Hi 
MAN!....this heat is brutal. It seems like we haven't had a break since the beginning of the month! Still I should just be thankful that most evenings have been comfortable.
Our ride on Saturday was a little earlier than usual as we were trying to beat the heat. I only saw 4 whiptails along Glen Ranch Road -one young adult, two 'juniors' and one very young one. I just love them - they're so friendly. They're also very healthy looking.
Over at Santiago Equestrian Center we're seeing baby 'bluebellies' newly hatched ("that's the Western Fence Swift"). They're so cute. I was watering the 'garden' near my horse's stall today and saw two of them. They were smart enough already to try to lap up the water droplets. There's a third one living on the other side of the ranch, near the mailbox.
After the fires when Kadin and I moved back in, the place was eerily silent. Before the fire most of the stalls had rubber mats on the floors (comfort for the horses) and wooden walls (to keep mean horses from being able to beat up their neighbors) and all of that burned completely. My stall is the last one from the stable entrance and is just next to the 4-H portion of the ranch horses. The 4-H area was spared from the fire! I was stunned when after walking through the devastation of the rest of the ranch, I got to my stall to find it completely unscathed.
My car was even there. On the day of the fire, I had driven to the ranch in my car and had used my truck and horsetrailer to get my horse evacuated, necessitating leaving my car at the ranch as the fire closed in. It wasTuesday night before I could hike in to see if it was burned. It was parked about twenty feet away from one of the wooden office buildings that was totally burned, and yet there wasn't a spot on my car.....no ash, no heat marks, not even dust. It almost looked like the hand of God had shielded it AND washed it for me :-)
After the evacuation, on the day that we got to return with our horses, as I walked into my stall in the eerie silence - no flies, no bees, no birds, no squirrels.....who was there to meet me but my little 'stall mascot' ???!!...a little 'bluebelly' lizard that always used to hang out with my horse and eat the flies......That did choke me up......it was such a relief to see even a little lizard that was spared :-)
Happy Trails...
Shirley, Kadin and Jesus
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