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We purchased this land with the goal to create a small private retreat venue for individuals or groups to provide opportunities to connect with nature. It beckons us to slow our pace while inviting us into conversations with her trees, rocks and animals to remind us of our bond one birdsong at a time.
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“Birds are jewelers of air… crafting gems of sound” - David Haskell
Your Hosts Behind Birdsong
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Lane and I first met in the 80’s on the side of road where he was selling his willow furniture. I remember his openess and charm made quite an impression on me. We didn’t meet again until a year later when a client requested a willow gazebo for a garden I was designing so I tracked him down to his workshop in the Tijuana River Valley which was in an old dairy barn . My work and passions at the time were native plant gardens, metal furniture design and sculpture so his work contrasted but dovetailed with mine and that was the beginning of a lifelong creative collaboration and marriage.
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Since the beginning, our lifestyle choices have included lots of animals, more nature than neighbors, a home with light and soul, a place to create, the time to do it and direct access to trails from home. Our first property was in Descanso and had picturesque stone building and a barn. After the first year, a failed business forced us to getcreative with ways to pay the mortgage so we rented out the houses and moved into a tipi I sewed up in the living room based on a pattern left over from my commune days.
Within a year, we fixed the barn up enough to live in and learned how to build with strawbales and built a beautiful quirky little hut we called the Haylapa House which we started renting also. It became very popular and was featured in newspapers, magazines and the book " The Strawbale House". In 2013 we sold that property wanting to be even farther from town and are now blessed to live at the base of Mount Palomar in a 1940's adobe home sharing a property line with Cleveland National Forest.
In 2014, we created a glamping site called Camp Ribbonwood gambling that people would be interested in staying in a safari tent.....this was before the glamping rage took off and it has been a surprising success. After 6 years, it is still very heartwarming to read guest's comments on how relaxing and revitalizing it was for them to spend "unwalled" time in nature.
Fast forward to 2018, we had been looking for another property to expand the nature retreat concept with the mandate being to help people connect to nature with easy access to trails, great amenities, and privacy. We found the perfect location in Chihuahua Valley and Birdsong was born. We so look forward to sharing this magic place with you.
Within a year, we fixed the barn up enough to live in and learned how to build with strawbales and built a beautiful quirky little hut we called the Haylapa House which we started renting also. It became very popular and was featured in newspapers, magazines and the book " The Strawbale House". In 2013 we sold that property wanting to be even farther from town and are now blessed to live at the base of Mount Palomar in a 1940's adobe home sharing a property line with Cleveland National Forest.
In 2014, we created a glamping site called Camp Ribbonwood gambling that people would be interested in staying in a safari tent.....this was before the glamping rage took off and it has been a surprising success. After 6 years, it is still very heartwarming to read guest's comments on how relaxing and revitalizing it was for them to spend "unwalled" time in nature.
Fast forward to 2018, we had been looking for another property to expand the nature retreat concept with the mandate being to help people connect to nature with easy access to trails, great amenities, and privacy. We found the perfect location in Chihuahua Valley and Birdsong was born. We so look forward to sharing this magic place with you.