Wednesday evening we got hit with a major monsoon thunderstorm. Lightning flashed and thunder crashed for hours. And the rain! Oh my! Some places got 2 inches in a couple of hours. Every day since then we have had clouds all day and/or a thunderstorm in the evening. This morning I woke up to booming and crashing and my little red dog trying to hide under my covers. Everything is soaking wet and the roads and driveways are rutted or covered with sand. The sun is peaking out now but with Hurricane Dora sitting off the Baja we are expecting more downpouring tonight.
I received some of the alpaca stuff I ordered from Florida. I am very pleased. The blankets are 55% alpaca and 45% wool. The teddy bears are very cute, as are the llama toys. I hope I can sell them for good prices in September.
We have been having spectacular sunsets with all the storms.
Our roof sprung a leak near one of the skylights due to all the rain. Steve put a temporary fix on it and it did not leak during yesterday's downpour. We have had two contractors out to give us estimates on fixing the roof on the house and the garage. We are still waiting on the second estimate as he was only just out on Friday. The first guy to come out only does roofs so he would not even consider fixing the patio cover that Steve and Jeff removed last summer. The second guy is a general contractor though, so he would do that and lots of other improvements I have in mind. If only I would win the lottery! Ha!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." I Thes: 4: 11 & 12
I have been restless and trying to escape my life lately by looking at houses and buying things to sell and daydreaming about new places and "what ifs." Then the other morning, reading my Bible, I read this passage and it was as if the Lord spoke to me. I realized that I have a good life and it doesn't matter if I don't "make it big" with my business, or if I don't buy more animals or if I never have a vacation home on the beach somewhere. I am surrounded here by my family and friends. My husband loves me and my kids and grandkids do too. I have plenty of food to eat, clothes to wear and a roof over my head. These are not small blessings but large blessings. All of my needs are met just as Jesus said they would be. Hallelujah! What peace this brings! What freedom!
We have been having gorgeous weather the last few days, sunny and hot, cool breezes and pleasant nights. I took some pictures of our sunrise and moonrise.
Buddy is finally shedding his heavy winter undercoat. I have been able to pull big hunks of hair off and also brush a lot of the dirty brown stuff out. This usually happens in June but is a little late this year. I will probably still take him to a groomer because I will not be able to get the mats and mess out of his tail. He will get his teeth cleaned and toenails done too. He'll feel much better.
Stewie and Kardigan got into a big fight the day before yesterday. They were spinning around in circles trying to bite each others hind legs and undersides. It looked like Stewie might have injured one of his teeth as his mouth was bleeding a little. He is not showing any signs of trauma today and is still eating and spitting at his fellow alpacas. It is always amazing to me how violent these docile creatures are when they fight. I think they are trying to re-establish their pecking order. Kardigan seems to be trying to be the boss and Stewie is no longer a baby and wants to assert himself too. Prince acts like the big older brother and just kind of oversees their quarrels. Cimarron rarely fights with any of them. He's pretty laid back and minds his own business.
My big desert willow tree out front has had a daily visitor lately. Every morning when I am on my Mobia machine doing my workout, I see a bright yellow and black oriole flitting around the orchid-like blooms on the tree. I tried to get his picture this morning, but being extremely cautious, he would not let me get near enough to capture him even on film. He is a joy to behold never the less.
I have been restless and trying to escape my life lately by looking at houses and buying things to sell and daydreaming about new places and "what ifs." Then the other morning, reading my Bible, I read this passage and it was as if the Lord spoke to me. I realized that I have a good life and it doesn't matter if I don't "make it big" with my business, or if I don't buy more animals or if I never have a vacation home on the beach somewhere. I am surrounded here by my family and friends. My husband loves me and my kids and grandkids do too. I have plenty of food to eat, clothes to wear and a roof over my head. These are not small blessings but large blessings. All of my needs are met just as Jesus said they would be. Hallelujah! What peace this brings! What freedom!
We have been having gorgeous weather the last few days, sunny and hot, cool breezes and pleasant nights. I took some pictures of our sunrise and moonrise.
Buddy is finally shedding his heavy winter undercoat. I have been able to pull big hunks of hair off and also brush a lot of the dirty brown stuff out. This usually happens in June but is a little late this year. I will probably still take him to a groomer because I will not be able to get the mats and mess out of his tail. He will get his teeth cleaned and toenails done too. He'll feel much better.
Stewie and Kardigan got into a big fight the day before yesterday. They were spinning around in circles trying to bite each others hind legs and undersides. It looked like Stewie might have injured one of his teeth as his mouth was bleeding a little. He is not showing any signs of trauma today and is still eating and spitting at his fellow alpacas. It is always amazing to me how violent these docile creatures are when they fight. I think they are trying to re-establish their pecking order. Kardigan seems to be trying to be the boss and Stewie is no longer a baby and wants to assert himself too. Prince acts like the big older brother and just kind of oversees their quarrels. Cimarron rarely fights with any of them. He's pretty laid back and minds his own business.
My big desert willow tree out front has had a daily visitor lately. Every morning when I am on my Mobia machine doing my workout, I see a bright yellow and black oriole flitting around the orchid-like blooms on the tree. I tried to get his picture this morning, but being extremely cautious, he would not let me get near enough to capture him even on film. He is a joy to behold never the less.
Friday, July 8, 2011
It is muggy and hot this morning. It is overcast too which makes it worse.
I got the new alpaca halters. Yesterday I got tired of waiting for Steve to help me fit them on the boys so I took matters into my own hands, literally! Ha! I quietly went to the pasture and trapped all the boys in one side of their shelter. I then managed to catch every one of them, try on his halter and spray bug spray in his ears. I caught Prince first. He is the oldest and seems to have had the best halter training (kudos to my friend Liz). His halter fit pretty good and he stood perfectly still once I caught him and allowed me to do all that was necessary. Good boy, Prince!
The others were not so cooperative. I caught Kardigan, the black one next, only because he seems the most desperate to get away and the least cooperative once he is caught. Then, Cimmaron, who is white faced and rose gray. And finally little Stewie. He seems like he is the most afraid but also the youngest and not yet set in his ways. I think, if I worked with Stewie, he might make a good ambassador alpaca for our farm.
I did not sell anything at the Farmer's Market last weekend. I think it is just too hot for people to even consider buying fleece. So I have decided to order some finished products and go back in September. Today I ordered some blankets, gloves and toys from a company in Florida. Most of their stuff is imported and they have really good prices. I have also contacted a company in California who says they make things to order from alpaca. I am waiting for an email back from them so that I can log on to their site and order some of their products. I am excited about this. I hope that my business will grow and eventually make a profit. If I cannot afford to buy more alpacas, at least I can promote their products and benefits. And it is something I can do for myself.
It is great actually touching the alpacas and talking to them. I feed them everyday, twice, but I don't always spend time with them. I should do it more often.
I got the new alpaca halters. Yesterday I got tired of waiting for Steve to help me fit them on the boys so I took matters into my own hands, literally! Ha! I quietly went to the pasture and trapped all the boys in one side of their shelter. I then managed to catch every one of them, try on his halter and spray bug spray in his ears. I caught Prince first. He is the oldest and seems to have had the best halter training (kudos to my friend Liz). His halter fit pretty good and he stood perfectly still once I caught him and allowed me to do all that was necessary. Good boy, Prince!
The others were not so cooperative. I caught Kardigan, the black one next, only because he seems the most desperate to get away and the least cooperative once he is caught. Then, Cimmaron, who is white faced and rose gray. And finally little Stewie. He seems like he is the most afraid but also the youngest and not yet set in his ways. I think, if I worked with Stewie, he might make a good ambassador alpaca for our farm.
I did not sell anything at the Farmer's Market last weekend. I think it is just too hot for people to even consider buying fleece. So I have decided to order some finished products and go back in September. Today I ordered some blankets, gloves and toys from a company in Florida. Most of their stuff is imported and they have really good prices. I have also contacted a company in California who says they make things to order from alpaca. I am waiting for an email back from them so that I can log on to their site and order some of their products. I am excited about this. I hope that my business will grow and eventually make a profit. If I cannot afford to buy more alpacas, at least I can promote their products and benefits. And it is something I can do for myself.
It is great actually touching the alpacas and talking to them. I feed them everyday, twice, but I don't always spend time with them. I should do it more often.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Monsoon, Haboob and Gila monster! Oh my!
Hope you all had a great 4th. All fireworks were canceled in our area due to the extreme fire danger and the fact that several wildfires were still burning. That did not stop us from having a fantastic light show. Mother Nature stepped in and gave us the best lightning, thunder and rain we have had in months. And she hasn't stopped yet. Yesterday we had another even more fantastic storm that had all the dogs hiding under the beds and all the rest of us covering our ears and moving away from the windows. We had rain that caused a white out and flash floods. We even had hail and hurricane force winds.
In Phoenix there was a "haboob". That is a huge dust storm that was 30 miles wide and thousands of feet in the air. If you ever saw the movie, "The Mummy", it looked like the dust storm in that movie. I thought we were going to have one of those here tonight. I could see lots of dust and sand over Tucson this evening. We also had thunderstorms again but nothing like yesterday and the 4th. I suspect we may get more rain during the night. Clouds were building south of us again as it got dark.
Saturday night Buddy started his snake alarm bark again. I went out and he was dancing around the stump of the old pomegranate tree. I could see a head close to the ground that jumped at him a few times. I yelled at Steve, "I think we have another snake!" I then went toward Buddy and told him to "Leave It!" which is a command to help keep him safe. Of course, he doesn't want to obey immediately. Looking down I realized that there was no snake this time. It was a 6 inch Gila Monster. Steve got the shovel instead of the gun and we put the monster in a bucket. It was hissing and jumping at us the whole time and I already knew they are also poisonous so we didn't take any chances. I wanted the grandkids to see it though. So we kept it overnight and showed all the kids the next day. We discovered from our reptile book that we had a rare banded gila monster instead of a usual randomly spotted one. We also discovered that they are all protected and endangered. Steve called the Desert Museum to see if they wanted the monster. They said they do not take animals. So after everyone got a chance to look at him we released him in the wash at the bottom of our hill. I hope he lives long and prospers.
The crickets are everywhere. There is no place to go where you cannot hear their chirping and it goes on all night. I killed several in our bedroom last night but managed to miss one. I did manage to sleep in spite of the racket. We searched and found more of the pests tonight but I haven't heard the one in our room yet. Maybe he moved out! Praise the Lord for small miracles! Ha!
Hope you all had a great 4th. All fireworks were canceled in our area due to the extreme fire danger and the fact that several wildfires were still burning. That did not stop us from having a fantastic light show. Mother Nature stepped in and gave us the best lightning, thunder and rain we have had in months. And she hasn't stopped yet. Yesterday we had another even more fantastic storm that had all the dogs hiding under the beds and all the rest of us covering our ears and moving away from the windows. We had rain that caused a white out and flash floods. We even had hail and hurricane force winds.
In Phoenix there was a "haboob". That is a huge dust storm that was 30 miles wide and thousands of feet in the air. If you ever saw the movie, "The Mummy", it looked like the dust storm in that movie. I thought we were going to have one of those here tonight. I could see lots of dust and sand over Tucson this evening. We also had thunderstorms again but nothing like yesterday and the 4th. I suspect we may get more rain during the night. Clouds were building south of us again as it got dark.
Saturday night Buddy started his snake alarm bark again. I went out and he was dancing around the stump of the old pomegranate tree. I could see a head close to the ground that jumped at him a few times. I yelled at Steve, "I think we have another snake!" I then went toward Buddy and told him to "Leave It!" which is a command to help keep him safe. Of course, he doesn't want to obey immediately. Looking down I realized that there was no snake this time. It was a 6 inch Gila Monster. Steve got the shovel instead of the gun and we put the monster in a bucket. It was hissing and jumping at us the whole time and I already knew they are also poisonous so we didn't take any chances. I wanted the grandkids to see it though. So we kept it overnight and showed all the kids the next day. We discovered from our reptile book that we had a rare banded gila monster instead of a usual randomly spotted one. We also discovered that they are all protected and endangered. Steve called the Desert Museum to see if they wanted the monster. They said they do not take animals. So after everyone got a chance to look at him we released him in the wash at the bottom of our hill. I hope he lives long and prospers.
The crickets are everywhere. There is no place to go where you cannot hear their chirping and it goes on all night. I killed several in our bedroom last night but managed to miss one. I did manage to sleep in spite of the racket. We searched and found more of the pests tonight but I haven't heard the one in our room yet. Maybe he moved out! Praise the Lord for small miracles! Ha!
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