Hummingbirds in the morning

As I sit at my laptop every morning, I look outside the window at the bird feeders.  The little hummers are the first to arrive each morning.  Then, little sparrows and finches.  Starting tomorrow, I'll have to dash off to work (ugh!), but I've had 9 days to enjoy their antics.  Apparently there are 3 of them who come to feed at this feeder.  A large one, a smaller one, and I saw one with a black head.  The big one chases off the little hummingbird and they put on quite a show.  I also have a feeder in the back yard and, again, two of them seem to claim that feeder.  I went out yesterday and bought my sunflower and hollyhock and sweet pea seeds and I'll plant them today out front and in the back, along the chain link fence.  I soaked my sweet pea seeds overnight so that they will sprout faster and I've been throwing my old coffee grounds out there so prepare the soil for them!   :-)  Wish me luck this year!  We have a storm system coming in later this week, with rain forecast, so hopefully that will encourage all the seeds to sprout!

Unfortunately, while I was planting the hollyhock seeds out front, I came across an ant hill (big RED ants) and one of them bit me on the neck!  Man, that was PAINFUL!  And, of course, I have no idea how it crawled up on my neck!  I put baking soda on it and an hour later, I pretty much forgot about it.  I'll plant the rest of the seeds, including a bee, butterfly, and desert mix out front.

Thanksgiving is over

Thanksgiving is over and NO, I'm NOT going to stand in line for Black Friday sales.  In fact, I'm heading up to the mountains today.  PERIOD.  I'm escaping the crowds!

Here are just a couple of pics from Thanksgiving...and no, I didn't get any pics of the food!  It was gone too quickly! Well, apparently the other photos didn't load!   :-(

Night lights and a WILD time at the Living Desert

Hubby and I, and now our kids are all members of the Living Desert Reserve here in Palm Desert and they had a members' only night Monday night to let members and their families in to see the annual Wild Lights.  Wild Lights is their winter holiday nighttime exhibit.  The lights are FANTASTIC and Santa will be arriving Friday night!   :-)  The carousel was in full excitement mode and apparently there was a little train for the kids, too.  They open at 6:00 p.m. for this, so if you and your family want to come, I think the tickets are $10.00 each (I 'll post a link so you can see for yourself)...

ANYWAY...

We met up with our daughter & her family and our son and grandson Monday night and off we went!  You can see how much fun the kids had!

 These lights were on the miniature train tracks!

 This one you walk inside all the lights.

 Family photo.

 The 5 year old really enjoyed his carousel ride!

 The 19 month old wasn't too sure about it!

Next to the Christmas tree by the gift shop.

Here's the info on WILDLIGHTS:  Children under 3 are FREE...Military and members are $8.00, and adults are $10.00 each.  Also, check the dates below.  This doesn't happen every night...
Members / Children / Military (with ID) $8

We had some excitement here yesterday!

About 4 blocks from our home is a hill with a trail on it called "The Bump & Grind".  Every morning, during the season, I can see hikers going up and down on it.  It is fairly steep and I've never attempted it.  Sometimes, even at night, we see flashlights on it.  I don't know WHY people would want to use it at night as it is not lit and there are rattlesnakes...sigh...but, to each his own!

Anyway, whenever we hear a helicopter nearby, I run out with my camera to see what's going on.  It usually involves a rescue of a hiker on the trail.  And, yesterday was another example of this.  Sometimes a hiker slips and injures an ankle, or sometimes one of them just can't handle the trail.

So, off I went, camera in hand, down to the end of our street.  I couldn't see anybody on the ground, but the rescuers showed up on the photos.  It took the helicopter several passes before it could get lined up properly to assist with the rescue.  There is NO place for it to land up there.

There was only 1 small story on the local news about rescuing a hiker, so I really don't know what happened.  The whole rescue took about 45 minutes.

Kitten update

So, now that I'm off for 9 WHOLE DAYS, yesterday I decided to go out and clean up the kitty enclosure.  Remember, we have 2 feral kittens that we are attempting to save from extermination?  Our neighbor is OUT TO GET THEM, so we made an enclosure out of the old dog kennel and hubby put two pieces of lattice over the top.  Anyway, they seemed to be warming up to me, so I went inside to do some housekeeping.  I also decided to stop buying Purina Cat Chow (ugh!) and I switched to Taste of the Wild salmon.  I'll have to go to my neighborhood dog & cat food store to buy it, but I can't, in good conscience, keep feeding them Purina.  I read on Facebook or somewhere (I forget...) that it was causing cats to vomit and have blood come up.  I do NOT feed anything by Purina to my horses anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to switch to another, BETTER brand of cat food.  Ripley gets the COSTCO brand salmon dog food, which really looks just like the Taste of the Wild salmon brand, only it is about $12.00 cheaper for a huge bag.

But, I digress...

So, I went out to do some housekeeping and I noticed that their "cat cube" wasn't facing completely out so I moved it.  Then, all HELL broke loose!  My goodness!  They ran around.  They tried to crawl out.  The little tabby tried to crawl through the one hole by the door!  I literally had to push her away with my foot (NOT wanting to get my hands scratched).  I'm afraid I did 1 step forward and 14 steps back on their progress!  They were terrified.  I might just have to take a chair and just SIT with them for this next week and let them know I'm NOT going to eat them!

However, this morning, they were yowling for their breakfast, so they are back to normal (I guess...)

Poor little things.  I really did SCARE THEM!

Not really a cube, but I don't know what to call it.  Most of the time, they are BOTH huddled in it together!

Clouds in the morning

I woke up early yesterday morning and left 30 minutes before my usual time so that I could grab my camera, take it with me, and get some early morning photos.  We had clouds and our mountains had about 2 inches of snow!  Whoopie!  I always love to be down here in the desert and look up and see snow, so off I went!

I awoke before 4 a.m. this morning and noticed that our heater wasn't coming on.  It would rev up, but I didn't hear the gas catch and no air came out, so we are due for a call to have it repaired.  Good thing we aren't living in Buffalo!

 I drove through Shadow Ridge in Palm Desert to take this photo.

 More from Shadow Ridge.

Just the top of Mt. San Jacinto had sunlight.

Cottonwood and fence~Good Fences~11/21/14

I spotted this gorgeous cottonwood and fence up at the Big Morongo preserve last weekend.  I only have 1/2 day of school today, then my 9 day vacation starts!  I can't WAIT!!!  It is actually raining here this morning, so I may take my camera with me and get some photos from the freeway.  Good Fences for Friday, November 21, 2014.   To visit Good Fences, please go to:   http://run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/

This is how I felt this morning!

Yup.  This is how I felt this morning after parent/teacher conferences until 6:30 p.m. yesterday.  Actually, I was there until about 7:15 because, OF COURSE, 3 sets of parents showed up at...you guessed it... 6:30 p.m.!!!  OYE VEI!!!  I told the kids over and over that I would be FINISHED by 6:30, but, of course, they didn't LISTEN!!!!!!  I have 3 more this afternoon and believe me, by 3:30, I am walking out!!!  Enough of this!  I'm already tired and cranky today!  This will be a good day to do some reading about Thanksgiving and drawing a turkey and getting the iPads out!  Fortunately, the kidlets go home at 12:50!!!!!  Phew!

Hubby is off for the next 5 days, so we may drive back up to Lake Hemet so that he can take some photos...probably Saturday or Sunday.  I only have 1/2 day Friday, and believe me, I'll be blazing outta there at 12:51 p.m.!!!

It was COLD here Sunday!

It was 68 degrees inside our house Sunday, the wind was BLOWING, and I stayed in my pajamas ALL DAY!  Just too cold and windy to go outside and I needed to rest up for this week (parent conferences).  I'm already fighting a sore throat and a girl was in class SICK yesterday.  She told me, as she snuggled up to me, (proudly...) that she threw up TWICE the previous night!  ACK!  I shuddered and PRAYED that I don't get sick (so far today I'm fine)...I'll be taking my doTERRA OnGuard with me to school and wiping off desks this morning!

Anyway, I did have a chance to view some of the birds at the feeders out in the front yard.  I seem to have two hummingbirds:  big Hoss and little Joe!  Little Joe is a LOT smaller.  They are the first birds to show up in the morning, I guess because of their metabolism.

I desperately wanted to drive up the mountain road, but hubby warned me the winds were gusting up at... 75 miles per hour and that is NO ROAD to be on in those conditions!  So, I stayed home.  But, a couple of weeks ago, I took these photos about the bighorn sheep.  I stopped in at the Santa Rosa mountains visitor center and they had them on display:

Interesting, eh?

Hawk

I stayed inside for most of Saturday morning and all day Sunday.  It was too cold and windy to go visit the horses...wind gusts were up at 65 mph!  NO WAY was I going to travel that twisty, narrow road!

Our neighborhood hawk decided to chase the doves and it landed on our fence.  I only had time to take one photo before it took off again.  I had to adjust the exposure and lighting on Picmonkey.com in order for anybody to even see the hawk.

It's going to be a LONG week...the final week before my 9 day Thanksgiving break and I have parent conferences Wednesday and Thursday.  Fortunately, Friday is only 1/2 day!  I may or may not have time to write a post or two...I'll just have to see!

Here is my ONE photo of the hawk.  I notice that every morning the hummingbirds (2 of them) are the first ones out to the feeder, followed by the little sparrows and Verdins.  I did get a couple of photos of them yesterday morning, but I haven't uploaded them yet...

Big Morongo Preserve

After working about 10 days straight, hubby stayed home yesterday...FINALLY!  Poor guy.  He's nearly 65 and long days and nights are really hard on him, especially when he comes home and then has to go back to write a newsletter at 11:00 p.m. or midnight!

So, he wanted to drive out to Desert Hot Springs and try the Capri restaurant, which is now inside a hotel.  He ordered a steak and gorgonzola fries and I ordered the chicken quesadilla.  Don't bother with the quesadilla.  It was tasteless.  He did like his steak and the fries were OUT OF THIS WORLD!

After lunch, we decided to head out to the Big Morongo Preserve.  The Whitewater Preserve is closed this weekend due to the extreme winds and fire danger, but the Big Morongo was open.  We went for a short hike.  The colors there were gorgeous.

Unfortunately my quesadilla wasn't sitting well in my stomach, so we cut our hike short and went home and I slept for 2 hours!  Oh, well...such is life now that we are 62 and 64, respectively.  Hubby will be 65 in February and I'll be 63.  We just aren't as young and spry as we used to be, plus Friday night was his last night of having to return to work at 10:30 p.m.

Lady

Our Lady is gone.  It's so quiet without her...sigh...

RIP sweet girl.  You were the sweetest Shepherd we ever had.

Saturday weekly leftovers

I know of a couple of other bloggers who do this too...one day, either Saturday or Sunday, they'll post their "leftover" photos from the previous week.  I can do this when I have a Saturday or Sunday to go take photos, which doesn't happen every weekend!   :-(

But, last weekend, I took a LONG drive up Highway 74, through Pinyon, and on to Garner Valley and Lake Hemet.  I'm thinking about doing the same thing today as I do see a few clouds (it is 6:15 a.m.)

Who knows?

I had a hard week last week.  First, I had to get ALL my grades put into my electronic gradebook.  Fortunately, the kids went to a Friday afternoon movie and I had nearly 2 HOURS to work on that at school.  Good thing, because I got stuck at one point!  But, the good news is that I'm DONE and I can now enjoy my weekend.

The second thing is that I put down my 8 year old German Shepherd, Lady.  I inherited her 2 years ago from a colleague who really didn't want her...too big...too much hair...too whiney...So, I took in Lady.  She was well bred and had excellent manners.  I never heard her growl at anyone. She really lived up to her name.  BUT...she was going blind and her hearing was pretty much gone, too.  She would get stuck in a corner in the house and not know where to go.  She would bump into furniture.  I know she could smell me and follow me, but she couldn't hear me when I called her.  Her legs were fine, however.  My horse vet was down here one afternoon and gave me a call that she could come by and put her down at our desert house.  I had emailed her during the last week and mentioned that it was time, in my view, to put Lady down.  She examined her and agreed.  So, now there is a quietness in the house.  We still have Ripley, our black lab, and she's following me around now that she is the sole focus of my doggy attention, but it still leaves a hole in my heart knowing that Lady is gone.  Hubby put his foot down and said, "NO MORE DOGS!" , but we'll see...Ripley's only 7 and she is in good shape, so she'll be around for several more years (I hope...)

So, it was a long, hard week.  I'm ready for the weekend.  Here are a few of my leftover photos.

 Doves having their breakfast in our front yard.

 My 17 year old cat sleeping in his "sun nap" spot which, yes, is directly behind the birds!  He was totally oblivious to them!

 All 7 of the bighorns I spotted last Tuesday.

 I love it when fog clings to the mountains!

 Pretty fall colors up in Garner Valley.

 More pretty colors!

 The fog hadn't lifted yet from over by Lake Hemet.

At this point, the fog was burning off.

Lake Hemet fence~Good Fences~11/14/14

I drove up to Lake Hemet last Tuesday, over Veterans' Day.  This fence separates the privately owned campground from the national forest day area.  The fence is very clear and the difference in the two areas is amazing. I was intrigued by how the fence went all the way down into the lake!  Good Fences for Friday, November 14, 2014.   To visit Good Fences, please go to:   http://run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/

Lake Hemet

I drove all the way up to Lake Hemet on Tuesday because I wanted to see if the trees there were turning their gorgeous fall colors, and they were!  It was a pleasant surprise!  I never did make it over to the horses, but I'll go up there this next weekend.

The lake is very low right now.  There were a few campers at the campground, however.  I didn't drive through the campground, but instead I parked at the day/picnic area of the national forest which is also adjacent to the lake and has restrooms.  After my hour's drive, I really needed a stop!

The colors of the trees certainly did not disappoint me.  They were at their peak color!  Sorry about the fence... I was on the public/national forest side of the lake, shooting back into the privately owned campground at Lake Hemet!   :-(

7 bighorns sighted this morning!

I awoke early in the morning to the smell of moisture in the air.  The barometric pressure had DEFINITELY changed!  But, alas, looking outside, I didn't see ANY clouds.  Nothing.  Nada.  And, it was definitely a LOT colder this morning!

I was out the door by 7:40 a.m. (before hubby left for work), and up the mountain I went.  Right after Vista Point, I spotted a whole herd of bighorns off to the east, right off the road.  Cars were whizzing by and even a HUGE 18 wheeler truck lumbered by.  For a couple of seconds, it appeared the ram might lead the herd down to the road, but they turned the other way.  Phew!  I was holding my breath, watching them!  They continued their grazing and walking and soon he headed up and over the nearest hill and they were gone.

Be careful, beautiful ones!