Not a typical day at the ranch

It often takes a predicament to provide the impetus to get a good ranch trip to happen.

Harry emailed Justin and I to request some help with a downed tree.  The three of us got to the ranch in the mid afternoon to cut the tree into manageable pieces.

While we worked, Julie took the kids to ride horses and play at the playground.

With lots of help from the kids, Julie got Josie on a horse for a 15 minute ride.  Most all the kids got a turn.  Logan was a bit disappointed, though, he didn't get enough horse time.  When asked what he did at the ranch, he said, "I wanted to ride a horse and then I didn't.  And then I wanted to ride the horse again and I didn't"

Griffin fared much better. "I had the best time I've had at the ranch since Abba passed away. I built a fire, rode a horse, and drove the truck.  Then we ate peaches, and that was it."  The fire was pretty impressive.  Even Logan enjoyed warming his hands by the fire.

It still gets dark kind of early, especially in the shadow of the hills.  So we wrapped up. There was a little bit of clean up (including some clothes dye that was mishandled ... oops!).  Then we got in the cars and left, everybody hoping to return again soon.

Downed tree - work day tomorrow

We have a tree down in the first canyon of the upper field blocking access to the top of the ranch. I think we can take care of it in about an hour. Are either or both of you available tomorrow?

H

Back-of-napkin sketches for a new barn

Several trips were made to the neighboring barn.  It has given us Barn Envy.  Ken sketched a new barn design:

I elaborated on that sketch:

(I put this sketchup model on the interweb, here: https://sites.google.com/site/mattritzman/test/test2/Ranch_barn.skb?attredirects=0&d=1)

Perhaps the biggest problem with both of our sketches is that they completely disregard the site dimensions.  We need to collect measurements of the barn and its environs.  That will certainly be another blog post down the road.

The Johnson Barn is sagging in many places.

The story goes that Dick built the barn when he was 17.

It has done fairly well considering...

But it is time to start considering a replacement.

We'd love to keep it around to honor his memory, but we fear it may fall over so we're planning to do some extreme renovations.  If you have any ideas for a new barn design, let's collaborate!

The Other Old Barn: a follow up

Turns out the "Old Barn" is just a stone's throw away from our barn.  Who knew?

It is just 180 feet away

This barn is Huge compared to the one on Ranch property.  It obviously hasn't been used in years.  But the structure remains intact.

Does anybody know more of the history around this barn and the property it is on?  It is interesting to consider the stories that may lie behind the place...

Finally, we got to find the old barn!

By Kallan Ritzman
The KenJens were here, so finally Kaia, Rachel, and I got to go look for the barn. They were almost about to just walk into a property fence and not find the old barn. I remembered finding the start of a trail last time I looked. That time we couldn't get through the thorns and we had Josie. This time we became bush wackers and wacked thorns that were in the way with a stick and got through.

There was a fork in the road and at first we went the wrong way,the place  we went to had boxes for bees. Fortunatly no bee approached us. Then up a little hill was a gate to the road. After going there we realized that we should go back and choose another way because Abba did not lead us here. Along the other trail we found it.THE OLD BARN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We came back to tell Andria, Lena and my dad what we found. They came after we cut a little bit of the thorns so that they could get through. We then proceeded to complete a legitimate trail in the midst of the thorns. Matt even got Josie through! Yay! Mission complete!

We learned how to drive the truck!

by Griffin Johnson
Today me and Kallan learned  how to drive. Julie showed us on the playground at the Ranch. Matt grilled the best mushrooms, apples, and red bell peppers! Me, Kaia, and Kallan went on a walk to the old barn, and counted rats nests.We started climbing trees and then Kaia said'Matt is going to get worried if we stay out hear any longer, so we headed back to the Ranch House.