The La Honda Voice

When the church was new...

Hidden away as it is, up Sears Ranch Road, a person could live in Cuesta for months and not realize there is a church in town if they never drive up the road to the school. The church you see today was built in the mid-20th century, but the church community has existed since before 1883.

Someone recently came across pictures of the 1954 dedication of Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church. Along with St. Anthony’s in Pescadero, Our Lady of Refuge is a mission church of the parish of Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay. The following is adapted from a portion of a booklet published in 1968 for the celebration of the centennial of Our Lady of the Pillar parish.

 

The chapel of Our Lady of Refuge in La Honda, built in 1953, was dedicated on May 16 1954, by Most Reverend Merlin J. Guilfoyle, Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco.

In the 1880s, when La Honda was a summer resort destination, Catholic services in La Honda were held in various places until a suitable building was found. But with a shift in population, the original church was later sold and the property on which it stood reverted to the owner. Parishioners then attended St. Gregory's in San Gregorio. Later on, when the La Honda congregation built up again, the priests from Half Moon Bay began offering Mass at La Honda--in the pre-1953 days in available halls. (Editors note: the banquet room at Boots and Saddles Lodge was one of those places).

General construction of this church is wood frame and concrete. The main frames which span the structure are of reinforced concrete and weigh about 10 tons each. The interior of the church is simple. The altar is executed in walnut and the focusing of attention on the altar is facilitated by carefully planned lighting. The finishes are creosote stains and natural oils. The wide overhangs are designed for protection of the structure in an area where considerable rains fall in the wintertime. The structure is heated by a forced warm air system. The cost was $67,295.25.

The propane heater was replaced last year. We believe that it was the original from 1954.

Along Alpine Road: where the buffalo roamed

A buffalo ranch on Alpine Road in La Honda? You might be thinking, yeah, right--about as likely as a golf course or a landing strip. Circle B Ranch was the location where all three of those things once were proposed. But the buffalo ranch was the one that came closest to reality, if only briefly. It's interesting that as short lived as the buffalo ranch was, the word buffalo has persisted through 40 years into the present in legend and in a street name. (We call 'em roads out here but someone named this one Buffalo Valley Drive.) There are probably many versions of the buffalo legend. For what it's worth, here is mine.

Circle B Ranch was located straddling Alpine Road. The present road to Pescadero Creek Park runs through part of it. On the other side of Alpine Road, the sign for Buffalo Vally Drive marks the location of the old main entrance to the ranch headquarters where a house and barn stood near the present location of the lake.

The B in Circle B has nothing to do with the buffalo (which are technically American bison or Bison bison, not buffalo--just so you know). During the 1950s the property was owned by Lawrence Baleri, a grocer from Palo Alto. He called his ranch Circle B but did not live there. He had it farmed to supply oat hay for his horses in Los Altos.

In the early '60s Baleri sold to Associated Land Industries (ALI), a group of Peninsula investors who planned to hold the land and sell when it appreciated in value. It seems that these types of investors dream big and not just about realizing a return on their investment. ALI engaged a golf course architect to look over the property (his verdict was that, yes, a golf course could be constructed). ALI also had roads bulldozed to access remote areas of the property and cleared off a semi-flat wooded area with an eye to a landing strip for small planes. They had big plans for when the huge reservoir that was to inundate much of today's Pescadero Creek Park became a reality. The dreams of the ALI investors did not come to pass and neither did the reservoir, so they split the property into the several parcels allowed by the zoning regulations of that era and sold it to another group of investors. Although it may have appeared that different groups of people had purchased the property, all the parcels were being managed by the same General Partner who was also attending to an additional splitting up of these parcels into "ranchettes". Live Oak Ranchettes, Alpine Valley Ranchettes, Montebello Ranchettes, Deer Trail Ranchettes, Indian Valley Ranchettes and (finally, here it is!) Buffalo Valley Ranchettes would be split into two to four parcels each for a total of 23 homesites.

Local residents were not happy with the slicing and dicing of property in the area but that will not be dealt with in this article.

It's not clear whether the ranchette investors were also funding the buffalo, but the manager and spokesman for the buffalo was the General Partner for all the ranchettes, Gerald Colombi. The buffalo came from South Dakota to become "San Mateo County's first buffalo herd" They were pastured on 20 acres of Horseshoe Ranch (which adjoined "Alpine Valley Ranchettes") where they were to be contained by an electric fence. The first of a proposed 400 animals were a bull and five cows with calves. A newspaper article at the time said 12 more were on the way (but I'm not sure they ever got there since the herd never seemed that large). Eventually they were to become an "attraction" and an "educational experience for school children". And then there was the production of buffalo meat.

But the buffalo kept roaming. Apparently the electric fence wasn't working very well. The Sheriff's Department sent out their helicopter time after time to "help" when the buffalo escaped. I can't count the times that locals would round a turn on Alpine Road to be faced with the herd of buffalo trotting back to North Dakota.

A neighbor couple put much planning into their wedding at their house on Alpine Road, complete with an old fashioned barn dance for the reception. With little place to park besides the shoulder, guest's cars were lined up all along the road. As we were departing, what should be stampeding up the road, through the parked cars and past surprised guests but the buffalo. An interesting sight for city folk and I'm sure some of them thought it was just part of the old time wedding reception.

The article I've been quoting concluded, "...Colombi and his investment group are betting that buffalo will become popular in San Mateo County once they've grown accustomed to our way of life." Apparently they never did grow accustomed. I'm not certain when they left or how. One day it occurred to me that we hadn't seen them in a while and the helicopter hadn't been buzzing Alpine Road.

The old Circle B barn burned in August of 1974 when (according to a news article) some of the "buffalo ranch hands" were camping in it. The ranchettes were developed and sold. But the buffalo story persisted and has become a legend.

One interesting turn of events for Buffalo Valley, besides the street sign, is that in later years the owners of one of the properties also bought the adjoining property when it came on the market and tore the house down to bring back the open space. A reverse split?

Circle B Barn

Along Alpine Road

Scenic Alpine Road. Local residents who don’t use it every day might know it as a hair raising commute alternate when Highway 84 is closed. Bicyclists seem to love it--the eastward pull to panoramic Skyline Boulevard or the westward downhill rush toward Pescadero Road. How many people are aware of the part played in improving safety on Alpine Road by the former head of the General Services Administration? The evidence has mostly disappeared and now, with a yellow line down the middle of the road, it probably doesn’t matter. Maybe it never did matter.

A little background. At one time our smaller county byways did not have dashed yellow lines down their middles. In those days drivers were expected to know where their vehicle was on the road, to drive slowly and to pull over if it didn’t appear that there was enough room for an oncoming car to pass. And then, of course, there was less traffic. Although, even in those days Alpine Road between Skyline and Portola State Park Road got more than local traffic due to visitors to the popular state park.

In the mid 1950s Edmund F. and Julia (Judy) Mansure moved to California to retire. (Bear with me, this has something to do with the story.) They purchased Horseshoe Ranch on Portola State Park Road. Ned, as he was known, was the former head of the General Services Administration, appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. There was some rumor about a Cuban nickel scandal and the General Services Administration but we won’t go into that now. Maybe Ned just stepped down from his position to become a gentleman farmer in California. Ned settled into keeping the ranch water tank full, supervising ranch activities and flying off to meetings of the several Wall Street listed company boards on which he served as a director. Judy set out to raise Scottish Terriers and Collies and called her business Merry Oaks Kennel.

Ned had been a businessman and a low level bureaucrat in his hometown of Chicago before he ended his career with his three year appointment as head of the General Services Administration. He was known as being a frugal administrator. A magazine article from that era describes his actions as head of the GSA: “Mr. Mansure personally examines travel requisitions of his Washington staff; he encourages removing clips from waste paper; to limit phone talks, he has put three-minute egg timers on subordinates' desks“

He may have relaxed a bit when he retired and hung up his suits, but dressed in a plaid flannel shirt and jeans he could have stepped out of an L. L. Bean catalog.

Apparently Ned was concerned with vehicle safety on Alpine Road. Even today with a center yellow line it is difficult to see the edge of the road in the fog or at night. Especially when the fog and night occur together. A few feet can make a big difference on parts of the road where trees will be the only impediment keeping a wayward automobile from plunging into the canyon. Resourceful Ned found a use for dog food can lids, something Judy’s kennel supplied in plenty. He painted the lids white and nailed them to tree trunks and fence posts and telephone poles along the road, usually in a highly visible spot that would be easily illuminated by headlights in the dark. Occasionally he would touch them up with more paint. When my children were young we spotted Ned spray painting his reflectors and they christened them Ned Lids. It’s not known how many lives these home-made reflectors may have saved, but thanks should go to Ned Mansure.

Ned became a victim of Alzheimer's disease and finally had to move to a residential facility where he passed away in 1992. Unmaintained, the lids rusted in the rain and fog. Trees became victims of old age themselves or succumbed to Sudden Oak Death and fell, taking the Ned Lids with them. Years passed. The Ned Lid on the telephone pole

One day I recalled drives when the kids and I played “spot the Ned Lids” as we traveled Alpine Road. So I looked for them. Most are gone. I have identified two on upper Alpine above the intersection with Portola State Park Road (I don’t think he ever put any on the La Honda side of the intersection). An additional lid is located on a post on a fence on Portola State Park Road not far below Ned Mansure’s driveway.

The pictured lid (if you can see it) is the one on the telephone pole--a pole no longer used for the telephone line because it has been underground for years, but that’s another story!

Here is a link to a 1955 article from Fortune about the GSA, Cuban nickel and Edmund Mansure. It also contains the quote I used above.

Verse for a warm day

Upon the arrival of our summer weather, this bit of refreshment is offered with appologies to the current literary community of La Honda ...

La Honda

    Far in the bosom of the mountains
    On the La Honda winding deep--
    A dreamland where the redwoods sleep
    On the slopes of azure blue and green;
    The rambling brook with boulders strewn
    And shaded 'neath the hazel bough,
    Sighing soft eternal vow
    To dells and pleasant fastness;

    With banks with elders soft and white
    And tiger lilies, speckled brown,
    In grace and silence bending down
    To hear the water's babbling.

    Thin winding paths along the wood
    By creeping vine and shady hill
    Where sings the crested blue-jay shrill,
    The robins, chirping gleefully.

    And oft at noon in idleness
    I lie beneath thy shady trees,
    And list the sighing of the breeze,
    The splashing of the waterfall.

    And hear the lowing of the kine
    While browsing on some far-off slope,
    The wood dove cooing while I mope
    And sink to gentle slumbering.

July 8, 1888. By E. T. C. (Probably Asa W. Collins)
From the San Mateo Times & Gazette, Saturday, July 21, 1888

Mindego Hill Opening Space

by Randy Vail

On Friday, June 25th at 1:30 pm the Use and Management Committee of the Mid-peninsula Regional Open Space District held a special meeting to decide on the development of trails in the Mindego Hill Open Space. 

Originally purchased by POST from long time land owners, the True family, Mindego Hill was subsequently purchased by MROSD with the agreement that they would provide public access to the top of the hill by the summer of 2011.

The committee decided to proceed with the first of two options of a planned trail route to the top of the hill from the gate that connects it to the adjacent Russian Ridge Open Space.  Several studies of native wildlife, including the protected San Francisco Garter Snake, are underway before further development will take place.  However, it seems likely that the Option 2 trail, which includes an existing road on the property, will eventually be opened, and there is the possibility that the two trails will be connected to create a loop around the hill. 

Initially, the trail will be open only to hikers, but in a year or so, pending the outcomes of the various studies, the trail may opened to equestrian users and possibly mountain bikers.  The process of creating a trail involves the approval of various agencies and various permits and necessitates many considerations of steepness, views of the hill, lines of sight on the trails, views from the trail, trail routes through various vegetation areas and wildlife habitats, and the potentially conflicting interests of public users. 

At the meeting, the possibility of eventually connecting the Mindego trails with the Cuesta La Honda Guild trails was raised.  Some of the committee members seemed amenable to the prospect of potentially connecting the Mindego Open Space with the La Honda Open Space.  However, discussion, decision, approval, and action are lengthy and involved processes that will take years.  In the meantime, initial public access to this beautiful and majestic open space - in our own backyard - is now only one year away.

The following is a brief history of Mindego Hill from http://www.gomindego.org/history.php

"People have lived on Mindego Hill since 500 A.D., beginning with the Ramaytush Costanoans, a group of Native American hunter-gatherers. They thrived in the area until the early 1800s, when immigrants arrived to settle the West.

In 1859, Juan Mendico, a Basque farmer and the first non-native settler, established a homestead and cattle ranch here. Historian Bud Foss, in his 1941 book History of La Honda, describes the California Grizzly Bear that once frequented Mindego Hill, and how in 1885 they got away with seven of Juan’s calves. Interestingly, in the Basque language, Juan Mendico’s name means “John of the Mountain”—a prophetic coincidence, considering the property was eventually named for him as “Mindego” Hill.

In 1954, Admiral Arnold True, a World War II veteran and professor of meteorology, and his wife, Corinne, purchased Mindego Hill, where they continued the ranching traditions of the land. In 1977, their son Chris took over management of the ranch and later began raising Brahman and Angus cattle as well as a cross of the two breeds for rodeo bull-riding. Admiral True passed away in 1979, and Mrs. True passed away in late 2006. The couple always treasured the natural beauty of their land and spoke often of preserving it. In honor of their parents’ wishes, the True family finalized an agreement with POST to protect the land permanently. Thanks to our mutual goal of land conservation, we all have a unique opportunity to save Mindego Hill for generations to come."

 

 

Reflections "76" -- A Book Review

by Mary Bordi

Reflections "76" is a slim, paperback La Honda Elementary School yearbook. The pages were obviously cut and pasted and captioned by typewriter before being sent to the School Annual Publishing Company in Kansas City MO for printing. This was a labor of love, produced in 1976 without the aid of computers.

In that red-white-and-blue Bicentennial year, Jimmy Carter was elected President, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (the movie) garnered five academy awards and the National Academy of Science determined that gases from spray cans could damage the earth's ozone layer. None of this was mentioned in Reflections "76", however.

La Honda Elementary school buildings were 16 years old in 1976 with a new Multi Use Room. Consisting of grades kindergarten through eighth, the school served around 145 students who arrived by bus from the far corners of the district. All classes were split grades except for kindergarten and eighth. It's difficult to determine the class sizes because the yearbook is laid out by grade, not classroom. The seventh grade, with twelve students, was the smallest while kindergarten, with 20 students, was the largest. Six regular teachers and a learning disability teacher handled the workload.

Mr. Bickmore was the District Superintendent/Principal; Mrs. Tainter, secretary; Mrs. Silva, librarian. Bus drivers were Gayle O'Connor and Lois Marcil.

By this time you've figured out this isn't really a book review but a description of a piece of history.

The music department, under the guidance of Mr. Raney, consisted of Beginning and Advanced Guitar as well as Band. The band picture shows ten members.

Cheerleaders as well as Pom Pom Girls inspired the La Honda Bandits Basket Ball team to victory. Between them they rated a three page spread.

Other sections include 1988 (what will eighth graders be doing then?), Activities, Polls (best dancers, best dressed, eyes...) and Candids. The pictures on the Moments to Remember, Candids and Activities pages are a little difficult to make out (you probably just had to be there) but one stands out. Titled "Snowed In" it shows a group of kids playing in a rare snowfall on school playground equipment that would nowadays be classified as unsafe.

Not noted in the yearbook but worth remembering was the lunch time Snitch Box where students could put items from their lunch bags that they didn't want, for others to "snitch", so the food did not go to waste. And kindergarten teacher Gowan Ratliff's famous money raising bake sales outside the Post Office. What didn't sell went into the freezer to be thawed for the next bake sale.

Near the front of the book is a wonderful aerial photo of the school and surroundings--at a time when Google Earth's inventor was probably just a kid himself. (No, not at La Honda School.) 

As the 1976 kindergartners celebrate their 40th birthdays, one might wonder what has become of the students in the nine grades of La Honda Elementary that year. Some have moved out of state or out of the country. At least one has passed away. Some are reconnecting on Facebook. But some of these former students regularly return to the Multi Use Room to watch their own children in school drama productions, fifth grade graduations and other activities. They still live here. By the way, can you find today's Principal in the second grade picture?

This book is long out of print. You'll have a hard time finding it on eBay or the used book web sites because nowhere in the Reflections "76" yearbook is "La Honda" even mentioned. It was just so obvious to all...

This copy of Reflections "76" will be placed in the archives of the La Honda Historical Society. Names of students have not been mentioned in order to protect the innocent.

La Honda History - "La Honda Store Model on Display"

Mary Bordi has once again discovered an interesting article about La Honda called "La Honda Store Model on Display." This time it was printed in the San Mateo Times (it was not yet called the San Mateo County Times) on December 14, 1966.

Mary said, " I came across this article about Eudele Towne's miniature of the old store. I think she donated it to the SM Co Historical Society and the museum may still have it--maybe even on display. Eudele put together a lot of these miniatures. Eudele was married to Pete Towne. They both passed away some years ago."
"HOLIDAY DISPLAY —The old country store, that treasured American memory, is somehow an appropriate subject for the holiday season. Mrs. Pete Towne of Atherton has recreated in miniature the warm setting of the Old La Honda store as oldtimers remember it back in 1904. Detailed down to lighted hurricane lamps and cards on the table, the model will be on display in the lobby of the County Courthouse in Redwood City through the holiday season.

"A model of the Old La Honda Store, located in the Redwoods on the coastal side of the County in the village of La Honda, is now on
display in the lobby of the store built by John Sears, an early settler in the area, in the days after the Civil War.

It acquired the name "Bandit Built" Store because of the fact that the Younger Brothers, Jim and Bob, worked for Sears in construction of the store. The Youngers were notorious bandits from the Middle West who hid out in the area while being sought for bank robberies and train hold-ups. They were associates of the also-notorious James boys. They later returned to their former haunts, were apprehended, and served time in the Stillwater Penitentiary.

Before the turn of the century until the twenties, the store was run by the Cavalli brothers, Charles and Frank. The operation consisted of a general merchandise store, saloon and post office. The miniature store is designed to show the store, as it appeared during the Cavalli administration in 1904, all in scale one inch to a foot.

The La Honda Store in the earlier days was a center for the logging industry and the many mills which cut redwood timber from the
surrounding mountains; also for the ranchers who lived on the many open areas between the Skyline and the coast, raising cattle and sheep, growing hay, grain and supplying dairy products such as cheese and cream, which was shipped to creameries for butter production.

The Sears family also constructed a good-size hotel adjacent to the store. This was headquarters for people who went into the mountains for vacations, fishing or hunting trips, and for traveling salesmen who called on the mill owners selling supplies to them.

Across the road from the store and hotel was a large stable which took care of the horses ridden and driven by the patrons of the hotel. To take care of the shoeing needs of the many horses in the area, those of travelers, a blacksmith's shop also operated near the small village.

In a Redwood grove across the road from the store and hotel was a dance hall which was the scene of many dances and social affairs attended by many of the ranching families in the community. They would travel to the gatherings on horseback or by horse-and-wagon. The trip home was usually in the dark or in the early daylight hours. As there were not too many of these festive occasions, they came early and stayed late.

La Honda was also a stopping point for the four-horse stage which made regular runs from Redwood City to Pescadero or San Gregorio carrying passengers, luggage and mail.

The main source of transportation of freight and supplies to a Honda was the colorful Al Weatherby Fast Freight Wagon drawn by four or six mules. This ran from Redwood City to La Honda until replaced the first automobile trucks which ran on solid rubber tires.

The La Honda store was also headquarters for many vacationers who camped in the sur- rounding redwoods along beautiful La Honda Creek.

It was the custom in those days for families living in the towns on the bayside of the County to set-up camps on the flats along the creek which would be used during most of the summer. The camps were gaily decorated with Japanese lanterns, flags and signs. It was the custom in each camp to have a large campfire every evening, around which the tents were erected. The campers would gather there to perhaps tell stories, sing and enjoy the beautiful evenings. With the coming of the automobiles, these enjoyable old days so much a part of La Honda, were soon forgotten as people seemed to travel longer distances from home for their vacation and trips.

Today all is gone the "Bandit Built" store torn down to be re- placed by a modern building. The dance hall and blacksmith shop (which later became a garage) were also torn down, and the hotel stable burned to the ground, as did the old hotel. A second hotel which replaced it, also burned. Modern buildings, including churches, a fine grammar school, a general store, refreshment businesses and many residences, make up the La Honda of today.

Local History - Shopping at Cavalli Bros. General Merchandise, La Honda

by Mary Bordi

Among some family papers, I found an invoice dated 1918 to 1919 from
"Cavalli Bros. General Merchandise" in La Honda,. When people made
their living out here farming and ranching, they did not have a weekly
paycheck. So the storekeeper would simply keep track of what they
bought. When you sold your crop you paid your bill. This one actually
covers over a year and a half of purchases.

Mom and Pop Bordi moved to the Alpine in 1913 and by the time of this
invoice they had two children with another on the way. Once a week or
so Pop might ride his saddle horse the seven miles to La Honda to get
the mail and pick up anything they might need. Or Mollie, their Stanford
Trotter, would transport Mom in the buggy. Today it takes me around 15
minutes in the car. Back then it took about a half an hour by saddle
horse and perhaps 45 minutes with the buggy or spring wagon. I've heard
that Ernest Hildebrand could get there much faster with his wagon and
mules when he lived up here on the Dale ranch.

What sorts of things would a family of four in 1918 purchase at the
store in La Honda? (Remember too, that a family might go "over the
hill" a few times a year to make their bulk purchases, much as we would
go to Costco today.)

Two cans of tomatoes were 40 cents; honey 15 cents; 5 gallons of peanut oil 75 cents.
Christmas Eve 1918 they purchased a gallon of whiskey for $8.00, wine for $1.00 and cheese for $1.30, perhaps anticipating a celebration.
Other items purchased throughout the year were: sardines (20 cents); 25 pounds chicken feed ($1.25); soap (10 cents); tobacco (65 cents); yeast (5 cents); rennet (85 cents); overalls ($6.50, later returned). And of course occasional treats like cakes, cookies, chocolate and candy.

You can also see a larger image of the whole invoice at
http://www.hununu.org/lahonda/cavalli.gif

Bringing in the Hay

By George Bordi as told to Mary

For two summers in the early 1940s I helped Joe Zanoni on his dairy in La Honda to bring in his hay. Joe was renting one of the ranches that make up what is now known as the Driscoll Ranch. At that time it was four different ranches. Going up Sears Ranch Road (past where La Honda elementary is now located) the first two ranches were owned by the Guerras, who were brothers I believe. The first of these was then rented by Manuel Alexander, who ran a dairy. I worked on the next ranch, rented by Joe Zanoni. The Zanoni family had once owned the third ranch that is further in (now sometimes called the Wool Ranch). Joe and his brothers and sisters had grown up there. But the family had sold it and the Fabers, who owned it as well as a commercial dairy in Palo Alto, grew hay and pastured their dry stock there. Joe Zanoni now farmed and ran a dairy on the second Guerra ranch. The other ranch that makes up what is now the Driscoll Ranch, near today’s Driscoll Event Center on Highway 84, was owned by Robbie Silva.

During the war, manpower was in short supply on ranch and farm. Up in the Alpine, where I live, my dad was farming the Bartley Ranch and we needed someone to bind and thresh our grain. Joe Zanoni had the equipment to do this but he also needed help to bring in the hay for his dairy cattle. So, as a trade off I went to work for him and he came up our way with his Model M tractor and equipment to thresh Pop's grain.

The dairy business was big in San Mateo county in those days. By milking 15 or 20 cows and shipping the cream in five and ten gallon cans for butter, a family could make enough to buy those things they couldn’t produce themselves. You’d bucket feed the calves and feed the excess skim milk to a few pigs. Some folks, like the Zanoni’s, milked 50 or more cows and made a real business of it.

It was natural to grow as much of your own feed as possible so they planted red oats for hay as well as for feed grain and seed for next year’s crop of hay. Most ranches around here had big redwood barns: a horse barn with stalls and room for their feed. A cow barn with stanchions for milking and an area for hay storage. Perhaps you'd also have a thick walled dairy house to process and store the cream if that wasn’t done in the barn. And a stoutly built granary to store the heavy sacks of barley for feed and the seed oats for your next crop of hay.

In the morning, before driving Pop’s Chevy pickup the eight miles to Zanoni’s in La Honda, I’d have to do the chores at home. This meant milking the cows and feeding the calves and pigs if no one else was available to do it.

When I arrived at work we took Joe’s Model A Ford flatbed truck to the fields to haul in the loose hay. The field had been mowed and the hay raked into windows and those pushed into shocks of hay. This allowed the hay to cure without becoming too dry. This country raised some of the best oat hay because we were far enough inland to escape a lot of the coastal fog yet the weather didn’t get too hot. Our hay was short and sweet because our rolling hills were not the fertile bottom land that produces tall, coarse hay.

Two of us would fork the hay from the shock to one man on the truck who would carefully place it so that the load did not slide off on the way to the barn. At the barn we pulled up to the center door. I was in charge of the team of horses that ran the Jackson fork. This fork ran on a trolly on a track in the peak of the roof of the barn. Two men would be inside the barn stacking the loose hay. Guided by a man on the ground, the Jackson fork would grab a load of loose hay from the truck. Then I’d urge the horses forward which would pull the forkful of hay up and lock it on the trolly and down the track it went. When it was in position over the stack, one of the men on inside the barn would yell, “Let her go!” and the one outside would pull the rope that tripped the release and the hay would fall from the fork. Then the fork was pulled back out to the truck and the process begun again.

At noon we’d break for lunch. Usually we’d have bread and salami and cheese, coffee and all the milk you could drink. Occasionally, if they’d done some butchering, we’d have meat. We’d never stop for more than and an hour and soon we’d be heading back to the field for another load of hay. We'd usually take another short break in the mid afternoon.

We’d quit around 5 PM because Zanoni’s had to get on with the evening milking and I had to get home to the Alpine do my evening feeding, and milking, too.

Article on the Merry Prankster Bus

Article on the Merry Prankster Bus

"http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10792061/" from Heather/Georgia

From the article: " Zane Kesey picks at clumps of moss and swirls of brightly colored paint and patches of rust covering the school bus that his father, the late author Ken Kesey, rode cross-country with a refrigerator stocked with LSD-laced drinks in pursuit of a new art form…For some 15 years, the 1939 International bus dubbed “Further” has rusted away in a swamp on the Kesey family’s Willamette Valley farm, out of sight if not out of mind, more memory than monument. That is where Ken Kesey — author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and hero of a generation that vowed to drop out and tune in with the help of LSD — intended it to stay after firing up a new bus in 1990. But four years after his death, a Hollywood restaurateur has persuaded the family to resurrect the old bus so it can help tell the story of Kesey, the Merry Pranksters and the psychedelic 1960s…Houston hopes to raise the $100,000 he figures it will cost to get the bus running and looking good. The Kesey family will maintain control of the bus, though, taking it to special events…“I consider the bus to be one of the most important icons of the ’60s Counter Culture,” says Santelli. “Inside that bus occurred many of the things the counter culture was all about, from a revolutionary perspective. That is mobility, freedom to be on the move, and to react to situations and create situations to react to, drug use and experimenting with drugs, and the importance of music in a cultural revolution.”…At La Honda, Kesey’s home in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco, they installed a sound system, a generator on the back and went wild with the paint. Artist Roy Sebern painted the word “Furthur” on the destination placard as a kind of one-word poem and inspiration to keep going whenever the bus broke down. It wasn’t until much later that he found out he had misspelled it. Just as the bus was constantly being repainted, somewhere along the line the Further sign was corrected.

The day they were ready to go, Ken Kesey recruited Cassady from a bookstore where he was working, Babbs recalls. The bus pulled out of the driveway with Ray Charles singing “Hit the Road Jack,” and ran out of gas. That was quickly remedied, and down the road they went, Cassady spewing the speed-talking rap-babble that inspired Kerouac’s writing style….The wildly painted bus got stopped by the police, but with their short haircuts and preppy clothes, the Pranksters were never arrested. They carried orange juice laced with LSD, which was legal at the time. Kesey had been a guinea pig in government-sponsored LSD tests and was trying to turn the entire country on to it through events known as the Acid Tests…The film and tape rolled constantly, but when they got back to La Honda, they could never get the two to synchronize. Author Tom Wolfe used the material for his book, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” but the movie lay dormant until 2000, when a digital editing machine made it possible and Kesey issued, “Intrepid Traveler and His Merry Band of Pranksters Look for A Kool Place.”…After one last trip, to Woodstock, N.Y., in 1969, Kesey put the bus out to pasture, where it served as a dugout for softball games. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., expressed some interest in restoring the bus, but Kesey would never let it go. …Kesey’s widow, Faye, had reservations about restoring the old bus, but did not try to stop it.“I kind of liked it in the swamp covered with moss and becoming part of the swamp,” she said. “But I talked to everybody who had been on it. To a man they all wanted to see it restored. “If not, it can always go back to the swamp. Nature does a pretty good paint job, too.
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