Saturday, February 25, 2012

The last few days around here has felt like spring.  I noticed some of the mountains have a faint tint of green unless they are still covered with snow.  The mountains in Sierra Vista are still covered with snow from the last storm.

I have not heard back from the lady who is interested in adopting the alpacas.  She was attending the Southwest Regional Alpaca Show and said she would get in touch after that.  If I don't hear from her by Monday, I will email her again.  I just ran out of timothy hay for the alpacas.  I am feeding them alfalfa temporarily.  If I end up keeping them I will get more timothy but it is expensive.  I don't want to make the trip all the way to Tucson and pay a small fortune for the timothy and then not use it or have to give it away.  I am already giving away the alpacas.

My two eldest daughters made a trip to Apache Junction to the Renaissance Faire today.  It was "Pirate's Day" so the girls dressed up as Pirate wenches! Ha!  I thought they did a pretty awesome job.

I am still reading and doing research on Arizona's Wild West History and the cities and areas around here.  Today I got 2 books I ordered through Amazon.  One is from the Arizona Highway's collection,  Stalwart Women: Frontier Stories of Indomitable Spirit.  It was an incredibly good deal at $4.37 which included the shipping.  The other one is Death In the Desert: The Fifty Years' War for the Great Southwest. It was a bit more expensive and, I'm sure, it will be more difficult reading as it is about the fight against the native Americans.  It is incredible to me that Arizona just celebrated our 100th anniversary, having become a state on February 14, 1912.  Even more incredible was learning that some Apaches were still riding around on horseback, fighting, killing and barely surviving as late as the 1920's.  From 1872 to 1874, Cochise County was the Chiricahua Apache Reservation.  Cochise Stronghold is only about 30 miles from my house.  In fact, I can see the Texas Canyon, Dragoon Mountains and the rocks of the Stronghold from my front yard.


I also watched a couple of movies in the name of research. Ha!  It is a good break from the reading and a good way to get ideas for writing.  One was "Bad Girls" which I watched because it was the story of western women.  The other was "Rio Bravo" which I found at Walmart for $5.  It starred John Wayne, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson.  Wow, was Ricky Nelson young!  It was a very slow movie compared to the movies Hollywood is producing today.  It was also uplifting and the good guys won!  Hurrah!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Friends have reminded me that I have been a bit lax in my writing.  I am sorry.  Sometimes in winter I am hard pressed to keep up a cheerful attitude and my writing suffers.  I will try to do better than once a month, I promise!

On Valentine's Day we had an honest to God blizzard here on Saguaro Hill.  Huge snowflakes fell for about 2 hours.  Visibility was down to zero.  Trees, bushes and structures were covered in the white stuff.  The roads got slippery and muddy.  The dogs and grandson had a blast.  I froze my behind off while they played and threw snowballs.  Then at 3:30, the snow stopped, the sun popped out all the snow melted and you'd never know anything even happened!  That is Arizona for you.

I did not win the HGTV dream home although I faithfully entered the contest twice a day.  I have not sold my alpacas yet but there is one lady who may be interested in giving them a good home.  She wants me to get them tested for the Valley Fever  before she agrees to take them.  And she will not take them if they test positive.  We are working on getting all that taken care of.  I am praying that they will test negative for the disease because, truth be told, I have lost interest in being an alpaca farmer since Kardigan died.  I also realize that I will probably never have enough resources to make money in that business.  I am feeling a need to be free and start something new.

I am tired of it being cold and windy, although yesterday was a nearly perfect day.  Steve and a friend had the perfect day to play golf.  It was sunny, about 70 degrees and not windy at all.  My friend and I drove around Sierra Vista and looked at houses while the guys played.  We also went to a book store, where I spent a small fortune on magazines, books and a movie.  I am a hoarder of books.  I just love them.  If it is not a novel to take me away from reality, it is a reference book to use for research and writing in whatever field I am pursuing at the moment.  Today I started and finished one of Louis L'Amours classic works.  I also read through the newest Mary Jane's magazine and a copy of Arizona Highways.  I started a new journal on my new laptop and am studying the history of Tombstone and Arizona in general.  Fascinating stuff.  

We visited Tombstone yesterday as well before the guys golf tee time.  We had lunch in the Crystal Palace Saloon and I wondered how it was 150 years ago when the Earp brothers were there.  I bet a lot more people were toting guns.  We walked by the place where one of the Earp boys was shot in the back and lost his life.  And men walked around wearing the red sashes that were worn by the Cowboy Gang who fought with the Earps.  Today they invited us to the re-creation of a gunfight and tours of the old silver mine.  One of them tried to start a gunfight with Steve, teasing him about the "dumb yellow shirt" he wore.  My husband, knowing that discretion is the better part of valor and not wearing a gun, wisely let the comment slide.  

The waitresses in the saloon wore red and black tightly laced up corsets, their decolletage barely constrained above black lace.  They were friendly and lively but I felt fortunate that we women no longer have to wear such restrictive garments.  Tombstone's buildings and landscape seem much the same today as they were all those years ago.