Turtle Creek Ranch

From the beach in Mendocino County we went back up into the Coastal Range and to my brother's place back in the hills. It is north of Laytonville and after leaving the paved highway we traveled on dirt roads for almost an hour to get to their property, called Turtle Creek Ranch. My brother, the Swami, lives there with his wife Nikki on their 160 acres of rugged hills.

The main house started out as a hunting cabin and they have added multiple rooms, passageways, a complete separate residence, a barn, etc. It is a village really. There are always other people living there doing work on the farm. For example, in the photo below there are 2 women watering plants on the porch who are from Costa Rica there as part of a program called WWOOF, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.

But, typical of Californians in the summer, they live outside with a full living room set out under the shade of oaks and Douglas firs. I managed to catch Nikki and Swami resting in the shade.

 

 Here Swami is getting ready to take us on a hike around the property.

We all had a great time catching up.