Hammer

Current Events

I have been saving some pics to make a post and now have so many I don't know where to begin. I guess I will start with the most recent and exciting. We have a couple new editions to our menagerie...

Meet Billy and Jack. They are both Yellow Labs who were born May 5th. We got them July 5th. We are absolutely loving them. Come visit!! We can't wait for y'all to meet them. He are a couple more shots:

It's pretty hot and they really enjoy their pool. They had both just gotten up from laying down in the pool when I took this. I wasn't fast enough to catch them in their bathing beauty poses.

Not sure how this happened since Stanley is still trying to show them who's boss. He was laying there and let them lay near him. Usually he smacks them in the nose but they just don't give up.

As for other recent haps, I came in the our bedroom to make the bed a couple days ago and found this:

This was not staged, this is just how I found him. I made him get up and go outside to play...

He had a ball...

So while the cats are napping the birds are getting a bit brave. This guy flew in the back door and I had a great time trying to get him out...

See him there on the back of the couch? It's a Cactus Wren. Very noisy guys! I found him just as he was leaving me a little present.

Here he is on his way out.

So last but not least, Jim has decided to take the next step in his home brewing and will now be making his beer from scratch. Should be ready in a couple months - just in time for his 50th! Come on over and have a cold one :)

Can't wait to see ya!!!

Pretty evening

Enjoyed from our front porch.

Check this out!

So we have this cactus on our back patio that had developed a little grey moldy looking nodule on it. I was gonna pick it off a couple weeks ago but decided to let it work things out for itself. It began to grow and I was glad I hadn't intervened. I thought maybe it was gonna develop an arm which would be totally cool.

Two days ago it really started to get big and from these pics you can see what we saw:

Well last night we went out to check on it before going to bed and this is what we found:

Here's a close-up of this inside:

Is that not totally freaky!!!

For more pics of this crazy cool flower check out our --> JT PHOTO ALBUM <--

Roadkill

Desert style.

Random pics & things

We (I) have had a fairly eventful past couple of weeks so I thought I would take a moment & share. First of all, in case you don't know yet, I quit mu job of two and a half months. I have never quit a job because I didn't like the boss EVER in my life. When I was a young single mother I put up with a whole lot more from creepy bosses than I was putting up with at this job but only because I had to. I needed the money to feed my kids.

Since we have learned to budget ourselves on just Jim's income, he was 1000 percent behind me leaving. I did stay and train a new girl, so it's not like I left in a huff but I did tell him exactly what I thought of him the day I gave notice. His response - he is who he is and he's not gonna change. The new girl called me yesterday to tell me she almost walked out on him and that she doesn't think she's going to be able to put up with him. He's an ass - nuff said...

So now I have some free time between the REAL house cleaning and exercising (my legs are killing me...) to upload some pics and post some events. Here are a couple more pics form when Mandie & Brent were here. We took them to see the Oasis of Mara about 2o minutes from our house. It's pretty neat:

 

I shoulda taken some pictures of the cool Inn that is built right on it. The funky bungalows and adobe rooms they have are cool. It was built in the 1920's and in the "old days" was a hide out for movie stars. You can totally feel the old time vibe.

After the oasis we took them to Pioneer Town which is 20 minutes in the opposite direction of our house! It's an old western movie set that is now inhabited by folks who are more than happy to have you wandering around their back yard...

Over all, I think they had a good time although I think cabin fever was starting to set in on the last day. I cant wait to see all of our kids together in September for Jim's 50th. They always have a great time when they're all here.

I decided to leave the camera out on the counter to try to catch some of the stuff that amuses me while home alone (it don't take much) and here are a few shots I would like to share. Totally random but sometimes that's more fun (and easier hehe):

This is why we can't seem to keep a pool at our house. Can't keep the cat's off it...

This next one is a very common occurrence - Izzy finding just the right spot for his nap:

These next two are of the quail who visit and who I have not even remotely grown tired of seeing yet:

If you click on them and zoom in you will probably be able to see them better - if you want :)

Finally a pic of my prodigal kitty. She is doing great and is ruling the roost as before:

I have posted these and others like them in the JT Album - Recent Photos.

I shoulda saved some - now what am I gonna do for my next post?

 

Kids took a ride this evening

Mandie and Brent took a little ride on the golf cart tonight. Thought they'd go feed the donkeys at the end of our road. Brent's trying to teach the donkey a new trick:

The donkey looks a little freaked out if you ask me...

Looks like the donkey learned the new trick and is passing it on...

Now that's just funny.

Oh and they saw some ants too.

My sweet little flower

Not here for an hour and she hit the pool:

It's not huge and it's on a bit of a slope but it felt good huh Mandie?

While I was out there I noticed this little beauty:

This is a little cactus that my mother-in-law Marie gave me when we first moved here.  Look what it went and did on me!! Cool huh?

Broke triple digits today!

78 indoors / 100 outdoor - I just noticed the date is wrong - hmmm that must have happened when we changed the battery. These are touchy little units. Anyway, it's Sunday the 17th of May and its 100 degrees at 12:26. I can see the clock from here, just went up to 101. Yay!! We're in California  :)

She's baaaaaaack!

OK - so for those who don't know. When we moved to Joshua Tree from Washington almost a whole year ago now, we brought two of our kitties with us. They were fairly freaked about the move and spent the entire drive under the back seat.

When we got them here they stayed under the bed for another two days. On the third day our nine year old Sydney got brave and ventured out which helped our 2 year old Izzy to give it a try. Well that night, Izzy didn't come when we called so we left a window open hoping he would show back up. Well, it worked getting Izzy back but Sydney ended up escaping out that open window.

We got up the next morning and spent hours looking for her but she was gone. It was very hard on me because I had had her since she was born. Her mother was my cat as well and was killed when Sydney and her siblings were 4 weeks old so I had to hand feed them all. She is the only one I had left and we were VERY close.

So the reason for this story begins last night (1:30 am) when we get a call from a lady who says she has a grey cat with a tag that had this (our) number on it and did we own a grey cat? I was very excited thinking it was little Lucy that we lost two weeks ago. Then the lady tells me she is calling from Palm Springs... I'm thinking how the heck did Lucy get down there?? She was only 6 months old!! I told her that we were in the Yucca Valley area so she said she would put "Sydney" in a cage until the morning...... I could not believe my ears!!  I explained that we had lost Sydney to what we thought was either the elements (108 degree weather) or the wildlife almost a year ago. She was as floored as we were.

We went down and got her back this morning.

She was gone for almost a year and we have no idea where she has been or how she got to Palm Springs which is about 45 minutes away!! Looks like she never left huh? It's crazy!! I took a nap this afternoon trying to kick this sickness and she slept next to me the whole time. She is definitely more skiddish than she ever was before and that may or may not change. I'm just soooooo glad to have her back :) !!!!!!!!

Here are a couple more pics to share. She's being kinda bitchy to Izzy and Stanley but that's how she always was anyway he he. Hopefully they will all learn to deal each other...

Healing & Growing in JT

So for those of you that don't know, Jim is almost better but still has a bit of the crud. Don't know if it was the medicine he got from the ER Doc or just enough time has passed bit his coughing fits have calmed to a bearable minimum. I have actually allowed him back in the marital bed.

Even though it was kind of a pain in the arse spending HOURS at out little ER, it was nice to see it and find our way around. Here is a shot form my seat.

Great view actually. The first two hours we were there were pretty boring (aside from getting to watch Jim get poked and prodded) but the last two were quite eventful. Not that you could tell from Jim's face here:

But then again he was pretty sick. While he laid there and waited... and waited... and waited... I got up and wandered around. There was what appeared to be a crack ho in for a sore thumb who kept asking if she could just get some pain killers and go. Then there was the poor old Walgreens guy (was wearing the uniform) who hadn't peed in several days and was in great agony. The whole visit was topped off nicely by listening to him scream as they were inserting the catheter. Reminded me of someone else I know (child #3).

One cool thing though, I met a lady who was in for a broken ankle from a rock climbing fall. She was from Washington State!!! Seattle to be exact. Turns out she works for the very same Uni that out darling daughter attends. It's a small world after all!

Ok, before I go here are a couple cactus pics from our yard:

Here's our little cactus garden. Not much now but it should be awesome in about 15 - 20 years. Can't wait!

Here is a pretty one just outside our fence:

And finally one at the home depot garden center that was sooo pretty:

Nice huh? I wanted to buy it but I was afraid I'd kill it. I'm still trying to find my way in the land of desert horticulture...