Mom wrote done the following notes for me to post here...not everything is how I remember but that's ok here it is:

I’m so happy to Andy for setting up our blogger file. And I’m blessed for boys who remember the happy times there. It sure brought all these ideas flooding my thoughts …

Raspberry patch all pick, weeded, watered and thinned

Volkswagons you trained on for the bigger cars

Matt’s truck and Lincoln

Justen’s trucks

Chuck’s two T-Birds

Mom’s XKE

Bike tires – thorns

Perm, coloring and haircuts (these BOYS)

Dunebuggy

Tall bike Dad made

Little red tractor Guhlers contributed to us

Yellow construction tractors – some Hardys and Garretts gave us, some I found at flea market

Orange couch with storage under seats in kitchen bay window in first house on Ranch

108 cars Dad had in back

Ed’s skateboard sailing thing over the back area

Shoe roller skates into skate boards

Skim boards

Fire extinguishers for water gun fights

Sam’s bedroom with saloon doors in closet

Sam wearing earphones all night with music blasting in his ears, I wondered how he could make it on his mission.

Justen and his dark room for film

Justen living out in that very small trailer

Large racing tires – boys rolled inside when dizzy

Missionaries over to play Atari games on P-day. They loved coming to our house for a meal.

All boys lived in Saratoga house. Sam was 3 when we left. Andy baptized in first week there, that made Matt 6, Justen 5, and Sam 3. Chuck 10, Ed 14, John 16. What a stir we made at church.

Saratoga Ford van. At church, everyone putting hands through small openings in window to wave to the embarassment of John.

The summer – took chest of drawers clothes, and moved to the barn. Sectioned off each person’s bedroom with hay bales. All that hay in clothes when they moved back!

Playing Hudini – tying in ropes see who get out fastest.

John and Ed painting small bedroom with darkest green paint. I couldn’t go – so sickening!

Dad having his picture taken before church with his little stepping stone formation of boys.

Singing songs, playing guitar with Jean and friends in evening.

Boys trying to make a band up in barn. Matt trying out trombone, trumpet and even singing. Needless to say the band never flew.

Matt’s bulldog who had about 3 litters of pups.

Tazer gun Mom bought.

Saratoga house, Disneyland, the older ones came back and with blocks built Disneyland with Frontier town – cowboys/horses, Adventureland with their animals and others, even a palace under the pool table – it stayed up quite a while.

Roof was kind it left space behind wall where John and Ed played tag and hide-go-seek.

Gorilla cake I made for Ed’s birthday – he was so proud of it.

Chicken pox – John came home with it and gave it to everyone – on by one – very long winter … even the baby which could have been Matt got it.

Back at the Ranch – the Mountain climbing wall Sam and Tyler – fun climbing. I believe those nails were still there when he left.

Ed drawing his funny cartoons of his brothers as we watched T.V. Sure riled some of them.

Remember when Ed got a curly perm! Shocking!

Matt’s 1st football game of the year in the mud out front?

Folded paper fooshball on table

What a hoot those real leather German pants and John wore once is all.

A dip in the huge water tank!

Our roman soldier who stood in our blue room – dressing it for holidays.

Staying up to watch SNL!

Ed’s menagerie of chickens – green eggs and ham!

When Mom took a break from all the boys’ antics and came home to find carpet change and wall painted!

Bird who imitated the washer

Birds that roosted in tree by trailer and the racket that stood when anyone came out and shouted or clapped!

Chickens roosting in tree

Cows – Hamburger – Blanca – broken fences chasing through yards

Remember “WILD THING” our fun car. Us singing the song at the top of our lungs.

Remember the race car Dad got from Atari. I believe everyone got a push ride around the yard.

Remember the pony we got from Galbraith. A cute little cart with the pony, head high, tail blowing to beautiful. It was an amazing thing to behold.

I remember the first football game of the season played on our ranch, in the field in front. Matt would get some of his friends ever. They really played with all their hearts. One year one friend broke his arm. His mom was called. After he left the game was fully in battle again. Mud was like fun for those players.

Model T Ford

I've been meaning to post this here for the past 2 weeks, I've forgotten how just much life revolved around the Model T and Dads involvement in the Model T Ford Club. Dad came down to visit and we loaded up his old speedster in the back of his truck so he can go put her back together. This got me reminiscing about these cars the parades and swap meets and speedster runs etc. I actually found some footage of the Santa Clara Speedster Run and the start of the race on First Street in San Jose on Youtube. Way Cool.

Movies, M&M's, and Mom's TV Shows

Even to this day when I eat M&M's it brings back memories of everyone gatrhered around the TV and Mom giving each of us our own little pile of M&M's. I also rememer all of the popcorn that we would eat, either freshly popped corn in the big silver bowl or the giant popcorn bags from K-Mart. I remember that Jay especially loved popcorn and would buy one of the giant K-Mart bags for himself and keep it in his room.

I remember that mom would love to watch Cagney and Lacey and Murder She Wrote.

Stories from FB

So I decided to copy all our little memories from Johns facebook page to the blog now you guys need to post more stories.

I was a little sad when I was telling my kids stories of my childhood and they did not know what a pallet was. (At out house growing up my dad would buy hundreds, no exaggeration, of pallets for firewood). We would create forts, mazes, towers, ramps, slides, and just about anything a teenager could imagine with them.
Wall-to-Wall - Write on Andy's Wall
Jan 29

Andy Hale wrote at 10:57pm
How about the "hot tub" we created with insulation panels and black plastic in the back of the old pickup bed trailer.
Wall-to-Wall - Write on Andy's Wall

Jan 20
Edit

Chuck Hale wrote at 11:52am
How about tying a hundred ft by 30 ft piece of plastic to that oak tree and then sailing up like 20 ft in the air? ahh the good old days.
Wall-to-Wall
Jan 19

Justen Hale wrote at 11:05pm
I think matt has the most scars. there was a while there when the emergancie room knew matt like on cheers the tv show. i think the even kept is file handy seeing that he was there twice amonth. what was the saying when we fought "Go take it out side, stop when one of is bleeding."
Wall-to-Wall - Write on Justen's Wall
Jan 16

Edward Hale wrote at 4:33pm
Envision the centries old oak tree by the barn, we had a bit of tree house in it for a while, Such a old rotting stump as this will be a fantastic sponsor for wild mushroom, shiitake, lions main, oyster. i am still searching for the right oak logs here in AZ. Give thanks and praises , for each morsel is wrought from successions of miracles

Jan 15
Edit

Chuck Hale wrote at 8:47pm
I've still got scars from the zip line, although the fork scar pretty much went away.....
Wall-to-Wall

Justen Hale wrote at 7:52am
what about the lumber cart windsale? that was allways fun.
Wall-to-Wall - Write on Justen's Wall

Stunt Man Air Bags Hale Ranch Style

Do remember when Dad brought home these oversized Plastic bags? I think they were used to test Arcade games in extreme heat. Anyways I remember using duct tape to close them up and then a shop vac in reverse to fill them with air, Then piling them under the Old Willow Tree and jumping from like 15' high onto our "pillows" as they would slowly deflate. You gotta thank the "Fall Guy" for inspiration like that! It's no wonder We loved good TV like Fall Guy, A-Team, MacGuyver, etc.

Hippo Hamper

I asked my kids tonight what story I should post and they told me the "Hippo Hamper". They were really excited and I think would have told it much funnier than I remember telling it to them.

It was really fun growing up with a Dad who would create fun wood projects for us. One of these was the brown wooden hippo hamper. I remember that the mouth was a lid that would open to put the dirty laundry in. You would then turn the tail in the back to open the "rear" of the hippo to pull out all of the "dirty" clothes (or as I my kids were telling me the poopy clothes.) I can also remember riding on the back of the "wild hippo", even though we weren't supposed to.

So I just spoke to Andy this evening and he told me he created this Blog so we could post some memories here about growing up on "The Ranch" back in San Martin. Way to go Andy!
One thing I was thinking about tonight, while watching The Super Bowl, was how Matt always liked to root for the opposite team as the rest of the Family. Being the first Sunday of the month Angie and I hosted a family Dinner here at our house, our own lil' Super Bowl party. Mom and I were downstairs watching the game when Matt got here, he walked in asked "Who are you cheering for? I responded "Cards!" So Matt yells "Lets Go Steelers!" And that is how I remember watching football games at home. Matt was always cheering for the opposite team as everyone else. I gotta say it does make the game more fun when there is a little rivalry going on. By the way I thought the 4th quarter was awesome, edge of the couch, Matt and I yelling back and forth at each other. Ahhh! Brought back some good memories.