So You still wanna live in the country???? 


It is now nearly 3 years since I moved from 
Silicon Valley (San Francisco Bay Area) down
to the ranch in the warm desert sun in Southern California. 

Mind you, this is not an ordinary country or
a place in the sun out in nowhere land.
We are indeed in the country where
we have over 20 wineries in our neighborhood.

For goodness sake... This is a Wine Country.
Well, it is not Napa Valley or Sonoma but..
it is a beautiful place in the sun where
you can get away for the weekend or 
spend a week here and unwind.
There are so many activities to do
and places to go here besides
the quietness of night and bright
stars in the dark. 

If you love nature and the raw natural, 
naked land, the smell of horses 
in the air, the sound of the critters,
chickens,  frogs, crickets, 
coyotes howling and dog barkings..

Welcome to the country ....

When our two sons visited their cousins 
in Oregon, they used to drive up to 
one of their cousin's house in the middle 
of the day and they lovingly told this story.

"We drove up to the front of the house
in the middle of the day and right in
their backyard, they were sitting 
around and enjoying their barbecue
chickens.  We thought "wow,
in the middle of the day, in the middle
of the week?"

Well, here we enjoy our barbecue 
all the time, although not in
the middle of the day but in most evening, 
and mostly, any day we want to.
I love to barbecue beef, chickens.
on our giant built in gas barbecue,
(Yes, gas, it is more convenient)
The food taste so good!!! 
The smell is warping in the afternoon air....
(Oh our poor neighbors, they have to put up 
with the smell... LOL)
Alright, I am planning to take some BBQ to
him one day or may be, may be we 
can have a neighborhood BBQ???  





So many events happened during those 
past 2 years and since the time I packed up
and moved myself after 26 years in one
place.

Some of the events that happened during the
time in these past 2 years are great memories and a heart 
warming experiences.

Certain events such as the 9-11, the Afghanistan war,
The Iraq war were heart wrenching and a once in 
a lifetime memorable moment. (Aside from Vietnam
War which was long time ago)

I am still loving my life in the country.
I have many changes in my life 
retirement

Well, it had been very difficult for all the vineyard 
owners here in this valley. Many of the vineyards
had a pierce's disease that killed the vines. 
They lived nearby in the trees in the citrus groves
(yes, we have lots of orange, lemon and grapefruit 
groves here - although many of them were plowed over 
in the north side of town and they are now REDHAWK's 
housing development UURRRRGGGG). 
The Pieces's disease is actually a fruit fly that eating
the roots of the vines which deprived them of water
and killed them.

In the last 3 years, we saw many of the vineyards 
had to be plowed over and start new.  
However, they get governement's subsidy 
($7000 an acre).  That is not much when you
consider that they have to start over and it takes
3-5 years before they can make money
off the land again.

I mentioned in one of the country articles about
the sound of Cannon gunshots in one of the
vineyards.

Well, I supposed one of the great benefit of the
piece disease was that the vineyard near our
house that used to shoot the sound to scare the
birds away WERE all PLOWED OVER!!!!! 

SO NO MORE NOISES !!!! HOOLAY!!!

There are many new vineyards coming up around us
but I am sure they are not going to use the cannon..
IF THEY DO THEY WILL HEAR FROM ME LOL...

(Our youngest son went to college and played
baseball at  San Luis Obispo.  We used to go to 
his baseball most weekend, our high light of our lifes, 
the get away from work at that time)  We love the 
winecountry so much that we decided to look for
property to buy after we retired.  I remembered that 
when we went to lo look at a 80 acres vineyards
property in Paso Robles, we heard the gunshots;
the real estate agent said that they are shooting in
the air to scare away the deer - kind of awful to
have to do that but when you have 80 acres 
property, it is expensive to have to put
fencing around it.)

The lady airplane dare-devil is here again
but not very often now, only occasionally,

The motor-cyclists are not here as much
now. Perhaps it is still early in the spring
but I drove to the area where they were
gathering before. The area is all fenced
off, including the governemtn reserved
property that used to be a cattle ranch.

The duck hunters stop showing up as well.
(or perhaps I couldn't hear them?)

The sherrif department is doing a great job
patrolling, and I am sure the people who live in
the neighborhood are doing a great job in 
reporting them. (I am not the only one)

The people who dumbed the trashes are
still doing it - how selfish!!!! 

Another great things after living here for a
few years is that I am so used to noises that 
I used to complaint about.
Actually, I don't even hear them any more..
(dogs barking, chicken cuckooing.. aarrhh!)

One evening  Ted Jr. drove into the driveway
and after he got out of the car - he came in
the front door and said that as soon as he
reached the wine country and the vineyards
area, he felt like he was next to a giant potpuri !

Well, we have lots of night blooming jasmine 
and the potent sweet smell mixing with 
several of our orange and grapefruit groves 
that are also blooming. 

The other night, I drove home after one of
the evening class that I am currently teaching.
I saw a giant red moon as big as a hot air 
balloon over the hills.  I honestly taught
that it was some kind of lighted hot 
air balloon.  The only other time that I
have seen the moon that hugh was 
when we drove from Phoenix to
California in the night time and
it was so dark since we drove through
the desert.

Since 2001, this area had seen at least 25% 
growth in the housing developments.
We are seeing several new housing complexes
creeping in and took away so many citrus groves
and open land...  Hopefully the county's proposal
to allow the 800 acres Callaway's vineyard to turn
into a housing development is PERMANENTLY
defeated.
 
This is a country lving and we are not in the SUBURB!!!!

Last fall in Southern California,  we had the biggest wild-fire
that killied 24 people, destroying thousands of homes
and charring more than 750,000 acres. 

One of the fire which was named, "Mountain Fire"  
was burning near our ranch. It was about 15 miles
away and we can see the flames and smoke over
the mountain area. It was REALLY SCAREY!!!
I could not sleep at night because I was so
worry about it. The fire burned for about 3 days
and was put out without much damages to
property as the other fires.






  



Country Road

It is so amazing that the sky is so BLUE in the country.
It is pure air and no pollution - and we hope that we
can keep it this way for a long time.







 







 
;)

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