At the very bottom of an old box of Christmas ornaments, I found this yellowed card from 42 years ago. Some of you know, we first bought our house on Palomar in 1975, lived here a few years, than sold and bought the same house back in 1998.
We had two sons when we lived in Escondido and raised our boys there. They enjoyed going to our favorite mountain to visit friends and play in the snow. Almost two decades ago those boys had grown up and were off to college.
We made a written list of what we’d like in downsizing from our five bedroom city house. We wanted a place in the country with a “view, just two bedrooms, a detached guest house, some fruit trees, easy care…”. It was quite a surprise when we learned our old house was for sale! We bought it back the next day and call it the ‘Square House’ because in 2006 we were able to buy the place next door. It has a 12 sided round house that we built out as a ranch with a barn for horses to keep a certain Cowboy happy.
Brandon married a childhood friend, Heidi Ackermann. They have four children we call the ‘Treasures’. It was always real special to have them visit but so rare with their busy city lives. However, they decided to move their family out of the city to grow up ‘free range’ – climbing trees, having lots of animals and exploring.
A dream I never dared to dream came true when they moved next door last yeatr and acquired Round House Ranch as their very own. Brandon is in management with a VoIP company so works from the mountain most of the time. Heidi home schools between teaching on-line classes at Palomar College.
During their move, I said to Don one night, “wouldn’t it be nice if Nathan would move to Palomar, too?” Don said, “Nathan would never move to Palomar, he loves San Diego!” The next morning my phone rang. It was Nathan. He was selling his home in La Mesa and said, “what would you think about me moving to Palomar and live in the guest house?”. This mom got tears in her eyes.
About 6 years ago Nathan purchased two cabins on Palomar, rehabbed one and has it as a vacation rental. He uses the second one for storage for some of his fix and flip projects in the city. He works from our apartment (hooray for good internet) but does commute up and down quite often. He is my broker for my Real Estate Business and the nieces and nephews are getting some great hands-on training so are in line for ‘opening doors’ for many years to come.
We are so blessed to have our whole family as ‘New Neighbors’ living next door and looking forward to many new adventures.
We love drop-ins and you are welcome to pop by. Thank you for all the cards, your friendships and all that makes Palomar such a special place.
“May your holidays be a blending of caring times, sharing times…
moments of love. Merry Christmas”
From our family to yours!
Bonnie and Don
Brandon, Heidi, Kiara, Judah, Sunshine and Atticus
Nathan aka “Uncle Nathan”
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Palomar Mountain News 