What is the Califonia Ranch Lifestyle

Images of rolling hills, vineyards  and beaches come to mind when you say 'California ranch  lifestyle'.  Blessed with fantastic year round weather many 'styles' have emerged that capture options and one of these is California Ranching Lifestyle.

Historically, all ranches are working ranches.   Today Ranching is still one of the biggest industries in California and fhe old ranches still dot the foothills and grass lands of California.   The productive central valley ranches for the most part been absorbed by large scale farming.   

Napa and the wine regions were the first to preserve the old ranches and turn them into showpieces of the winery and wedding business.  

Cattle Ranches soon followed suit.

So what makes up the California Ranching Lifestyle?

Design based on Function - The old ranches were often adobe because the material was handy and the buildings could withstand the fires that would 'burn through' on a regular basis.   Because it is hot in California in summer they would open to courtyards with fountains and the thick adobe walls would keep the interiors cool..   Each room usually had a small fireplace that could be started to ward off the chilly but not cold winter evenings.    Ranches had ranch hands so dining areas were important and were always inside/outside with doors opening to large covered terraces.    Since ranches were somewhat remote there was always lots of rooms for guests and for family to stay during brandings or sorting's    Most of the ranches had multiple buildings and took on a kind of hodgepodge architecture that became the  California Colonial (old California/hacienda) style.

Today these beautiful old ranches are restored as precious jewels.... Or are interpreted in new buildings in a hybrid between Ranching and Vineyard style.  

The Land - There are simply too many people in California and Big Ag central valley crop farms don't turn into little farms when they are sold.   When a big cattle ranch gets broken up it turns into a subdivision so an old ranch, a mid century small hobby ranch or Vineyard of any large size is a prized thing.    

The Light - It is true, the light in California is amazing.  And on a ranch you see the shades of blue in the sky and the change of light on the hills.  In the early 1920's it inspired an entire Art Movement called the California Plein Air and is one of the most collectible groups of art today.    You see the seasons and the changing light in them.  

Time -  California is a funny place.   We work hard... but we don't live to work.   Hobby farms and Vineyards provide a fantastic lifestyle and it is taken advantage of.     Ranching itself (and vineyards) have a rhythm of peaks of hard work, early spring growth, fall harvest and endless days of down time in-between.   It leads to wanting to surround yourself with beauty and sharing it with friends and friends.

The culmination.   life itself is a journey...to find the perfect place... the wonderful life and the juxtaposition of the garden and the structure.  There is no perfect finish to the journey... it is buildings that evolve over time.. it is gardens that can live with or without water... it is topography that lends itself to multifamily living compounds.  

It is the journey....

It is a Stone by Stone thing

Building a life is like building a garden... You think you have a plan and a design.... .sometimes you  even fool yourself that you are following your plan... but gardens like life are always unpredictable and changing.... And in the end... it is only the results of the surprises and the seasons of change that produce the result. 

We came to this old ranch a while ago... it was barren, grazed back hard by years of cattle and neglect... Not much rain in the first place since this is California ... grass is the lifeblood. 

Drought can do what man can't, burning back and overgrazing things to the very edge of the stones. exposing the essence and the possibility. That was what was at this ranch the day we came here to give it life. A decade later.. and still in drought, we cherish the small things that make all the difference on a ranch. The small spring that can be coaxed slowly to trickle and build into a pond. The well that isn't a big producer but is reliable in the worst of drought that slowly fills the tanks and overflows to another small pond. The angle of the hills that produces late afternoon shade giving a breath of hope to a small meadow that appeared around the pond with its grass and willows. A gate that closes to protect the meadow letting the biome rest from grazing and aggrandize. 

 

And this years miracle? After 3 years of hard drought our small gift is a family of beavers who have moved into our creek.  The beavers came this year for the first time in our stewardship (10 years) and have built two dams. Those dams in turn have created the beginning of a retained watershed and hopefully a higher watertable. One pond stretches at least 200 feet backup into the creek on the meadow The other is a tentative beginning that is not yet 1 feet deep but holds promise. Gotta love Beavers... you don't have to pay them and they work around the clock. We are blessed to provide them the stretch of stream to call home.

The Car Court

The entrance to the castle is impressive... you wind through a road... bend around a corner and you come upon it.  The walls are 20 plus feet and there is a cool tower and a gate.    Great bones to drive up to.     Prior Ranchers had let the cows graze right up to the entry where a livestock gate had been placed across.

Once you enter you drive up into an old fashion car courtyard complete with 3 towers and 4 old cannon bastions.

There are towers, cypress and 4 old cannon
platforms surrounding the car courtyard

We decided early on to follow as much of the old plan as we could figure out.   We found an old sketch and photos of the courtyard showing pots and statues ringing the courtyard (and cannons of course).  The original builders had poured 30 pedestals that were clearly meant for the statues.   We decided pots were more to our liking and  began the process of finding very large terracotta pots as well as getting some of the existing stone urns up onto their respective pedestals.

Over time we will need to add stone steps up to what we call the  4 overlooks.   The original sketches had these as cannon bastions and we understand there WERE army surplus cannons in the 70's mounted which the local military based removed when private land owners were no longer allowed to own BIG guns.   They make lovely platforms that overlook the year round creeks and meadows and we will turn them into seating areas with pergolas.

There is a flag pole and lovely riser in the center of the car court that you drive around.  There was a way to could get water there so we dressed the area with pots....  

The Car Court has a center pavillion
 and flagpole

There were two large cisterns on either side of the driveway that were no longer watertight and storing water out in the open due to mosquitoes is completely out of the question nowadays.  Our solution?  Maybe small jetting fountains down in them that use a smallish solar pump which will let the squirts of water come up to make a nice sound . Possibly we can figure out how to light them at night.  .  Plan is the over-spray waters a few potted plants for those who pier over or want to go down the steps into them.

We ran drip around the car courtyard to water the pots and down through the drains to handle the new plantings outside the walls.    We settled on box for the borders, boston ivy,  hops and clematis  for the walls.  We also added heat tolerent crape myrtle and other flowering bushes.     We planted honeysuckle where we thought we could control it so it could spill down the walls.      The massive cypress are original and have weathered on for decades with little or no help from what they must consider the various interlopers to the castle.    .

Sping Bloom amid old stone walls

If you have towers you have ladders and views... and in our case the towers also go down underground and connect.  Some connection tunnels are large enough to get through and others seem to be pre set up to have pipes and wires fed through them for a future plan long abandoned.

The huge walls of the car court form the start of the three acers of enclosed gardens.  It feels like a safe ring of fortitude around our paradise.

25 Foot walls surround 3 acres of hstoric gardens

Our Off Grid Solar Journey - Part 2

 After finishing the first part of the solar for our off grid ranch I have to say i am surprised more people haven't done this... go for a simple cheap get started solar project.       We split our power thought process into two piles.  Our base use which is lights, internet, direct TV, power tool rechargers and fans.   The other pile is energy hungry things like air conditioners, power tools, vacuum cleaners and microwave.  

  


What we did...

1.  We determined our usage with a kill a watt and a 2500 watt  Yamaha Generator.  We wired the generator  plug into our panel (use an electrician!) and got a feel for what we could run.  Generally it was the base use and one other energy hungry thing at a time.  So no airconditioner AND microwave. 

2.  We embarked on a mission to reduce wattage and use less energy in general.  We swapped all the window fans which were 130-300 watts each for a much more efficient and watt sipping Quiet Cool whole house fan.  It does a 1200 square foot house 2240 cfm  for 160 watts.    We added shade cloth arbors for the summer and south facing windows into an old sunporch space as a winter heat sink.    We put reflect-ix in the beams in the attic and new R 30 batts.   We added a solar fan to cool the attic.  The old ranch already had high ceilings and pocket doors between rooms so we could close off parts of the house to keep the cool side cool in summer and the warm side open in the winter. 

3.  Phase 1 of the solar project was an 800 dollar 2500 watt controller/inverter that could run our panels AND work in conjunction with our generator at night topping off the batteries etc.  Put your money in a GREAT controller/inverter.   We put in 4 100 watt panels and an old car battery.  All our base use was covered.  (total cost phase 1 $1200)

4.  Phase 2 added  4 more 100 watt panels  AND a special 12 volt big marine battery.  The marine battery was 550 dollars but we felt it was the best value versus several smaller deepcycle batteries.   The additional panels cost 110 each.   So our total to date through phase 2 is 2200.  We still can't run the Air Conditioner but we will be able to when we get 8 more panels ($1,000 more) or an additional big battery ($500 it is the spike of the compressor coming on and off)...  What we CAN do now that phase 2 is done is  run the guest house base use  since it all goes through the same electric panel and was just a breaker we had switched off for our initial installation.   

Tips and mistakes

DO make sure you understand what you have plugged in at the end of the day.    If you are grid tied this isnt a problem  but if you are off grid all the little devices use the battery at night.  We designed and planned for our TV satellites, set top boxes, recorders, phones, internet and computers to run 24/7.    We have the whole house fan on a timer that runs late enough into the night to cool the house but stops to conserve the batteries.  We also have gone back and run a set of dedicated plugs from the controller  for our 24 hour stuff.  This way when we turn  off the genni the rest of the house goes down.   This has solved the whoops.   We have a little more work to do on this. 

Just get started.   Like everyone else we were intimidated by solar.   And the first jump in is a GOOD controller inverter which is expensive.   We decided to get a 2500 watt one for $800 because it was much cheaper than the 4000 watt or bigger one.     We also knew we could use this stand alone on a barn or something down the road and  we just wanted to learn.  We probably need a 3500 watt but again that is significantly more money.    We also knew that our 2500 watt generator was already powering the house... and the air conditioner.. just not everything at the same time.   So we jumped in thinking we were practicing.  And guess what... this works.

In our layman opinion Solar needs good batteries to work right... The controllers need to smooth out the power and the spikes so the batteries assist with that... even if you shut everything down at night.     We ran 'ok' with a little battery... but it ran much better and recharged correctly when we had 'more'..and.. of course our 24 hour use items need it.  And you must have a plan to keep the batteries recharged.. more panels can do this.   We  we run our generator in the evening which tops ours off.  

What is next?

Phase 3 is enough panels to get us to 2400 watts... we are saving roughly 200 a month in geni fuel during the summer months so we are buying panels as we can afford them... we currently have 8 panels, we are adding 8 more .   These new panels will  help carry the peak load of the air conditioner.   So at the end of phase 2 we are at  $2200.  We have 8 more panels coming ($1000) and another Marine Battery ($500)  We will take a break there and this will run our airconditioner.    Down the road if  we need to we can always add 8 more ($1,000) and possibly in winter we will need them when there is less sun. 

 What is great about solar is you can buy them one at a time as you can afford it and hook them in.

Living the Solar Life off Grid... (amazing... it works!)

Before we embarked on our solar journey we did a lot of research.   The Ranch is totally off grid and always has been.  It is also BIG as in not just a lot of land but also lots of square feet of buildings, in several locations, as well as a few old stone barns.

Year Round Creeks and Meadows are one of the
treasures of the Ranch Headquarters

When the ranch was built many decades ago there were clearly two major considerations.  The first was placing the ranch headquarters and buildings near water and to that end we are on a beautiful year round stream (unusual in California).  The second consideration was it  had  to be situated to get light in the winter, but to be shaded from the intense late afternoon summer heat.   The buildings themselves are cleverly built into a south facing bowl with a high ridge to the west.  The buildings grab morning light and slip into shade from the ridge right as the late afternoon sun and heat are their most intense in the Summer .  We fretted that while this set up is perfect for a 60 year old house without air conditioning... it might not be the best set up for solar.  

There are many old stone buildings scattered
around the ranch 'castle' headquarters

We talked to a lot of  solar 'experts' who quoted us many kinds of set ups and all said...'but that afternoon shade in this valley is a problem'.    The other thing we noticed was all the experts felt we needed thousands of watts of power to 'run properly'.  The highest quote we got was for a 10,000 watt system in the 4.00 a watt range.

We were more broke than skeptical and we knew that for the last three years we have been slowly changing the ranch lifestyle to be a 'low watt' life.  The ranch currently runs on a 2500 watt Yamaha generator for 15 hours a day.  This costs about 8 bucks/day at 2.75 gas.  The generator can  run the microwave, TV, dishwasher computers, dish network and air conditioner... just not all at the same time.  The generator is wired into the main electrical panel.   We believed the ranch base use is under 400 watts which doesn't include the microwave or air conditioner but DOES include all our lights, computers, Very large Dish TV and satellite VOIP phones and internet.

What We Did

We finally decided to just experiment.    We knew we needed a controller inverter so we bought a 2500 Watt unit for about 800 that can run solar stand alone or can work integrated with our generator.
We bought (4) 100 watt panels (for 110 each) and wired them up.   Guess what... the base usage, all the lights, TV, Dish, internet, phones and Computers take about 16% of our solar generated in full sun.  We can even run our RV washing machine which is very low amps.  That saves about 5 bucks a day and a lot of wear and tear on our generators.

When we want to vacuum, make fancy coffee or run the air conditioner  we turn on the generator for now.  In our case since the house stays pretty cool till about 4:00 in the afternoon it all works out.. the solar stops and the generator comes on...and we turn on the air conditioner or whole house fans.

What is up Next

We will hook up another 4 panels and see what else we can run.  We are hoping to be able to run the fancy coffeemaker, vacuum,  and the base use in the next house.     One other thing we are doing is distributing the panels in various locations to catch the last of the late afternoon light..  Since we are a ranch we are not limited to 'just'our roof...   I mean... we have castle towers... so  a few panels will go up in the tops of these out of site... why not...


The Running Total

So at the end of phase 1 we are at  1200 for the system and another 100 for cables.   We estimate we are saving 150 a month in fuel costs for the generator.   so our payback is 10 months.   We will let you know as we progress...  We currently spend 340 a month in fuel (now reduced in the summer at least to 200) plus 30 for the propane for the refrigerator and water heater.   We have to eventually get all the ranch headquarters structures habitable and renovated as our castle B&B ... and under solar power of course.




Stay tuned for Part 2 where we discuss our solar well effort...

Living Off Grid can be Done With a Bit of Planning

When we first got to the ranch most of the various homes and cottages hadn't been lived in for over 20 years.  What did they all have in common besides years of dirt?   No power.  And.. they never had it.    This ranch has always been off grid.  Back in the day because there wasn't 'a grid' to be part of and then later because it isn't in the path of any power pole or county service.

There are several dwellings because it used to take a number of people to run a big ranch.  Some of the houses had propane refrigerators.  Most had wood/gas combo old cook stoves (quite beautiful btw) and all had fireplaces or wood stoves.  Water you ask?  Yes..,. all had running water although only one  had hot water from propane hot water heaters.  There was a traditional old central cookhouse and dining area that was used during cattle roundups.

This is NOT our bathroom but we have one we are
just finishing that is very similar to this design

The place had been home to cattle and an old caretaker who lived in one of the small cottages for years so we chose as our first restoration project to dig into the big OLD 'summer house'.   (It was called the summer house because it had only been used by the original family certain times of the year during the roundups).

Big is nice.. Big is also cold in winter and hot in summer.   The house had been built with high ceilings to carry off the heat through transoms and stone floors to keep it cool.   In the winter there was a huge central fireplace that would create a thermal mass when run long enough.

What we learned about off Grid Living...

1)  Insulation is a great thing.  The ranch originally had NO insulation at all.  It was 6X6 redwood post and beam with redwood and stone  outside and plaster inside.   We opened the walls to find them pristine and promptly filled them with organic healthy insulation.    WE put R 30 bats in the attic and Reflect-ix on the roof joists of the attic... We suddenly were cool in the summer (thanks to those stone floors) and warm in the winter.

2)  WE had beautiful old wood windows (single pane) but they had to go.  New windows and doors got us weather tight and insulated.

3)  We loved the gigantic old open fireplace but it was no longer safe so we purchased an Extraordinary insert which still remains the main source of heat for the 3500 square foot main house.

4)  We piped propane into small stoves/fireplaces  in the other houses as well as bedrooms for backup heat.   But, in an off grid world each house will heat with a wood stove or insert.

5)  The water was already gravity tanks and cisterns.  We simply added new tanks and new water lines for our drinking water and kept the old system for irrigation.

5)  We brought in and amended literally tons and tons of soil.  We have walled gardens and we decided to make them both flower gardens and food forests.  Our mindset was to improve the soil down at least 18 inches.  Being an organic farm (and we have a business here as licensed CDA - California Dept of Ag Organic Material Suppliers) we added fulvic acid, sea kelp, worm castings and lots and lots of organic compost and dirt.   We also started a container garden and orchard which is working very well.

6)  We developed a firewood plan.   We use about 5 cords of wood a winter.  We are a temperate climate so we don't use a lot, but being off grid we want to be prepared.  To that end we had a wood shed that held 10 cords that was used to feed the old big open fireplace in the main house each year so we cut wood and filled it.   Each year many trees come down on the ranch so we cut and replenish what we use plus stack rounds in the back of the shed.

7)  We have ATV's... These let us haul wood,  spread fertilizer, have a disc, have a tank with a boom sprayer etc.  We also have an early vintage john deer gator which can pull all the implements and we have tractors.   Always have a back up.

8)  Because it is a ranch we have several very large diesel tanks which support ranch equipment.

9)  We have set up the electrical to be very low watt using led and RV appliances.  A 3000 watt generator can run the house.  20 hours is about 8 dollars including running the well pumps.

10)  We are mid way into a large solar array.  This is the way to go but is a trial and error leaning curve.

11)  Stand alone solar well pumps and solar panel electric attic fans.vents work great.

12)  In the California foothills it is HOT in the summer so we have a summer  outdoor kitchen complete with barbecue and wood fired pizza oven.  We can cook anything on the barbecue we now think.

We have an outdoor kitchen right next to the old
swimming pool in one of the walled gardens

13)  Most important?  We have a swimming hole.  There is a creek that runs year round and this shady spot is quite possibly the best place on the ranch.    Every swimming hole in the world is already off grid so it can't be improved on.

Stone Endures

When we first arrived at the ranch it had been neglected for over 25 years.   Cows graze the 320 acre ranch for 6 months from Nov to May in the California foothills and when they leave the place looks like a newly mowed lawn.   At some point ranchers had decided to just let the cows graze through the castle grounds and had opened many of the gardens placing cow fencing here and there where they didn't want the cows to go. We actually didn't know some of the elements and 'bones' of the gardens were here till the cows grazed down the grass that first year.

Our first job was to remove all the old cattle gates that boxed off the porches to the houses but let the cows go right through the courtyards and gardens.  Then we slowly figured out where old garden gates, walks and plan used to be,

Garden Bones of Stone Endure

We removed a cattle squeeze right in the middle of the sunken garden (we can only assume they used the sunken garden to doctor cows?) and removed a holding containment area along the the Curved Garden wall.

Sunken Gardens Stone Walls made a Cattle 
Corral at one Point

Once some of the vistas opened  you could look down them and make out the old path and lawns to the Meditation Garden and above that the Woodland Garden.    Even with the place stripped back there were mysteries...

Gardens beckon in the Distance

People Walked this Land  Before us

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