God is in Whitewater Canyon!

Today we spent about 4 hours in Whitewater Canyon which is only 15 miles from our home.  After seeing all of the land around Desert Hot Springs I was a little afraid that God had abandoned this part of the world.  But, alas, I was wrong (again?).

The entrance to the preserve stands in a somewhat lackluster spot along side the road just before you come to the creek.

Of course this sign really "thrilled" Billie as she just "loves" the thought of being in the wild with a few bears.

But we made it safely to the Ranger's station and it was a very lovely spot indeed.

How would you like to come to work here every day?

Looking a bit east of the Ranger's station there are a series of ponds.

WHOA!  These are serious brown trout.  The Rangers hold a catch and release exhibition every so often for the kids.  (Personally I believe that a few of these babies end up being injured too much to throw back and the boys in the little brown house have a feast.)

There are also a half dozen coots swimming around in the ponds and eating the algae growing on the bottom.

At several locations throughout the park there are defaced rocks.  Some guy named Walt Whitman scribbled on this one.

There are even trees and camping areas around the station.

Where there is water, there is the beauty of blossoms.

And more...

...even some places where there is no water?

There is such a variety of trees here and just a stone's throw away there are very

high bluffs.

Of course I must include portraits of my favorite flower.

There is a pretty good stream running through the canyon and the water carries so many minerals that it is milky looking.

We are in a strange land!  A huge palm next to a cottonwood and a cousin to a sycamore.

Here is another guy to go after.

What seems to be the attraction?

The hills are alive with the sound of "bleating"?

They sure don't seem to realize that there are shear drops of 500 feet and not really anything to eat.

But they seem to be quite at home, especially this beauty and his harem.

I assume that after we all quit looking at them and go home they will come down to the stream and refresh themselves.

The November project month is over!

As of last Thursday, we have officially completed the November Sower project at Father's Heart Ranch.  We have been busy with a number of projects but, unfortunately, the dog ate our pictures.  Just kidding.  The real story is, I forgot to take a lot of pictures.  So I will try to relate in words some of the events of the past week.  I was mostly busy fixing things the boys have broken.  A hole in the wall here, a kicked out window there.

The last few days we have had very gusty winds.  If you take a good look at the feeder you will see three hungry humming birds and an empty feeder.  I just filled this feeder 15 minutes ago.  The wind is blowing it around so badly that all of the solution has spilled on the ground.  Finally, Sunday morning I was able to fill it again and the hummers got their fill.

 A couple of the boys in "G" house asked me if I could make them a shelf over their bed to put things on.  I asked if it would be OK to do so and was told that it had to be absolutely bullet proof and if I would build one for them to look at they would consider it.  If the boys can pull this one off the wall or break it, they belong in some place more restrictive than here. 

One of the ladies in the office works 4 ten hour days.  It wasn't much of a problem until we went off of daylight savings time.  Now at 6 PM it is very dark here and she would like to have a little more light when she goes to her car.  Solution, a motion controlled night light.

There seemed to be a visitor in the office and when he was sighted he caused quite a stir.  Of course they named him Ben and we set out to eliminate him from the property.  This little jewel, equipped with a little piece of fruit cake did the job the first night.  Now we can go ahead and repair all the holes he chewed in the walls.

Having a little time to ourselves, Billie decided she would customize the home a little.  She needed a shelf for behind the couch to organize "stuff" .....

...a couple of shelves under the passenger side living room windows (for more stuff)...

...some pretty curtains to accent the dining room...

...and shelves around the potty to organize the necessary things there.  I was more than willing to provide her with what we needed.

We had another wonderful day of worship at Southwest Community Church.  We recieved the third and final installment of 'Hectic to Healthy' and just like the two previous sessions it was so good.  But as we sit here waiting for the "Reveal" service this evening (the annual business meeting), the clouds are really trying to push over the pass and cool things off and perhaps bring some rain.  The Lord knows we could surely use a bunch to make the "desert bloom like a rose".  May the Lord bless you all in the upcoming weeks. 

Since it is Thanksgiving week, we have two weeks off before we continue out wortk here.  We really don't plan to go very far but will be blessed to have our son and daughter-in-law spend Thanksgiving with us here.

End of the second week.

We have reached the end of the second work week at Father's Heart Ranch.  We have had an opportunity to meet more of the boys and the staff who put in the hours to watch them.  This week was a pretty normal (if there is such a thing) week with a number of maintenance things to be done.

Our little friends have been working on the feeder pretty hard.  We have to refill it about every four or five days.

For Billie the job is pretty "normal".  (Frankly, I don't believe they have had anyone to scan their work and file it for them for quite a spell.) 

They do have a pretty good system.  Their computers are on the system with the scanner and she can scan a stack of papers is a very short time.  Then she goes back to the computer and puts them all into their respective files.

For me this started out as a "potty" week.  The men's bathroom in the "B" house (all of the houses are designated with a letter) had a stool which would stick and run all night.  With a couple of minor adjustments we got it back into good working order.

Then the tile (you can see three of them here) in back of the stool in "G" house had all fallen off the wall.  Well, as most know, tiles don't just fall of the wall.  During the initial investigation I found that the tank was leaking and the water had run back into the wall therefore making the tile all fall off.  First order of business was to remove the tank and fix the leak.  Then the wall had to be cleaned and dried so I could add some quick set compound to replace the drywall which had been soaked and fallen out.  Then came the retileing and finally the grout.

The really bad one was the one in the office.  When you sat on it it would rock like a rocker, only sideways.  Upon removing the stool I discouvered that the drain was not installed properly and the bolts which hold the stool in place had simply pulled the flange off and were not holding anything. 

After drilling a couple of holes on the concrete floor I mixed a batch of epoxy and glued the bolts permately to the floor.

Then we needed a batch of hydraulic floor patch to level the remainder of the floor and let it cure overnight.

With a little bit of cleaning and then resetting the stool and the bathroom is back in business.

"C" house and "G" house have had a leak around the swamp cooler.  Two gallons of blackjack and the problem should go away.  We may find out this weekend as we have a 30% chance of rain.

Then it was a return to the cafeteria.  The door closer on the back door was not working and needed to be replaced....

...and the cabinet we had put together for the donor dinner still had no hardware or locks.

  Then, the soap despensor, which was held together with duct tape, finally got replaced.

Just a typical week at the "Ranch".

Week one cmplete.

After a pretty crazy week getting everything ready for the Donor Banquet, we took a little time to see some of the sites.

Saturday morning dawned partly cloudy and cool.  Rain had come in from the Pacific and tried to climb the mountains, but no go.

It did leave a little snow on the mountains to the south and to the west.

As we headed west on Dillon Road, we had to travel through a couple windmills. (This is just a few of the windmills in the windtunnel around I-10).

Some of them have been here for a long time...

...some are the new "biggies".

After a trip of about 40 miles we came to the entrance of Joshua Tree National Park.  You ask, "what is a Joshua Tree and how did it get that name?"

Well, this is a Joshua Tree.  Looks like a cross between an elm and a palm tree.  It was named by a group of Mormons as they passed through the valley on the way to Utah.  They said that it reminded them of Joshua with his arms outstreched to heaven.

Ocasionally a pretty bird will land and basque in the shadow of a Joshua tree.

The better question is, "how do they survive in all the sand and rock?"  Ask God! I don't Know.

There are quite a few of them here.

This place is a rock climber's paradise.  There are hundreds, probably thousands of places like this to climb and there were climbers in every one of them.

Sometimes the pretty little bird will light in the rocks to sun herself.

Sometimes one can even get close enough to have their picture taken with the pretty little bird.

Even in the middle of the rocks and sand there is signs of God's glory!

And a few furry little critters too.

This fellow is quite at home in the top of this Pinon Pine.

And these delicate nuts are one of the reason he is so fat and sassy.

But mostly there are a lot of rocks!!!!!

If you look carefully for the thin dark line at the top of this picture, you will see the San Andreas fault.  Take a look next year and the two edges of the fault will have moved 2" in relation to each other.

Then came Sunday and we had another wonderful message and worship time.  Pictured is the stage getting ready for the third service of the morning.

This will be the subject of the next two Sundays as well.  We are really looking forward to them.