Opening the Ranch

Getting ready for the opening –Sodhouse Ranch Aug 2010

For the last two weeks R and I have been busy with all the tasks necessary to have the Sodhouse Ranch cleaned up and ready for Sunday Aug 15. Well, today is Sunday and it is. If you were at the ranch two weeks ago and then stopped by today, you wouldn’t recognize the place. The shoulder high grass is mowed. The walking path has been cleared. The buildings can be seen and accessed. The homestead house is set up with furniture and accessories like it would have been when it was used as a kitchen to feed the workers hired to do the haying on the ranch.

The bunkhouse has been transformed. When we first came here a couple of years ago the swallows owned the bunkhouse. Hundreds of them flew in and out daily through many openings. The inside was covered with the results of their occupation and the smell was intense. A couple of years before a screen had been put up in the stairway to limit the birds to the upstairs area but that was the extent of the work. So during the last two years of our visits my mission has been to eliminate the bird intrusions. I patched holes that had been made by flickers and used by the swallows. I used old boards so that the patches blended in with the rest of the building. The opening in the roof where the stove pipe exited made a huge entrance so last year I nailed a large piece of tin over it.

This year when we arrived we noted that the bunkhouse had a new shake roof so the roof opening problem is a thing of the past. It was time to clean out the inside so that visitors could enjoy it. Several days of hauling debris from the upstairs and well as the first floor followed by two sessions of power washing left the bunkhouse looking good! Looking good and ready to set up. Add a small wood or coal stove, a table, a couple of nail kegs, lantern, and lots of period accessories and the main room looks good. The second room downstairs is furnished, for now like a bedroom with a small table, a trunk, and a bed. Now the bed is different from what you are familiar with. The vaqueros who occupied this building slept in beds that resembled coffins. They measured 6 ft x 3 ft and were 2 ft high. The “box” was filled with straw and their bedrolls were laid on top. For men accustomed to sleeping on the ground when they were herding cattle, these must have been like sleeping on a feather bed.

Tomorrow, Monday is our first day “on duty”. I hope we get some visitors that stop by for a tour. The cows arrive tomorrow which will be fun. I will tell you about them in another entry.