Growing up on the ranch was probably the best childhood that a kid could ask for. Graham and I had a free reign of terror to do whatever we wanted. We had motorbikes, swimming pool & hot tub, the shop to do arts and crafts, baby chickens, bicycles, Grandma Ginger next door to torment, Amy and Eb down the street, snakes, rocks, pigs, lambs, goats, kittens with pecuiliar names like Hitler, bb guns, trees to climb, 42 dogs named Chessy, and parents that let us wander wherever we wanted to. The best times were Rocket Days, but I will have to explain that a little later.

the ranch

Points of interest on the map:
The house - 4 bedroom / 2 bath ranch house with front porch and redwood deck. Construction on various rooms never quite complete due to the Robesky Syndrome. Swimming pool and hot tub. 3 story tank house partially built but strangely never finished either. Home to wasps nests. Full dog kennel and run with sprinkler system.

The shop - 2 car garage, shop with big wood cutting tools, office, pottery room. Garbage room. Tractor garage. Storage room. I hated taking the garbage out at night.

Grandma Ginger’s house - Little mobile home. 1 car covered garage. You had to be careful at night driving across the little dirt road to her house because there was the creek on either side of it. Little pond in the front yard with ceramic frogs in it.

The creek - A creek that ran into Amy and Eb’s ponds.

The chicken houses - Graham and I used to ride our bikes up and down from chicken house 1 to chicken houses 2 & 3. Over and over and over again just doing laps.

Robley Robesky - Yep, that is where my grandfather is buried. Under the Mulberry tree in the front yard. This is a fact that used to freak out my friends when they would come to stay with us.

Other things that are missing…the pomegranate trees are no longer there…and during the years the fields would have wild flowers in them. All gone.