Shoes

for me, not the horses! I made the mistake of wearing a pair of flat shoes to school the first day and now I have BIG blisters all over my feet! Yesterday I wore an old pair of walking shoes (Reeboks) and socks and my feet didn't hurt, but the blisters are now big and red. Hmmm...we aren't allowed to wear "flip flops", so I guess I'll have to wear my walking shoes again today, but does anybody have any suggestions for the blisters? Is there anything I can put on them so that they don't hurt and go down? They hurt whenever ANYTHING touches them! OUCH! On a lighter note, I absolutely LOVE my class this year! They can write, they know how to SIT and do work, and they seem to be pretty good in math! YEAH! That makes my job so much easier when kidlets come to me PREPARED (unlike the previous year...sigh...)

Well, I survived the first day of school!

Whoopie! I made it through the first day of school. However, my feet didn't. I've been wearing sandals and flip flops all summer and I put on a pair of flats...BIG MISTAKE! By noon, I was limping around with about 6 blisters. By afternoon recess, I was hobbling. But, I do seem to have a nice group of kids this year (not like last year's group!!!) They sat quietly, did their work, and didn't complain! And, they can WRITE! (...faint!) Some of them came from our former reading coach and believe me, HIS kids know their stuff! (THANK YOU, Robert!)Unfortunately, our lunch is the second to the last and their little tummies (and mine) were rumbling by 11:50. That's a LONG morning~~from 8:00 until 11:50 to sit! We only get a 10 minute bathroom break about 9:45 and that's it! ACK! I'm going to have to bring a snack every day from now on, because I was as hungry as they were! They all lined up at the end of the day and gave me "high 5's"! I think I'm going to enjoy this group of kidlets!

First day of school!!!!

Goodbye, summer! Well, today is the first day of school. I woke up at 4:45, took a shower, and made my morning coffee. I'm sure the kids are as excited as I am! Right now it is 67 degrees outside, unheard-of for the desert in August! It will be about 101 degrees here today, but 111 by the weekend...DARN! We were all enjoying our relief from the heat!

Saturday

So, yesterday morning down here in the desert was...delightful! I opened the front door and cool air filtered in! The humidity was GONE and the temperature was about 75! Phew! What a relief from the hot, sticky days we had last week! After hubby left for work, I drove up to the ranch. The front gate was locked, which meant the owners were gone for the day. Hmmmm....I normally do NOT let the horses out or walk them when they are gone, but I needed to work with Scout and see how she was doing. So, against my better judgment, I took her down to the arena to test her walking and leading skills. She was PERFECT! She calmly waited at the gate, which I left wide open, and she waited for my cue to her that it was time to go. She quietly walked WITH ME and didn't barge ahead! Phew! I let her out for some R&R, then I went up and cleaned out Gigo's water trough. This time of year, troughs almost have to be cleaned out every week, otherwise they fill up with mosquitoes. Then, it was time to put Scout back in her corral and she walked nicely...she only got excited when we walked by the two stallions. BUT...she did very well and got a nice reward of some extra feed! Sunni was looking very forlorn, so I decided to take him down to the arena, since he is a good walker (unless he spooks) and I didn't think he would. He got some R&R, too. While he was there, I cleaned out some automatic waterers. It was just so darn NICE up in the mountains! The air was cool and there was a breeze! Sunni rolled and stretched his legs and then was ready for his treat, so he calmly walked with me back to his corral. Quad was busy eating and I didn't want to disturb him, so I'll take him out for some R&R this morning. Cali was done with her snack, so I put a shorter lead rope on her (not the longer one I was using) and since she leads so quietly, I left my gloves off. Hmmmm...BIG MISTAKE! Cali, who normally is the quiet one, had some R&R in the arena, got the farts out, and stretched her legs. Walking back to her corral, I decided (I know...I SHOULD have known better...) to go the long way, around the big corral where she used to be and where Gigondas is now. Cali had been doing fine...no problems...she stopped to sniff and slobber all over my car, she stopped and sniffed the horse trailer, she stopped and took a couple of bites at the hay stack, she stopped and sniffed with Gigondas and WHAM! She spooked and took off and left me with a major rope burn on my left hand. I nearly lost my ring finger as the lead rope got tangled up on that finger! BAM! She was gone! I could hear her running around the ranch and I called to her and hoped that she'd come back to me and she did. Something spooked her (I don't know what it was...), but she DID come to me when I called her and I was able to get the lead rope and quietly walk her back to her corral. I'll have a nice rope burn to explain to my class tomorrow! It's on the top of my hand. Go figure! The quiet, calm one spooks and "Ms. Manners" is a little lady now! .... HORSES...!!!! Here are some pics I took yesterday. I didn't take any of Scout because she was just eating weeds. Oh, and I took the photo of the driveway at the ranch. The tire tracks are where I drove in and you can see how much rain they got this week!

Fire update~Joshua Tree

Well, driving to school yesterday morning (it was a regular work day for teachers, but no students), I didn't see any smoke from the Joshua Tree fire. Some teachers did tell me that they smelled the smoke down in Indio the previous night. Apparently it is now 60% contained (http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100828/NEWS01/8280302/Joshua-Tree-fire-nearly-contained) On other news, my class room is ready for Monday! I haven' worked so hard on getting my class room ready since my first year of teaching! I can't WAIT to see the herd this morning! It is actually only 68 degrees here in the desert this morning, so it will be chilly up in the mountains! YEAH! Our humidity finally broke last night and the cool air is a welcome change!!! That's Cathy, the ranch owner, hanging out with Gigondas last week.

Thunderstorms, lightning strikes, and fire

Don't worry...the horses are safe. They are on the other side of the valley, but there is a fire up in Joshua Tree National Park. Thunderheads started building up yesterday afternoon (it is monsoon season here in our desert) and the sky got dark in various places. I could see downpours around the valley. Apparently there was hail in Warner Springs! And, near Joshua Tree, there was a huge downpour (in Landers) and flooding! Unfortunately, there were some lightning strikes in Joshua Tree National Park and one started a fire. I saw the fire while driving home from school yesterday afternoon and by dusk, I could see the flames. More thunderstorms are forecast for today. Eight fires were started around the valley by lightning yesterday.

Rain up at the ranch!!!

I had to spend the day down at school yesterday, and I was running between classrooms (literally, because of the HEAT)! I looked up and saw thunderheads developing and by late afternoon, I could see that the mountains were getting a nice soaking. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me (since it was a school day) to get photos. Apparently we are due for another round of thunderstorms here and in the mountains today. Today is the big "rah, rah" at the high school, but it's hard to be supportive when our district administration wants us to take a 6% pay cut! And, with all the school supplies that I've purchased for this school year (pencils, pencil boxes, crayons, markets, colored pencils, 3 ring notebooks), it just makes their attitude even more insulting!!! Pppppffffffffffhhhhhhhhtttttttt!