My earliest memories are of life on the ranch. I have a few memories of the boys working on the addition to the house, but most of them are after that when I was a little older. I don't know if it was in my dna or if I adapted to my surroundings, but I remember playing in the play house for long afternoons all by myself, or with Lilly sometimes. It was the coolest playhouse ever because it had a real woodburning stove in it that you could really cook on, so Lilly and I would make the family dinner on our playhouse stove and it was so much fun. As we got older Mother would let us build bonfires at our pretend huts on the mountain and we would cook over an open fire and invite the family to eat fried potatoes with us.
I remember hating to hoe in the garden, but I watched my sisters and learned from them that they knew that they had to be out there for hours, so why not try to make it a little fun. They would talk and act funny and pretty soon, we were having fun and working at the same time. I try to tell my kids stories to inspire them to have fun while they work, but so far it hasn't worked for all of them.
It seemed we were always digging hundreds of feet of ditch so that we could get an irrigation system started up north or south on some pasture. It was so much work and it was just us girls and mother doing it. We would shovel until we all had blisters on our hands, or until it was done.
When I drove my golfcart back to my back vineyards to prune and just look at how they were doing the other day, I thought about us at the ranch and how we had to walk everywhere. If Mother told us to walk up north and change the irrigation, it was a couple of miles up the canyon and back, so it took us a few hours to just go do it. If only we had had a EZ-Go work horse golf cart, we could have been back in a few minutes. Even though we had it hard, we were very good at making the best out of everything. That is one thing our Mother taught us. She was always telling us to think positive and be happy, because we were the only ones that could control our happiness.
Donna
Living on a ranch is so much work, but I don’t think people in the city enjoy more than you do, than we do. :) You’re right. It’s really just about making the best out of everything you’ve got, no matter how simple. While they race their streets, we run our fields! :D I’m sure your kids will understand… in time. -->Rodger Ciliberto
ReplyDeleteHave you ever considered visiting that ranch again? I have lived most of my time on our ranch. It was kind of boring if you grew up in the city, but once you get used to it, you’ll really enjoy it! Plus, living in a place like this will help you stay fit and healthy because of the fresh air and healthy food.
ReplyDelete- Darren Lanphere