52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History January done in months

  Family Traditions on New Years Eve.

  Yes, we gathered family together, near and not far and had food and played cards and games.  Dad and I would make eggnog and Mom would have with our help made pies and brownies. Family and friends that came would bring a dish or dessert also. Dad liked to make homemade eggnog that way no chemicals in his drink or eggs. We lived on a ranch and chemicals were coming into play big time in feed mill plants to increase growth and production in animals. Dad did not believe in it and said we would be sorry some day we did this.  True to his words much of it is off our market now.

 Winter Memories

 We farmed we slouched mud, water and were thankful when the electricity did not go out so we could milk by machine not by hand. I can do both. I like the rain. It always cleared the air and made the air smell better. The trees and greens that had not frozen always looked more alive.  We ate lots of popcorn and apples from our trees. We read books by the fireplace and played games at the tables on the evenings or days we could not do much outside due to wind, cold and or other elements that we had. Yes we had snow a few times but more often we had ice. Winter foods, one of our favorites in the evening after chores was: Cornflakes and chocolate pudding with whipped cream on top. Yup that could be our dinner. Warm pudding with cornflakes like a pie crust and sometimes splurged with the whip cream.  Other times we had fried cornmeal mush and eggs. Soups were not uncommon either nor was home made biscuits and gravy a lot.

Car My first Car Wasn't

 I learned to drive when I was like 8 years old that is I could steer the truck with the govanor on so Dad could dump hay off the back of truck. I could not reach pedals unless I scooted down to hit them so he always would say in about five fence posts stop the truck. It worked I only dumped him once ever off his feet.  I drove tractor and even drove horse and plow before we got tractor. 

I bought my first vehicle many years into our marriage and it was a Truck 66 Ford Pickup I called Whitey. Was a great truck and had turquoise boot put in for the camper shell I later added. Boys were in Scouting and we went up and down California to see my parents. We have been in San Diego way to long. :>)

Parents Home

 Well it is going to probably be sold soon, to much government interference and land really no longer ours to do what we had planned.  I do not believe government should be able to come and say we making this a park and you can not plow, plant, build or grow anything any more other than what is already here. The wild plants many are there because we plowed the fields and lifted the tullies out of the ground to put in hay.  We improved the land and made it more than what it was. Alas long long ago in the 1860, 70's it was a thriving place. The creek was kept clean because no DO GOODERS came and said you couldn't keep clean. It was the major way in and out of the town before roads were built.  The creek that borders the land was the major line in and out of area. Today it is a sludge ball of old tires, and other trees that have grown up and not cleaned out of the channel, plus many other ugly things. Used to be our job in the summer to make sure everything we saw in the creek when it was lower we had to remove to take away and you could still boat from the Ocean to the pier at back of Del Curto's.  

Dad expanded the small house by putting in raised side of roof and windows upstairs for a bedroom event.

When I was 12 I helped Dad build a new back porch and bedroom for them to sleep in. Then it ended up my sis and I's room. Mom liked to have the back side away from noise because we had a new baby brother. My cousins Jim and Lou came from San Diego and helped along with their buddy Dick.  It took us a couple years to get it all done but we did it. Dad later moved to front bedroom and built a ramp to the new front door by the fireplace he put in in 1958 prior to my graduating from High School.  He paneled that wall and had fireplace in for my graduation. The old stairs in front were tore down. You could fall through them.

House was started way back in the 1860's  Was a large one room event was later divided for a kitchen, bedroom and living room. We moved on property in 1948 and put in the first bathroom. Dad took old out house and made it a feed shed. I said OLD out house not the one that was in use when we moved there. 

Dad built a Grade A dairy barn and kids set the hay field on fire the day before he was to start milking in it and insurance man was to come out and insure it because it passed all inspections.  I was home for the help building of a share of it.  The place has the cement we poured for the stanchions and the feed area and the rest is long gone. Home smelled of smoke for at least 15 years.  They lost all the outer buildings but the barn built in 1854 up by the road and the house they lived in. The pig pens, chicken pens, calf pens, cow sheds, tool sheds, storage shed all of it gone.