Back to the Ranch...

As you may remember, in past years we have taken a trip down to central California to check out a wonderful ranch, the Work Ranch.  They offer trail rides, they raise cattle, they have the cutest cat in the world, they raise barley and just so happens that my parents are helping as ranch hands right now, so I get an awesome excuse to go see this wonderful place.

It was soooo wonderful there.  I helped each morning feed the horses, calves, goats and pig.  The weather, while chilly, was sunny and clear.  And having time to sit and look out at the rolling hills and slow down from my crazy life, well, let's just say that it was pretty tough to come back to my daily grind.

The view from our bunk house....

Visiting the calving area....

Look at the calves!

Love the old architecture on the farms...

An old farmstead...

Sweet animals to feed...

An evening by the campfire...

A fallen old farmhouse...

The ranch is very close to the fault...

And, they also have an area where you can dig for fossils...we found this awesome old sand dollar in the middle of California's rolling hills.  Pretty awesome to think about.

They have some of the best pets I have met, too.  This guy is Miles, but their cats and other dogs were pretty darn fun, too.  Including Charlie the cat (no pic...boo...), who likes to ride on the Kubota with us when feeding the animals.

Hope you can take a little time this year to explore (or re-explore) some special places.  Which reminds me, I need to share the 2013 Manifesto with you soon! 

Ash

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  Can you believe it?  It is 2012.  I have big plans for this year.

But more on that soon.  But I will tell you that one of my many goals this year is to do more blogging. :)

We had a wonderful holiday season!  I just had to share a few photos of our holiday travels.  I made tons of gifts for family and friends, many of which I forgot to take photos of, but in a near future post I will share some of the fun things I made.

First...the trip to and around Klamath...

Upper left and lower right - Hwy 97 hills between Klamath Falls and Chiloquin, lower left - Klamath Lake, upper right - roadside snow, center - sunset in Klamath.

 Next was the trip to the ranch in central CA where we stayed for 2 very nice, 70degree days (but too short).....

Upper right and center left, rolling hills at the ranch, lower left, Mt. Shasta, lower right, night view of drive through Vacaville, center bottom, Lake Shastina, upper center and left, view of the ranch.

 And on that ranch they had a....

We rode horses, petted the goats, fed Gloria, the pig, played with the ranch kitties and doggies, talked to the young bulls, and watched a filly sniff the kitty...too fun!

Then we had to return to our life back in Eugene.  Nice to be home, but my, does time fly when you are having fun!

Happy New Year! 

Ash

The adventure to the ranch

Last weekend, my hubby and I decided to road trip-it down to visit my parents who are currently working at a ranch down near Paso Robles, CA.  The entire trip was an adventure!  

First, we decided to go ahead and drive our older pickup truck the 12 hours or so to visit.  We thought it might be a little iffy, but we had a fresh oil change and air filter and we were on our way! 

The pass near Mt. Ashland was a hairy on the way down, but very pretty!

This was the view from the passenger seat, and this was how Ric felt driving in the slushy snow with our not-so-great tires.....

The trip was going as planned until we had been driving about 6 hours.  I smelled something funny and looked at the gauge for how hot the engine is running...it was overheating.

So we stopped for coffee in a little town called Corning to let the truck cool down, and bought some coolant. After that, we had to stop almost every hour to put water and coolant in.  Not a good sign.

But we made it the remaining 6 hours (well, longer than that as we had to take it easy - more like 8 hours) of driving and arrived at midnight at the ranch.  We retired the truck for the night, excited for horseback riding and ranch tour the next day.

Friday was great!  Dad, Ric and I took a ride on the horses.  

This was my horse, Hank.  He was great!

Here we are all riding down in a dry creek bed.  I took a chance and snapped these while on Hank, but I had to show how close the little tiny dog was walking behind the horse!  Gutsy little dog!

(My dad is right in front of me in the hat, and Ric in front of him.)

After meeting the rest of the farm animals and helping with feeding time,

we went into town for great food and to pick up a thermostat for the truck.  We had high hopes that that was all that was wrong.

We got to stay in the bunk house next door to mom and dad, which was also great!  After a good night of sleep, Dad and I went to work on the truck.  And sadly, it was not the thermostat.  After installing the new one and going for a ride, it was more evident than ever that we must have blown the head gasket.

But that was the day of the big UO Duck game!  So we went into to town to have a few drinks, watch the Duck kick butt (we are going to the Nationals!) and think on the options for getting home.

Option #1- take the train ride back to Oregon (about 20 hrs) 

Option #2 - Try and fix the truck in time to get home and hope that we did not crack a head or do worse damage

Option #3 - Fly home 

Option #4 - Leave the truck with my parents and buy a new car

Can you guess which one won out?

Here is Ric in our new(er) 2009 Kia Rondo!  It is really, really nice.  It is tough to go back to a car payment, but I think it was worth it.

Here are a few more fun pics from the ranch...

Kitty on the hay bales!

This is what I miss about the desert!  So pretty!

Oh and this is ranch cat, Charlie!  He rides on the little Kubota with my dad all the time! :)

Then it was back on the road to home. 

This is Ric happy in our new car.  It was a smoooooth ride home.

With one stop at....

Split Pea Soup Anderson's!  Sooo good!

What a great, and crazy trip!  Thanks again, Mom and Dad!

Ash