Back to school photos and lightning shots

My grand kids are back in school now, they all started this week.  My daughter Kristy and son Tom sent me a few "first day of school" photos of the kids.  These are of Kristy and Matt's two kids and Tom and Trish's two older kids - Graydin is still in preschool and didn't want to be in the photos.

The first three are of Kennedy and Gavin.  Kennedy is 9 and going into the 4th grade, and Gavin is 7 and going into the 2nd grade. They started school on Monday and Tom said they both had a great day and really like their teachers.

And next, we have Drew, who is 7 and going into the 2nd grade, and Lauren, 5 - yesterday was her first day of Kindergarten.  I haven't heard yet how Lauren liked her first day of school, but after they brought Drew to his classroom, Kristy e-mailed me,  "So far Drew's teacher seems great, organized and very nice.  He has all his friends in his class, and luckily they are sitting at different tables.  He has a desk for the first time.  Lauren's teacher is the wife of Drew's Kinder teacher and in the same classroom, so she is familiar with the class and routine as she volunteered with me a few times.  She doesn't seem nervous, yet." I hope Lauren did well and that she and Drew had fun and liked their first day of school.  :)

Don't you just love those four beautiful, happy, fresh faces?  They are all good kids and so far good students. I hope they all have a good year in school.

I used to take Tom and Kristy's first day of school photos on our front porch every year, and now my kids are doing the same thing - photos in front of the house.  I just noticed they both have photos in front of bougainvillea blooms.  Tom is in Southern California and Kristy is in Northern California, and they both have healthy bougainvillea plants in front of their houses.  The house I grew up in also had that same plant climbing up our fireplace chimney. 

Not to leave out Graydin, he was 3 in April and he's in preschool - this is his second year.  It's an all day, year round preschool, his sister and brother both attended the same preschool and I had the opportunity to pick up the kids and attend some events, and it's a really good school. Graydin loves it, as did his older siblings.  This is my most recent picture of Graydin, taken with Kennedy and Gavin at Lake Tahoe this summer:

I've got the best grand kids - bright, beautiful and super well behaved.  Their parents are all doing such a good job raising them, I'm so proud of them all.

I haven't seen the horses for a few days and I asked the Ranger, Kelly, where they were.  He said someone picked them up in a trailer a few days ago and took them down to Bluewater Creek - below is a photo I took of the creek, it's beautiful - and they have slowly made their way back up to the campground.  I mentioned that it's really green and lush down there with lots for the horses to eat, but he seemed to think they like to graze in the campgrounds and prefer the grasses up here.  I guess, even to horses, it might look good, but maybe the taste isn't to their liking.

He said when we were talking yesterday afternoon that he just saw the horses grazing at the entrance gate to the park, so hopefully I'll see them today.

Kelly said the horses are all branded, except the filly, and that if a filly is with it's mom, it goes with the branded mare, so these horses have owners and are not up for grabs.  Kelly said they were probably dropped off to roam free here in the park, and when the owner is ready, he will pick them up and take them away.  In the 50s when the State took over this area for a park, there was an agreement with the Native Indians that horses could roam free on these lands, which is why we have horses here.  They aren't really wild, just free ranging. 

We are supposed to get some really bad weather today, it's gray and a little windy now, but no real storms yet.  These are the clearest of the photos I took a few days ago of lightning in the skies on the other side of the lake during a good thunderstorm.

Cool, huh?  Click on the lightning photos to see larger, clearer shots of the way the lightning is traveling down the sky, especially the last one.  It's pretty interesting.  Today we should get lots more, I hope.

From me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everyone!  :)

More about the horses

I'm back at Bluewater Lake in the electric section of the campground.  I met up with Hazel and Cari, and they said there were some non-reservable electric sites available, so I decided to try out that part of the campground.  With my New Mexico State Parks Annual Pass, the electric sites are only $4/night.  I only get one good TV channel that I like, but with all the clouds lately, I thought the electric site might be a good idea to keep the electronics charged.

I'm right across from an open field where the new 5-horse herd of horses hangs out a lot.  They graze through the campgrounds nearby, and are fun to watch.  One of the camp hosts told me a local woman saw someone drive into the park with a horse trailer and dump the horses, and they have been here ever since.  They are beautiful.  They stay together in a group, sometimes the stallion (with the spotted rear) or one of the others wanders away, but they always come together and move on to another area. 

The other day they split up, the stallion was at one end of the field, the little filly laid down in the middle, and the three mares were at the other end of the field, then walked across the road to one of the campgrounds.  The Stallion made a loud Neighhhhhh, then went racing across the field, a beautiful sight for sure, toward the filly.  She quickly got up and started running toward the mares with the stallion chasing her.  When they got to the mares, they just stopped running and started grazing.  It was pretty exciting to see.  I don't know what was going on, but I sure wouldn't want him chasing me!

They are such beautiful horses and seem to have enough food and water here; I just hope they continue to do well.

 Stallion

This is the filly's mom

 The second mare

 The third mare

 

The filly in the field in front of The Palms

The camp host said the stallion really protects the others, and as I've watched them, it's obvious he's the boss.

Every so often they lay down and roll on the dirt.  When they get up, they are covered with dust.  Yesterday the stallion rolled around, then each of the mares laid down and rolled around and over and back and then got up, all covered with dust.

The filly doesn't roll in the dirt, she just lays down and rests.

The filly was nursing the other day, and after a while the stallion came up to her and grabbed her tail in his mouth, and pulled her away.  He's pretty firm with her.

Then the filly nuzzled the stallion.  She is so cute.

Later she stood for a while rubbing her back on this low limb.

We've had some nice weather, but now it looks like we're in for more thunder and lightening storms.  It also rained a little today and it's raining right now. There were alerts tonight that came across the TV screen - hail as large as quarters were expected, but we didn't have any hail here, thank goodness.

 Last night's moon.

Nothing much going on except taking it easy, enjoying the horses and the great weather, and listening to books on tape.  What a life!

From Me and Katie, have a great Monday night, everyone!  :)

A gorgeous sunset

Welcome to Tammy Fletcher, who has a new blog, It's Good To Be Us. She and her husband and two dogs are new Hardin Ridge Campground Hosts and bloggers since just this month.  Tammy, tomorrow I'm going to read your first six posts - I got a quick peek at the photos, that looks like a great place to be a host and the fawn you snapped is darling. Good shot! I look forward to following along with you on your adventures. Welcome Aboard, Tammy!  :)

I took some shots of a waterbird during our walk to the lakeside the other day.  I couldn't get close to it to see what kind of bird it is (blue heron?), and when I tried to sneak up on it, away it went.  I often see it standing there at the edge of the water in the afternoons. I should get my camera back early next week, and the good zoom lens will help with this kind of shot. (I just learned that my repaired camera was mailed out three weeks ago and is siting at my mail service.  I had no idea they would repair it this quick. Yeaaaa, Nikon!)

 Took this one late afternoon through the bushes in our site.

See the bird at the water's edge?

We are in a new location nearby for six nights, then we'll return to the campground above the lake, hopefully in the same site.  If it's taken, we'll go across the road to one of the other sites and that will also be good.

During slow blogging days, I like to put little Katie on the post.  Here she is - Katie with her baby - she flips it around, rolls around with it, and when sees me looking at her, she stops and lays on it, like she's embarrassed. :)

 

 I think I ruined her fun! :(

Here's the last sunset photo I got around the lake the other evening - it was gorgeous.  Probably the prettiest sunset I've seen yet.  There was a group of professional photographers from England down the road taking photos of the sunset for a National Geographic TV program in England.  One of the men said they are traveling Route 66 and taking photos for the program.  He had a thick accent, and I think that's what he said.  When it got dark, they left.  Here are a few sunset shots taken close, further, and furthest on my camera zoom lens:

From me and Katie, have a nice weekend, everyone!  :)

Two more days to go...

WELCOME to our new followers!

Box Canyon Blogger - Mark explains his blog as, "Exploring and photographing the west's most remote hidden treasures from a home base in Lovely Ouray, Colorado."  I can't believe some of the places he hikes - top of the world vistas.  His blog, Box Canyon Blog, has gorgeous photos of the area he calls his home base, Ouray, CO.  He and Bobbie have two beautiful homes that are for sale, side by side - check out his blog for all their adventures and some info on the homes for sale.  Boy, Mark, I sure wish I could buy them. I'm happy to have you as a Follower - Welcome!

Garri Ann, who writes that she is a "grateful grandma," who lives in Southern California. That's the only info I saw - Welcome Garri Ann!  We're happy to have you as a follower on our travels!

Ralph Hall is an Oregon guy, living in Salem. He doesn't show any other info, either, so probably not an RVer yet.  Hi Ralph! Thanks for following along with me and Katie on our adventures!

Welcome aboard to you all!  :)

Katie and I have just been hanging out this last week.  We've had some fabulous storms, lots of rain, thunder and lightening.  This last weekend was really crowded around the lake.  The RVs and tents and trucks and boats were many more than I've seen since I've been here.  A few large groups, too. Friday our Ranger, Kelly, had to go to the shoreline and warn the campers to move their rigs/camps back - the rain was going to raise the level of the lake and move the shoreline too close to their rigs.  Some of them were pretty close to the water when they set up camp, and I wondered if they would be in trouble.  It's Tuesday, and there are still quite a few campers at the lakeside.

 Lakeside after heavy rains on Friday.

 Saturday - dried out in the sunshine.

I've only seen the herd of horses once, I think, since my last post, but we have a new family that's been around every day.  There are five of them, maybe a stallion, three mares and a yearling.  They are all different colors, and very friendly.

Yesterday Katie and I were walking across the street through the campground - it's empty now - and all of a sudden over the edge of the campsite, right next to where we were, came the stallion.  He just hung around eating the grasses as I slowly backed away, and soon over the edge came the rest of the group.  I got a few photos then walked away.  I don't like getting too close to wild animals, but they sure didn't seem to mind us.

 This is the biggest horse in the group. He always leads the others.

 Next up the hill is this one. (I used to date a man with legs like this.)

These three are always bringing up the rear. 

 This is the youngest - maybe a yearling?  He has interesting coloring.

I'm expecting a package today from Amazon.com containing a Seagate backup and a pack of DVDs so I can back up my computer, including programs.  I have a backup of documents, and also use Carbonite and a couple of clouds, but that's for docs, photos and graphics.  I want to download the consumer preview of Windows 8, and need to do the backup first.  I wasn't sure exactly how to do this, because the documentation on the Windows site said if you download the Windows 8 consumer preview, you'll lose all your programs and will have to re-install them when you upgrade to the purchased program.

I didn't want to do that, it's so timeconsuming, so I e-mailed Rick, and he sent me an e-mail with info and a link to his recent post on how to do this.  Thanks, again, Rick!  Sometimes I read your posts before I need the info, and it kind of goes over my head.

I've had two packages delivered here - one arrived early in the morning, the other right around 8 pm, I'm hoping this one will come early so I can get started.  I'm excited about having Windows 8 - if it's better than Windows 7 I'm going to love it!  NOTE: 12:00 - it just arrived, so I'm going to start backing up as soon as I publish this post.

We are leaving this campground Thursday morning, our three weeks will be up then.  I hate to leave.
 

I need to be gone for six days, then we can return for another three weeks.  That's probably what we'll do.  I have a few ideas on where to go for the six days - if I like where we end up, I'll stay the limit there and then come back here to Bluewater Lake.

I also love my campsite and will try to get it again next time.

Katie and I have been walking around the last week through the other nearby campsites.  Looking at how the sun comes into the site in the morning, and how much sun we'd get in the afternoon before the sun sets to maximize the solar panels.  If this site is taken, there are three others that look good.  Sometimes a change is good, so I have an open mind.

A couple of critters in our site the last week:

 Whenever it's really windy, these birds have so much fun.

They swoop and soar on the wind, and then hover over the trees with 

their feet hanging, slowly lowering themselves onto the tree.

 Fun to watch their maneuvers while landing.

 

 

  Another little bunny.

 Saturday Sunset

My next post will probably be published at our next location.  Until then, have a great week, everyone!  :)