On the ranch--Charlie Torliatt, a personal history, 1919-2010.

Petaluma chronicles on the ranch Charlie Tour Lee yet a personal history. My name is Charles. Peter Tor Liet. And, uh, I was born in 1919 March the first, and I know it on. Um, I'm gonna tell you a story how I happen to be living out

on 97. Pepper lay now how it all started out with I used to live in East Petaluma on the east side when the corner of Ellison, Madison Street and my dad worked at the shoe factory and he always wanted to retire on a little chicken farm

like everybody did those days, the sea captains and everybody that it always used to be. They want to retire on Little Chicken Ranch. And so my mom worked and my dad worked. My mom won't get the silk mill, and they saved their money and they were

ready to buy a small ranch. So they looked at about four or five, went over by the old adobe. I remember, went out pen grove and one on Redwood Highway, and, uh, anyway, in the paper where there was a little square at about three by four

inches and it said 10 acres for sale out in Liberty District, and it had the real estate man's name. So my dad said, Well, maybe I'll call him up and give him a call and, uh, we didn't have a telephone. We had used neighbor's phone, and,

uh, anyway, he came over. And so he told my mom and dad, Did he take him out the next Sunday? So the realtor came the next Andy any took us all of us. And we came out to this place out here and there was no house

down by the road. And there was a long driveway and there was a lock on it with the gate. So it's about, oh, about a block up to where the buildings were. And it was, uh, just a two room shack and a chicken house and a

garage in a pump house. And, uh, he told my mom and dad that it belonged to Dr Hoffman, which is the doctor, a lady doctor in Petaluma. And, uh, he said that this was her Get away, ran. She used to come in on the weekends and

out here all by herself, and it didn't have a toilet at an outhouse and she would stay here. And then it was closed up the rest of the week. And the whole ranch was all orchard, even up with our house is now in my garden space

and the fields. They were all orchard solid Grabenstein and uh So anyway, they looked it over, and but there was no house, so they would have to buy the property. And the property was $3500 for the 10 acres and that was it at a pump and

had a well, and the buildings I just told you about. So anyway, my mom and dad thought it over, and so they went ahead and bought it, and we my dad came out and my uncle Jimmy was just going to get married and he didn't have

a place to live. And so my mom and dad and his future way fall paper, the building up there, and made it a nice little little two room building. And he moved out here. And so then my dad came out and I would come out in

my mom on weekends and we started in, and they wanted to get it ready so that they could move out here. So we started in and the first thing they done was took all the orchard out of this big field down in front of us here.

So we kept on coming out every weekend, and my dad cut all the trees down to the stumps, and then the neighbor down here had four horses. And so that's how we pulled all these fields here, out of all, on this side of the creek pulled

out all the trees, and that was right behind us where I have my garden. Now, that was all trees, but we didn't take those out Then it was time for my mom and dad to build a house so they could move out here. And so they

got a contractor by the name of Fred Wayne, and he came out and, uh, he built the house was a solid red with day that that's what the lumber Waas and I think it was around $2000 with my mom and dad saved up enough to buy

the ranch, and then they saved up enough money to buy the build a house because those days you didn't get loans and, uh, in the meantime, my dad it wasn't working to the shoe factory anymore because it's closed up. He was working for Advance and Company

and Feed Mill in Petaluma. And so anyway, they built a house. And then, in 1934 we moved out here, and the house was brand new. They were still doing some painting inside and the place we had over in East Petaluma way my dad put it up

for sale and the jacket meanies that lived right across the street from us that I was raised with What? Uh, the oldest boy, Fred. He bought the place. So that gave my mom and dad a little more padding of money. And so it was a time

when there wasn't many jobs. So Fred Weighing built our first chicken house up there. Now, that's all redwood tongue and groove and red wood flooring all solid redwood. And, uh, I think it costs my dad $300 for the chicken house and he built it for $50.

I remember that little by little, we got a cow and then we got to Oh, first thing, we had to build a barn, and so we we build the barn down there just like that one. But that isn't the one and we had about I guess

it was five cows we had and we were hand milking, of course. And it had a dirt floor inside. And, uh, my dad came home one afternoon, but six oclock and I was up sharpening a hole up in the little pump house and he said, Oh

my God, the barn's on fire. We raised our hey here, and it was a spontaneous combustion and I went down and when they tried to keep me away, But I run in the born and saved all the pitchforks and, uh, all the harness we had for

the horse because we had a horse that we used to do all the plowing and the work around here. I remember I took it out and laid it on the ground in the Qatari and to rock Fire Department came. So then probably about four or five

months. We used to milk the cows outside in time to defense, and finally my dad decided that it was time he had enough money to build another barn, and that's the barn that's down there now it has one wing on it and the main part of

the born. When he built it and my uncle Bill came out on, my uncle Jimmy came out and they come out on the weekends and we'd all work on it and got it all up. And so then then, in the meantime, I was taken agriculture in

it. Petaluma High School, which was F f A. And I had a couple of little calves over Project, and I had far mechanics. And so the high school had a cement mixer and the farm mechanics. I got an extra credit for having him having helping and

everybody helping putting in a cement floor in the whole barn. And I thought that was pretty nice. And my dad did, too. And my dad got quite a few chickens, and he was had about nine cows under 10 cows. I guess so. He got a working

man because I had I had graduated from high school and had a job up in Santa Rosa at Pedersen Furniture. Come then, Then World War Two came along and I was drafted into the service, and, uh, I had quit my job there and got married and

went to Mirror Island. And, uh, I was working there and I was drafted into the service. And so, of course I had no contact with the ranch stand. But when I was at Mare Island, we used to come up my wife healthy. A is from Petaluma

to and we used to come up every weekend and I'd come out here and work, and and, uh, I at least got to help him a little bit that way. And I'll see you got to see her folks and her family. This is This was all

apple trees and the shack was over there, and there was apple trees around that all over here and where my garden spaces down here. But now these. We pulled out later on after we moved to the place, Most of the most of these in here came

out when my dad first retired. He could do the work with my mom because of both of work together, and, uh, he he retired. And then I got out of the service and I used to come and help him all the time, and, uh, I went

back to Mirror Island for about one year, and then I moved to Alameda because I took an apprenticeship opposite as an air Mick general down in Alameda Naval Air Station as a civilian. And, uh, in the meantime, my dad had a going business here and here

built it up yet about 15 cows, and he had about, 0 3000 chickens, and, uh then when I was down in Alameda Naval Air Way, we bought a house in San Leandro, and, uh, just before I got through my apprenticeship way, we had We always had

two weeks off a Christmas time, and I was home for two days, and the Highway Patrol pulled up in front of our house and, uh, I thought, Oh, what did I do wrong now? And he told us that my mom had had a heart attack and

passed away in right on Kentucky Street in Petaluma. So it was. My dad gave me a choice, he said, Well, you either come up here and run the ran, she said. Or he said, I'm going to sell it because he said, I I can't live there

without your mother. Anyway, we decided I was in the naval air reserve down in in Alameda, and I had to get out of that. Luckily, I got out of it because when I got a discharge about two months later, why the Korean War broke up and

the squatter and I was in with one of the first ones that went on a carrier over to Korea. So I got a break there. And so then we he showed me what to do and how to go in this and that and the finances. He

kept it up until I took over. And, uh so then he decided to move in town with his sister and healthy. And I we had each Danny was about 3.5 then, and Chuck was just, uh, just the baby of six months when we moved here. Okay,

this is down by the born and the milk house was here, and my dad during the war had milk of machines put in and a whole set up, and, uh, we would carry the milk down this runway here, milk inside and carried out in buckets out

into the milk house here and go over the cooler. And it was it was it was a pretty good set up. It was a going business when I took over. We work together and healthy a the family in the house. That was one of our best

quite quite a few of our best years. But then small businesses and small farms got so either had to get bigger get out. So I started in work inside. Besides a ranch, the boys were getting a little bit bigger and they would help me and I

I went to work in the summer time for about three months in the feed mill to make a supplement to pay for the hay for the cows and this and that, and it was getting to be really, quite a bit so. Anyway, I I I had

a friend job, er CEO and his uncle was Jim Veranda that run the transportation for the pedal in the high school. And he's the one that used to pick me up down here at the corner when I went to high school. And so I thought maybe

I could grab pick. I've been driving trucks for the feed company and this and that I could maybe go ahead and see him get a job driving school bus, it would be a good supplement. So I My dad, always used to say, If you're after a

job, you just keep on going after. So I went after the third time and he said, Charlie said, You must really want to drive school bus And I said, Yeah, I really do. And so anyway, I got a job driving with pedal of a high school

with the bus and had full time rancher we and it was fine. I would get through and I drive in the morning at seven o'clock, could be through it about quarter to nine, and I come home and work on the born. In the meantime, my two

boys, Dan and Chuck, were big enough that they would milk the cows and then I would come back and clean up and everything. They put him out on the pastor, and and before I went Teoh the bus, I would feed the chickens or wet mash and

so that it all worked in and out were worked out real good. The boys would help me, and and between three of us we got everything done and healthy. Of course, was always doing her part, and I even had the bus run out here and I

would I could always see I come just about the time they were through and I was reading that piece of property over there, which was 55 acres for the cows. But you had to run him out of the gate and up the hill. And sometimes when

I would drive the bus down here, I had to turn around done by Mickelson's and come back so I'd see him just putting the cows up there. So by the time I got out there, I would go very slow. So they had plenty of time to

get home, put the clothes on and come down, meet the bus. And so it all worked out good. While I was driving school bus every morning, all the drivers there was about nine of us. We used to go off over to a seaside station, had a

little restaurant. We'd have coffee and a roll afterwards, and how that happened was I met the postmaster and he said, I have a summer job here at the post office. He says it may lead into a steady job. I'm not guaranteeing anything, but he says, if

you want to come to work, he says, see how it is, He said, I can hire you. It's a temporary And so I did. I took the job and and I was a sub for five years off flowers and I got rid of the cows and

we got rid of the chickens because I was doing good. After I was here, about 10 years way, a rural Razek opened up. I got a call from the postmaster in the morning and he wanted me in the office and I thought what I do now

and I went and he said, Well, Charlie, he said, You know, you didn't tell me you were going after that rule round He said, You know, we got all these guys here scrambling and he says, I got a call from Washington and I got a letter

today saying that you start your around one Monday and of course I got a big smile and uh, okay, this is the inside of the barn and my dad built. And then during the war, when I was overseas, he built that other wing on the other

side there, and this is the Stan Shins and Standards on the other side. And we got up to about 30 cows that we know, and this is the same barn that we had. Then when my son Danny was milking cows, I guess he had a little

spare time, and he made this faith and he put D C T Daniel Charles Too early, maybe, but it's still there now. This is the original chicken house that was on the place when my folks bought it and they didn't have roost out here. I built

that on, but this is where they we put about 250 to 300 chickens in here and now it's and then my two sons both had pigeons in it later on in years, and it was a pigeon house used to sit down here by the hours and

watch the pigeons, and then they would sell the swabs and make a little bit of money. It was a good hobby. It's the small chicken man is all over in Petaluma now. You have to have about 500,000 birds in order to make a living. Here's

an old Hey, rate my dad bought for $10. We used to pull it with a horse, and then later on, we got a tractor and we used to raise our own. Hey, most of it down in the bottom, feel there. That's where we took all the

apple trees out. And we used to go down there and plant that. I used to borrow all the Morris tractor. He had a big one with one machine on it, and I cut it. And then we break it up with this. And then I have a

whole book underneath the barn up there and we bucket up into piles and then healthy, and I would go out on top it off and make all nice shocks. That's the days they used to have the shocks. And then we usedto somebody would be coming around

bailing and you'd hire them to bail it out of the out of the shocks. It holds five cows in the milking machine. Um, pipes were all in there. Any milk five year, and then we milked about 15 over here and 15 on the other side, about

30 35 altogether. That's when you could make That was great. Be It wasn't great. A male. And you could between the chickens and the cows, where you made a pretty good living with two car garage and we made a feed room out of it.

This is where we used to put all our feet. Then I had a book. Green been outside here, and this is where we mixed all the feet. And I used to buy it sometimes, like two or three ton of time too stored upon goodbyes. And this

is the old tractor I used for I When I first got it, my dad had a little John Deere riel. Small. So then a friend of mine when I was in high school, Holger Walden work, um started a big dairy down here, and he used to

come down. I used to work with him and he would help me cut the corn and stuff for the silence for the cows. And then he sold a place and he went into the tractor business. And this was the first track Therese old I traded mine

in on. This is an Alice Chalmers. And I got a cultivator for the corn with it and I got a plow with it, and my son Dan is overhauled it about three times and relying the brakes, and I use it every year to do the ploughing

around here for my garden. Other little things. Not that much. I use it, but I'm still using it as pretty good. And it's still going on Real goes good, real good. This building here that I would meet a ah to room out of it used to

be the brooder house where we had around. A brooder is which raised baby chicks around, and I use to raise about 750 baby chicks at a time in there and then on the side and up in the back was all the yards because those days, all

your chickens were on yards, and in the time when they got big enough, the baby chicks, they go out into the little pins, and that's the way they would survive. Then, when they got so big oh, I'd say about three months old. Then we move him

into the chicken houses because they don't later, about six months old, and we'd, uh, move him up by hand, put him in uh, I still have the cages back there that we used to put him in. Take about 20 other time up, I guess. And I

used to have some of my friends out to help me. And they also is one of the chicken houses was all chicken yards because the chickens, they slept in the back here and they had the house down, and we just kept them in during the winter

time. It was raining hard, but otherwise they were out all the way down to that other house. And all through there they were on the ground all year long, and we, in fact, we had a couple of apple trees that were left over from only apple

orchard here. And every year we have about 20 or 30 chickens that would sleep all year long in the church apple trees down there. Then finally, they write it out, and we got rid of those two. And, uh, and when we moved out here, I remember

we were taking a load of furniture from East Petaluma and we stalled in the old Model T Ford down baijiu. It rode down here and we had to crawl underneath the car. And that's when there was three ruts, all of pepper road, not pepper lane. Pepper

Road was all red gravel with ruts, and every time a car came, he had to pull over the side for the other one to get by. When we have before we moved out here, I used to come out here. The bigs did have down the corner,

and in the summertime I would come out and I would take the old electric car from Petaluma, Petaluma, Santa Rosa Railroad and take the electric car down to where the big Dairy was Watson's dairy and get off down there. And I remember I used to get

on the streetcar and it was 25 cents to Santa Rosa and I would have to pay 12 cents to get off at Liberty. There was a little station down their Liberty Station. Then the bigs would come down and meet me, and, uh then we go fishing

or do something, and then they bring me back down to the railroad car. It had come down and toward pedal him and I get on, and it costs another 12 cents to get back to Petaluma. Well, now. It wasn't only passenger service. There was a spur

track that came off at Liberty and it came out here and right down at the Liberty. It followed pepper road alone, where there's all oak trees now. It followed. Used to plan a lot of bourbon potatoes. And I remember even after we moved back here from

Alameda, the railroad was still there. But there wasn't much business. But I remember they'd have, like four boxcars, open boxcars, and it would be nothing but solid potatoes, and it would be pumped up like that. But it never went fast enough to knock anything off. And

I remember used to go down there and watch him and they come by. It was a noble electric car engine. It wasn't but Southern Pacific or anything. And then they take it into town and and it would go down to the old steamer gold and they

put him on the steamer gold and take him to San Francisco. Or they would put him on boxcars and take him to Sacramento or wherever it was. Yeah, this bottom fear was all apple trees, and we pulled him out and oh, in the early thirties. My

dad used to plant this whole thing into tomatoes, and this is good soil. It used to be a nursery pepper nursery and way never watered him. Just cultivating. If you keep the same loose on the top, it doesn't lose the moisture. And we used to get,

like, 304 100 boxes of tomatoes. Offer this here, and we used to take him to town and sell them for 50 cents a box. This is not a small box. This is a £50 leg and we used to get 50 cents a box. But this ground

is so good. It used to be. We'd have the corn feel cord and I would go down in the field and cut a piece off when we were cutting it and I'd put it up this high, and then I'd measure it with my hand and then

turn it upside down and it would be 12 feet. I had 12 foot high court. So that's a story