Introduction

Thank you for looking at my blog.  For many years I have wanted to write about my families life on the Merced river at a place called Ned's Gulch about twelve miles from the Yosemite National Park boundary.  As of this writing, my Mother (Betty), Brother (Bobby) and myself first went to Ned's Gulch around 1954 or 1955 after my Mother met a man named Bob Metzler when we were living on Cowell Road near Clayton, Calif.  Bob first went there after getting out of the 2nd world war where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge in Germany. The only thing at Ned's Gulch (the gulch) when my Mother, brother and I first arrived was a 16'x32' two room tar paper cabin above the river and a lot of rattlesnakes.  We had no electricity or running water and had to walk up the hill behind the house to the outhouse.  This blog is the beginning of my book telling about our life and adventures on the river and will be small excerpts each week about another adventure.  Growing up at the gulch was something that everyone who came from the cities to visit and stay, thought was the greatest life anyone could ask for.  They envied us, looked forward to returning to visit and swim in the river, ride the rapids on inner tubes, hike the mountains, go in gold mines, fish, use an outhouse, barbecue under the fig tree every night, go up to Yosemite for a day, see and kill rattlesnakes, see deer, listen to cougars scream at night, ride our horses, cut firewood, fill lanterns and such.  To them it was a dream life.  To us it was a way of life that wasn't necessarily always a dream.  It was a life where each of us family members had chores to do to survive and for my Brother and I, it didn't always afford us the opportunity to just be kids when we should have been able to enjoy being kids.  I personally hated most of my life there and even ran away from home once to get away, but now looking back on it all, I am thankful for a lot of the life we had there.  Not all of it, but a lot of it.  All in all, it is now a story of what I consider to be the history of the last of the Yosemite pioneers who came to settle the area. There were many other pioneers like the Thompsons, the Laws, McClendons, Henry Emic, the Bullards, etc., but I think as far as bare bones, bloody knuckled, hardcore back to nature type pioneers, we were the last.

My goal with this blog is to end up with a book that will accomplish a two fold purpose.  One goal, and not necessarily the most important, is to record our family's Ned's Gulch history for my children and grandchildren, my niece Kylie and her children and for all of you as well.  As of this writing, Bob is still alive although he is 89 years old and then there is me.  My Mother passed away several years ago and my Brother passed away last year, since Bob is totally not into computers or able to write a book, I am the only one left to record what our life was like at the gulch. 
The second goal, which to me is the most important goal, is to be able to sell the book and raise money for the prevention of domestic violence and child abuse, to help educate and stop the American Holocaust, which is abortion, and actually legal child abuse, and to promote the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
This author believes that there are a lot of parents out there that are abusive and don't know it.  Many think that being abusive is when you hit your spouse or child or others and that if they aren't smacking the family around or others, they aren't guilty of domestic violence or child abuse.  Not much could be further from the truth.  Abuse comes in many forms and is used by many upstanding individuals and parents on a daily basis.  Physical abuse is the one type that our society focuses on the most and the type that intentionally and unintentionally kills or maims for life and lands someone in prison.  But what about other forms of abuse such as mental abuse and verbal abuse?  These are serious forms of abuse which usually end up turning physical and many are unaware that they are inflicting these forms of abuse on friends and loved ones.  I would love to have the money to be able to help families address these issues and get counseling before someone they know or love gets hurt or dies.  If you are reading this and you know you have a problem with what I'm talking about, please humble your heart and seek help.  Write me through the comments on this blog.  It will not be seen by others, but will go directly to my email and I will get back to you and see if together we can find a way to help you get help with the problem.  If you are reading this and you are a professional therapist or counselor and would be willing to donate even one hour a week of your time to helping stop abuse, again, please contact me and I will list your services and contact info as you wish to have it listed.  Thank you to those of you who have a problem for being mature enough to recognize and want to address your problems and thank you who can and are willing to help these folks tackle their demons.  To the rest of you, I ask you to pray for the victims and counselors, read your Bible and do unto others as you would have others do unto you!

I hope you enjoy this blog and the book when it comes out and please feel free to follow this link to my other blogs Barber Bill's Bull and tellasoul.blogspot.com and you can email me at lagunabarberbill@gmail.com .