Born in Longmont, Colo., Ronald (Ron) Barnes, 74, moved as a child with his family to Patterson, Calif., where his maternal grandparents lived while his dad joined the war effort.
He said it was a small farming town and they lived on a pretty much self-sustainable farm with chickens (3,000 to 4,000), and their eggs, and cows (19 milked by hand) and pigs and a vegetable garden.
"In fact we had two acres of garden, so I would take corn and everything I could pick and take it into town in my little red wagon towin' behind a bike and sellin' it," he said. "Then I'd bring home the money."
His maternal grandfather was a labor contractor and they hired his crews to pick their 15 acres of apricots and he taught Barnes the business. His grandfather had come from Sweden and Barnes wanted to learn Swedish, however, his grandfather told him he was lucky enough to be born in the United States and he didn't need to learn Swede.
Barnes enjoyed growing up in the small town and in particular he enjoyed high school sports and his church. "It just was a friendly town and people supported you." He was big brother to three sisters.
"There were only 125 rats, mice, dogs, students, teachers in the (entire) high school," he said. He graduated with a class of about 26 in 1959.
"I enjoyed chemistry and science in high school," he said. Not only was Barnes interested in school, but did well in sports. He was involved in football and wrestling plus participated in track and swimming and was an Eagle Scout.
He worked with his dad in his welding and equipment repair business and later for the town blacksmith where the owner wanted him to learn how to shoe horses. The first one he brought to Barnes was a Clydesdale stallion that had never been shod. Things went well until the last foot.
"All of a sudden I could feel his muscles start to tighten and the next thing I knew I was clear into the scrap patch." He ended up about 20 feet away in the alley, but he went back and finished the job. "It made me realize that the biggest animal I needed was a dog," he said. "That's the only horseshoeing I ever did."
After graduation he found that he was 4-F when he tried to join the various branches of the armed forces. "I knew I was gonna be drafted, so I joined the Air Force," he said. "They were gonna make me a pilot." However, that wasn't to be as they discovered he had hearing problems.
But that didn't stop him from also trying the Navy, then the Army, the Marines and the Merchant Marines and they all turned him down. "That was the extent of my armed service," he said. Boy, were folks back home surprised to see Barnes back that night when they had just sent him off that morning and with a big party the night before.
He went on to graduate from the University of Pacific, a Methodist college. Actually he initially went to college to be a minister, but changed his mind. He later went on to the University of California, Davis in 1967 to get his masters in agronomy (the science of farming), which he put to good use shortly after graduation.
Almost immediately after college he began doing consulting work for farmers. His experience growing up on a farm, supervising picking crews and learning blacksmithing and welding was a leg up in becoming a consultant. "Dad taught me how to start welding when I was maybe five or six years old," he said.
He bought the Monarch Laboratory in Chico, Calif., about 30 miles from home where he did bacteriology testing, waste water testing, hazardous waste and agricultural testing.
"In other words whatever would pay the bills," he said. "I learned to be a businessman."
After graduating he married Jan Sanguinetti in 1968 and they moved to Willows, Calif. He and his dad were backpacking one spring day when they got caught in a late winter storm and sought refuge in a cow camp until it was over. They left a note and Sanguinetti wrote back and over a couple years they got to know one another.
They tried living in town, but soon realized city life was not for them and found a place in the country where they lived for 27 years. They had been married 37 years when she died in a car accident in 2006.
"She never came home that day," he said.
Their union produced two girls who currently live in California and out of those marriages Barnes has seven grandchildren.
After selling Monarch they began looking for a place to retire to and scouted Nevada, Utah and Arizona. They had already discarded California as having too many cars and not being bicycle friendly and he enjoys bicycling.
When he looked at Winnemucca he saw nice bicycles paths. It was a slow safe town for bicycles and the community was the right size for them and there was a Walmart. He also appreciated having two railroads here, which along with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, to him, meant real estate would maintain its value. "You've got a good economic stability factor built into the town," Barnes said.
"And we like the taste of the water," he said. "If the water doesn't taste good, don't buy it." He has worked with many people who have paid big bucks for a home and then didn't like the water and asked for his help in correcting the problem.
In 2007 he moved to Winnemucca with partner Sherry Yarnell. His diabetes was first diagnosed the year he got married, but even with all the precautions his eyesight has deteriorated. He has been staying at Harmony Manor recently getting some work done on a shoulder. Nowadays he spends time in his shop and bicycling.[[In-content Ad]]
