High Desert Ranch

 You know those days when you wish you could just roll over in bed and stay there ... but you ache too much to do that?  That was this morning.  Gosh, I can't believe I'm turning into my grandmother!!

I really didn't do anything, other than sit on the couch all day and sew part of that 400 inches of binding.  It's probably just me, but you know when you are working on something and your brain works overtime remembering stuff?  I can actually remember what TV show I was watching when I crocheted that last blanket I made.  Weird.

Memories of the old ranch pop up too.  My Grandfather and his brothers came from the Isle of Man and drove across Canada looking for just the right piece of property.  Everyone else stayed in Vancouver Canada.  What a nice place to live.  But did MY grandfather stop there?  Heck no!  He came all the way down to the southern part of California, then hooked a left turn into the high desert.

You came from a beautiful GREEN island, through beautiful GREEN Canada and landed in the BROWN desert?  Interestingly enough, his wife (my grandmother) stayed in the Isle of Man for several years before finally coming to California.  She died here before I was born.

I guess that desert property was cheap back in the day.  Where he came up with the money for this operation, I've no idea.  I'm pretty sure I wasn't born yet when this picture was taken.  Notice the dog in the corner?  That's actually a pretty big plow to need five horses to pull it.  And what a nice suit jacket!!

In case you think the Goodwill store is a recent innovation, back then the only way you had new clothes, was to be rich.  When the wealthy bought new clothes, they donated the old ones to thrift stores, which is where my relatives picked up their new duds.  Thus the suit jackets you see in many old pictures.

Here's the old Moline grain drill, or seeder they used to plant the fields.  There was no irrigation back in the day, it was all done on a hope and a prayer that the rain would come.  They planted oats and grass for the cattle, later switching to alfalfa.  

I have no memories of these days, mostly because I wasn't born yet.  Good reason, yeah?  

The very distinct memory I have of this field was when the locust swarm arrived.  It wasn't as bad as the ones that devastated the midwest, but it was enough to devastate us.  I remember walking out into the field and having them jump all over me as I went.  They were big ... like 1-1/2 inches long.  All I could think of was how perfect for fishing!!  I'm gonna catch a BIG ONE!!

Sadly, they ruined the entire feed crop for the cattle that year.  In no time, they had the field eaten down to the dirt.  It made for a bad year of selling off cattle for lack of feed.  But that was life on the ranch.  Back in the day people thought we were rich, but in reality, we were struggling to survive.  

Now all this land lays at the bottom of Lake Isabella.  The government decided to put in a dam to make a recreation area and we were forced to move to my current area.  That is probably why I love the desert so much, though I have to admit, I'm pretty much liking NO rattlesnakes at this new-ish location!!

Back to modern times, here is yet another quilt ... this one called the Pineapple Quilt.  I don't know, but it doesn't look like pineapples to me.  Anyway, the binding is complete and it's ready to keep someone warm in my guest bedroom.  

I'm not sure what I'm going to do today.  I've got THREE more days of nothing on my agenda and I'm lovin' it!!!

On another note, I still have not found the vacuum, nor have the skunks returned!!  Woohoo!!  No stinkys and NO cleaning!!