Where it all began…

Once upon a time Lewis and Ella Plush began their dream on a 160 acre ranch in Lockwood Valley that Lewis had homesteaded in 1919.   They had two daughters Louella Lee and Lola.   Originally, they raised Golden Banana Apples but because of the weather they were only getting a crop about every three years so they switched to raising turkeys to supplement their income.  A trip to town was an all day trip they raised most their own produce, canned fruit and vegetables for winter, butchered their own meat and milked a cow, with only dirt roads there were times that they couldn’t get out for at least a month. The original post office was at the Plush Ranch where they boxed up the apples and sent them on their way, (they were the first Harry & David )Summer weather was usually cool with temps in the 70’s although sometimes it reached 80 degrees.  Friends and family often came for the weekend-especially the 4th of July when beds and sleeping bags would be spread under the pinon pine trees.  The Plush’s once recorded getting 25 pounds of pine nuts from under one tree, valued at 40 cents a pound.  One of Lewis Plush greatest accomplishments was the construction of a pipeline from North Fork Falls three miles to the Plush Ranch.  They dug a ditch and filled it with the 8” concrete pipe he hand cast on site. From 1919 to 2022 The Plush/Lee family have been the stewards of this grand legacy.  Grandson Gary continued to be involved with the ranch while generously sharing his time and knowledge with the community, especially with the Boy Scouts and their camp next door.  Lois, Gary’s wife generously shared her time and knowledge through teaching and becoming the principal at the Frazier Park Mountain School, the lives they both touched, changed and guided to becoming great adults continue to reach out to tell stories of Gary and Lois Lee.  Jenny Lee daughter of Gary and Lois married Joe Barton of Grey Wolf Cellars and Barton Family Estate in Paso Robles.  103 years later Gary and Lois decided to sell the Lee Ranch so they could join Jenny and her family in Paso Robles at the Barton Family Estate. 

103 years later on a drive looking at property way to far away we found the Lee Ranch. A retired B/C from the LA City Fire Department on a pension, an old wife, a daughter a engineer on the LA City Fire Department and a son in-law in law enforcement buy the Lee Ranch, two senior citizens, two kids starting a family 60 miles from work, Yep definitely not normal, surely most think we’re crazy, but we’re doing this

HERE WE GO………………