Horse visit

I drove up to the horses today, leaving home around 9:30 this morning.  I find that I just can't get going much earlier than that these days!  Call it laziness, call it old age, call it fatigue...I don't know what it is!  I still awake early, but nowadays I just prefer to sit at my window and watch the birds outside.  I guess I'm getting OLD!  I'll be 63 in February.  I haven't been sick (...knock on wood...)and my bronchitis isn't back...I'm just...well, WORN OUT!  29 years of teaching have done me in!

Anyway, I mustered up enough energy to haul my sorry #$$ out to the car and to get going.  Had a nice visit with the horses, except that Quad has now eaten over half of Sunni's tail!  And, he lays in his urine for a nap!  (Quad, that is...)  I didn't take any of them out as the ranch owners were gone again...sigh...maybe next week.  I still have ANOTHER full week of vacation before I have to go back to school, but we are scheduled to have an Arctic storm come swooping in tomorrow or tomorrow night and drop SNOW down to 2,000 feet!  YIKES!  I wanted to make sure all the horses had plenty of pellets (they did...) and when I got home, I ran out and bought dog and cat food, too!  Don't want THEM without food.

Oh, and RIPLEY (our lab) ate Grandpa's homemade lemon cookies!  ALL OF THEM!  Gone! Poof~
she doesn't even feel guilty about it!  I made her wear a sign today that said, "I ATE ALL OF GRANDPA'S COOKIES"!!!  She could care less.  Heck, she's eaten a WHOLE pumpkin pie, my breakfast muffins, chocolate cookies, and she even found a container of Chinese coleslaw!  Apparently she didn't like that!  She constantly knocks the trash can over, so we now have a trash can with a foot thing and a cover!  BAD DOG!

 Look how DIRTY Quad is...oh, well...

Doesn't Sunni look sad because he lost over HALF his tail????????  (He could care less...)

Winter is definitely HERE!

You know, living here in the desert by Palm Springs, DOES have its advantages.  This is where "snowbirds" come for the winter.  We haven't had bad freezes for a couple of years and last winter was very mild, but last night it was 39 degrees and we are heading into a frost warning the next couple of nights.  That means the farmers down valley will have to either flood the citrus groves or light hay fires (which contribute to air pollution).  I probably should take a drive down there one morning...

Anyway, I covered up my lone lemon tree last night just in case.  Our daughter's lemon tree yielded two FULL shopping bags of lemons.  She wanted to pick them all before the frost.  Since they live further down the valley (toward the Salton Sea) than we do, the cold air sinks down toward them, and especially my school.  Sometimes I don't need a jacket here at home, but by the time I get to my school, I'm shivering.  Yes, there is that much of a difference!

Our son turns 35 today (WHERE did the time go?) and we're taking him out to dinner at Kobe, in Rancho Mirage, tonight.  The grandson will get a kick out of feeding the koi there in the pond! :-)

MAYBE hubby and I will get out today.  Frankly, he just likes to sit in his chair with his laptop and turn on the portable heater, right next to his legs.  Poor guy.  He played basketball in high school and his legs and knees hurt...

Photos are from our last storm a couple of weeks ago...This next storm should bring snow down to 2,000 feet!  OYE!

Had a good Christmas

We had a good Christmas and our son's birthday is tomorrow.  We're all going to meet at Kobe's for dinner (minus the toddler, who will have a babysitter!).

I'm anxious to get out of the house and take some photos, so we MAY drive out to the Whitewater Preserve today....it depends on how hubby is feeling.

Me?  I just enjoy sitting at my laptop watching the birds outside my window!

Thank you all for your kind Christmas wishes.  I hope everybody had a good holiday.
~Cheryl Ann~

Christmas

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas.  We spent the last two days at either our son's house (Wednesday) or his house for breakfast yesterday (again).  Then, we all moved over to our daughter's house for Christmas dinner.  Phew!  I'm exhausted!  The grandkids have worn me out.  And, hubby has a cold, so he's miserable.  But, the grandkids all had a good time, even the 20 month old.  She got a plastic shopping cart (with groceries in it) and she pushed it all around her house!  The grandson got some Transformers, so he's content.

Now...back to normalcy! Hubby will probably want to rest today, so I may head out later and take some photos.

We all chipped in and bought our son & his family a family membership ($105.00) for the Living Desert Reserve, so now he can take the grandson there any time.  It comes with 4

guest passes and 6 free rides on the carousel.

And a Merry Christmas to you all!

From me, the horses, the cats, the dog, and my family...
a MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours!
~Cheryl Ann~

Farrier visit

The farrier and his assistant came yesterday to do EVERY horse up at the ranch!  That's a full day's work!  Phew~!  Those two guys are wonderful, however.  I remember the first time I had somebody up there come and do Sunni's feet.  The guy was very rough with Sunni and Sunni would NOT stand still.  The more the idiot shouted, the more Sunni got wound up, so he shouted more, and Sunni freaked out more.  I finally said, "ENOUGH!" and never had him come back.  I like this farrier now.  He is very quiet, moves very slowly, and Sunni now trusts him and doesn't move a muscle!   :-)  The guy sort of sings to the horses and they just relax.  What a difference!  We've had him now for several years and I'm so thankful for his work!

It was a cool day up at the ranch and last week they had two FULL days of rain, so everything was very muddy.  Ugh.  No fun.  I'm going back Wednesday and hopefully by then the arena will be dry enough that I can let them out for some R&R.

 Quad is a real pro at this!

 Mud everywhere!

Lucille getting her feet done!

The horses get a trim today!

The farrier is coming today and all the horses will get a trim before Christmas, so I'll be heading up to the horse ranch.

And, of course, on my first day of winter break (I have 3 weeks off!) I awoke at 3:45 yesterday morning!  NOBODY was on Facebook at that hour, so I pulled some of my photos and watermarked them.  I found, to my horror, that nearly every photo I've put on my Deep Canyon blog is now on Google images!  And, those are copyrighted.  I guess Google is so big that they just DON'T CARE.  PERIOD.  ARGH!  So, now I've watermarked all the newest photos and I've deleted some of the grandkids, since I really don't want the whole world to see them.  Any other ideas/suggestions?

Here's an example of what I'm now doing...I'm basically ruining each photo so that NOBODY will want to use it:

Like I said, does anybody have any ideas or suggestions?  I really don't want these used without my permission...sigh...

Desert after the storm

After last weekend's storm, I took a side road out by the sand dunes.  The sun was coming up and everything just sparkled.  I wanted to get out and see the dunes and maybe take some photos, so here are a couple of them.  I love how the ripples ready stood out.

After the storm

I headed home Saturday morning, after Friday's rain, to feed the dog, cats, and birds.  Yes, I feed the sparrows, finches, and now verdins who come to the yard!  Anyway, it was a beautiful, crisp, clean morning.  I drove out by the sand dunes on my way home.  The baby is now home, back from her 4 days in the hospital and she is doing better.

Why I've been AWOL

Well, the baby had to go back to the hospital for treatment of severe jaundice, so she was there for 4 days...Grandpa and I got recruited for babysitting the 5 year old.  I drove him to school Friday (I had to take the day off) and picked him up at his half-day kindergarten.  Then, home to play with my iPad.  Then, I had to drive to pick up the 20 month old from day care, so I just brought her to play with her cousin, and fortunately the two of them wore each other out!  They were asleep by 7 p.m.!  YEAH!  Score one for Grandma!

Saturday morning Gpa and I took him to the Living Desert, then to Palm Springs to spend the afternoon with his parents.  They actually kept him overnight (not in the hospital)...The hospital has some villas for parents with babies in the NICU.  I drove home this morning to do the dishes and laundry, feed the dog and cats and birds.  Damn dog scratched through the wooden gate and greeted me at the side gate...the one that goes out to the street!  So, over winter break, we'll have to get the gate fixed AGAIN!!! (3rd time)...

I'm going to school tomorrow to rest!

We had stormy skies here Friday and we got about 1/10" of rain.

Why I've been AWOL for a couple of days

Here she is!  Our newest granddaughter, Hayley...

 Proud papa.

She sleeps a LOT!!!

I took the day off yesterday.  Good thing!  We spent over 5 hours at the hospital and bought lunch for the starving parents.  The hospital food is HORRIBLE and our son didn't leave the room to get food.  Our daughter came to visit her niece last night, so we also got to babysit little Ellie, who is now 20 months old and trying to talk.  We aren't sure yet what SHE is saying, but she's definitely got an opinion!!!

So now we have two granddaughters!   :-)  And today I go back to work TO REST!!!

Why I love the mountains!

Living down here in the desert, but having mountains all around us is a real benefit.  In the summer, I can drive up into the mountains for the day and be cool.  They are lovely in the autumn and sometimes in winter I can drive up to them and see the snow.  While I don't like to drive in the snow, it is still pretty.  And, there are two kinds of forests in our local mountains:  pinyon and Ponderosa pine.  There is a huge meadow up in Garner Valley and Lake Hemet is further up the road.  Idyllwild is at the top of Mt. San Jacinto and I LOVE driving up there.

I awoke Sunday morning to the smell of moisture in the air and I could see the clouds spilling over the mountains.  I KNEW I had to drive up into them, so off I went!

 Looking down into the Coachella Valley from Highway 74.

 Clouds were spilling over the tops of the Santa Rosa mountains.

 Part of the pinyon forest.  I love this road!

 The San Jacinto mountains were covered by clouds.

Ponderosa pine forest up by Lake Hemet.