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SRL: The Bards. All of these people came, but they were all
easterners. They were Harvard, and they were Yale, and so
forth, and so Mom and Dad started meeting them, and felt
more at home here, and of course it was beautiful.

CT: So none of them truly had a farming background. They came
here from the east with rather prestigious college
educations; and had no true farming background, but they ...

SRL: Yes, well, the Lloyd Butler ... he married into a land grant
family. I mean, I knew ... Mother would visit her often,
because she was very ill for a long time, and very delicate,
but I always heard about her, and how lovely she was.

SL: And the Lloyd-Butlers were Rancho Santa Clara del Norte
which is now the Saticoy Country Club.

SRL: Yes, so it was her family. He married her, but it was her
family that had the ranch.

CT: The [Ashby] Vickers were just right across the street.

SL: Yes, the Vickers [Pierpont Inn] were just down Ditch Road.

SRL: And of course we knew the Newhalls, and all of that.

CT: So when your father came out here he_didn't have a
background in farming, but he learned. It seems like the
first thing was a dairy:

SL: I can't imagine an easterner coming out here with·a Harvard
education saying, "I'm going to start a dairy!"

SRL: Well, you know, he investigated everything, and he read up
on things. He had a very inquisitive mind, -always following
ideas, but my memories are here, of course. I think I'm the
only one in the famliy who has never been to Billiwack. Boo
'has been, they've all been_ to Billiwack, and I've beeen
invited, but I've -j justanever been able to get up there.

SL: Is there anything left of ther Billiwack Dairy?
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SRL: Oh yes, there's an incredible barn up there that I've been
hearing about all my life, that Dad built. A very special
barn. It's near Ojai, way up there, and the reason that it
really didn't pan out so well - two reasons - was the water
situation. They just couldn't get enough water up there.
And the second reason was sadder. He hired a friend .

. .
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