The Magical Paradise River Ranch, my last California Home

The Sign I had made for our Little Piece of Paradise

There was a certain magic in Springville, California that couldn’t quite be put into words, but I’ll do my best to try. Nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, my home in Springville was more than just a place to live; it was a sanctuary, a piece of paradise that I held close to my heart. It was where nature whispered its secrets, and every spring, it felt like the world was being reborn around me. I was fortunate to be surrounded by critters of all kinds, beautiful gardens, A rushing waterfall and river, and amazing mountain views!

Spring in Springville was unlike anything else. The transformation began quietly, almost imperceptibly, but then it burst forth in an explosion of life and color. The rivers, fed by the melting snow from the peaks above, came rushing back to life. The sound of flowing water from the river and waterfall filled the air, a constant, soothing presence that reminded me of nature’s power and vitality. Standing by the banks of the river, watching the water rush by, I felt connected to something ancient and enduring.

And... then there were the wildflowers. Oh, the wildflowers! Lupines, Poppies, Cockscombs, and other wild blooms seemed to blanket the mountainsides in a riot of colors. Purple, yellow, pink, and white—their hues danced in the sunlight, creating a masterpiece that no artist could ever replicate. Every year, it was as if the mountains were showing off their best finery, inviting us to pause and admire their beauty.

Every Spring we were greeted by many wonderful natural guests! Little red California newts would walk long distances coming from all over the hills to make their way to ponds and still areas of the rivers to find their mates. I will never forget the first time I saw one in our pond! It was like a little red dragon swimming through the waters. These little newts were so rare to see because the majority of the year it is too dry for them and they have to hide under leaves and rocks to stay living in moist environments through our summer droughts. So to see them come from all over to meet in our pond and continue their life cycle was pretty special. Each spring we would have at least 10-20 little newts in our pond.

During the spring I always liked to get out and explore as often as possible! Sometimes we would go off-roading in our Jeep. One Spring we were luck enough to see the ladybugs gathered also doing their little mating rituals. There were thousands if not millions in a meadow just up the forest road from our house. I could not get over the numbers, the trees looked Orange from the sheer number of ladybugs covering them!

I think one of my favorite guest to return in Spring had to be my hummingbirds. Hummingbirds have always been special to me, but even more so once my Mom passed away. She also loved hummingbirds and from the day that she passed away I have had many special moments with hummingbirds. The second year living at our home the hummingbirds returned in some pretty massive numbers. I had never seen so many hummingbirds! There were so many that I added feeder after feeder until I had 8-32 ounce feeders out on the property. Even with that many feeders they somehow managed to empty them by mid day and I would have to fill them again to get ready for the evening rush! It became a bit of a full time job! Take a look at these videos, what amazed me so much about these hummingbirds is that they were not territorial like hummingbirds I had always fed before. The summers were pretty dry in the mountains and there were not many flowers so it was almost as if they knew they had to share to survive.

I had never seen anything like this! Soooooo many hummingbirds!

I became a slave to these little guys, but it sure was fun to watch them!

When we first moved up to our beloved river ranch it had been a person's vacation home for just a couple of years. Since the owner was not at the property often, nature started to make itself right at home on the ranch. There were wood rats and mice all over outside which unfortunately attracted the ever so dangerous diamondback rattlesnakes. I first encountered one in early spring when thankfully it was still pretty cold because I stepped within 8-10" of a mid sized baby rattlesnake while out working in the garden. I am not one for killing animals of any type, heck I even carry spiders out of my house to let them live, LOL! So, I decided to catch this rattlesnake so I could take it up and let it go in the forest. We lived adjacent to thousands of acres Sequoia National Forest land so there were plenty of remote areas to take snakes and release them without putting people in danger. The first snake I caught using an 8' pole and a bucket. One thing I didn't think of was how hard it would be to get that lid off the bucket with a dangerous snake inside. It was crazy! I was running on pure Mommy adrenaline (I had to protect my fur babies) The scary adrenaline did not kick in until I had the bucket sitting beside me in my car driving up the road and all you could hear was the snake rattling very angrily inside! Needless to say my snake catching skills became a bit more advanced as time went on and I graduated to a snake catching stick and an Ice Chest as my preferred catching materials. We had been warned by the neighbor that we had a granddaddy of a rattlesnake that would move between our property and theirs. I did eventually catch this guy! It was my scariest capture of them all as my cat was sitting there looking at it. It was summertime and the cicadas were extremely loud that year. I was sitting outside and I heard the rattling but I thought it was just the cicadas, then I looked over to see my cat watching a HUGE rattlesnake in the driveway. I had an immediate dilemna... how do I safely get my cat to back away without the snake striking at it or me. I luckily saw the garden hose and got the idea to spray my cat to make it run. Then I started yelling for my husband to come help! I needed him to gather my ice chest and my stick while I kept an eye on big Granddad. He worked his way down under a rock so getting him out was a bit tricky. When I finally got him with the stick he was soooo heavy that I was not sure I could lift him into the ice chest. He was about 4' long but he was super fat, probably 3-5 inches across. I managed to get him into the ice chest, and safely took him up the hill to be released. I know people think I am nuts to relocate a rattlesnake but I learned in my many dealings with them that they did not want to hurt anyone or anything. They always gave me plenty of loud notice when I got anywhere near them. Because of this I learned to respect and actually kind of care for them. But I will never forget the many adrenaline packed captures that I made!

My first snake captured... buckets are definitely not the way to go.

This guy was wound all up in the rocks, I had to slowly remove them in order to be able to get him out. I ended up calling a neighbor for some help with this one.

Once we finally got him out we put him in a trash can until I could go get the ice chests. The scary part is I was finding lots of baby rattlesnakes. Those can be the most deadly bites because they don't know how to control the amount of venom they put out.

My husband hated that I would capture these guys while he was down the hill at work. But you had to catch them when you saw them or you might never see them again.

In an effort to get the rodent population I decided to bring home some feral kitties that needed homes. I knew a person who fed the feral cat colonies and whenever she came across an injured cat she would catch them and take them to the vet, but then they would not be re-released, they would go into a cattery. I hated seeing them in these large cages. They were very well taken care of but it still broke my heart. Thinking we would be living up there for quite some time I brought home 6-8 feral kitties over a two month period. They were wild as could be but they did an AMAZING job of taking care of the rodent population. In fact it was quite an amazing thing, they would catch and kill the rodents, but only a few would eat them. The next morning I would walk out to see dead rodents laying out by one of the outbuildings. Well the birds of prey caught on to this and before we knew it we had a cycle and every morning they would come retrieve whatever rodents the cats had taken care of. Well I started feeding all of my feral kitties down on a ways from the house so that my dogs would not see them and want to chase them. Since I had food out all kinds of wild critters started to visit. It got to the point that I had a family of skunks living under one large rock, a family of raccoons living under our deck and out in the forest, and some random opossums coming to visit. They all got very used to me, even the skunks. When they heard me coming they would start to run, but once they saw it was me they would just stand back and let me get the food out. I had one particularly friendly racoon that would follow me into the fenced kennel where we kept the food locked up, and then he would follow me right back out for me to dump the food into the different bowls. I thought this was the greatest thing. I felt like Snow White surrounded by all the little animals!

My adorable raccoons. I wish I had done a video of all of the critters together.

Living on a mountain Ranch came with all kinds of new lessons. I had always been one to get in there and tackle any crazy project thrown my way. Whenever I was not actually working selling real estate you could find me busting my booty on our property. I was a bit crazy at times and tackled more than I probably should have. Like when I decided to try to plant a full acre of our property in flowers of all types. California does not get a lot of rain so that then entailed having to run drip irrigation throughout that full acre of hilly rocky property. I would sit and work on spray emitters for my irrigation for so long that my fingers practically bled, I just taped them up and kept on working.

There were a lots mishaps along the way though...like that time I burned my hair so badly that I had to shave my head! I was burning a huge fire up against a hill. I was on the high side and a breeze blew toward the hill bringing all the heat of the fire with it. The photo of the pile on the second row was the pile that turned my hair to a giant frizzy mess. Thank goodness I have always had short hair so I just said o-well...I guess I have to shave it. My husband shaved his also for moral support. LOL!

I would get out on the wilder part of the property and do major cleanups and chainsaw branches and trees and create huge burn piles. Sometimes I would reach a bit to high and get the chainsaw stuck in the tree. During the spring time there was a lot of weed whacking to do. One year I made the mistake of pulling my socks up over my pants. Needless to say I never did that again! In fact the next week I went and bought my first pair of boots, I was officially a mountain woman!

All of this crazy stuff I did while my husband was down the hill at work. He was always so nervous for me, but I was a doer and he knew that I was just going to keep on doing things no matter what. So we ended up buying little walkie talkies so that I could at least reach him for help when he was home if I got in a bind. With all the rocks we had on the property it was truly a miracle that I had never tripped and fallen over a rock and cracked my head open. I can truly say God was watching over me many a time, because there were so many crazy things I did but I was always okay.

The Fall on our ranch was a beautiful time of year! Granted I had never witnessed a fall like the fall that happens here in the North Georgia Mountains, but it was truly beautiful in a different way.

Where we lived we were at about 3,400 feet in Elevation. It just happened to be that perfect elevation that we usually got a little snow whenever snow storms hit our local mountains. One Winter I will never forget, and I still laugh about it now as I write this. We thought we were soooo snowed in. We stayed at home two days until I had an appointment that I could not miss. I made my way out of the driveway where we had almost two feet of snow, by the time I made it to the stop sign a half a mile away and just a tad lower in elevation there was literally not a drop of snow! It was really funny when I made it down the hill that short distance only to find that they had not even gotten a sprinkle of snow. Later that day I took a drive up the road to see the pretty sights, and it was absolutely stunning. It was the first time we lived somewhere where you truly experience all four seasons.

Springville, California, will always hold a special place in my heart. It wasn’t just where I lived; was the home that allowed me to play to my hearts content. There was always something to do, some place to go adventure on one of the nearby forestry roads, amazing views to be had, and fun times on the river to be enjoyed. It's even where I lived when I bought and converted Betsy the Bus! (I'll share her story in another post) I am so very glad that we had the opportunity to live in Springville before we made our journey east. It was a blessing beyond belief and in just two short years so many wonderful, funny, scary, and wild memories were made.