About Us
If you look at a map of California, and with a ruler draw a line from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and look about halfway, you will see the small city of Paso Robles (PR) a little west of your line. Look a little north of PR, and you will see San Miguel if your map is detailed enough. Our beautiful ranch is ten miles north and east of San Miguel. Geologically, we are in the inland Coast Ranges, at the edge of the Gabilan Mesa, a few miles from the San Andreas Fault (doesn’t scare us). Our “bedrock” geology is the mostly unconsolidated Paso Robles Formation on the hills and old and young stream deposits on canyon floors, stream terraces, and floodplain. Geographically, we are at the heart of the Wine Country of San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties. Climatologically, we are dry, and even have a few plants characteristic of the Mojave Desert. In a normal (whatever "normal" is in this climate change era) rain year, we get about 10 to 12 inches, most of it in late fall and winter. The dominant plant communities on our ranch are oak-pine woodland, chaparral, pine-juniper woodland, and grasslands. Jim is a retired clockmaker, meaning he repaired and restored clocks with specialization in grandfather and antique clocks. He used to occasionally accept clocks and other various vintage artifacts in exchange for his repair and restoration services. Lynn is a retired college professor ("Professor Emeritus" wahoo), having taught (and conducted research in) soil science, geology, and earth science. But most of her time now is spent raising sheep and conducting other ranch business.
Lynn taught herself to knit about 30 years ago. She quickly saw it could grow into a very expensive hobby, so taught herself to spin on a spinning wheel Jim made. She loves animals, so figured on raising fiber animals – first French angora rabbits (not a great fiber to learn to spin with), then llamas (a neighbor raised them), then sheep.
More about the sheep: We figured, if we’re going to get sheep, we might as well get sheep that need to be preserved – an endangered breed, in other words. So we started with Navajo-Churro sheep. As time has gone by, there are lots of great N-C breeders, so in 2010 we acquired a starter flock of 9 sheep of an even rarer breed – Santa Cruz Island (aka Santa Cruz) sheep, a few pictured. We decided not to breed the N-C sheep anymore (but still have one “retired” ewe who keep on producing wool, bless her) and concentrate on the Santa Cruz Island sheep. We are working on improving wool quality, through management and breeding, while still preserving the unique qualities of these sheep. We are up to about 100 Santa Cruz Island sheep now, having accepted (in March 2019) about 40 rams, ewes, and lambs that needed a new home. If we are going to be a viable ranch, the sheep (both breeds) need to earn their way, so we sell wool, breeding stock of the SCI sheep, and also put them to work as weed and brush eaters and fertilizer manufacturers.
And, very recently we adopted two black Shetland sheep - a wether, Rob, and a ewe, Brighteyes.
Some other members of our family: Three cats - Monterey (white), Shannon (white and tabby), and Frosty (gray). Some of our dearly departed members also are shown in the photos here and there.
Questions? Contact us at lynn@blueoakcanyonranch.com
