Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Fans? How about the air conditioner???

We are scheduled to have 3 days of triple digit temps here this week, then temps move down to 99, 97, and then the 80's next week.

YEE HAW!   (not the triple digits...the 80's)...

It was 99 degrees here yesterday and it was 80 degrees by 10 a.m., so we closed up the house and turned on the damn air conditioner.  I HATE to have to turn it on before June because we actually get an extra "allowance" for the hot, summer months.   So, when hot weather hits us in February or March or April, or even May, we get penalized.  We've lived here in the desert now for 42 years (in this house) and I actually remember a year when we didn't even turn it on until after July 4th!   HA!   NOT THIS YEAR or last year!!!!!   We got a whole new system let see...it will be 3 years ago in August because our 17 YEAR OLD system finally sprung a leak and it wasn't cooling down the house properly and we got a $500 energy credit that tax year for the new system.   (BIG DEAL...we still owed taxes that year!)   We both LOVE the new system.  It is modern, efficient, and quieter. And, it puts out the air!   So, yesterday we HAD to turn it on.

We are also noticing that as we get older (which we hate to admit...), our bodies tolerate the heat less and less.  We drink about 2 gallons of iced tea A DAY.   Hubby's main job now is to brew and keep the ice tea pitcher FULL.  We enjoy the TAZO wild orange tea, which hubby orders BY THE BOX from WalMart and they deliver it to the front door!   Amazing, eh?   That's also how we got our 2 new recliner/rocker chairs, which we both enjoy.   He set up one of the oscillating fans in the living room and that helps keep the air moving, cooling us down too.   We notice that Ripley, our black lab, likes to plunk herself right in front of the fan!

So, we have to get through this week and then next week we will have some relief.

I finished the 2 books about the Franklin expedition (one fiction and one non-fiction) and now I'm reading about... PIRATES!   I actually have an ancestor who was a Dutch pirate and who was lost in the Atlantic Ocean.   I'm reading Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton and a non-fiction book which I ordered from the library.   I don't buy books anymore...I just order them from our library system.  If they don't have it at the local branch, they order it from another one and I usually get it in 2 days.  It saves money!  $$$$$

I'm really enjoying this Spring here in the desert.   The birds are gathering materials for their nests, they chatter all day and the mockingbirds sing at night.  Hubby even looked up from his laptop to ask, "What bird is that?" the other evening.   DUH...a mockingbird...I see doves picking up twigs for their messy desks, birds flying off with some of the horse hair I spread out on the ground, and in general, just acting like...birds.   The grosbeaks have left, as of yesterday.   I didn't hear their little noises and I only saw one briefly all day.  Today, they are GONE!   I did, however, see a woodpecker at one of the orange I left out for the grosbeaks.  I don't know where they go, but every Spring they do stop by here for a couple of weeks.   The Canadian gees will be heading out soon, although I have seen them still at the city park in May.   I DID see a few of them this past weekend when we drove to the park to feed the ducks with the grandkids.   I miss seeing flocks of them overhead, but I don't always get out by the freeway and they seem to follow the freeway through the pass to travel north, just like us!

I worked on and finished 3 journals yesterday, so they will be listed in my ETSY shop this morning.   Time to start 3 more...

Take care.
~Cheryl Ann~For some reason my photos will NOT load this morning....   :-(

No comments: