Ranchero Visitadores

Cachuma Lake

I haven’t updated this blog for almost 2 weeks. Where to start. I spent the last 10 days working for Rancheros Visitadores checking people in at the infamous “Blue Gate”.

The days were very long and even with a good night’s sleep last night I am still very tired and feel the need of a nap. Here are some photos from our vantage spot at the gate.


Here is the wood pile of stuff I brought from home to burn. Chief among this was the very large guava tree root we dug up last week.


I finished packing everything by 10 AM Friday. The boss delivered our checks at 10:30 and shortly after that I was on my way. The plan is to park the trailer at Lake Cachuma RV Park for 2 days and camp with friends. I will drive home with all the equipment I took to Visitadores, do laundry and pick up Clyda and what we need for a week of camping in Yosemite with friends. We will leave Cachuma on Sunday and travel to Nipomo and leave from there on Monday morning for Fish Camp South of Yosemite.

This is a short report but does fill in the essentials of what has been happening.

Back to my “roots” problem

Location, At Home

Budd and Brenda came down Monday afternoon to spend a few days. They came specifically for my initiation in the local Elks Club on Tuesday evening. Budd is my sponsor. Yes, I now am a full fledged member of the Elks. We plan to do some camping at Elks Clubs this summer.

However, as long as they were here, Budd offered to help remove the large Guava stump. I told him “he had planted it 30 plus years ago, now he could help me get it out”. I had chopped around the stump to get through what roots I could find but Budd suggested that we dig deeper until we were below the lateral roots. Using mattocks to do this we managed to get through the roots but now had a large ball weighing several hundred pounds to deal with.

Neighbor Paul suggested using a jack under one of the lateral roots to see if the whole ball could be moved. Darned if it didn’t move! More dirt was removed from the ball and finally three of us managed to tip the ball and get a board under it so more dirt could be removed. Using that process and a chain saw to cut off roots, the ball eventually became small enough to be lifted by two of us to a dolly. It now resides in the back of my pickup along with all the roots we cut and will be transported into the back country and burned next week as part of our evening fires while I am at Ranchero Visitadores.

Budd helped take apart more fence sections so we could check further for roots and also helped remove the back from my woodshed which now gives me access to the entire fence. All the old lumber was loaded on my truck to be burned.

Here are some photos of the process.


Roots exposed.


Root ball partially tipped to expose dirt.


Empty hole after root ball removed.


All loaded on the truck.


Tomorrow I need to mow the grass (weeds) at the Rancheros Visitadores location that I will be at starting next Tuesday afternoon. I normally start on Wednesday morning but the boss wants us on site by 8 AM Wednesday and I don’t want to get up that early to drag the trailer to the site. Hence, the Tuesday afternoon time works best for me. I will be working until Friday May 8th at noon.

Back to normal

Location, Home in CA

I am back from gate guard duty at Rancheros Vistadores. The 10 days went well with cool nights and warm days including one day of near 100 degree temperatures. It was very pleasant under the oak trees for most of the day. However, the temperatures inside the trailers would reach the high 90’s which made it unbearable during the middle of the day. We like to have 1 person not on duty for part of the day but the high temps made it hard to get any rest during that time. I usually got up at 6:30 AM and started breakfast soon after that. My days ended between 9 and 11 PM. There is one man who does the night shift from 11 PM to 7 AM.

Our routine was to have one of us check credentials as each vehicle came through our gate. Some are invited guests who have passes while most are members or workers who also have badges. We do get the usual number who have no passes or invitations. These we check for on our master list or lists and if still not found then we call them in on a land line to the communications center. Most are easily resolved in a few minutes. We have a good crew who work well together. Three of us have worked the gate together for the last eight years.

Approach to Gate

We packed up and left around 11 AM Friday as most of the people had left camp by then. I drove to Lake Cachuma campground and parked the trailer in one of the RV park campsites. Clyda and a friend came in while I was registering and another friend with a motor home came in while I was setting up the trailer. They will stay until Monday morning when I will go back up to get the trailer. They have been doing a “girls weekend camping trip” for several years after I finish at Rancheros as the campground is on the way home.

After unloading the truck last night, I checked the mail, had an early supper then went to bed. It will take me a few days to recover.

This morning I made a bank run and then washed the truck. I still need to put a few things away and then work on trip planning for our up coming June departure.