.COM It’s Not Just Mexicans Who
Live On The Ranchos There are also some Gringos with the pioneering spirit
BY DAVY CROCKETT
For more on this story watch the video at
www.gringogazette.tv
Bob and Liz Pudwill are from pioneering Alaska stock and are hardy and self reliant, which has served them well on their move to Baja.
They started coming down here on breaks from his commercial fishing and her restaurant work so he could go wind surfing, and they both fell in love with Baja.
Now that they are here full time, they own a homey tree filled rancho of 350 acres off highway 1 north of Los Barriles at km 144.5, sharing the place with four cats, six dogs, 12 horses, two sheep, and about 30 chick- ens. No, they are not free range chickens, because there are bob cats and foxes who would love to dine on them and they wouldn’t last the night. The tomatoes growing up the side of the chicken coop are volunteer vines, which sprang up when Liz tossed tomato scraps at the chickens. Every tomato seed the chicks couldn’t reach would fulfill its destiny and become a fruit bearing plant. They sell the eggs around town and when the chickens get old and start slacking off, they wring their necks, pluck ‘em and eat ‘em. As we explained, these folks come from hearty stock.
angle in order to follow the sun. He figures tracking the sun with his pan- els boosts the solar
energy he can capture by 30%.
Their house is up on the hill a quarter mile by dirt road from the stock, or a five minute climb by the shortcut trail. Bob tells us he walks that trail back and forth a dozen times a day. And, from the
not yet self support- ing so Bob builds houses for other people when he’s not working his own ranch. He built every out- building on the property, as well as their house. His cur- rent project is building an- other guest house out of au- continued on page 32
looks of things, all six dogs make that trip with him. The extra altitude at the house gives them a panoramic view of the valley, and unseen because of the under brush, are the horse trails leading up to the high (7,000 feet), Sierras. The rancho is
December 19th
, 2011
Liz is in charge of the horses, giving lessons for $50 for two hours. She also takes people out on the trails, and she cautions these are not beginner trails, nor be- ginner nags who just want to get back to the barn. “This is serious horseback riding on some interesting and chal- lenging trails,” she explains. And they have some rough cabins for staying overnight if its a multi day pony trek. She uses her restaurant back- ground to good advantage, cooking gourmet meals for her guests. A two day/one night ride is $500, three days and two nights, which gets you way, way up into the mountains is $750.
Bob and Liz are totally off the grid, so he’s built their solar and water system him- self. There is plenty of water from a well on the property. He’s got a pretty elaborate array of solar panels that he visits twice a day to crank them around to a different
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