Just down the road from Highway 156, surrounded by orchards and
her beloved bunnies and dogs, San Juan Bautista resident Linda
Figone has found her home for life.
”
I absolutely love it here,
”
she said.
”
It’s quiet and it’s peaceful.
San Juan Bautista – Just down the road from Highway 156, surrounded by orchards and her beloved bunnies and dogs, San Juan Bautista resident Linda Figone has found her home for life.
“I absolutely love it here,” she said. “It’s quiet and it’s peaceful. Just this morning I was making my girls’ lunches and I told them to go pick apples off the tree for their lunch. I mean how many people get to do that?”
Figone, 35, has lived in San Juan Bautista for seven years, but even as a young girl, growing up in a residential area of Gilroy, she said she’s always had a bit of country in her.
“I have always been involved in 4-H and I remember when I was young I hated living in town,” she said. “My grandparents had a big ranch out in the country and every other weekend I would be so excited to go out and ride horses with my dad. I used to beg my parents to let me move out there with them.”
Born and raised in Gilroy, Figone participated in Adams 4-H and then the Future Farmers of America in high school. Since moving to San Juan Bautista and having children of her own, the mother of three has become the community club leader for San Juan 4-H.
“My grandmother was a community club leader in Gilroy, so I kind of followed in her footsteps,” she said.
Figone’s love for animals goes beyond 4-H. She and her husband have a herd of Black Angus cattle, and during calving season, when the heifers give birth, she and her husband are out at the ranch keeping a close eye on the newborns.
“We’re out there at all hours of the night making sure they’re OK,” she said.
When she isn’t watching the cows or putting in more than 20 hours a week with 4-H, Figone is a stay-at-home mom who never stays home. With a freshman in high school, a first-grader and a kindergartner, Figone said she’s a busy woman.
“They keep me hopping,” she said. “They have a big separation in age, but I think having my older daughter will prepare me for what is to come with the younger two.”
Christine Tognetti covers education for the Free Lance. She can be reached at 637-5566, ext. 330. E-mail her at ct*******@***********ws.com.
