Buildings on the Ranch
Front of house, built 1925
Back door. Originally the fireplace was the only source of heat, then later a wood stove, then an oil stove, and finally gas furnace in around 1955.
View of house and yard when coming up driveway
After decades of surviving earthquakes the chimney was broken at the roof line. You could move it back and forth by pushing on it.
The stack was rebuilt shorter to be more immune to earthquakes
Rear of garage. Both the tank house and garage were rebuilt after burning in 1943. If you dig around the garage you will still find ashes in the dirt.
Until 1950 the windmill was the only source of water. It pumped water to a wooden tank in the top of the tank house. The well went dry and my dad dug a well out by the cutting shed. It had a 5 hp electric pump. With the new well he was able to irrigate the apricot trees.
The woodshed – I have no idea when it was built, but guess in 20’s or 30’s. Fireplace wood was was collected from apricot tree pruning and put in the wood shed for fireplace heat. We would back the truck up to rear of the shed and throw the wood in through the trap door where you see the basketball hoop
Restoring chicken house after the roof collapsed. The old roof was so low you had to bend over to walk in. I raised the roof about a foot. It is now used to store construction and repair supplies.
The little chicken house before restoration. The roofs fell in on the chicken houses and barn. I added framing and replaced shingles with corrugated metal roofs.
Barn after restoration. My dad told me that in 1890’s it was a bunk house.There are still spots on the walls where you can see how they papered the walls with newspapers. Some time later it was made into a garage for a car. Then finally my dad lifted it onto skids and pulled it out by the corrals to be a barn. He fed and milked cows in the barn.
The cutting shed is over 100 years old. It was originally open on 3 sides. About a dozen workers usually were employed to cut apricots in early July. In 2002 it was nearly ready to collapse. I am amazed that it didn’t fall down in the 1989 earthquake
I replaced most of the posts and set them on concrete footings. The rafters were repaired. I dug a ditch from the tank house to bring 240V power for lights and utilities.
A concrete floor in the cutting shed was a nice improvement
After 2 years of spare time work it is now a nice usable building
View of barn and chicken houses from below hill by crick
View of the restored barn and chicken houses from the yard. There are no chickens now. The 3 buildings are used for storage.