My first day of RETIREMENT and I am a grandma again! All in one day!

I took a personal day off work yesterday, my LAST day of school.  Our daughter checked into the hospital at 6:00 a.m. and she asked her father and I to come sit with her.  Her husband had to go into work for a few hours and she didn't want to be alone, so I took the day off.

So, off to Palm Springs' Desert Regional Hospital we went.  I remember how COLD it is inside, so I took a jacket.  GOOD THING!  It was very cold.

So, the little one was born at 11:15 last night!  He was 7 pounds, 1 oz.  We will go see them this morning and hopefully I'll be able to get photos.  He has blonde eyebrows, just like me!   :-)

AND, today is officially my FIRST day of retirement!  I'm doin' the happy dance, for sure!  Hubby took the entire weekend off and he only has another month (maybe less than that...)

So, HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE!
Take care!
~Cheryl Ann~

Lake Hemet fences and posts~Good Fences~042916

 Across from the Garner Cattle Company...I think this is one of their corrals.  Lake Hemet is in the background.

 Another view of the cattle pen.

Looking out across a meadow in Garner Valley.

I drove up to Lake Hemet last weekend and I was pleased to see that it had much more water than last year.  The campground there was FULL.  People were out walking and hiking.  It was a good sight to see!

To visit Good Fences, please go to this link:    http://run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/

Wildflowers

I always enjoy viewing the wildflowers each Spring and this year's crop is much, much better than lasst year's.  Our mountains have received MUCH more rain, even hail, and a lot more snow.  There's another storm front moving in tonight, and I'm sure they will get some kind of precipitation shortly.

Got my photos back and some new ones, too!

It seems our router is on the fritz.  It heats up and then it doesn't work.  AT ALL.  So, I simply unplug it, wait about 15 minutes, plug it back in and then fire up the laptop, and it works!  I did take quite a few photos last weekend and they are on this laptop, so I needed to troubleshoot and figure out how to get an Internet connection.

Only 3 more days left until I retire!  I'm SO excited!  And, we are on "baby watch".  Our daughter is due any day now.

 LOVE this yard up in Garner Valley!

Some pretty purple lilies up in Garner Valley last weekend.

Lake Hemet

I took a run out to Lake Hemet last Saturday.  I've NEVER seen the campground there so crowded!  It was PACKED.  I didn't get any photos because of the fence in the way, and I tried to get a photo of the trees there at the lake.  It's such a peaceful place.  I enjoyed smelling all the delicious breakfast smells of the campers there.  I'm hoping that we can try out our camping gear there some weekend soon and have our son and grandkids come along for the weekend!  3 more days of school...

Some horse time~Finally!

I was able to make it up to the horses Saturday.  The last six months I've only been able to drive up there about once a month.  I'm thinking that after I retire I'll have more time (and energy) to do this.

It had been a month since my last visit and they were ALL in need of grooming, especially to remove their leftover winter coats.  With temps here in the desert forecast to be in the 90's next week, I desperately needed to get up there and brush, brush, brush them.  And, I did.  Boy, you should have seen the hair fly!  I was COVERED with horse hair.  It was too windy to let any of them out of their corrals because a low pressure system was moving in.  The winds here were so bad that they knocked over the wooden fence between us and our neighbors.  So, we only have one fence on the front and that is between us and our neighbor to the west.

Here are some photos of the horses from Saturday.  Quad, my gray horse, is a thoroughbred and it is hard for him to keep his metabolism satisfied.  The ranch owner has now upped his daily ration of pellets because, as you can see, he's quite thin.  The other horses are all fine.  They do need a trim and she'll do that soon.

 Quad looks quite raggedy.

 Can you see all the hair on the ground?

 After his brushing...

 My mustang, Scout.  She doesn't shed out like Quad.  She did have quite a bit of extra hair on her face.

My gelding, Sunni.  See his horrid tail?  That's thanks to Quad who chewed it.

Pretty view of the ranch.

Playing with PicMonkey~Canyon de Chelly

I'm limited to what photos I can post since my laptop went KAPUT.  Of course, ALL my photos are on it,unless they are on an external hard drive.  However, I have about 6 months of photos still on it.

BUT, I do have a few photos on this laptop, so I did some PicMonkey effects on them a couple of days ago.  I'm finding that even cropping them does make a huge difference!

Here are the before and after shots:

I may be offline for a couple of weeks...

Looks like I'll be offline for a couple of weeks.  My old SONY laptop just can't get and hold an Internet connection and ALL my photos are on it (my recent ones).  Hubby will have to upload my photos onto a hard drive when he has time.  Right now I'm using HIS laptop, with Windows 10, and I'm having quite a time of it!  Oh, boy!

I doubt this will be resolved for a couple of weeks.  I'll visit your blogs, but I won't be posting photos on this one.  I may do updates, especially if the latest grandson comes soon.  He is due to appear on April 29, my LAST DAY OF WORK!   Isn't that grand?  I'll have to take the day off, then.

Take care.  See you soon!
~Cheryl Ann~

Woods Canyon Lake, Mogollon Rim

Photo from last summer

Playing around with PicMonkey

I don't use Picaso for enhancing my photos and honestly, I don't do much besides cropping them, at least for now.  I have never used Photoshop and wouldn't even know how to begin.  I occasionally do use PicMonkey and I do use it for cropping my photos (if I have time).  However, until I retire, I have about 30 minutes every morning or sometimes in the evening to post on this blog.

Yesterday I spent nearly the entire morning (up until 11:30 a.m.) grading papers and inputting those grades into my online gradebook.  I had to get this done before I retire.

Anyway, I did take a break and try a few enhancements with PicMonkey below. I've labeled each effect so you can see it.

 This was the original photo.  Yes, it was high noon.

 Okay...I cropped it.

Here I added a feature called "Orton".

 This was my original photo.

 I cropped it.

 I sharpened it.

This is some effect called "soften".

At the ranch

It was so overcast and cold up at the ranch where I board my horses last Saturday that I didn't stay that long.  I checked on each one of them and gave them all an extra couple of scoops of pellets.  The clouds were gathering, the temperature was dropping when I left, and another round of rain was on its way.  I'm going up there again tomorrow (Saturday), but a high wind warning is in effect.

 Lots of pretty blossoms right now.

 This is Gigondas, my big chestnut thoroughbred mare.

 Cloudy with a chance of meatballs!  

LOTS of agave plants in bloom right now!

Good Fences~Friday~April 15, 2016

Actually, these are just fence posts, but, hey...that's all I had to work with this week!

These are up on Highway 74, the "Palms to Pines" highway which goes from Palm Desert to Idyllwild.  The elevation gain is from 200 feet above sea level to about 4,000 feet here, then to over 5,000 feet in Idyllwild.  The road goes from the desert floor through pinyon country, to the tall pines of the forest near Idyllwild.  I love this road and travel it almost every weekend to go visit my horses.

Good Fences for Friday, April 15, 2016.   To visit Good Fences, please go to:   http://run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/

Blossoms

Our local Santa Rosa mountains are FULL of agave blossoms this year.  I posted on Facebook last year how dismal the crop was, but this year, hillsides are FULL of blossoms!  I don't remember another year with such an amount of blooms, but that could just be my memory.  I certainly didn't document them or take photos like I've been doing since I started blogging.  Anyway, I enjoy seeing them and every w

We've had our share of rain lately

We've had our share of rain lately...4 days' worth.  However, this morning when I went out at 5 a.m. to check on the skies, they were clear.  Now our temps will start going back into the 80's, which is quite comfortable here in the desert!   :-)
~Cheers!
Cheryl Ann

Pacific Crest Trail hikers spotted

I was cruising along Saturday morning while on my way to the horses when I spotted a group of hikers just coming off the Pacific Crest Trail where it crosses Highway 74.  This is the part of the trail just before Paradise Corner, where Highway 74 splits and goes down into Anza.  Paradise Corner has a nice cafe and it is only about 1/2 mile down the road.  A lot of hikers will take a break and stop in there.

I did a U-turn and drove back, stopped, and asked them if I could take a couple of photos of their group.  In all the years I've traveled that road, this is the first time I've actually seen trail hikers on it.

They were a very nice, polite group of young people.  I do believe they said they left the beginning of the PCT April 2.  Would it take 7 days to get to Anza from the beginning of the trail?  I'm guessing so.  After the Anza portion, the trail goes up near Idyllwild and then down Mt. San Jacinto and crosses Interstate 10, then goes up behind Whitewater Canyon.

I remember last year when, during April, the temperatures were in the 100's and it was VERY dry.  Fortunately this year, it was in the mid 60's and rainy.

I wished them a safe journey and we went our separate ways.

Good luck, hikers!
Then, on my way back to the desert, I saw a lone male hiker at the same spot.  I didn't get his photo, however.