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!

Meriwether Lewis on a Mountain Bike

Mapping the ranch with three kids is very inefficient.  Efficiency may not be particularly important in this case.  The ranch has been in the family for around 70 years without a map.  What's the rush?

For my own mental health I thought it would be better to take a shot at mapping sans children.  So I went out on a mountain bike and my GPS.  What a beautiful ride!

Here's an image of the raw data:

I started and ended at the Ranch House.  This is just the lower field, east of El Toyonal.

Here are some pictures that I took as I rode:

Mt. Diablo from the edge of the property

There's the turkey coop

Looking North West, toward the Eucalyptus grove

Rusting farm equipment at the Playground

This is how I found the skull.  Anybody able to identify it?

Next time around, I'm going to do the upper field.  We'll see how that goes.

I've placed a copy of the mapping project KML file on my personal site, here: https://sites.google.com/site/mattritzman/test/test2/11_1113_Ranch.kml?attredirects=0&d=1

Nov. 5th 4AM: Goals for the ranch house

I’m at the Ranch with Kallan and Griffin.  We spent the night here.  I'm awake.  Thinking about things to improve the Ranch House to make it more inviting is keeping me awake.  Often the best way for me to stop these ideas from bothering me is to write them down.

Here are some of my thoughts and goals for the Ranch House.  Take these with a grain of salt.  I'd be interested to hear what other people envision for the place.

Ranch House Vision:

The ranch house should be a comfortable place for a family and a couple of friends to stay.  It is a remarkably small space, an endearing quality, but also a real design challenge.  There are several potential activities indoors, but it encourages the use of the outdoors.   Enhancements to the ranch house shouldn’t come at the expense of getting people (kids, mostly) outside to enjoy the beautiful surroundings.  I also think safety and accessibility should also be on our list.

Regarding safety, the ranch, in general, is a place where things can be a bit dangerous.  But the ranch house should be a place of respite.  If there is an accident of any sort the ranch house should be the place you come to fix your boo boo’s, not worry about getting them.

I have a strong bias towards accessible areas, but a lot of us are getting older and our mobility is always becoming less and less.  I’d really like to look into making it easier to get to the house and then move around unencumbered when you’ve made it here.

You may have noticed that I haven’t discussed style.  I’m a bit hesitant to do so.  The ranch aesthetic is an ad hoc, bubble gum, duct tape and baling wire, do whatever meets the most immediate need kind of style.  The problem is that if everybody goes in an makes changes as they see fit, we can easily step on each other’s toes.  It is something to discuss in for the future.

I plan to post my ideas here before executing them, at least the major ones.  As always, please let me know what your opinions are.  The comments section is a great place for that.

I think the first thing to do is take stock of what’s here.  From there we can decide what stays, what goes, and what can be improved.  Look for that in future posts.

Ranch Map

Yeah, I kinda drove Kallan crazy with mapping the ranch on Saturday.  Spending a couple hours mapping with Kallan, Griffin and Josie along for the ride made me realize that this is going to take a long time and a lot of work.

But I think it will come in handy to have a map of the ranch.  If/when something breaks we'll know where it is and we'll be able to fix it.

Here's what I've got so far http://g.co/maps/q5p7h.  The track from our adventure is in red.

I'd like your help.  

• Let me know if there's anything in particular you want me to map.  
• I need names of things (roads, landmarks, gates, etc.).

The need for names became very apparent as I was dictating to my smartphone.  It attempts to transcribe what I say to it.  I told it, "Gate" and it wrote, "Geico."  I'd be amenable to naming it the Geico Gate if we can get corporate sponsorship, but till then, I think we need to come up with something better.

Status of the Fire Suppression Project

About a month ago we were given notice that The Ranch was out of compliance with local fire codes.  We are supposed to have 30 feet cleared of brush from any property line.

The property line of The Ranch is over 2 miles long!  So this is a huge project.

Harry and Dave have spearheaded the heroic effort.  They've worked nearly every day since we received the notice, whacking weeds, cutting down coyote brush, and organizing work parties.  A few others have pitched in, including Johnsons, Jensens, Foxes, and Ritzmans.

We've made significant progress.  Most of El Toyonal to the ranch has been cleared, and it has really improved the curb appeal of The Ranch.  We've opened up some wonderful views, and cleared some paths for horses.  We've also cleared brush away from many fences that haven't been seen by human eyes in decades.

There's still a lot of work to be done.  We are working with the Fire Department to get leniency for this year on some of the stricter rules till we can get a complete handle on what needs to be done.  It looks like we will have to add this project to our yearly calendar of Ranch maintenance.  But we are learning lessons that will allow us to be more prepared come next spring.