After our fun adventure exploring the Nelder Grove and hiking the Shadow of the Giants, the kids and I headed back to Oakhurst to pick up Adam from work. From there we drove our final 45 minutes out to a ranch house I had booked on VRBO just south of Mariposa. It was in an extremely remote location with only a few homes scattered about, but was in a beautiful none-the-less. We ended up getting horribly lost and had to stop and ask for directions, but eventually after turning around and heading back the way we had come, we were able to find it! It was small and quaint, but a great little place for our family for the 3 days we were there.
Here the kids are with the chickens and dog Spit! The ranch house is behind the pen on the left and was right next to the master bedroom window. At nights we had to open up the windows to cool down the place which meant that we got a very abrupt wakening each morning from the rooster at 6:00 am! Which coincidentally also woke up all our kids! So that was a downfall of the place, but sure made for a true ranch/farm experience! ha ha! But the kids loved playing with all the animals so it was worth it!
The house luckily was right by a Verizon cell tower, and had internet but the internet was slow unless you were out on the front porch. So that became Adam’s office for the week where he would work from 8-5 each day!
The kids and I took a walk around the ranch our first morning to see all the animals!
The ranch also has a big vineyard of both green and purple grapes that they use to make wine.
The vineyards just so happened to be RIGHT out our back door at the house.
While we were there visiting the owner of the house was kind enough to teach the kids how to fish in one of her old water troughs that she converted to a fish pond. Several of my kids said this was their favorite thing to do during our 3 days at the house.
And here are more pictures of the vineyard.
This was looking out from behind the house we stayed in.
One funny story. While we were staying at the ranch house one day, Branson started telling us about an idea he had to make a house that was full of pranks because he loved pranking people. So one evening after the kids had taken all their baths I heard Brans in the bathroom brushing his teeth. So very quietly I slipped outside and started scratching the bathroom window with my fingernails. Then I did a few tap a tap taps, and then did a full hand palm to the window. And yet there was no reaction from Brans. Then I quickly ran inside and sat down in the living room area so he wouldn’t suspect me. A few minutes later he came out and said, “Oh my gosh Mom! I think someone is outside! I heard scratching on the windows” but then he back tracked, “Wait, Mom was that you?” I started laughing and teased that he was just trying to prank us all again and nice try, but he of course kept trying to convince me that he really had heard something and was really scared! I just kept laughing (mostly because it was me) but I’d say something like “sure Brans! Let me go check out to see if the scary scratcher is still outside and then you will laugh and make fun of me!” It was pretty funny! But eventually I did fess up and tell him because I could tell he was really scared and I didn’t want him having night mares all night! He just gave me a fake glare but then laughed with me! Then he tried doing the same thing to me the next time I went to the bathroom! Love my silly boy!
