It is still extremely hot but the winds have died down significantly.  I did not see any large plumes of smoke anywhere when I looked over the landscape this morning.  However, people were still being evacuated today.  The firefighters started a back fire in the Huachuca Mountains to try to keep the Monument fire away from population centers and the Army base.  It is still a dangerous situation.  

I got our important papers together today and placed them in a metal box.  My alpaca halters arrived and I bought two leads for them.  I looked online and found a place in Tucson that sells livestock trailers.  Steve and I will go on Saturday after the Farmers' Market and see if we can get a good trailer.  We may not ever have to use it but I will feel better having it available just in case.

We celebrated our granddaughter Eden's 4th birthday on Sunday, along with Steve's birthday and Father's Day.  I made Korean barbecued steak and chicken on sticks.  Shawna made a beautiful cowgirl boot cake for her daughter. And both birthday kids got lots of gifts.  It was a fun day.

On the front porch, we have a new swallows' nest.  Looks like they hatched the first batch of new babies this year.  I can see 3 baby birds in the nest but was not able to get all 3 in a picture.

It has been at least 100 degrees everyday and we have been in the pool every day.  It was much nicer today without the blasted wind.  Steve and grandson Logan have seen one rattlesnake so far.  No one else has seen one on our property this year so far...knock on wood.  The one they saw went off down the hill so I hope it stays away.  

The ground is so dry it fairly crackles when I walk across the yard.  Whenever we do get rain, it will probably not soak in because of the months of dry.  We will probably get catastrophic flash floods at first.  We are on a big hill so mostly it will run off our property.  We may have trouble getting across the arroyo at the bottom of our hill.  At this point, I wouldn't really care.  I would welcome any rain that comes our way.