Pozo Valey

When my uncle Pete was my age he traveled through the US where he met some people who lived on a ranch near Santa Margarita, somewhere between LA and SF. He stayed with the family for several months and as their kids were older they visited him in Australia; that was about 10 years ago... Now Pete gave us a phone number which we should try to call if we needed help or a place to stay and after we arrived we tried to call several times but it was a business number and I always forgot to call at the right time. After some tries I finally got through and after I had told the woman on the phone that I was Pete's nephew her voice got very exited and the first thing she asked was when we would come. We told her about our trip and our plans and she invited us to stay on their ranch, which was also a winery, for as long as we wanted to. Even the fact that the time we were planning on going north was during the American holiday of thanksgiving didn't change anything and so we told her that we would come on Tuesday the 22nd.

We arrived at night in San Luis Obispo after the great day in Santa Barbara with Kenny and Mike and got picked up by Debbie and Steve , the parents of the kids who visited Pete in Oz. They welcomed us very warmly and gave us a huge room with a big bed after offering us a glass of their own wine and some cookies. The next morning we met Michelle, Debbie and Steve's daughter and her husband Ryan and their two little girls Reagan and Emri. Ryan was a Cowboy on a ranch at the coast and he had nine of his working dogs with him, most of them were friendly and one had seven freshly born puppies. Reagan is 2 1/2 years old and super sweet and Emri is 11 months and one of the happiest baby's I have ever seen. She laughts most of the time and I don't remember hearing her cry at all. Ryan showed us the ranch with the vineyard and the animals and introduced us to Joey, Debbie and Steve's son who had visited Pete and Sal in Australia and is now building a house for himself and his family on a hill nearby. The boys are both cowboys and they were training for a big roping tournament in Las Vegas but the soil in the arena they practiced in was too wet and Ryan took Bekki for a horse ride around the lake. Real western style. The boys started drinking their first Bud Light beer right after breakfast and I gladly joined in with them from the first day. Along with a few other brands Bud Light is a big part of American farm life and it is only enjoyable when it's cold so there were cool boxes with ice in every house, truck or place they would spend their time. It is light beer that has been watered down and it doesn't taste like much but it is very easy to drink and very refreshing.

It was Thanksgiving while we were there and they generously invited us to be a part of their celebrations. It was our first Thanksgiving and we felt very thankful and privileged to join this lovely family and experience this holiday that is only celebated in the US in such a traditional way. On Thanksgiving day I joined the men on their Quaile hunt while the women stayed at home with the kids and prepared the feast. I was unsure if I wanted to join the hunt but it was an interesting and cool experience, we had to find them and shoot them when they fled. I didn't shoot at the birds but I had a go with a shotgun and I gave the rock I was aiming at a really hard time... It was the first time for me to fire a real weapon and it was a very strange feeling. It is loud and the force with which the gun moves back when you shoot is quite strong but it is so easy to pull the trigger and release that deadly bullet and it gives you a very strange and scary feeling of power but I'm glad to have that point off my bucket list.

We went home with 15 birds, a decent catch, where the food was already on the table and the Thursday afternoon game was running and sat down for a early meal. The food was delicious, even though we didn't have any of that turkey, and there was enough to eat for everyone for the next 3 days. We ate with the whole family, Jessie, Joey's wife and their daughter Lainey and Mark and Cindy with their son Miles who had been hunting with us earlier. The evening was very nice, we ate and drank, played card games and laughted a lot before we sank into our warm and comfortable beds.

The next couple of days we just enjoyed the life on the farm. We hiked around the property where we found bear tracks and a dead cow that was probably eaten by Coyotes, played with the dogs and watched the boys train for their tournament. The weather was cold but mostly clear and we spent a great amount of time outside.

They had a lot of leftover wine from 2006 which they had to get rid of for money reasons so we helped them to drain it into the ground. It was a sad sight to watch all that good wine be waisted but no one had any use for it anymore and the barrels were needed for the new wine. They had a big problem with rodents in their fields and to get two birds with one stone we poured the wine into the holes in the ground. We even chased one of them out, he was drenched in wine and ran as if he was drunk until the dog got him, and after we had emptied the last barrel we had drained more than 2700 liters of good wine into the ground.

Another day we assembled all the cattle to brand the calves, Ryan, Joey, Michelle and Debbie were on horses, sorted them into groups and branded them the next day. It was fun to watch them do their work, the oldschool roping and the branding with the hot iron but I had to look away when they castrated the young bulls. Bekki and I would have loved to help a little bit more or to do some work for them because everyone was so nice and we didn't do anything for it but they said that it would have taken a lot longer to explain stuff to us than to do it themselves and there wasn't even a woodchopping job to do for us.

We had really great 6 days there and are very thankful for how everything had worked out and for everything that we learned during our time there, for the nice people we met and the kindness we recieved. It was another very different but valuable experience that we made on our travels and a very nice one.

The vineyard

Bear tracks... Aaaaaaaahhhhh

The farmhouse and the beautiful land around it

Puppies

Ryan at his workplace

I feel that I should make beer adds...

Reagan

Emri and Lainey

My eyes almost have the color of the can. That's when you know that you're on the right way

Roping action. It doesn't look like it here but it is really fast