A Nice Visit at Buckeye Ranch

This is the main gate into the ranch, it's 5 miles from the end of the county road. The pic was actually taken on a previous May visit. The hills are all green right now.

Larryann was trying to bond with one of her pups, and the cats wouldn't hear of it. They raise McNab cattle dogs. My Lucy is one of theirs. If you are interested, their contact information is on their website. http://www.pwlivestock.com/

Averyel Willis and Ansel enjoyed sharing some stories. Averyel was widowed last summer. She and her former husband, Porter A, live on the Buckeye in their own house, just down the hill from Port and Larryann's house.

Averyel fixed us a lovely dinner down at her house. It was a great Italian chicken dish that I can't pronounce. Ansel is there too, my self timer camera missed him.

There is a pig inside the dog house... Actually she is "Oink" Larryann's pet pig.

Ansel meets Greg Kent, who owns the Buckeye Ranch. Greg invests lots of thought into restoration projects and water development on the ranch.

Mutt and Jeff... Greg was a professional NFL football player for the Raiders, and as you know Ansel was a jockey.

Driving from San Ysidro, north to the Buckeye

When we left San Ysidro, Ca which is the US/Mexican border, we headed north to spend the night with friends at the Buckeye Ranch, which is west of Modesto and south of Tracy. It was about a 6 hour drive. I took this next picture, when I realized that we were almost the only vehicle on the highway north. It was a little uncanny, I was wondering if something was wrong. It didn't take very long though as we got closer to LA, before the traffic looked like this. I think it took longer to go through the LA area as it did to drive from there to the Buckeye.

Here's another one of those clever cell phone towers. This one looked more like fir tree.

Here's a truck load of Lemon's headed for the Northwest.

After a long climb up a mountain pass, when we came down the other side, the San Joaquin valley opened up for as far as you could see. All irrigated farmland. It was beautiful, well except for the wind. The wind was insane. The picture below is of a corrugated flood irrigated field.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd we had lunch at my newest favorite place. mmmmmmmmm In N Out. What I love about an In N Out, is you only go there to eat hamburgers and fries. Three choices on the menu; single, double or triple with fries. The fries are made literally fresh at each one. You can see them, washing the taters, peeling, them and putting them in the slicer and then carrying them to the fryer. mmmm they are so good. I feel that they have above average help than other fast food places.

Then it was on to the Buckeye. Once you get to the gate, then it's a 30 minute drive to go the 5 miles into the ranch.