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Jack,
I've zoomed in on the satellite imagery of Lucerne Valley trying to locate the ranch. It was roughly southeast of the school on a dirt road that ended at the property of an old desert rat named Beeheimer. All I could determine when the Google map was superimposed on the photo was that the ranch was east of highway 18. There's been so much development in that part of the desert that I couldn't even locate with any certainty the alfalfa ranch south of the Apple Valley school, although it was on the same road south of the school about 5 miles. The ranch was the only one on that road, was draped across a knoll, and had more than 100 acres under irrigation. There was an irrigation reservoir of an acre or more on the south end of the property. The farm house was a 2 story building surrounded by a veranda, which was screened and used as a dormitory for us boys--we slept on army cots.

Sis and the other girls slept upstairs; which was "out of bounds" for boys.

There was a very large barn for hay storage, horse stalls and a milking area under the leantos on each side of the barn. The driveway from the road came in past the hog pens (one of my chores was feeding those beasts).

I'm currently working on stories about Lucerne Valley, Apple Valley, Victorville, Fontana and Redlands for my blog. Feel free to email me directly. Email is on my blog: OldMack's Tales. http://oldmackstales.com/