Ballard is a quaint little village (yes I said village) located in the Santa Ynez Valley. When I describe where this quiet little bore of a place is it’s easier just to say Ballard is where Santa Ynez, Solvang and Los Olivos meet. To give you a better idea of where I dwell, The Village of Ballard is home to a red one room school house, a four star inn and restaurant, a funeral home complete with cemetery, a church of Christian Science and a restaurant that hasn’t been open for years. About three blocks long and two blocks wide there are two sets of stop signs and three major (I use this lightly) streets. Each house sit on anywhere from half an acre to two acres and my back fence has a gate so that the one handed silversmith that lives behind me can come visit or chat whenever he likes. Apparently when it was established it 1880 Ballard was expected to be a major city in Santa Barbara County. Currently I doubt there are even 500 people that live here and the Wells Fargo Stage Coach defiantly isn’t going to do a pick up anytime soon. Yes that’s how Ballard got its name on the map; it was a station for the stage. Now days this quiet little village doesn’t even get recognition from the USPS it gets defaulted to Solvang. Well at least we’re in biking distance to the wineries and now you know more about Ballard then over half the people that live here.
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