The monsoon may be gone but the heat is not!  We are having unseasonably warm temperatures even for us.  It has been a little over 100* most of the last 2 weeks.  No rain and not much humidity and the nights are more comfortable at about 69-70*.  I am still closing all the windows when the AC kicks on and opening them at night.  

We moved the turkeys to a larger enclosure.  Steve made a kind of roof with clothes line so that they will not fly out at night to roost in the trees.  Of course, the only hen got out right away.  I shooed her back in and then we moved the tarp from their old pen over the sheds in the new pen.  She has not gotten out since.   I have been trying to decide who will be our Thanksgiving dinner this year.  I think it will have to be the Royal Palm with the deformed foot.  Since all the Royal Palms are males, I think they will be the first to go.  The hen is a Bourbon Red and there is only one Bourbon Red male so I will probably keep the two of them and see if we can hatch a few eggs of our own.  

My Delaware rooster is getting to be a good size and is trying to crow.  He sounds like he's dying not crowing so far.  I know that he will improve and the neighbors will soon be awakened at 5 am again.  Oh well, that is a small price to pay to live out in the country.  I have decided to call my rooster "Washington" as in Washington crossing the Delawares! Ha!  

The wild sunflowers are blooming all along the roadsides again.  The swallows seem to have gone for the winter.  The hummingbirds are taking their place.  I cannot keep the feeders full they devour the sweet nectar so fast.  I wonder if they are having some help or competition from the fruit bats at night.

The alpacas are all fine.  The goats are getting incredibly shaggy and suffering from the heat.  The shearer is supposed to come next month but I was hoping to sell the goats before that.  I have only had one call about them and the person did not even show up.  He called to get directions and I asked him why he wanted the goat.  He said he wanted a pet and I told him that he should buy two goats if he wanted a pet because goats need other goats.  He also wanted a young goat but did not want to pay more than $50.  I only have one young goat, Casper, but he is a pure angora and I will not sell him for $50.  I figured the guy wanted a meal, not a pet.  There are lots of goats for sale on Craig's List right now.  One farm is selling angoras for between $100 to $250.  They are not registered, which is fine, neither are all of mine.  But, they didn't look like pure angoras in the pictures either.  Pure angoras have fleece all the way down their legs to their hooves and fleece on their faces.  These goats were bare legged and bare faced which means they are mixes.  I have nothing against mixes either but they should not be sold as angoras.  Sorry!  I will get off of my soapbox now.

The flies continue to plague everything that moves.  I continue to spray Buddy and salve his nose.  I think it will not get better til we get a real cold spell and the flies are gone til next summer.  Next year I may have to invest in some of those "fly predators" or something to keep the numbers down.  We've had a few mosquitoes too but not the numbers I had expected after all the rain we had this monsoon.  I still hear a few frogs croaking at night but I think they will be hibernating again soon too.  

I have to re-post items on my Etsy store site because they did not sell quickly enough and were taken off.  I will put on a few new items too.  Maybe I will make some Christmas stuff.  There are so many vendors on the internet now, I wonder how anyone sells anything.  I found another site which also helps people sell their homemade things so I may start a site there too.  I'll keep you posted!