Santa Ynez Births

Meadow frolic
Originally uploaded by scampion

Santa Ynez is a virtual nursery in the spring. In the equestrian facilities, we see long-legged foals. Cattle ranches feature calves. Usually they're more tranquil than the three in this photo, but this bunch sure looks like they're having fun.

Woodstock Ranch leases the grazing rights to its common areas. Now it's a second home to steers who munch the wild grass and enjoy the panoramic views. Clearing the land with cows is a truly green approach. The rancher pays for the right to have his cows roam and get fat on the native plants.

There's a company a few miles away that leases goats to remove grass and scrub. In that case, the economics are reversed. Usually owners of land with difficult terrain pay for the goats to be delivered and act as environmentally correct weed eaters.

Regardless of the dollar flow, grazing animals can be a great example of energy conservation.

Santa Ynez Springtime

Arabian Mare and Foal
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/25559798@N08/

Santa Ynez bursts with life in the spring. My favorite new creatures are foals. Here's a picture of an Arab mare and her baby.

This morning I drove past Magali Farms which is about five minutes away from Ridgeline Ranch. It's a large equestrian facility specializing in thoroughbreds.

I stopped by a broad green pasture, mesmerized by the tranquil scene. There must have been twenty mares and foals enjoying the morning air. The mares were grazing lush green grass and the foals, basking in the sun, slept beside them. One little colt was standing on long, spindly legs nursing while his mother munched her greens. Such a beautiful serene view!

Santa Ynez Flora - part 3

Santa Ynez has so many different wildflowers I feel justified in devoting at least one more posting to them.

I guess it's easy to tell I love nature. That's one reason why this green house built with energy conservation in mind appealed so much to me. But the overriding reason was the house's location with its panoramic view. tranquility and sense of seclusion. Ridgeline Ranch is my retreat. I didn't buy it as a retirement home, but I can't imagine anywhere better to "retire" to.

Back to flowers.

Here's a field of lupine with Grass Mountain in the back. You should be able to see swaths of orange on the mountain which are fields of California poppy.

And here's a closer view of poppies:

Santa Ynez Sedgwick Reserve

Santa Ynez is blessed to include Sedgwick Reserve. I've alluded to it several times and thought I should explain a bit more about it. It is regarded as the "crown jewel" of the University of California Natural Reserve System.

Here's why:

Encompassing 24 square kilometers (9.2 square miles) on the southern slopes of the San Rafael Mountains, the Sedgwick Reserve spans an elevational range of 500 meters (1,650 feet) and is noted for both its large size and environmental heterogeneity. The reserve contains two distinctive geologic formations: relatively young Paso Robles alluvium and much older Franciscan metamorphosed seafloor, including large areas of serpentine. Diverse vegetation types include coast live oak forest, blue oak woodland, valley oak savannah, buckbrush chaparral, coastal sage scrub, grassland, willow riparian forest, serpentine outcroppings, and agricultural lands. The site contains major portions of two watersheds and a variety of localized wetland habitats, notably vernal pools. The region has a rich Native American heritage, and at least one Middle Chumash habitation site (1,500 to 2,000 years old) rests on site. The reserve’s large size enables research of varying scales on native ecosystems.

Francis Minturn Sedgwick and his wife Alice DeForest Sedgwick purchased the land in 1952, using it to run cattle and as a family retreat. Because both were avid riders, the ranch included equestrian facilities. In 1997, it passed into the University of California Reserve System as a result of their bequest of the bulk of the land and a purchase of the remainder by the Santa Barbara Land Trust and other individuals. In connection with the funding, an agricultural easement was placed on several hundred acres which had both vineyard potential and potential for growing other crops. For those of you interested in genealogy, Francis and Alice Sedgwick were the parents of Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol's muse, and were also distant relatives of Kyra Sedgwick.

A recent benefactor of the Reserve is the Tipton Foundation whose gifts have led to solar power, improved roads and, most significantly, a meeting house built to the highest standards of energy conservation. It is a model for those who want to go "green."

Today scientific research is conducted on the Reserve as well as public education, aimed principally at elementary school children. The Reserve has an active corps of docents who lead public hikes once a month and act as teachers for the visiting students.

I've enjoyed my association with the Reserve as a docent tremendously. In fact, there is a class this morning in "Duke" Sedgwick's old art studio about local wildflowers. Gotta go learn more about the bright patches of color now appearing on my panoramic view.

Santa Ynez Schools

Santa Ynez Valley has three high schools and several elementary schools. I'm on the Board of Trustees at Dunn School and visited there today. That inspired me to write about our valley schools.

Two of the secondary schools are independent boarding schools that also accept day students. The third is a public school that draws students from Santa Ynez, Solvang, Ballard and Buellton.

My son's experiences as a freshman at La Canada High School caused him to retreat from education. Big classes and a tenured teacher slacker waiting for retirement turned him into an angry, indifferent student. He enrolled at Dunn School in Los Olivos as a sophomore. We followed him to this beautiful valley.

Dunn's small classes and individualized attention turned him around. He enjoyed the challenge of its advanced placement courses and its sports program. Because Dunn has international students from all parts of the globe (and all economic circumstances), he became much more of a citizen of the world. Today he's at Grinnell College in Iowa, one of the country's leading liberal arts colleges.

Our valley has another independent high school - Midland. It is also located in Los Olivos but is situated far out Figueroa Mountain Road on a former ranch and encompasses several thousand acres. It has strong academics with an emphasis on environmental education, addressing all things "green." It has a farm program and an equestrian program. The students are required to play an active role in the school's upkeep - even gathering wood to heat water for their showers. When my city boy heard that, he quickly demurred.

A sidenote is that Midland sits across the road from Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson's second home or is it his third or fourth? When Jackson was in residence, the Midland students had a direct view of fans standing outside Neverland's gate. He still owns the property but it's included in local real estate listings.

The third high school is Santa Ynez Unified High School. It has had very strong programs but has been hit hard by the budget cuts all public schools are facing.

Santa Ynez Tranquility

One of my favorite times of the day is morning when I sit on my patio with a mug of coffee. The panoramic view of the Sedgwick is so serene. I feel as if I'm on a retreat.

The deep silence is broken only by the call of birds. Until I left the buzz of the city and moved here, I could barely tell one bird from another. Now I know their names as well as their migratory patterns. The arrival of the red-breasted house sparrows and bright lesser goldfinch tell me Spring has arrived. The yellow-billed magpie stays with us all year because its habitat is quite limited. I must admit that with their raucous squawk and flashing black and white wings they are my favorite.

As I watch the house sparrows build their nests out of twigs and bits of lichen, I think how right it is that this house was built according to exacting green standards. It feels organic, like part of the surroundings on this rare parcel adjacent to the Sedgwick Reserve.

Although we had thought of taking advantage of the vineyard potential of the large flat area abutting the Sedgwick, I'm glad we didn't. I love walking down the old ranch road and picking wildflowers that blanket this parcel. There is a riot of yellow violets, lupine, poppies and more that I can't name.

It's hard to believe that this tranquil retreat is only ten minutes from Santa Ynez, 15 minutes from Solvang and 30 minutes from Santa Barbara.

Santa Ynez Serenity

My dogs (Anke on the left and Fritz on the right) and I went for a walk this afternoon. Here's a view of them on a rise opposite Ridgeline Ranch with the Ranch and its major view behind them. If you click on this picture or any of the others in this blog, the photo will be enlarged to fill your screen - demonstrating in detail what handsome animals these two are!

The temperature was perfect today and we trekked around Woodstock Ranch. Santa Ynez has several residential areas. We live in Woodstock Ranch, a collection of approximately one hundred 20-acre parcels, many of which have superb equestrian facilities. Several of the owners originally purchased their ranches as second homes and now live in them full time during their retirement.

Ridgeline Ranch has a large pasture facing Live Oak Road on the western edge of the property and a large flat area on the eastern edge where it abuts Sedgwick Natural Reserve owned by UCSB. (The Live Oak pasture is shown below in the Wildflowers Galore photo.) The flat area adjacent to the Sedgwick has vineyard potential or could be the site of a barn or an arena.

Sedgwick encompasses almost 6,000 acres or more than nine square miles! Check out the Reserve at http://nrs.ucop.edu/Sedgwick.htm. Ridgeline Ranch is a rare property because few parcels abut the Sedgwick. I always feel that Ridgeline Ranch is like an oceanfront home except, in this case, it fronts pristine California foothills offering a panoramic view and ultimate tranquility and seclusion. And not many oceanfront homes are built with a similar concern for the environment. Our home on Ridgeline Ranch is a green building and received expedited permitted from Santa Barbara county because it was so eco-friendly.