When you’re a suburbanite, driving on various country roads that are labeled County Road __ or __, can be confusing. And you can never count on your GPS to get you there. That’s why I appreciate directions given by the organizers of the Yolo Arts & Ag visits! The visit to the Pollock Farm in Woodland was no exception.

Fortunately, we only had one wrong turn. This farm is 137 acres of olive trees. The owners Lynnel and Herb Pollock have left the original structures dating from 1861 – 1872 to decay at their own pace, giving photographers and artists a wonderful opportunity to capture those times. They live on the property in a 1950s house.

Here’s a glimpse of what we saw.

An artist chatting with a photographer.

I love how carefully the wood is chopped and stored in this last photo. Might we expect a cold winter? That would be great!

21 thoughts on “Out on the County Roads: Pollock Farm”

  2. One of my YouTube buds travels the backroads of America to film forgotten small towns where time stands still. We started our channels at the same time when YouTube was a new thing. Anyway, he went all-in, quitting his job, and living on the road. He’s got over 600,000 subscribers and makes a very good living producing videos.

    And he’s allowed to write-off all of his related expenses — airfare, hotels, car rentals, fuel, annual passes to all the theme parks, food, and even a portion of his rent.

    He recognized the opportunity but didn’t know what to expect. His gamble paid off because people love to see these kind of places.

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      1. He basically presents rustic images like these in video format. His videos will get anywhere from 30-60,000 views, and he posts daily. That adds up to a lot of cash.

        I know a few other vloggers who started out blogging like me. One guy thought he might try out YouTube for a week or so. Today, he has over 900,000 subscribers and is living the good life.

        In those days, people were not familiar with YouTube, but there was a curious audience who were interested in this format. I continued posting my photos on Blogspot and WordPress because that’s what I knew.

        After all these years, my photos might get 25 views on average. I posted a Three Stooges video on YouTube last week and it’s getting over 1,000 views per day.

        Do you remember Huell Howser (California’s Gold)? He recognized that California was a gold mine of out-of-the-way places so he took a camera, traveled the back roads, and filmed places that are unknown to most people. That was before YouTube.

        I would love to see more of Northern California’s back country.

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        1. I’ve started watching tiny house videos on You Tube, but that’s about it. I think the whole idea of You Tube as a business is a little too late for me at 80 years. California is beautiful with rich farm land, mountains and coastline. We have a lot of National Parks here plus our State Parks. You couldn’t get bored!

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          1. So, the guy I told you about who films the backroads — he also posts lots of content from theme parks (Disney, mostly) — and I’m sitting here gnashing my teeth as I watch this morning’s video from Disney’s Aulani Resort in Oahu, Hawaii.

            Keep in mind that his YouTube channel pays for all of this plus he gets to write it off as a business expense. His mother is traveling with him. In yesterday’s video, he showed their first-class trip aboard Hawaiian Airlines.

            I’m muttering to myself, “This guy is living his very best life thanks to YouTube!”

            It’s pointless to be jealous. He took advantage of the opportunity ten years ago, and I didn’t. He’s got 699,000 subscribers, I’ve got 1,360.

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            1. Yes, pointless to be jealous, maybe a little envious. 😊 I’m wondering if he had an inkling what YouTube would turn out to be. My thinking is that you wouldn’t want someone else’s life. Find happiness within yours. Take care David!

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            2. Yes, we must find happiness and contentment within ourselves. And, no, he had absolutely no idea where YouTube would take him. No one did. It was the new thing just like TikTok is today. It took a huge leap of faith to quit his job and live out of his van. That first year, he would spend his nights in Walmart parking lots. It turned out that a whole lot of people found his channel interesting.

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  7. Dear Anne,
    we like your pictures and especially the last one. We are like you, we love nicely cut wood that is perfectly stored. Wood is rather rare here but we like to light an open fire in the winter (but with the central heating running in the background).
    Have a happy week wishing you
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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      1. Dear Anne
        unfortunately, we hardly ever have it really cold here. We light the fire for the romantic feeling. We miss the real cold winters here with lots of snow. When we were kids in Scandinavia, winter was the time we were looking forward to. Now we go to the North in the winter for great weather with frost and snow.
        Keep well
        The Fab Four of Cley
        🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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