Smith Ranch

Today we headed up to Julian to Explore the Smith Ranch. For years we've heard about this place with it's mine and train and the wonderful family that owns it. Nani & Papa go to church with the Smith Family.

 

We started off by picking mulberries off their over flowing trees. The trees were covered with berries and so was the ground! The boys REALLY liked them and picked handfuls of them. Simeon picked so many his hand was overflowing with them. He ended up pretty covered in mulberry juice.

 

 

 

 

After picking berries and cleaning up from that we hopped on the train. Our conductor told us about the train and about the land, then we headed out. We didn't make it very far because the train jumped the track at the junction and we all had to get out while they got it back on track.

 

While they got it back on line, we heard more about the land and the train. The kids were so patient waiting and watching them get it back on track.

 

We took a train ride up the hill to the mine area. When they bought the land, the entire mine shaft was filled with dirt. They dug the dirt out about 60 feet back. The explored about 30 feet farther in and saw that there was red wood walls which meant that this was a high gold producing mine at one point. The air shaft that goes to the top of the hill was full of dirt and in a rain storm the dirt came back into the mine refilling 30 feet, so now it only goes back 30 feet.

We got to either walk into the mine or go in a mining car. In the mine you can see tree roots and see where the walls were chiseled, and it's always 60 degrees in there.

 

 

After everyone had a chance to go in the mine, we played in the play area. This family knows how to keep kids active. They had a rope to climb up a steep hill. There were slides built right into the hills. They had bridges to cross that were all different-skinny, moving, holding still. The kids LOVED this area and ran from slide to bridge, to rope to bridge to slide. They were all over the place and having a blast!

 

 

 

 

After lunch the kids got to explore another awesome area. This area had a working water pump, a trough to panning for gold, a cute little train, another rope bridge and a cannon. The big kids went on the rope bridge over and over. Rebecca did it with some help. All the kids panned for gold and were so cute with it. Some were finding gold left and right and others couldn't find any. There were many times when one of the kids would be getting sad because they couldn't find any, and a cousin would take one of their pieces and secretly put it right where the sad cousin was panning. It was so sweet to see the kids helping each other. After the kids found a piece of gold they got to take it to the Smith store, weigh it and exchange it for a piece of licorice. (One of our kids decided to take some gold rocks home with them!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julian Apple Pies for dessert. YUM. The favorite was the caramel topped apple crumb pie. YUM and YUM again!

The kids got a lesson on how to run the train before we boarded the train for the ride back down the hill.

We had such a fun day at the Smith Ranch. It lived up to all the stories we had heard about it.