This column was supposed to begin along the lines of: "The whip has been cracked over the stagecoach team, thus sending Vail Ranch bound for rebirth."

Sure, it's hokey, but after years of waiting for a sign the restoration project might exist somewhere other than in the minds of its advocates, a little hokiness might be forgiven.

Anyway, that's the way it was supposed to start.

Now, the proper lead more accurately would be cast as: The Vail Ranch restoration project once again has been delayed by…"

The bumpy road, replete with stop and detour signs, to giving the Vail Ranch its proper place as a marker of our local culture, is well-documented by reporters and columnists.

This time, however, the sign reads: "Proceed with caution."

This week, the Board of Supervisors shelved until Jan. 23 agenda item "3.21 Economic Development Agency: Approval of Vail Ranch Historic Site -- First Amendment to Offer to Dedicate and Lease between the County, Redhawk Towne Center, LLC, and Vail Headquarters, LLC, 3rd District."

Unlike previous delays, the lease of the 4-acre site and the reproduction of the implement barn, an empty monument to the travail that beset the project almost at its inception, likely will come to fruition.

Tina English, deputy director of the county Economic Development Agency, is confident the last little detail will be in place and ready for approval.

The holdup this time? The state paper machine.

It seems that everyone is waiting for paperwork that was submitted to Sacramento in November and expected back by late December.

There was a minor discrepancy in the name of the entity that was to take over the ranch through a lease with the county and it was decided to err on the side of caution and wait for the letter-perfect paperwork.

Anyhow, it appears that in a matter of days, the deal will be done and the Vail Ranch Restoration Association can get on with bringing to fruition the first stage of the project, turning the reproduction of the implement barn on Redhawk Parkway into a museum.

Arteco Partners, the Pomona-based historic restoration company that is to lease Vail Ranch from the county, will be free on signing to, in turn, lease a portion of the barn to the association.

As you might expect, Darell Farnbach, president of the restoration association and one the of people who kept the project alive lo these years, is quietly optimistic. After being left at the altar so many times, who can blame him?

Quietly optimistic he may be, but his enthusiasm appears as strong as ever and he says he is excited at the prospect of working with Jerry Tessier, a principal in the company, whom he sees as creative, excited and motivated.

The plan calls for the intermingling of commercial with historical.

The bunkhouse, for example, will include an example of a bunkroom mixed in with retail shops. Likewise, another barn will house a re-creation of a blacksmith shop amid the stores.

Already, the association has a stagecoach, hay wagon and a chuck wagon for the museum. Farnbach, too, is hopeful that a water tank that once stood on the property will be returned and erected at the front of the site as a "signature piece."

This whole thing is no small feat when you consider, Kimco Realty Corp., doing business as Redhawk Towne Center LLC, is giving up the rights to 4 acres of what would be extremely expensive commercial property that is nearly surrounded by its shopping center.

Good for them.

We are our memories, so says one theory of "self."

If that is the case, then this is another step in making sure Temecula Valley retains a bit of its soul and of the sense from which it came.

We may not be the frontier of not-so-many years ago, but we remain a "fur piece" from the concrete megalopolis growing on the coast to our west.

Phil Strickland is a regular columnist for The Californian. E-mail: philipestrickland@yahoo.com.