Passages~~

My aunt died 2 nights ago.   She was the last remaining relative of my parents' generation.   My mother died in 2000 and my dad passed in 1998.   Mom was 82 (she died of pneumonia) and my dad, who was 88, slipped and hit his head while in the shower.   He died 2 days later.   I was able to see him one last time before he slipped away... 

My aunt would have been 96 last month.   She was my mother's sister.   My female line is composed of hardy women.   I have been able to trace that particular line back to the Quakers who influenced even me today (sometimes...).  They were hardy, healthy women who lived long lives.   My maternal grandmother lived to be 100, and I do remember my great-grandmother, who lived to be 94.

This was really hard on our daughter.   She wasn't especially close to her own grandmother, but she was to my aunt.   Aunt Claire and my uncle moved from San Diego to the desert and Jennifer and our son would frequently stop by to see them.   My uncle died only 2 years after moving here.  He was 92 when he passed.   Claire remained in their home here for another year until her own daughter came and moved her to a facility in San Diego.  She was promised she could have her dog there (Claire always had dogs), but then was told "No dogs".  That was a huge blow to her.  Apparently at one point she wandered out and got lost, so she was moved to the second floor.  Our daughter said that the last two times they stopped to see her, she was asleep.  Finally, she took a nasty fall during the summer and that was it.

Our daughter went to school yesterday, but was unable to finish the day, so she came home and I spent the morning and early afternoon with her, going through books of family photos.   I do believe she will be okay today.

... passages...

So, now my husband and I are the oldest living members of our family.   I DO have a cousin up in Alaska who is 2 years older then me, but he doesn't communicate.   We grew up almost as brother and sister, since we were both "only children", but writing isn't his strong point.   He's an accountant.  I haven't heard from him and I doubt that I will.   He is Claire's only son.   He has a sister 11 years younger than himself, but SHE doesn't communicate with us AT ALL. She thinks we are pagans or heathens, but her Christianity reeks of snobbishness, so I really don't care.

Aunt Claire, rest in peace, August 26, 2018...

A Rite of summer passage completed this morning

We have had relatively cooler mornings here the last 2 days (ONLY 80 degrees or so...), so this morning I picked up the weeder and went out back where the grass was 2 feet high in some places!   YES!   Can you believe it?   It really was getting to the point of hopelessness.   And, one of my chores was to thin out my hollyhocks.   I'd say 90% of them were dead and had long ago gone to seed.   I have harvested the seeds for this coming fall and by next Spring I should have a nice crop of them!   So, I picked off the remaining seeds, took my clippers out, and cut off ALL the dead stalks.   It looks SO MUCH BETTER now.  And, I used the weeder until the battery ran out (apparently it was NOT fully charged) and I am now charging it up.   Hopefully I can finish more of the back yard this afternoon.

It is sad to see the hollyhocks depleted like they now are, but August is upon us and this is a month of rest here in the desert.   Most plants can struggle through July, but for some reason, not August.   It is time for the soil to rest and time for me to start thinking about my fall planting.

I also picked up EVERY bowl of water for the dog and completely scrubbed each one!   Good thing Bodie stayed away....I might have scrubbed him, too.   Instead, he found an old cat food can and proudly ran all over the back yard with his "treasure".   He is now sound asleep at my feet as I type this!

More shenanigans tomorrow!

~~Cheryl Ann~~

My hollyhocks from this year.  Hubby applied a watercolor effect to them using Photoshop.   Bye, bye sweet flowers...until next Spring!

Hawks, hummingbirds, and doves

As you all know, we have a family of Coopers' hawks in our neighborhood.   I believe there are 2 juveniles and the mother.  She was much bigger than them, but they now all appear to be the same size.

How do I know this?   I know this because the last several days at least one of them has claimed our front yard as its territory!   It comes to visit our water bowls 2 or 3 times a day.   I often see it out front, just clutching the sides of one of the bowls and it will be there for 30-45 minutes, just gazing (glaring) around the yard.

Additionally, I found the...er...um...."remains" of a dove.   It apparently caught a dove and was EATING IT right in our front yard.   Ugh.   I went out and observed the carcass.   The next morning, about 5:30, I went out to feed the birds, and it was still there.   By 6 a.m., it was... GONE!  I did see the hawk swoop through the yard, so it must have come back to retrieve its meal from the previous afternoon.   AND, that was confirmed when I found the carcass in our BACK YARD under the large (now dead...) pine tree!   Yup.   There it was, on the ground under one of the branches.   Interesting...

I made a bird themed journal for the ranch owner because she breeds and raises and sells exotic birds and she has a roadrunner family on her property and she is constantly telling me funny stories about them.   They really are a hoot!  And, now she has a flock of turkey vultures that comes to visit.   (She throws out dead mice from the aviary several times a day and between the ravens, roadrunners, and vultures, they get rapidly devoured.)  She called me yesterday afternoon to let me know that everything is okay on the ranch.  (They were just over the hill from the Cranston fire).   They now have electricity and the horses ALL have water.   She did move Gigondas to another corral because that one has a 55 gallon drum of water, whereas her other one only had a small waterer.   She ended up buying 2 generators...one for the house and another one for her water pump, to keep it going.  She said in the 18 years she's been there, this fire came the closest to her ranch.   With 14 horses there, she wouldn't be able to evacuate more than 3, and they certainly wouldn't be mine...She has a stallion and several of her mares are worth some money.   Fortunately, there aren't too many trees around the horse corrals.

So, here we are at the END of July and I just checked the 10 day forecast and we have some nights down into the 70's here NEXT WEEK!   I'm so excited!   I CANNOT wait to plant my fall seeds, but I won't do that until the temps drop.

And, I sold 3 journals last week!  (photos below)...

Here are a couple of photos:

 The view of our valley from the Toro Peak webcam, looking north.   Yes, that is REAL RAIN!

 Cooper's hawk from a couple of years ago.   I haven't been able to get a clear shot this summer.

 This journal SOLD!

And this one SOLD!   YAY!   Plus, another smaller one...

~~Cheryl Ann~

Birds, bees, and hummingbirds

I just posted my fire update on the previous post, so you can find it there.

The bees are GONE.   They used to gather around my hummingbird feeders and drain them DAILY.   Now they are all gone.   This is the time of year when the farmers here in our valley just let their fields lie fallow.   It is a good time of year for the soil to rest.   I did spot one large field down by our daughter's house that got several truck loads of... CHICKEN MANURE and I'm tempted to drive down there today and...er...um.... "liberate" some of it, but it is on a main street, so I may not do that.  There actually is an organic place down in Thermal where one can pick up bags of organic material, so sometime I may throw hubby in my SUV and drive down there and just buy some and be legitimate.

We still have hummingbirds in the yard (3 of them)...and the woodpecker I hear every once in a while.   Otherwise I don't even have to fill up my bird feeders on a daily basis.  There just aren't that many birds around.  I DO have a little Verdin who is making a nest right outside our kitchen window.   Seems kind of late in the year for that...

The ranch owner and I were talking when I went up there last weekend.   She has a family of ravens that have nested on her property for about 15 years now.   Unfortunately the power company came to trim the lines and BOTHERED their nest this past spring, so they aren't happy.   And, one of the young ones died in her driveway.   She also has families of quail and a roadrunner family.   The resident owl has been driven off by a hawk, so he isn't around any longer.   I used to find owl pellets right by their gate.   She DOES have a flock of turkey vultures that now come around when she throws out dead mice and they race the ravens to er...uh...enjoy a free meal! 

Our neighborhood Cooper's hawk has now stopped by several times for a dip in the water I put in the bowls out front.   He/she will just stand in the water for 45 minutes at one time!   I saw it one afternoon just standing on our stone walkway in one of the puddles.   I had left the hose running slightly (it was one of the 120 degree days) and all the birds had taken turns visiting the puddles.   I now have 3 bowls on top of a large plastic trash can out front and I opened the front door yesterday afternoon to go out and it was standing in one of the bowls!   So, I quietly closed the door and left it alone.   It DID catch a dove because I see feathers all over the front yard this morning...

So, life is much slower now.  The end of July until mid-August is when we here in the desert just try to ... SURVIVE.   Days are hot, nights are HOT (85 and 86 and 87 degrees here at NIGHT) and we just stay indoors and hope that September brings us cooler temperatures.

~~Cheryl~~

 Bodie on the bed eating a carrot.   He later abandoned it...OF COURSE!

The view from the Toro Peak webcam, looking north.   That's smoke and clouds from the Cranston fire.   I looked out one morning and, yes, clouds had developed from the fire.   I thought they were thunderheads, but apparently not.   They were clouds from the fire.   Our valley is FULL of smoke and the air is unhealthy.   Cars are covered with ash from the fire as well.

Our mountains are burning AGAIN!

I'm so sad to report that our mountains are burning... AGAIN.

The fire, the Cranston fire, was deliberately set and the suspect has been caught and arrested.   He was seen...get this...throwing FLARES from his white Honda.   He was even spotted by a lookout tower and a notice went out to the CHP (California Highway Patrol) with a description of his car and it was spotted and he was arrested.   He is being held on a $1,000,000 bail, so it is doubtful he will get out again.

In the meantime, another fire up by my friend Barbara's ranch in Pinyon Pines started and it is now at 200 acres.   The Cranston fire is up to 12,300 acres now and Highway 74 around Lake Hemet is CLOSED through Mountain Center.  The problem is that there just aren't roads up and down some of these mountains, so air tankers, helicopters, and crews are having to battle this one.


...sigh...

Here's a link to our local news station and its latest report:

https://www.kesq.com/news/50-acre-brush-fire-shuts-down-highway-74-between-mountain-center-cranston-fire-station/773086157

There are other major fires in California, including one near Yosemite National Park which has killed 2 people.

Smoke is filling up our valley and I'm constantly coughing (having had pneumonia several times)...I'm trying to stay inside as much as I can.

Until tomorrow...
~Cheryl Ann~~

We have a new puppy! FINALLY!!!

Yes, we have a new puppy.   i'll get to him in a minute...


First, I had booked a 4 night stay at a NON pet friendly cabin up in the June Lake loop.  This was about June 9th.  Hubby booked a 1 night stay in Bishop first, so that we could make it to Bishop (a 5-6 hour drive) and then drive up Bishop Canyon, which we did.   There was still quite a bit of snow on the Sierra Nevada. 

We also stopped at one of the shelters along the way, this one in Big Pine.   Talk about serendipity!   We walked in and it was very tearful for me.   SO MANY beautiful dogs!  Hubby stopped at one cage and I looked in.   There was a 6 month old lab mix, almost the same coloration as... RIPLEY.   I couldn't look.   I kept on going, but he remained there.   He wanted that dog.  And, he wasn't leaving without him.   Turns out, he was picked up the previous day next to his dead brother along one of the roads.   Ugh.   Poor little guy.  He was covered with ticks, but otherwise looked healthy.   We adopted him that afternoon.   He had to be neutered, so the shelter arranged for him to go out Monday morning (we were there Friday) for neutering, his rabies shot, and... A BATH!    We named him Bodie.   We actually returned the net day to take another look at him and to arrange his pickup time on our way back home, which would have been Wednesday.   And, then we continued to our pet-free cabin in the June Lake loop.  I could hardly contain myself.   It was a bittersweet decision.   He seems to be a lab/boxer mix (he has REALLY long legs), and he is SUPER friendly and loves people!   So, we spent our 4 restless nights at the cabin (and really didn't enjoy our time there...) and then on the way home, we stopped and picked up Bodie, who spent the ENTIRE JOURNEY home on Dad's lap!
I only stopped once, in Adelanto, for a potty break and otherwise I drove straight home.   It was 113 degrees in the desert and we are keeping him inside.   He entered the house and RAN and jumped up on our bed and that's where he has been ever since we brought him home!   He is just the happiest little guy!

He is settled in and I'm starting to train him on basic commands.  Today we worked on "SIT" and he got it after 9 tries.   I'll work with him again tomorrow.  He points at birds in the yard and still doesn't lift his leg!  He LOVES to chase the birds (and the feral cats)...and is a complete GOOFBALL!   He is so happy and go lucky!   He follows me from room to room and right now he is taking his morning nap at my feet in my office.  He is VERY PATIENT with the grand kids and he is now allowed to come over to their house!   GOOD BOY!

Here are some photos of Bodie:

 This is him at the shelter.

 This is him with the 2 grandkids here in the desert.

Bodie and Brady are both "babies"...they are about the same age mentally.

Update

I'm still around...barely...

Ripley's death hit me really hard.   I don't know if it is because I'm older now, or what, but I sunk into a really DARK PLACE for weeks.  I seem to be coming out of it now, after the 3 day weekend we spent with our kids and grandkids up in Big Bear.  It was ... quite exciting (and exhausting) to share 1 cabin with 5 grandchildren!  Two of them were early risers and Nana got to feed them their breakfast, since I was the only one awake!  We put peanuts out on the patio for the squirrel, blue jays, and woodpeckers, and even got visited by some smaller birds.   The jays and woodpecker ate leftover grapes and blueberries from breakfast. 

We stopped by a local brewery in Redlands on our way up to Big Bear and saw a lady with... 2 CHOCOLATE LABS!   We got to talking to her and she mentioned a breeder in Ontario, so hubby called yesterday.   However, they are $1,000 to $1,100 EACH.   Yeah, we just don't have that kind of disposable money for a dog.  I've put in an application to a rescue organization down in San Diego, but everything is on hold until after June 15.   We're taking a short trip to the eastern Sierra and Papa also wants to stop at the humane societies along the way home and take a look.  So, we'll see...They do seem to have some nice looking dogs up there. 

I did manage to sell 2 journals, but my heart, at least right now, isn't into making any more.   I need to heal.  I just can't concentrate or focus right now.

So, I take one day at a time.  I spent most of my day reading library books and running errands.  Life goes on...barely...

~~Cheryl Ann~~