Summer stuff

Growing up on the ranch was such a delight. For all the hard work that had to be done there were things that were amazingly wonderful. No TV except NBC and we were not really into sitting and watching TV when there were so many wonderful things to do outside.

During the summer was some of the best times in my life. Number one reason is I love, love to swim. More than any other thing in the world well, I kind of love to fish too. Anyway, Summer was swimming time.

I still woke up at the same time as I did during the school year because the animals were not on a summer break eating schedule and my Dad had to be out the door to work before 6:30 a.m. for his 7 a.m. check in time at work. So, his lunch had to be made.

Being very athletic one of my favorite things to do was to go hiking. We had our boundaries that Dad had given to us. If my mom lived with us those boundaries got wayyyyy smaller. She was always afraid of the huge ranches beside us and that there was someone watching us.

Baby sister and I would pack a lunch of cold cuts and crackers and water. We would set off across the field. No need to take a road if you are traveling by foot. One of our favorite places to go was about 3 miles from our house. You had to get there by trespassing but to us no body lived on any of that land so the NO Trespassing signs just meant we can't camp out there or build a house. lol. So we would climb under barbed wire fence, over trees, across fields with tiny Indian paintbrushes, Johnny Jump ups, Shooting stars and every kind of wild flower that grew in the California sunshine.

We always carried a stick each. A long walking stick. That was our protection from the ever present rattle snake or any unfriendly dogs that might come across our path. We would walk and walk between hills and way back into the hillside up a little high was a building. This building looked like a bees nest in a way. It was made out of plywood and all over it there were beer bottles sticking out. They were purposely placed in the wood. As little girls we couldn't understand why anyone would do that but when we took our dad back there on a hike one Saturday afternoon and showed him he said it was to let light in. Baby sister and I would go inside it and pretend we were pioneers like Grizzly Adams.

We would sometimes go further up into the hills and we came across a huge oak tree. All around the tree there were things for comfort. Like a hammock. There was an old parachute that was hung up over parts of the oak tree seemingly for shade or maybe to help break the wind. There were crates that had locks on them and boxes. A firepit. all of these things helped baby sister and I make up our stories of the evil Cowboys that we were tracking. We always played that we were Indian (Native American) slaves that were searching for a family member that got captured. On one of our Saturday afternoon hikes with Dad we took him to the big area that looked like someone lived there. Our dad told us to never come there again without him. He said it was a hunting camp and that it could be very dangerous for us to be there during hunting season. He pointed out to us the empty beer cans all around that baby sister and I didn't notice before.

A bit above the hunting camp was a beautiful lake/pond. Just out in the middle of the top of the hills. I found this by myself and this is a place that I went to often when I was lonely. I would ride my horse up there all alone bareback and he was such a good horse. I could ground tie him (that means place his reins on the ground and he will stay). I would strip down and swim in the ice cold water and swim and sun and just have so much fun. That was when I was a lot older, like starting around 14 or so. That place still holds so much magic for me and I wish that I could go up there again just to see if I could capture some of the peace that I felt there.

One time Dad took Baby sister and I and two of our dogs on a hike. He was training one of his dogs. It was an Airedale and his name was Tiger. We were playing hide and seek with the dogs and our other dog named Fluffy would not leave our side. Tiger was curious to see what ever he could see. We were hiding behind a clump of huge sage brush and we could hear Tiger running around trying to find us. Suddenly out from the brush we were hiding behind ran a big old bob cat. Tiger saw it and started squealing like the puppy he was. He was running as fast as he could for home which was about 4-5 miles away. My dad called to him and you could almost see the look of relief on his face.

On these walks that we would take with Dad the treasures we found were amazing. the lessons about nature that we learned were priceless. We learned about Indian Soap, Saouco, Elm, so many things that you can use in nature to heal yourself.

I wish that everyone would be able to take some nature hikes with an experienced loved one like I was able to do. The memories made for me and my baby sister can never be replaced.