Still here...August 2024

 Still here...alive & kicking!  (most of the time)...

I'm still adjusting to the death of Gigondas.   I know she was old, but I miss her.   She would softly nicker when I drove up to the ranch and I think she actually kinda/sorta looked forward to my visits.  She ended up with Cushings and one night she quietly passed in her sleep. I REALLY do miss her.

Last summer was brutal here in the desert, but this one actually hasn't been that bad.   We haven't had that many days of temps 120 or higher and we have about 3 more days of heat and then a drastic cool down!  We've already had some cooler mornings and I've been able to go out front and do yard work.  My tomatoes from last spring are all done & gone and I have 4 new totes to fill and plant this fall.   YAY!

I'm still pckking up the 2 grandkids here on early release days and we get together quite often.  Haven't seen the ones back East now for 4 years...sigh...It's not like Papa and I can just get up, leave our house and dog and inside cat and go visit them.   Nope...so we talk by Skype when we can.

Otherwise, life is just going on, as usual.   I still feed the birds and we have a momma cat and her 4 kittens out in the garage AND 2 more showed up.   We have NO idea where THEY came from, but she took them in.   They all play together and are quite entertaining.

Cheers!

Cheryl Ann

Nice view looking west from Toro Peak...afternoon monsoon

 Still here!   Alive and kicking (barely, some days)!!!!!

We are enjoying the grandkids.   Life happens at a slower pace for both of us (hubby and I) nowadays.   We are active with our daughter's 2 kids and our son and his family of 4 kids has moved across the country for a new job, so we don't see them often.   We still have Bodie, our lab rescue, and our cat, Abby (now 14 years old!) and we've been adopted by 3 feral cats who now live in our garage AND a momma cat and her 3 kittens!   We do leave food and goat's milk out for them and we cook them eggs for breakfast.  They seem to have taken over our side patio.   Fortunately our dog ignores them!

I don't get up to see the herd as much as I would like to.   Honestly, some days I'm too tired to even drive to the store and hubby doesn't drive anywhere anymore, ever since he has a "fender bender" last September.   So I do ALL the errands.   And, that wears me out.

So, just plugging along here, one day at a time.

Some recent pictures attached.   Daisies are from a few years ago.   Sunflowers are this year's.   I do have quite a few sunflowers, hollyhocks, cosmos, marigolds, and Black Eyed Susans still in the front yard, so I'm enjoying them.