashing and diving like a couple of 10 year old children in a pool on a hot day. Earlier this month (July) we heard from Cheryl our Golden Guernsey Goat breeder. We have two doelings coming in early August. Now all we need is for Buster (our ram) and Guapo (our buck) to get busy.

Our incredibly fun ducks were the cutest animals on the farm for about two weeks. On the 4th of July weekend Elizabeth mentioned that "Sweet" Lorraine's udder looked full and her nipples were swollen. Not convinced that Buster had done his job considering his predilection for goats I didn't know what to think. As the days went by I had to admit Lorraine looked pregnant. We still had no idea when she would give birth, if she was pregnant. On Thursday July 11, 2024 Elizabeth and I went to the barn about 6 PM for our evening check on the animals. The ducks have a routine, sometime in the afternoon we let them out of their enclosure in one of the barn's stalls. We have trained them to waddle off to the pond below the barn for their afternoon swim. After about an hour, sometimes longer, they come back to their stall and wait for us to put them in their enclosure. They have plenty of grooming to do while they wait for us. On this particular day I looked through two stalls to the last one where the sheep were enclosed. I immediately saw a "newcomer". I proclaimed to Elizabeth "there is a lamb in their". Sure enough Lorraine had given birth in the last hour or so to a snow white lamb. It was a good thing Lorraine only had one because the lamb was quite large. Mom was busy licking the lamb to clean and dry him off. We were overjoyed at the birth of our first lamb. In fact our first anything that was a bird. Our attention was directed to ensuring that the lamb began nursing as soon as possible. The newborn's name was obvious, Buster, Jr. for he was a ram lamb, BJ was unsteady on his feat but we encouraged him to begin nursing and he made some halfhearted efforts. The next time I made several concerted efforts to encourage him to nurse. The first "milk' the mother makes is colostrum which is essential to the immune system of the newborn lamb. The baby gets all of his immunities from this colostrum and he needs it within the first 16 hours or so. By the end of the day BJ had definitely gotten the hang of it. The following day when I visited as soon as BJ saw me he got up, wag his tail and started nursing. This development requires that I finish the milking room. When BJ is 8 weeks old I will move him to an adjoining stall in the evening and milk Lorraine in the morning. Then I will reunite BJ and his mother for the day. This routine will be followed until we wean BJ and "dry off" Lorraine.

I have designed the milking room so that the milking machine will pump the milk through the wall into a cooling tank in the creamery so we will be bringing the temperature of the milk to storage temperature as soon as possible. I will not have to handle the milk until I am ready to work with it to create kefir, yogurt, butter, buttermilk, cheese or bottle it for drinking. I created a walk in refrigerator ("CoolBot" named for the company that designed the computer controls for using a through the wall air conditioner to create a walk in refrigerator.) for the creamery to store the milk products (and produce). I also need to build the milking stands. I had been focusing on other aspects of the infrastructure since I didn't believe we would have any milk until late fall. Thanks to Lorraine and Buster we are a little ahead of schedule on our plan to create some of the greatest cheese ever made.

As we continue to nurture the large garden during the current heat wave we are days away from our first harvest of tomatoes. Watermelon and cantaloupe are not far behind. The fruit trees are progressing. Peaches and apricots will ripen soon (one tree already did, there is nothing like a home grown apricot). The cherry trees look like they will need another year to produce. Many of them did not have any flowers. Although one sour cherry tree produced enough fruit for a delicious cherry pie. We have almonds on the two (2) almond trees. Also coming is fruit from our four (4) blueberry bushes which I planted under some oak trees which should keep the soil suitable acidic. I always have a good hot and sweet pepper crop and have already begun harvesting some. The cucumbers are doing well but the pill bugs scar their skin making them unsuitable for sale. I have made an interesting cold cucumber soup which was good on a hot day. The four Japanese quail we hatched are living in a wood and wire enclosure we had built for them. When the temperature drops this fall we'll put them in the garden to eat bugs, unless the decide to "fly the coop" and join our mountain quail. If they stick around our bug problem will be reduced.

We have three (3) rabbits, one boy and two (2) girls. They are white American rabbits of unknow age. We rescued them from two (2) different families. So we are doing rabbit rescue instead of rabbit breeding for now. Time will tell what role rabbits will have on the farm. To make room for our growing family I asked Adam to build an enclosure for the ducks. It would be a two part enclosure, one would be Charlies old metal dog enclosure, and the second would be made out of wood with a window on each side for light. The wooden enclosure would give the ducks a place to hunker down in the winter when the weather turned cold. As usual Adam did a great job of building the enclosure and we moved the ducks from a barn stall to their new home under a large oak tree below the barn and near their ponds. It took them a while to get used to returning to their "duck house" at night but they soon got the hang of it.

I have been acting as a general contractor since December and it has been very time consuming. With construction almost complete I will be able to devote myself fully to the numerous farming and ranching activities we have identified as worthwhile. First amongst these projects is the milking of the sheep and goats and use of the milk to produce yogurt, kefir, butter, cream, cheese or just bottle it for drinking. It looks like Tabitha may also be pregnant and I wouldn't be surprised if one or both of the does are pregnant. There will be plenty to do in the milking room and the creamery.

Although we finished the back patio in June, we decided we needed a front patio for the guests of the smaller unit downstairs (The Bungalow), so construction continues. Finishing the website and the Airbnb sites has proved more challenging than we had hoped. In addition we have to create instructions for our guests for the numerous appliances with which we have supplied each unit. In June we hosted two couples, friends and colleagues who agreed to stay in return for their honest feedback on how we could improve the experience. Both couples enjoyed their stay and they were quite helpful in providing us with ideas about what could be improved. The hospitality business is proving to be more challenging than we imagined and we haven't had our first paying guest.

August 29th was an exciting day, Elizabeth and I travelled to Boulevard and picked up two young doelings, "Gertie" and "Sue". Gertie is Guapo's daughter and about 2 months old. Sue is 3 months old but smaller and more shy than Gertie. They quickly assimilated into the herd, but decided they wanted to bunk with Lorraine and BJ, which has worked out just fine. However, we will soon have to deal we the challenge of closely related animals which requires certain precautions to avoid incestuous breeding. Guapo is now wearing a pad which hangs around his necks when he is in a paddock with Gertie to avoid him showing the wrong kind of affection for his daughter. BJ will soon have to be kept clear of the ewes in the flock to whom he is closely related, including his mother. We have multiple paddocks to accomplish this goal but it will require more work. We can hardly wait until fall rains so we will have grass for the livestock and will not have to feed them expensive hay.

I referred to the warm weather in July as a "heat wave". That term should have been reserved for the weather we "enjoyed" in early September. The first five days of August were hot, mid to high 90's, culminating with our first 100 degree day since arriving in Mesa Grande at the end of 2021. With the exception of a few days in mid August which were in the 90's the remainder of August was quite temperate for summer, mostly in the 80's. Then came September, always the best month of the year on the coast (yes, I am biased on this point). Not so in the back country as it is generally another hot month . The first three days were normal enough, low to mid 90's. Then beginning September 4th it was 99, 105, 106, 102, 98, and 98. It dropped to 93 on September 10th and then back into the 80's. On Sunday September 15th the temperature dropped into the 70's and the next day, as I write this, they predicted a high of 67 but I don't think we'll get that warm. It will be even cooler tomorrow, if our weatherpersons are correct in their prognostication. In addition to being impossible to work in weather that hot, the nights did not cool down. This required keeping the house shut up and the air conditioner on, something we rarely do. As they say in other parts of the country, if you don't like the weather wait a while, it will change dramatically.

Part VI - 2 lamb ewes are born and we have a party to celebrate the completion of the barn.

On September 18, my birthday, Elizabeth woke me up about 2:00 AM and told me she had heard something unusual. I said, we live in the country we hear a lot of unusual noises. She assured me that it was an unusual sheep noise. This is remarkable since the barn is about 100 yards from our bedroom French balcony. I dutifully got up and dressed and we headed over to the barn in the middle of the night. When we arrived we discovered that "the Skipper" had given birth to two ewe lambs. Both lambs appeared to be in good health and wee tentatively taking their first steps around the stall. We moved them into a stall of their own occupied only by our two quail. Mom had already licked them dry and we held them and marveled at how cute they were. After about 1/2 hour with mom and her new lambs we went back to bed.

The temperature remained unseasonably cool throughout the last week of Summer and as Autumn began. The first week of autumn was typical, high 80's low 90's and then on September 30th the temperature began to rise. By October 2nd the daytime high reached 102 degrees. It remained hot the following week and I began to become concerned. I had planned a barn warming party for October 13th and since it was to take place on the covered porch of the barn and the front and back patios high temperatures would be problematic. However, mother nature was kind to us and by the 10th the temperature started to drop. October 13th was a beautiful sunny day with a high of about 77 degrees. There were 38 of us to celebrate the completion of the barn. We consumed large quantities of hamburgers, sausages, and barbequed chicken. I made my world famous guacamole and we had two trays of cold shrimp with cocktail sauce. Together with chips and dips and crackers and cheese everyone had plenty to eat. We sent everyone home at 5:00 PM and Elizabeth and I collapsed in exhaustion, but not before making a Margarita to continue the celebration.

Although we had finished building the barn there was still construction to be done. As I mentioned we realized we needed a patio for The Bungalow. The men created a space with redwood trellis on three sides framed with 4'X8' raised bed planter boxes which I started to

build but quickly realized why Pedro and Adam had a job. We added a table, 2 chairs, an umbrella, and a chaise lounge and the patio was complete. However, The Bungalow also needed a sink in order to wash dishes after our guest had made a meal. The good news was we had the water line coming into the barn right where I wanted to put the sink. The bad news was from there the water line went to the back of the barn where the water purifier and heater were located. So while we had water we needed a separate purifier and heater for this sink. I started looking at small water heaters and found a 6 gallon one I liked. It looked to me like we could put in on a shelf at the end of our newly built work bench right by the large 10 foot doors in the front of the barn. Our electrician, Steve (Integrity Electric), would need to bring some more power to the area for a dedicated circuit but the electrical panel was only a few feet away across the breezeway. I also found a suitable under sink water filter. So all I needed was for Mike to return from hunting in North Dakota and tell me he cold build what I had planned. That and get on Steve's schedule to wire up the circuit for the water heater. As usual Mike and Steve made it look easy with assistance from Pedro and Adam.

Once the patio was completed we realized there was still something missing. We had some left over roof supports for the front and back of the barn to be used if you were planning on using a pulley system off the roof framing to move hay into the 2nd story of the barn. Since San Diego County and the State of California said if I had a second story to my barn it had to be a living unit, an alternative dwelling unit (ADU) we didn't need these 8X6 4 foot long pieces of wood and I had them installed as tire stops for the parking area. Problem was whenever I walked from the house to barn I would frequently trip over the tire stops. Elizabeth and I had travelled to Santa Clara to see the Rolling Stones perform son what was to be the last stop of their tour. While in town we visited Mission Santa Clara de Asis. which was the 8th mission founded in Alta California in 1877. After moving five times the mission arrived at it's current location and was rebuilt in about 1825 (It was rebuilt again after a 1926 fire destroyed it.) As we walked the grounds admiring the original adobe buildings and walls we saw an amazing arbor several hundred feet long made with large lumber and probably 10 feet high. 150 years ago they had planted Wisteria and Lady Banks roses which had trunks almost 1 foot thick and the foliage covered the arbor. I decided we would build an arbor (on a reduced scale) in the front of our barn driveway and plant Wisteria and Lady Banks roses. This provided a pleasant walkway from the house and driveway to the covered patio of the barn.

I decided I needed a wood shed close to the house that was fire resistant. I settled on a concrete block shed with a metal roof. Pedro and Adam made short work of building it but as usual we came up short 3 blocks and realized that the metal sheeting I had bought (8') was too short and I needed to buy (4) 12 footers. Add to the a couple bags of concrete and some lumber to frame the edges of the roof and I had another trip to Home Depot in my future. I also bought more material to build one last paddock fence around the forage trees we planted at the edge of the property bordering the Cleveland National forest. That and a few repairs here and there should keep Pedro and Adam busy for a few days. My plumber, Mike, has been hunting in North Dakota the past couple of weeks but I'm hoping to get him out here as well for some plumbing repairs in the house and on the property. There is always something on the ranch that needs fixing.

Although our property is 40 acres only about 5-6 acres of the land is "useable". The hill behind our home which we call "Little Round Top" is great for hiking but is rocky and does not have any forage for the sheep and goats. We've identified five separate paddocks within which the livestock can graze. However, for them to be usable we had to fence them in. In addition to the woodshed one of the last projects we had to complete was fencing for the remaining two paddocks across the road from the barn. Pedro and Adam who had been working full time (5-6 days per week) went to Saturdays only at the end of August and on November 19, 2024 construction was complete. We bought the property in February, 2021 and immediately began work on the infrastructure. Forty five (45) months later I can finally focus on farming.

Elizabeth and I joined the Julian Historical Society about one year ago. I have always been interested in history having majored in it in my first two years of college before changing to Political Science. Elizabeth and I became friends with Jim Davis and his cousin Julie Davis who's ancestor came to San Diego from Brooklyn in the 1885, Edward H. Davis found work as a surveyor and even assisted in drawings the plans for the Hotel del Coronado. With the profits he made form a real estate deal he was able to buy 325 acres in Mesa Grande. Edward who is Jim Davis' great-grandfather was not only a pioneer rancher in this part of the country but also a collector of Indian artifacts. Most of these artifacts were ultimately purchased in 1915 by the Museum of the American Indian, now part of the Smithsonian Institution. Both Jim and Julie were big supporters of the Julian Historical Society and asked us if we would like to join. We jumped at the opportunity and we have learned a lot about the history of the area. Recently the Board of Directors of the society asked Elizabeth if she would like to join and when she said yes, at the first meeting made her Secretary and keeper of the minutes of the meetings of the board. We have also had the opportunity to serve as docents at the Witch Creek School house which serves as a museum and meeting place for the board. The Historical Society was formed in the early 1960's and the school house was moved shortly thereafter from its original location in Witch Creek about 11 miles down California highway 78 to its current location on 4th Street in Julian. Elizabeth and I have both had the opportunity to docent at the the old schoolhouse. Our busiest time of year is "apple season", starting in October and continuing through the holidays. This area has as much history as anywhere in California south of San Francisco and Sutter's Mill. We love living here.

Today I have a list of projects that will keep me busy for weeks. Yesterday I finished planting the fig tree, plum tree, and climbing rose bush which were given to us by family members at the "barn warming" party. On the agenda today is moving 60 pounds of goat and sheep supplements to the barn. We will periodically give these to the sheep and goats after they have grazed in one of the paddocks. I will then work on sorting and tearing cardboard for recycling and loading trash and recycle for delivery to the Ramona transfer station. We have no trash service in our community on the Mesa so we bear the burden of recycling as much as possible on site and taking the remainder to the recycling centers (we have two close by) and transfer station. The small portion of our waste which we have to take to the transfer station includes some construction debris and plastic that cannot be recycled. I am also working on setting up the creamery but first I need to clean and repaint the floor which was adversely effected the the construction work. Another major project I am in the midst of is moving the composted stall straw from the barn into the garden so it can decompose further over the winter in time for the spring crop planting. I've gotten it out of the barn stall and outside of the garden Now I need to pitch fork it into my wheelbarrow and carry it into the garden. That should keep me busy for a while.

Part VII - We host our first paying guests and begin our 4th year on the Ranch

Although we listed our rental units in the barn with Airbnb in mid September we did not get our first booking until mid October for a four night stay just after Christmas. The two units are known as "Casa de Granero" which is a 950 sq ft luxury apartment on the 2nd story of the barn and "The Bungalow" a 144 sq ft modest accommodation for two on the ground floor. By the time our first guest arrived we had a booking for a couple of nights in The Bungalow also. It was great fun to show off the Ranch to new people and everyone had a good time in the San Diego backcountry. As the new year arrived we celebrated having completed over three and 1/2 years of construction and looked forward to focusing on farming and caring for the livestock.

Our foray into raising ducks began when Elizabeth brought home 4 "breeders choice" ducklings. We didn't know the breed or the sex of the ducklings we had. As they matured it became apparent that we had 3 boys (drakes) and 1 girl (hen). This did not seem to be a proper balance as we understood that at mating season drakes can be very aggressive. In the interest of keeping our female duck alive we found a home for one of the drakes and Elizabeth picked up three female ducks at the Humane Society. The original three ducks were one "Blue Swedish" drake, one "Khaki Campbell" hen and one "Khaki Campbell" drake. To this group we added two "Runner" ducks and a beautiful "Muscovy" who I named Irene. Irene is a very good flyer and no doubt that is how she ended up in at the Humane Society. The original three ducks love the three ponds we installed below the barn near their enclosure while the Runner ducks occasionally go in. Irene apparently doesn't want to swim. Recently we had some guests who brought their niece who was celebrating her birthday (she was about 12). Ordinarily I could not let people into the paddock below the barn where the ducks live when the sheep and goats are in there because Buster, my ram, will, well. ram you. Since he weighs about 250 pounds he can knock you to the ground and it hurts. However, Buster hurt his foot by getting tangled up in some electric fencing that was not turned on so he was limping. I let the group in the paddock with the caveat to keep an eye on Buster. The young girl had a great time with the goats (the sheep are shy) and low and behold Irene loves children and came up to the girl and started playing with her. Now that we know Irene loves children we brought the grandchildren into the paddock last weekend and Irene and the grandchildren had a great time together.

In mid January Elizabeth and I traveled to the Costa Rican Caribbean coast for a two week vacation. We have a wonderful friend, Adela who cares for our animals while we're gone. Fortunately she is an animal lover since it is a big job for two people let alone one person.

While we were gone we had our first rain (about 1 inch) since some sprinkles in October. It had been a very dry winter. On top of that we had two wind storms worse than anything we had experienced which broke large Oak tree branches and moved massive quantities of oak leaves where I don't want them. These same "Santa Ana" winds contributed to the disastrous fires in Los Angeles. As a result we had no grass to feed our sheep and goats. They have been eating alfalfa since July. Fortunately on February 11th it began to rain. We had two storms, back to back, culminating with an atmospheric river on February 13th which brought us a total of 5 1/2 inches of rain. It will still likely be a dry year as we will probably not get our 20-25 inches of rain per year average, but at least the grass has begun to grow and the goat and sheep are enjoying it. Before I left for vacation I cleaned out our 4 stalls in the barn. But now I need to move that material to my garden which will keep me busy for several days. I am also creating a permanent irrigation system in the garden for the fruit trees and garden beds. Hard work but great fun.

The compost from the stalls for the sheep and goats is great for the garden. I moved all I had onto the various planting areas and expect a bumper crop. I planted Swiss Chard and Kale early and have 6 plants of each which will supply our household, give Elizabeth some to sell at the Farmers Market, and have plenty of the older stuff for the rabbits and the chickens. My main crop every year is tomatoes but I also plant a lot of onions, yellow, white, and red. We use a lot of them and they sell well at the market. We will also have artichokes again this year from two good size patches. I've also got a fair amount of hot and sweet peppers and eggplant. Finally I planted a large section to corn and green beans. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and it won't be as hot this summer. I hope to get my drip system finished in the garden so everything will get deep watered instead of just surface water from a hose. We also expect to have some fruit this year to eat and sell. Definitely peaches and plums. We also should have a few almonds but since we use a lot probably none to sell this year. Another one of our big sellers are the chicken and duck eggs. Elizabeth will have 4-6 dozen chicken eggs as well as 1 or 2 dozen duck eggs to sell. Finally Elizabeth makes the best granola in the county using an adaptation of a recipe we discovered at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. Also if we have extra fruit she will make jam and fruit preserves.

We finished the rain year (July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025) with only 19 inches of rain. Considering we had received only a couple of inches by mid January we did pretty well but did not reach our average of 20-25 inches per year. Still there is plenty of grass for the sheep and goats perhaps through July. I now have five (5) large fenced paddocks for the sheep and goats grazing pleasure. We welcome Pedro and Adam back after a five (5) month break to build an 8'X10" shed attached to a 24 foot carport. It looks great and it freed up the remaining space in the "garage" barn. I now have 3 large stalls, two of which can be spit in 1/2. I have moved all of the goats and the two older rams into the garage barn. I will have to make further adjustments to where animals live as the lambs and kids mature. The idea is to keep the "boys" away from the "girls" until we are ready to breed and then only selectively. We had 6 lambs and 4 kids born this spring which makes a total of 26 animals, close to our capacity of 30. In the late fall early winter I will have to cull 7 or 8 animals for food. This will leave us with room for 6-10 babies in the spring. We are learning how to farm on a larger scale and how to raise animals. It

is a steep learning curve.

Part VIII - The summer of 2025

Last year was brutally hot. We were in the 100's three (3) times and not for just a day or two. In one case for almost a week or more and always a few days. This summer has been considerably more moderate and, so far, down right enjoyable. I think we are getting used to heat and that helps. All the animals are thriving. The dogs are having a good time as usual. They love living in the country. No automobiles to hurt you, poop anywhere you like, and for Charlie occasionally get to chase the cat Willem when he gets a glimpse of him. We have been walking them to the creek on our neighbors property every day until it dries up. I finished the drip system for Elizabeth's original orchard below the house. Next is the system for the trees she planted above the house. Once those two systems are in place and I finish the garden system there will only be two left to complete. The one for the trees and plants above the barn and under the trellis in the parking area. The other one will service all the trees and plants Elizabeth planted by the original chicken coop, around the greenhouse, and from there back toward the house. When I am finished we will have seven (7) drips systems installed for the 100 + fruit and nut trees and various other flowers and plants.

Everyone who has stayed in either of the Bungalow or Casa de Granero has had a great time and told us how much they enjoyed their stay. We love giving people a chance to stay on a working ranch and interact with the animals. I learned a hard lesson recently. The duck enclosure is in the paddock below the main barn. I keep the duck grain in a trash can with a lid outside the enclosure. One of my sheep, Tabitha, smashed the trash can which popped the lid and she ate a bunch of the grain, She got bloat and died two days later. Fortunately none of the other sheep ate any of the grain. I now keep the can inside the duck enclosure with the gate locked during the day if there are any animals in that paddock. I loved that sheep and she will be missed. I have not had the time to milk the sheep who had lambs as much as I would have like. It turns out the sheep have a say as to where you will milk them and how difficult it will be. They have proved difficult to move to the milking stand even after we moved the stand out of the "milking room" and into the breezeway in front of the stalls. Skipper's lambs are just now

8 weeks old and hopefully I will get some milk from her for cheese making. I have been milking Sue, the goat who lost her two babies at birth. From Sue's milk I have made yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, chevre, and two types of cheddar. So progress is being made on the dairy side of the operation. As the summer progresses we are starting to see fruit from our trees. First to ripen were the apricots. They were delicious but not enough to sell but appreciated none the less. Next came the peaches and nectarines. We have harvested quite a few and Elizabeth has been selling them in quantity at the Farmers Market. We are seeing some plums but they are small and slow to ripen. Also the nectarines are starting to ripen. We did not have any cherries this year although the trees have become quite large in the garden, smaller below the garden. We have a lot of apples but they also are slow to ripen. The pomegranates, pears, and persimmons will take a year or two more to produce. The oldest of our fruit trees are three

years old plus their age when we bought them. We did not expect normal production until they had been in the ground for 5 years.