Essay 1 Workshop

The picture I am writing about is taken from the top of a long driveway looking out over a ranch house, cabin, and various barns into a green meadow in a quiet valley. This view is very beautiful on its own and like any other is worth a thousand words, but the thing that I love most about it is what can’t be seen. Countless hours of hard work and life savings went into creating this simple yet stunning dream and for me it shows what a life full of hard work can accomplish.
Looking deeper into the picture in places that cant be understood is a sanctuary where nothing else in the world matters and it is 660 acres of peace and quiet. This place serves a different purpose for everyone who goes there to enjoy it but for me it is many things. In the fall, this place, Thoms Creek Ranch, turns into deer camp where huge Mule deer cut through to head from the flats up to the mountains to start prepping for winter. It also serves as a base camp for hunting excursions, where we take day trips up into the Warner Mountain range. Towards the middle of deer season, duck season takes off, and the seemingly never ending swarm of ducks and geese migrate south from Canada for the winter. They too cannot resist the beauty of the ranch because they flock to the various ponds around the ranch for a pit stop on their long journey.
During the winter, with heavy snow fall, the ranch is a hard place to visit and for months it goes unused but when spring time rolls around, Thoms Creek shows a different side. As the snow level drops melts down to only a couple of inches, tracks from animals can be seen crisscrossing the field proving that there is always more life there then what can be seen in the daytime. Green grass and trees regaining their color prove that winter has ended and the arrival of all the different new born animals confirms that the year to come will be a good one. As with all places in Northern California there are an over abundance of two things, Ground Squirrels and Coyotes, and to start the year off right we try our hardest to scare them away, needless to say they are fairly good and dodging bullets.
The remaining months of the year are those of summer time and this is when family and friends truly get to enjoy this place. This is one of the few times during the year when everyone clears their schedule and makes time to visit this wonderful place and get together. In the upper pasture overlooking the creek we setup the clay pigeon thrower and shoot trap. In the meadow, the cows are moved over from Cedarville to feast on the luscious green grass that was thoroughly watered with the spring thaw. Back at the house people gather around the BBQ and tell stories and to cook up the fish that were caught in the creek or up in one of the many mountain lakes in the surrounding area. Later on in the night we pull out the deck of cards or the cup of dice and everyone gets just a little too rowdy.
When this place was first acquired it was to say the least, a work in progress but it definitely had potential. We spent summers cleaning up the old mining pits which were used by the previous owners as garbage pits. The area around the house was abused and poorly taken care of and with a little work it cleaned up to what is shown in the picture. The garage was renovated and turned into a bunk house/ laundry room to accommodate more guests, and new barbed wire was stretched around the property to keep the cows in and the neighbors’ cows out.
This place has really shown me how a dream can become a reality and how hard it can be but also how rewarding work is if you save your money. It has motivated me in many ways to keep my head down and work with a watchful eye into my future but also to not let the present pass me by. Thoms Creek Ranch is more than a beautiful place, it’s an experience. These are the thousand words that that you cannot see in the picture.