Really a beautiful place. it's so far outside the grid, that the only electricity is from the Generator that we bring with us. The only hot water is heated by the fire we cook with. One thing that is newer is the bathrooms... we do have running water. It's supplied by 8 spring boxes that we dug into the hillside at the highest point of the stream where the water comes out of the mountain. Really a beautiful thing. The water is so clean after being filtered by mother nature. It tastes nothing like "Fresh spring water" that you get in a bottle. This water is ACTUALLY spring water!
Friday night, my oldest son had a Prom to go to so I didn't pick them up until 1:00 in the morning and then drove to the ranch. Once on the dirt road, it's another 1 1/2 hours at a slow pace into the ranch. We travel through 3 other ranches to get to ours so it's pretty tough for "outsiders" to get in. When we arrived, all the work gang was busy with they're tasks. We started our work as well. We climbed about half a mile up a nearly straight up cliff in order to reach the springs that we were repairing. We carried large redwood boxes up with us along with all the tools. 2 steps forward, one step back because of the Oak leaves and shale on the hillside.
4 hours later, we had a full 1 in hose of water shooting down the hill. Really an amazing site considering that the only pressure was gravity.
We had dinner that night, and got to bed early. The next day, was more of a relaxing day. We spent it shooting guns and walking the ranch. With 3200 acres, you can walk forever and never see another footstep. That's what is so magical about this place. NO PEOPLE...
Later in the afternoon, my two boys and I were standing by the truck and I started looking around a huge 15 ft around Oak tree, yes, a giant! I turned to the boys and said, " If I was a Rattlesnake, this is where I would live" you see, it was like a ground squirrel playground, holes everywhere. Not more than 30 seconds later, I nearly stepped on a 4 ft. Rattler. MAN, that scared the crap out of me. He was big, fat and NOT HAPPY... I've never seen a snake move as fast as he did. He reared back and hissed, rattled and got ready to strike. I think I scared him... I know I was shaking! With one shot, we dispatched him. We normally don't shoot snakes but this happened to be an area that little kids walk and dogs play so it wasn't a good place for snakes.... I'll make a hat band out of his skin and we'll eat the snake as well. Bet you didn't know Rattlesnake tastes like Chicken!
Well, we had another excellent weekend of Men in the Mountains. I hope you all had a good weekend as well.
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