Scout saddled and tied! YEAH!

Cathy, the ranch owner, sent me this photo of Scout, who is standing patiently at the wash rack. She said she stood there and didn't even move! Wow! I have a trainer who is working with both Scout and Quad now. She also works with a couple of Cathy's Pasos. UNFORTUNATELY, rain is forecast for the next 5 days, with up to 8-10 inches forecast! ACK! Snow is forecast for about 8,000 feet, so that won't affect the horses. The ferrier is coming on Monday, rain or no rain, as Cathy has to get her horses shod for the Rose Parade. Look for her group: The Southern California Peruvian Paso Club in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day. I'm still "down and out" with this STUPID bronchitis, which this time is more like a bad cold. I'm okay if I take NyQuil, but then I can't drive, and I certainly would NEVER even attempt to drive the mountain road after taking NyQuil! I'm going to try to get going this morning as the swap meet is this weekend and it is the last one before Christmas, so I'll haul my BUTT out of my chair and hopefully get going this morning. Hubby went to the opening of the new Panera Bakery here in Palm Desert and came home with a box of delightful pastries for breakfast. Turns out, he was talking to the manager, whose daughter rides for the sheriff's department, and they ended up talking "horses" for some time. The coffee is done perking and I peeked out the front door...hhhmmmmm....smells like rain!

Tired of snow? Check out these pics!

I woke up at 3:00 a.m. this morning with a coughing fit (even after taking my cough syrup!), so I visited several other blogs and they were all posting pics of the snow they've received. Hmmm...this was the desert last week. We do have clouds moving in today and yesterday it was 66 degrees and cloudy and windy. Rain is forecast here this weekend and snow for our local mountains. (Sorry, I probably won't get any new pics of the herd...sigh...) My bronchitis is back full force. It looks like my vacation will involve getting over this again! Almost everybody at school is coughing and hacking! If it snows enough in our local mountains, hubby and I will probably drive out to Joshua Tree to take some pics. Have a good weekend!

Vacation starts tomorrow afternoon! YEAH~~~~~

My Christmas vacation begins tomorrow afternoon at 12:31 p.m. and BELIEVE ME, I'll be leaving school at 12:32 p.m.~!!! Out, gone, vanished...that will be me! However, rain is forecast in the afternoon here tomorrow, but showers were forecast this afternoon and they never materialized. Rain IS forecast for the mountains over the weekend, so I'm not sure how much horse time I'll get this weekend, but I have two weeks to have plenty of horse time! Maybe Quad will even get his head out of the feeder???? Do you think?

Salt water gargle and sunsets

Well, I gargled with salt water yesterday all day and took a 4-hour nap and another 2 hour one! Oh, my! I'm going to straggle in to school today since we have our dress rehearsal for our Christmas (winter) program. My aunt goes in for her double knee surgery this morning, and while I'd love to see her, I think I'll stay away! I don't think the hospital staff would appreciate me coughing! A winter storm is moving into the valley and maybe this afternoon we'll have a beautiful sunset here?

Getting sick AGAIN! ACK!

Yes...sigh...I'm getting sick AGAIN! I can feel a sore throat beginning, so I've gargled with salt water, but now I have that "dizzy headache"....UGH! This will be the THIRD TIME this fall that I've been sick! I'm going to hobble into school today, but if I'm like this tomorrow, I'll take the day off and stay in bed!!!! The kids are coughing, coughing, and coughing without covering their mouths...what's a teacher to do? I've discussed covering your mouth, washing your hands, and protecting others...to apparently indifferent ears! Christmas vacation begins Saturday and I would hate to be sick my entire vacation! I've already had a z-pack twice and I know I won't get another one!!! Any ideas/suggestions? I took this picture on Saturday afternoon. These are the pinyons in our local mountains.

status of the herd~121310

Apparently "The Princess", (i.e. Scout) can now ground tie without moving! WOW! That's real progress! My aunt called me and said she wanted to get out of her house for the day yesterday and she would just sit in her car while I did "horse stuff", so off we went early in the morning. We were on the road by 7:30 a.m. and up the mountain we went! I was the only car going up at that time and we only saw a couple coming down. By the time we left (about noon), the mountain road was full of cars going to San Diego. The horses were all fine, although in our heat wave, they must have been quite warm in the afternoon! It was 83 degrees in the desert and mid-sixties up in the mountains. Apparently we broke a few weather records for heat yesterday! And, today will be hot again. My sweet peas (a few of them) are growing and I'm going to replant them again this weekend, when rain is forecast, so I'll have to soak them on Friday. I love to grow sweet peas and now that we have a chain link dog fence in our back yard, I have the perfect place for them to grow!

Busy day yesterday!

I took my nearly two year old cat, Abby, in to be spayed yesterday (FINALLY!)...I had to save up quite a while to afford it. I dropped her off at 7:30 a.m. at the animal clinic. Since I was near the burned-out palm oasis, I decided to hike back to it and take some photos. Hubby and I saw the fire the night it burned, while driving home from our daughter's house in Indio. There are several palm oases along the San Andreas fault zone area and this one was near the Coachella Valley Preserve. Fortunately, none of their palms burned. The cause of this fire has not yet been revealed and is still under investigation. Well, these things don't just ignite on their own, so I suspect arson. My morning walks paid off as I was able to hike back there (the grove is about 1/2 mile from the road) and I wasn't even winded! And, my bronchitis is barely hanging on and I only coughed a few times! After that, I headed toward Indio to buy some produce from a stand that my aunt told me about. And, finally, since the polo grounds were just down the street, I drove by hoping to see some ponies being exercised and caught this guy with a few of them. I picked up my cat that afternoon and once home, she hightailed it and hid under the bed for several hours. I think she's mad at me! Heck, I purchased the extra pain medication for her, I mean, WHAT does she want? It won't wear off for another 24 hours and then I'm sure she will tell me ALL about it! My aunt wants to get out of her house for the day, so she's coming with me up the hill to visit the horses this morning. It was 83 degrees in the desert yesterday and today it is forecast to be even hotter!