I'm on standby for now...

Things are pretty slow around here right now.  I didn't get up to visit the horses AT ALL during my spring break last week because we had a 23 year old eucalyptus tree blow over in the horrible wind and it not only took out our front fence, but it also broke the main water line into our house.  I woke up at 5:30 the next morning to find our front yard covered with water!  Eh?  Did it rain?  Nope...the back yard was dry.  I didn't even hear the tree go down!

So, we had to get a plumber out to redo the pipe after we called the water district to shut off the water.  We spent 2 days WITHOUT water in the house.  Fortunately, hubby ran out and bought 20 gallons of water, but we both didn't have a shower.  And, fortunately, it wasn't too hot!

So, our 6' wooden front fence is now completely gone, the tree is now cut into pieces, and the front yard has been raked a dozen times.  Each time I rake it, I rake it into the huge, massive hole that was left from the water main leak.  It still isn't level, but it is almost there...sigh..

I had NO days to go up and visit the herd.  I feel badly about that, but I only have 4 weeks until I retire FOR GOOD!  WHOOPIE!  Then, I'll have free time.

In the meantime, today we are getting the other eucalyptus tree severely trimmed back because if it falls down, it will go into the neighbors' yard, and we don't want that. I spent every day of spring break cleaning up the front yard and moving furniture onto the side patio.  A neighbor of our daughter's came and helped me for 2 days and the gardeners were busy, busy, busy.

I can't WAIT to retire!

What a mess!  Fortunately, our insurance company was very cooperative.  Thank you, SAFECO! :-)

Short week

I have a short week this week and then 10 days of spring break.  I CANNOT wait.  It looks like we'll be having pleasant spring break weather~not too hot.  I remember some years when the heat was nearly unbearable!  Ugh.

And, we haven't had to turn on our air conditioner AT ALL (...knock on wood...)!  Since we have so many trees on the south side of our yard, they completely shade that part of the house!  That's always nice here in the desert.

My flower garden out front is growing nicely.  Once the real heat comes, however, it will be KAPUT!

Only 3 more days of school this week...YIPPIE!   :-)

Horse update

Hubby and I had a chance to stop at the horse ranch on our way back from Temecula on Sunday.  We drove over there Saturday to spend time with our son and grandkids.  I had some rocks for the grandson and we had his birthday presents, so we needed to go!  It was a beautiful weekend in Temecula ~ NO fog!  It had rained hard there on Friday and everthing was nice & green.  I'm glad we went.

The horses are all fine and still shaggy.  I only had time to run around and give each of them a couple of scoops of pellets, as hubby was getting fidgety.  He did walk over to say "Hi!" to Gigondas, but she was more interested in the food.

I'll have more time this coming Saturday to spend with them.  My grooming box is in the back of my car, and we had his car, so I didn't even have that with me.

 Sunni, of course, had to stick his big nose in the camera!

 Scout was IMPATIENTLY waiting for her snack and couldn't be bothered with any kind of lovin'.

 Quad just wanted his snack...NOW!

Pretty view of the ranch.  Gigondas turned her butt to me and went off and ate her snack, so I didn't even get a photo of her!

Well, NOW I've REALLY done it! :-(

So, yesterday I decided to take a drive out into the desert and check for wildflowers.  Everybody else is having a banner year and we've had some pretty good rain.  I headed out toward Thousand Palms Canyon, which is a huge wash and it has lots of hiking trails.  The San Andreas fault runs right there and it has a lot of palm oases.  The Coachella Valley Preserve is along this area and I figured there would be verbena out there.

I stopped at the hiking trailhead and got out.  I found verbena, lupines, and different yellow flowers among the rocks in the wash when...SUDDENLY my right shoe came off!  It just slipped off and I went tumbling down!  SPLAT!  My camera lens landed against a rock, but it appeared to be okay and it DID work later.  However, I landed on a rock with my left knee and I somehow did something to my right ankle.

I'm going to have to go to urgent care today.  There were people on the trail and they stopped to assist me, but I WAS (thank goodness) able to walk back to my car before things stiffened up.  In fact, I drove down to the edge of the Coachella Valley Preserve and took photos of the verbena along the sand dunes there (I didn't walk much...), then home to put ice on both legs.

However, my right ankle has severely stiffened up (I didn't even land on that leg...go figure...) and I'm going to have to go in today to urgent care.  I can barely put any weight on that leg.

Here are some of the photos I got yesterday, both before and after my fall...sigh...

 Pretty lupines in the wash out by the San Andreas fault

 This is right after I fell down...see the rocks?

 Verbena

The sand has blown over one whole lane of this road.  I've NEVER seen it like this before.  Another gentleman was also here, taking photos, but he was able to hike out and over the sand dunes.  I didn't even try to do that.  I went home and put ice on both legs and fell asleep watching "Independence Day".

LOTS of color at our local nursery center

We have a nice nursery center here in town, as well as the two box stores.  They never seem to have what I want and their plants don't look healthy.  So, I enjoy visiting our local nursery every now and then.  It is nestled up into one of the canyons here in town and they have been there for over 40 years.  The staff allows me to wander around with my camera and they are all friendly.

I went up there Sunday to buy some seeds (cosmos) for the back yard, but they only had 2 packages, so I did end up driving over to ...(cough, cough) Lowe's.  What a difference in the quality of the plants and their prices, too!  OUCH!  The local nursery is so expensive I cannot afford to buy anything bigger than a small pot there, but I do enjoy looking at all of their beautiful specimens.

See if you agree...

Spring up at the ranch

Spring has arrived early this year.  The trees are blooming, the ravens are out, and the sycamore and maple trees are budding.  The horses are losing their winter coats, and my allergies are kicking in!  OYE!  But, it is indeed a beautiful time...

 The lupines are blooming along Highway 74

 Blossoms...the trees were FULL of bees!

 The sycamore trees are budding.

 The ravens were out for a flight.

This is one of the blooming trees.  I believe it is a flowering plum.

Pretty Gigondas

Of all the horses, I think perhaps Scout has made the most progress, but so has Gigondas (Gigo).  She now knows that when I come up for a visit, I will take her over to the large corral next to her and let her loose.  She patiently waits by her gate and calmly walks over with me to the corral.  Honestly, she would probably just follow me, but I don't want to take the chance that she would spook.  She enjoys her corral time.  I need to put some water there for her as she could lounge and run all day there!  :-)