“Hooterville” – A Special Place and Home!

When Elizabeth found this place she fell in love with it immediately.  It was mostly flat with 360 degrees view, including the ocean! When she moved here, the two and half mile dirt road began just a few feet off of Carmel Valley Road, the 56 did not exist, and to get to the 15 you had to take Del Dios, the 52 or the Black Mountain dirt road.  The place was a dump, old cars, mattresses, box springs, old alliances, and dozens of old tires just tossed all around the west end of the property.  Some of the windows had shower curtains duct taped instead of glass.  And when it rained, every bucket, pot and pan were called into service.

Since there was no city water, with the help of friends, they rigged up her ski boat trailer with a 600 gallon tank, put a $1,300 deposit on a contractors meater, bought a fire hose, fire hydrant tool and a Briggs and Stratton pump so she could make two trips a week to the fire hydrant 2 and 1/2 miles away to keep enough water for the basics and drinking water for the animals.  By getting up every morning early enough to take care of the animals and make it to the gym for a work out, and more importantly a SHOWER, free water, Elizabeth saved so much water!  Every time friends would have her over for dinner she would take her laundry, anything to save water at home!

Over the years Elizabeth rented roll-off dumpsters, and with help of friends loaded them up with all the junk from all over the property.  It took a long time, but every weekend the place looked more and more beautiful.  One of the things that they found was a bomb that she cleaned up, sanded and painted and hung out front as her address sign, 6344 Shaw Ridge road, along with a bunch of plastic Pink Flamingos.  When her parents first visited, her dad commented that it reminded him of the TV show, Green Acres and Hooterville, so the name stuck.  Hooterville, not Hootersville….

Many years later the developers started construction, starting with a 65 home development.  This brought them utilities and a road.  With the addition of city water Elizabeth could afford to change her landscape design from tumbleweeds and cactus to a garden, and a teeny little lawn for the dogs to roll around on.  And 5 years ago Elizabeth married Mike Rabbitt, who made the proposal with the requirement that she retire.  He moved here to Hooterville to be with her from his beautiful home in La Jolla Shores.  As his consolation prize they added a clay tennis court to the spot where the riding ring was.  He has nearly daily matches with friends from all over San Diego.  They love the background cacophony of chickens laying eggs, and being sent home with whatever is in season, tomatoes, persimmons, eggs, its all been a dream come true for them.

Even though the 360 degree views are gone, they can still see the ocean and the beautiful Palomar range to the north east, and they love their neighbors.  Their next-door neighbors, the Jacksons, are the only originals left up here.  They have been here since the late 70’s, and feel like family.  They still share tractors, a driveway, and feel like a little oasis in the middle of this development.  Elizabeth and Mike’s plan is to live there for the rest of their lives as they love it so much.