Daily Dose Blogger Bios
Going Off the Deep End
(Welcome!)
A year and a half ago, friends and trail blaizers David Bunn and Ellen Birrell sold their beautiful craftsman home in Eagle Rock and purchased a lemon farm in Santa Paula, CA.
(Deep End Ranch farmhouse - dates back to the late 1800s)
Nevermind that the two artists knew next to nothing about farming (I say next to nothing because Ellen had horses, and in my mind if you can ride a hourse, surely you must know something about running a farm), they took the plunge - they moved all their possessions plus two dogs and horses to the lemon farm and named it "Deep End Ranch".
(Newly planted citrus climb the hills behind the garden)
Their teaching positions - David in the graduate art dept at USC and Ellen in the photo program at Cal/Arts - keeps them connected to LA, but for the most part, their lives are now all about lemons, horses, and Arundo donax (the giant reed grass that clogs the river that runs through their property).
(Peeking into a row of the lemon groves)
Jan and I were lucky to be invited to spend the weekend after Thanksgiving playing with a big group of pals up at Deep End Ranch, and being in the rural setting watching David and Ellen embarking on this exciting phase of their lives was deeply moving to me. Nature has electrified them - their eyes are brighter, their laughter louder, and the love of their new surroundings leaps out of them and into you.
(Sweet Josefina gives Sadie a big kiss)
click for more, friends...
(Approaching the paddocks)
This weekend we found out that David is leaving his job at USC, and will be working in conjunction with Cal/Arts to turn Deep End Ranch into an artist-in-residency program. Amazing things are growing up there, lemons, avocados, ideas ... I'm in awe.
(Lemons, lemons, everywhere!)
David is filming the herculian task of removing the Arundo from the river - we watched footage of the California Conservation Corps cutting, chipping, painting stumps with herbicide - I know this is going to turn into another incredible art project for David. And Ellen's photographs of lemons deformed from infection with citrus bud mite are so perversely beautiful! She wrote an article about these 'Strange Fruits' in the current issue of Cabinet magazine. The land and what comes from it are changing my friends, infecting these naturally curious, expressive people, and I can't wait to see what the coming years will bring.
(The swimming pool - deep and cool and inviting)
I'm going to be visiting Deep End Ranch from time to time and keep you updated as to the goings on there. A big arundo extraction is coming up, and I think we all need to witness it!
(Ellen strolling with Dexter and Sadie)
Until next,
Germi
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