Our weather has been absolutely ideal the last few days.  Calm winds and temperature about 74 degrees made hanging clothes outdoors an enjoyable task.  Steve had the day off yesterday in honor of Martin Luther King so we decided to take advantage of the great weather and took a drive out to the Cochise Stronghold near Dragoon, AZ.  

The Stronghold is a secret little place surrounded by mountains and granite monoliths.  A dry stream bed runs though the area and looked like it had seen some fast moving flash floods.  There were several different kids of oak trees and other trees as well as manzanita bushes, shin dagger plants, agaves and cactus.  I tried to get a picture of a red headed wood pecker but it was elusive and the camera was not designed to capture little birds far away.  

Steve and I had a quick picnic lunch there and then took a short hike along one of the many nature trails around the area.  It was peaceful and beautiful.  I enjoyed getting away from all the responsibilities of home and civilization for awhile.  

On the way home we looked at another property that I found online.  It was about half way between Elfrida and Tombstone.  The house was pretty and there were 40 acres along with it.  However, it was dirt road most of the way which ended up being 12 miles of dirt from Tombstone.  It was really out there in a place called "Lonesome Trail Estates."  Some of the houses were monstrosities and did not enhance the surrounding countryside.  More, they suck out like sore thumbs.  It was definitely too far away from anything for me to want to live there.  

On our way out to the Stronghold we stopped to get gas at the closest gas station.  One of our neighbors who has alpacas was there and I got to speak with her for a little while.  Seems she lost a couple of alpacas this year too, one to cancer and one to Valley Fever.  She also said she had one come down with a form of alpaca aids.  They did not breed any alpacas this year.  It has been a tough year for selling alpacas and her farm has about as many animals as it can handle so no babies this year.  It was good to see her and talk alpacas for awhile.  We talked a little about shearing too.  I gathered that she is no longer sending all the way to Australia for a shearer as in previous years. This year she is getting a new guy a little closer to home from New Mexico.  I will probably get my guy from Missouri again if he is out this way.  

Right now I've got to try to make a sign and start selling my chicken eggs.  They are filling up the frig!