City Girl Visits a Homestead
By Carolyn Bickford
A few weeks ago, Neil and Kelly and I went to visit our former neighbors, Dave & B.J. who'd moved on to the eastern side of Mount Hamilton. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, Mount Hamilton is the biggest mountain in the area, and also the site of the Lick Observatory. Though San Jose is one of the largest cities in the country, it becomes less and less populated as you spiral up the very windy road to Mount Hamilton. There's a road from there that goes east, but hardly anyone ever does, since that area, known at the San Antonio Valley, is extremely rural.
So I was intrigued at my former neighbor's new home: he'd bought 40 undeveloped acres and had planned to build his own house and farm on the land. Foolish me, I thought I had country leanings, since I love nature. I like going hiking in the local parks, which pretend to be wilderness, and camping, as long as I can still drive to a grocery store if I need anything.
My first inkling that I was about to see a lifestyle my mind couldn't even begin to comprehend was when B.J. gave me two pieces of information about my visit. First of all, there is no cell phone service in her area (not even roaming), and secondly, since my car doesn't have four-wheel drive, I would have to use their neighbor's driveway to get up to their property. For this to happen, I would have to stop my car right in the street, and honk, and then Dave would drive over to his neighbors and open their gate.
That's exactly what happened. It turns out that the road they live off of is Del Puerto Canyon Road, the only road in western Stanislaus County, and one in such a shoddy condition I think Stanislaus County isn't even sure it exists. On the other hand, I ran into absolutely no one else on that Saturday, so it's also probably only used by the few locals. Del Puerto Canyon Road, as you might guess, runs between two canyon walls, and I found out, my neighbors live on a canyon wall. As such, even over their neighbors' flatter driveway, my car got stuck on some soft sand, and started sliding off the wall. My kids started screaming, and we all quickly evacuated the car, until Dave figure a way to get it up.
Their home, just a trailer for the time being, was perched on a flattened out portion of the canyon. Dave told me about power and plumbing, which made me realize I've never even thought there was life without municipal utilities. For instance, Dave's water comes from a well, which is nothing more than a spigot stuck in the ground. Every other day, Dave hooks a hose to the well in order to fill up two water tanks, which then provide all the water for the household. Since a well can run dry, they'll use the "grey" water from showering and dish washing to water their plants. As for electricity, he had to pay the local electrical utility to place three electricity poles and wiring on his land, with everything coming in over true undeveloped wilderness. Since the slightest storm can eliminate that source, he relies on solar power as a backup. A neighbor with a backhoe is cutting roads through their land, and if they want city folk with 2-wheel drive little cars to come in, they'll have to tamp it down with gravel.
And then, there were the animals. Dave took Neil and me tracking and showed us where deer and coyote had recently been. But my worst shock came when Dave took out some hides out of his shed to show Kelly, and a bunch of seeds fell out as well. Dave laughed and said mice must have been using the hides' bags to stash their winter food. I was merely horrified. I hate mice. Whenever I see a mouse in my house, I am the charicature of the woman screaming from on top of a chair. The fact that Dave could co-exist on a friendly basis with mice was disturbing.
And, for me, the rural life was boring. After hiking his property, we really had nothing to do. And Dave and B.J. were so far away from everything that a trip to the grocery store was a 2-hour journey. In fact, the closest business (and the only business in San Antonio Valley) is a little cafe/bar called the Junction. It's about 5 miles from their house, and if they hadn't chosen to receive their mail at a post office box in Patterson (18 difficult miles to the east), they'd have to pick it up at The Junction--where it's only delivered twice a week.
Now, to be fair, the kids had a great time. They loved the relaxed feel of the rural life and happily watched a Garfield movie. In fact, Kelly was happy just tumbling along the canyon wall and examining rocks. But I crave adventure, and short of natural disaster or dangerous animals (which were real hazards here but not the adventure I like), this didn't have it. B.J. said she got a lot of reading done. Dave, of course, will be busy for the rest of his life terraforming and developing a canyon.
But then Dave is a history buff, and it's his kind that settled America in the first place. And they had a lot less resources at their disposal than he does. I, on the other, hand, would have been one of those staying behind in crowded, but far more metropolitan, Europe, until folks like Dave had settled the place for me.