Heavy rain, winds, thunder & lightning, oh my!~

It rained yesterday.  Not just rain, but rain from tropical storm Evo.  Rancho Mirage (the city next to us) got 1.24 inches of rain yesterday...in ONE day.  That's enough to saturate the desert soil (sand) and create flooding.  Our front yard FILLED with water, to the point that if it had kept raining, it would have flooded.  As it was, I could hear sirens all over.  Of course, I had to hop into my car and see what was going on (after navigating our own street...).  Fairhaven Drive, which is near us, had flooded from mountain rain runoff and the residents were outside taking photos and videos.  All the flood control channels were FULL and the washes filled up.  There was major flooding down in La Quinta and Indio.  We called our kids and talked to them and they were all okay (thank goodness!).  Our grandson stated, "Tell that stupid coyote to stop howling~~I'm trying to sleep!"  (his dog...he is 4...)  Apparently their dog didn't like all the thunder!  We kept our two dogs inside, although Ripley, our black lab, would have LOVED to play in the water!!!  Our 17 year old cat, Loki, was huddled at the front door, so I picked him up and put him in the garage, out of the rain and wind.  Of course, once the storm moved on, he was back at the front door!  More rain is forecast today and that is dangerous because the grounds are all saturated...sigh...

Shades of blue~Sunday Stills Challenge~082513

One thing about the Mogollon Rim~~you never have just one shade of blue!  Every day is different.  Every hour is different!  Maybe that's one of the reasons why we love it so.  Here are shades of blue from the rim for Sunday Stills Challenge, August 25, 2013.  To visit Sunday Stills Challenge, please go to:   http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/

Squirrel cuteness! :-)

No words needed...enjoy!

Rim thunderheads~SkyWatch Friday~082313

Thunderheads over the Mogollon Rim last week.  SkyWatch Friday for August 23, 2013.  To visit SWF, please go to:   http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Cabin and thunderstorm

We like to visit the Rim in August and sit and enjoy the daily thunderstorms and our first afternoon there didn't disappoint.  As you can see, clouds built up along the rim and by late afternoon, we had a terrific thunderstorm.  We just sat and listened and smelled.  It was wonderful!

Mogollon Rim trip

Hubby and I just returned from 8 days in Arizona, 6 of them up on the Mogollon Rim.  It is such a different world up there than our desert.  First, we were in a cabin at 8,000 feet.  Second, there were thunderstorms nearly every afternoon.  Third, there were squirrels, crows, COWS, rabbits, and even coyotes nearby. I have to report for school tomorrow and hubby has to go back to work today, so it was a nice break from our desert heat, although we returned to a German shepherd with very bad ears, so I'm working to clean those up.  Our son stopped by a few times to feed the dogs, but he didn't check her ears and now she has an infection.  I do have stuff to clean them, from her last bout of this...sigh...

Anyway, I thought I'd start with our first view of the rim.  We stayed two nights down in Phoenix before heading up there as it is another two hours' drive from Phoenix.  There was a Whole Foods two blocks from our hotel, so we stopped there and stocked up before driving up to the mountains.

Once through Payson, we always feel like we are there.  There's a spot along the road (Highway 260) where there is a stand of aspen trees and it's fenced off so that the deer don't wander out into the road.  A sign says, "aspen ice cream"  because they like eating the aspen so much, it is like ice cream for deer!    Here are some pics from our drive up Highway 260 last week.  We didn't get up to the Rim last summer.  Instead, we spent a week in June and a week in August up in the eastern Sierra, so it's been a couple of years since we were last there.

Palm Desert park on a windy day