- Living on the “hill”, we wouldn’t have it any other way -
Redbud Mini Ranch is named after the easement on the property that is also our driveway …Redbud lane, the easement is named after the Western Redbud tree which grows prolifically up here in the foothills. One of my favorite trees, it has small bright pinkish-purple flowers on it in the early spring and is always a sure sign of warmer weather approaching.
The weather is one of the best things about living here in foothills, we never have any fog or 100 degree temps and the snow we get only “snows us in” every 10+ yrs or so. One thing I’ve had to adjust to is the climate here makes for a shorter growing season for the garden, unless you have a greenhouse for starting seeds….which we haven’t accomplished yet. And being on the western slope of the Sierra’s in the north valley means allot of annual rain fall for us. So the worst things about living here are the muddy winters and “fire season” in the summer/fall. LOL But there is so much to do around here….if you like the outdoors.
A beautiful mountainous area, we are surrounded by multiple lakes supplied by the Yuba and Feather rivers…Bullards Bar Reservoir and Lake Oroville are the largest with Bullards being the closest, about 30 minutes away. The reservoir rated one of the top waterskiing locations, is formed by New Bullards Bar Dam on the North Fork of the Yuba River , a tributary of the Sacramento River . It also receives a portion of the Middle Fork's flow that is diverted to the reservoir via tunnels. The reservoir provides water to power two hydroelectric plants, New Colgate Powerhouse and Fish Release Powerhouse. New Colgate Powerhouse is not located at the base of the dam, like most hydroelectric plants. Instead, a 14-foot diameter New Colgate Tunnel carries the water about 5 miles southwest of the dam to the powerhouse. This increases the head, which allows the plant to produce more electricity than most and the dam's Pelton wheels are the largest ever built. For more info on recreational activities in the area check out this web site - http://www.bullardsbar.com/index.cfm
Being an hour from “town” – (i.e.: Wal-Mart, fast food and cheaper groceries) is not always fun…no pizza delivery and most places on the “hill” close early by 9pm, even earlier in the winter. But for such a small community, Brownsville has allot of retail businesses – grocery store w/ deli, health clinic, hardware store, video rental, bakery, several specialty gift shops, youth center, self storage, café, thrift shop, feed store, a sand & gravel supply and a small motel. We even have a nice community park with a playground, BBQ area, and baseball field and tennis courts. The only thing we don’t have in Brownsville
We love it here and I would never leave the area unless it was impossible to stay. Right now we are on a couple acres and of course it doesn’t seem like enough, maybe someday we will find 5+ acres we love. Meanwhile my garden is doing well here and the gold fish pond is thriving in its new location. That’s a whole other story, how we moved the fish from my last place and kept them in a temp pool for 2 months during the new pond construction. That’s them behind the purple shade cloth, before the release.
Work continues on the horse accommodations as we add a few more shelters and new paddocks in preparation for next years breeding and foaling season. Now we have 2 gorgeous boys(Jai & Zydeco) that will need separate turnouts with their girls and possibly several mares that could be pregnant, so I am really looking forward to foaling season this summer.
"the boys" - Jai Ho and Zydeco
More about that later……
