Bill bought 10 acres of land on Nicassio Way in Soquel. It was off of Old San Jose Rd. We were living in Santa Cruz Gardens at the time which was around 1970. Greg and Brad would play around with BB guns and .22 guns up there. We built a tree house with a slide coming out of it and named it Fort Pace. We had a well there so we could water the animals, fruit trees and grapes. When Bill's dad, Jim, came to live with us in Santa Cruz, he needed something to keep him busy. He would drive his little green Datsun pickup truck up to the 10 acres nearly every day. He would put in a beautiful garden each spring after we rototilled the ground. He planted corn, tomatoes, all kind of vegetables, melons. He loved taking care of the garden. We got some wonderful vegetables and fruit from that property.
One day when he was resting on the side of the hill overlooking the garden, he felt something brush against his ear. He thought it was a fly and brushed it away. It happened again and he looked to see what it was. It was a little fawn licking Jim's ear. He grew to love that fawn and let it eat anything he wanted in the garden.
Jim and the Tow Truck Driver
Jim used to drive to the bottom piece on an old dirt road to load up the vegatables. One day, Jim got his truck stuck on the lower road near lots of passion oak bushes. He walked to a neighbor's house and called Bill's good friend, Ted Szychowski, who ran a little store about two miles from there and told him his predicament. Ted knew a guy who had a tow truck and told Jim to go back to the truck and the driver would meet him there. Knowing that Jim cussed all the time, Ted told the tow truck driver that Jim was a Mormon and to watch his language around him. The tow truck driver said, "Is there any poison oak around there, because I'm allergic to it?" Ted said, "No, there's no poison oak up there." When the tow truck driver got up to the 10 acres, he met Jim. Jim let out a whole string of profanity, especially cussing the poison oak. The drive was in shock!
Jim and the Fire works Stand
Our friend, Joe Vigil sold fireworks every year for the 4th of July. When the holiday was over he asked Bill if he would like to use the little building to store our hay in over the winter. Bill took it up to the 10 acres and put it together and filled it with hay. Jim would drive up there and feed the horses hay. One day he backed his truck up to the little building. He didn't realize that he had hooked his bumper on part of the building. When he pulled away the whole building collapsed. He let out his usual string of cuss words and came home cussing all the way. Bill had to go up there and put the building together again.
The Cattle
Jim, who used to be a cattle rancher in New Mexico, told Bill he needed to get some cattle. So Bill bought 20 calves and put them on the 10 acres. They were always getting out. When they got about 500-600 pounds, Jim said, "You need to sell them" Ted Szychowski had a stake body truck. We loaded the steers on his truck and took them to the Salinas stockyard to sell them. While we were unloading them, one of the cows let loose with a big shit and it got all over Ted's face. While he was wiping it off his face, one of the workers was laughing so hard and told Ted "If you had opened up your mouth, you wouldn't have got so much on your face."
More Cows
No sooner than Bill sold the calves, then Jim said, "You've got to get some more calves," Then I bought 6 pregnant cows. They had their calves. They were a little easier to keep in. We butchered a cow and kept and tanned its hide. We eventually sold all of the cattle and that was the last time we put cattle up there. Dad really enjoyed going up there and tending the garden and animals. One winter it rained a lot and Jim couldn't get up there. He started to go downhill then. It was as if that was one of his main reasons for living.
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