About us:
We're Kim & Mary Monroe, retired elementary school teachers from Redwood Valley, Ca. We live on a 165 acre ranch in northern California, in Mendocino County. We have a guest house yurt called Moon Burger Delight that we have visitors stay in. We live in the wine hill country and have streams, meadows, forests, redwoods and poison oak! We are within walking distance of the first biodynami
c Frey winery. Lately, we have been traveling, riding our e bikes. We've taught in Zambia, Africa, Hoopa Indian Reservation, San Jose, Ca. AMENITIES
The following are available:
Wireless Internet (Comes from our house and works best on the porch!)
Kitchen with gas range, dishwasher, microwave, fridge, utensils and table service
Free parking on premise
Washer/Dryer
Upstairs whirlpool bath bathtub
Downstairs double sized shower stall
Bedding
DVD/21”tvmoniter/lcd projector with an odd assortment of DVDs
Surround sound music system
Propane heat
Ceiling and floor fans
Our home land line has an extension and is available for local calls, please charge long distance calls to your account. Some cell phone reception (if you find the right spot and hav the right crrier!)
Not currently available:
Smoking
Hot Tub
Fireplace
Cable TV
Handicap accessible (stairways)
Air conditioning
TV reception
Accommodation for pets (usually…)
Accommodates:
2 people 1 bedroom, real type bed 2 baths
We have had guests use air beds upstairs, but this would have to be discussed and arranged beforehand. MoonDance Ranch: MoonBurger Delight (More detailed description of yurt and area)
Two story frame construction 28' yurt, designed by Vital Designs (David Raitt). Upstairs has a round open full kitchen/dining space, bathroom with whirlpool bath bathtub and deck with dining benches. Downstairs is a queen bedroom with a shower bathroom/laundry and large downstairs deck. Our water is spring fed. We are on 165 acres of hill country with hiking trails through meadows, redwood/oak forests with several streams. The lower part of the property is bordered by wine country. It's a nice walk to Frey winery the oldest biodynamic winery in the country. Other Mendocino wineries are a short car, or bike ride away. Vichy (25 min) (http://www.vichysprings.com/) and Orr Hot Springs (http://www.andersonic.net/orr/ )(45 min) are fairly close by, as is Lake Mendocino (15min), Blue Lakes (25 min) and Montgomery Woods (50 min). The Sun House Museum (20min), featuring Indian baskets and the art of Grace Hudson is in nearby Ukiah. It's an hour and half, slow, windy, beautiful drive to Fort Bragg and Mendocino on the coast. Kim and Mary are retired school teachers. Kim is a musician and Mary is an artist. There is no tv and internet is best out on the front porch! Cell reception is sketchy, and depends on your carrier. There are dvds, a dvd/cd player and an LCD projector. We have linens and dishes. Spring and Fall are usually lovely seasons, but who knows these days? We're on the eastern slope of Laughlin ridge, the highest point for US Highway 101 at the headwaters of the Russian River. From our location all the rivers flow south and west to the coast of California. The Eel River drainage, the only northern flowing system, begins at the Laughlin summit, just above the community of Willits Ca.. You can check weather and temp info at (http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/allergies/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/95470)
This doesn't necessarily show that we can often get a few days of over 100 °F in the summer. I mention this because we do not have air conditioning. But we do live on the eastern slope so that the sun goes down early in the summer (as well as behind trees in the winter!). Like other Californian coastal areas it can get quite warm at times in the summer. But it usually cools off at night. It's part of why it's a good wine growing area. The yurt is split level and the downstairs is always cool because it's built into the hillside. We do have fans and a large ceiling fan upstairs. August is a good time to check out the small deep pools up Mariposa Creek in the Enchanted Canyon. Also, because we are on the eastern slope we get more precipitation. This results in the flora being more like the area more to the west of us. We have redwood groves and mixed forests, whereas just across Tomki Road things are more dry. The higher elevations of our ranch usually gets some snow at different times throughout the winter. There are always interesting views any time of year when you hike up to Lion Rock Meadow. There are two monasteries further up Tomki Rd. the Mt. Tabor Monastery, a Byzantine Catholic monastery (http://byzcath.org/monastery/retreats.htm), and the Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery (http://www.abhayagiri.org/). It's a little more than a half hour drive to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (http://www.cttbusa.org/) which I believe is the largest Buddhist university outside of Asia. It has a great vegetarian restaurant, the Jyun Kang Vegetarian Restaurant (http://www.cttbusa.org/jyunkang/jk.asp). We can also recommend other places to eat as well. We've mentioned it in the "House Rules", but it woud be good to note here as well, that we have opted to have a no pets rule for our guests. We both love animals and have had pets in the past, but we would rather not have to accomodate hosting pets. Sorry for the disappointment! We look forward to meeting you! YouTube directions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNcCTKipjrk
