Home Sweet ‘Our Family’s' Home

At Sister’s House, Citrus Heights, CA

We pulled in at my Sister and Arny’s house around 5:15 Thursday.  Hoped to be in earlier, but had a leak in one of our tire extensions, which are needed for our Tire Pressure Sensor System.  As we started out from Bakersfield, our left front motorhome tire was down to 47 psi…should be 65 psi.  The RV Park had a inflator, and got it up to 72 psi, and it seemed to hold there.  As we drove north along US-99, known as the eternal bumpy highway, we were dropping 1 psi per 10 miles, so we stopped at America’s Tire Store (known as Discount Tire’s in other states) where they quickly diagnosed the problem (after waiting an hour for ‘our turn’) and we removed the extender and the sensor and drove on north.  The rest of the drive, outside of ‘Devil’s Revenge’ in Atwater where the road was much like the Yukon as you near Alaska, went fairly well…considering we hit ‘Rush Hour’ in downtown Sacramento.

  

The DOGS are probably happier than we are…and we ARE HAPPY ourselves…to be here.  They LOVE Arny, Sandy, and the backyard.  Bubba has rolled in the grass more than I can remember.  Skruffy, despite her eyesight problems, knows right where everything is, and she chased her first Squirrel yesterday.  It won’t be long before the Squirrels start teasing her by coming down to her face and laugh at her…but we hope brother Bubba will step up and give teach them a good lesson…time will tell.

Last time we were here I mentioned that they got rid of the Turtles, and now the turtle pens have been converted to a nice garden.  Here is the home of half of the Naked Ladies, some Tulips, and these various bushes and shrubs.  They also got rid of the rose bushes that ran along the patio, opening the patio up to the nice grass without fear of getting poked by Rose Thorns. 

  

Sat outside for awhile yesterday and today listening to and watching the various birds that come and go from the backyard.  This guy above (top two pictures) was just singing away, turning its head back and forth.  The three in the bottom picture live in the Oleander Bushes which are on the neighbor’s property, but which intrude into Sandy and Arny’s yard.

  

  

So far there are fewer Doves, but numerous of the other birds…including the Humming Birds.

And I think this squirrel will learn ‘real fast’ that Skruffy is not the threat she seems to have been in past years…but it sure was checking her out far below…it just did not understand that Skruffy never did see it, but her nose sure was twitching a bit.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, Liver and Onions and Steak for Dad and me.  YUM!

Rainy Friday and Saturday

At Sister’s House, Citrus Heights, Ca

Around midnight Thursday it started to sprinkle…by morning it was a good, solid rain.  For the next 36 hours it rained…about 2-3 inches.  Rarely was it a hard rain, there might have been 15 mph winds, just a good, solid rain.  The type of rain that farmers really like this time of year…unless they were planning to get a crop in the ground this weekend.  Folsom Lake is now 82 percent full, which is 122 percent of its 15-year average.  They finished a new spillway last year, so the lake level can be higher than in past years.  Just this past February they wondered if it would get above half full…amazing what a wet March and a good rain in April can do for this area.  This was a warmer rain, so it rained on some of the snow pack in the Sierras, which means they had to release more water from the dams in anticipation of the high water rate coming into the lakes.  Looks like the farmers will have water again this year during the hot summer months, at least from Merced and the valley to the north of Merced.

This amount of rain means that a lake forms between the motorhome and the patio.  This picture was taken AFTER about half of the lake dried up.  I took the carpets up that lead from the motorhome to the patio in anticipation of the rain…glad I did because they would have been soaking wet.

Here is another angle…you can see the high amount of tree droppings in the bottom right of the picture, which is where the high level of the water was at.

The tree is a Fruitless Mulberry, and the Blossoms come out before the leaves appear.  The Blossoms fall off, making a big mess…but at least they are not sticky, just love to stick in doggies tails, feet, etc., and the bottom of your shoes.  We hoped that the storm would knock them all down…

…but not our luck…still a bunch of them up there in the tree.

   

The cherry tree…now that’s another story.  It once had a bunch of blossoms on it, like in the upper right picture…but the rain knocked 95% of them off, as you can see in the upper left picture.

By evening, I was able to put the carpets back out, and the dogs could have free run of the yard again.  During the higher water, I put them on the leash and walked them around the water onto the higher area of the lawn.  They could not understand that…but after all, they are just dogs…who knows what they understand outside of food, petting, and sleeping.

    

With the rain gone, the sun back, and a big blue sky…the animals came out to feast…

    

    

ALL of these bird and squirrel and dog pictures were taken today after 4 and before 8. 

   

Thought I might be able to see the Sierras after the storm, but it needed to pass through a few hours earlier…still clouds over the mountains to the east.

    

And with no clouds to the west, the sky did not light up for a real nice sunset…but any sunset is still nice, especially one with Old Glory flapping in the wind.