A few weeks ago, I went down the Valley to pick up an additional 600 oak tree seedlings to add to the 1,000 we planted at Premiere Coastal Vineyard near Los Alamos last year.

The young trees were being propagated by students enrolled in the ag program at my alma mater, Santa Ynez Valley Union High School, under the watchful eye of their instructor, Kathy Bibby.

The acorns were gathered at Premiere Coastal Vineyard by Lottie Martin of the Agricultural Commissioner/s Office and given to the students to grow.

I entered the westside parking lot and headed to the Ag Department buildings that have been relocated to accommodate almost twice the number of students enrolled at the school today than when I graduated in 1974.

As I pulled up to the front of the ag building, I met Lottie and Kathy, who were visiting, waiting for the students to change classes.

As the new students began to arrive for class, Kathy put them to work moving the oak seedlings from the nursery building to my pickup. Soon I had a full pickup bed full of oak trees and began to head home, via Alamo Pintado Road.

I drove past and remembered with fondness what used to be our Rancho El Alamo Pintado toward Ballard. As I neared the intersection of Alamo Pintado and Baseline, I noticed some bricklayers building what looks to be a new entrance into the Ballard Fields Ranch.

The Ballard Fields Ranch was owned and farmed by Anker Johnson for many years. I remember when I was a small boy, Anker raised alfalfa or oat hay in the two fields separated by the driveway to the ranch house from Alamo Pintado Road.

Across the street from the main entrance was a yard he used to stack and sell hay from. I can still see a hand-written sign posted at the entrance to the hay yard that read, &#8220Oat Hay Today.C

The hay yard was in use up until the early 1970s, when it became the site for a new home.

The Ballard Fields Ranch stretched from Alamo Pintado Road on the east, past Ballard Canyon Road to the west. Anker used to farm dry-land grain on the back portion of the ranch, as I recall.

He also farmed acreage near the Santa Ynez Airport and Chalk Hill in Solvang and grew alfalfa and other crops in a field where the new campus of Ballard School is today.

Anker used all Allis Chalmers tractors in his farming operation. I remember watching Anker and his helper at the time, Warren Anderson, unload the orange tracklayer tractors and equipment near the playground while I was going to Ballard School in the early 1960s.

I can still picture Warren wearing dark-colored coveralls with big goggles perched above the bill of his welding cap as he unloaded equipment.

When Warren was working the ground, the goggles were pulled over his eyes to keep the dust out.

I recall the fresh scent of alfalfa as another orange Allis Chalmers wheeled tractor would arrive at recess time and begin cutting the alfalfa with a 7- or 8-foot sickle bar mower attached to the side.

Soon the field would be full of two-wire bales and we would watch a green 1950s-era Chevrolet flatbed truck enter the field.

It had the words &#8220Ballard Fields RanchC painted on the doors and was equipped with a side loader that picked up the bales from the ground.

The loader conveyed the bales to the bed of the truck, where usually two men would stack them. After the truck was loaded they would take the bales to the hay yard or barns located behind Anker/s home on Alamo Pintado.

One of the hay haulers who worked for Anker at that time was Howard Petersen.

Many may remember Howard owned and operated the Shell gas station on the corner of Mission Drive and Atterdag Road in Solvang for many years.

Howard and his wife, Linda, moved out of the Valley several years ago, but Howard/s family has been in Solvang for many generations.

Anker was also involved with an equestrian group called the Santa Ynez Valley Riders, as I recall.

They would ride in many of the parades throughout the years in Solvang and Santa Ynez, dressed in their checkered aqua-blue-and-white shirts, if not busy on a trail ride on one of the ranches in the Valley.

As I got older, my brother, Dana, and I would go visit with Anker when we needed a part for an older piece of equipment we were using as we got started farming.

We would also vote at Anker/s home, as it was used as the polling site for the Ballard area.

It/s always fun to remember how things were along Alamo Pintado Road when I visit the Valley. I/ll keep watching as a new era unfolds for the Ballard Fields Ranch headquarters.

I hope you and your families enjoy a great Fourth of July. Don/t forget to include some of your favorite Central Coast wine with your picnic or barbecue.

Kevin Merrill is a vineyard manger for Mesa Vineyard Management in Santa Maria. He is president for the Central Coast Wine Growers/ Association Foundation and a board member for the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau. He can be reached at kmerrill@mesavineyard.com.

July 1, 2007