Gifts were bought, wrapped, gifted, unwrapped and taken away!  Everyone received many fun things, necessary things and surprises!  The house looked great with a new tree and some new decorations. Our little Christmas churches were set up.  They are special editions of the California Missions that I bought while we lived in California so I think they are unique and special.  And the food!!!  Oh My Gosh!  Our daughter had our traditional Christmas Eve feast at her house.  The table was piled high with all kinds of fun "puu-puus" (that's the Hawaiian word for hors d'oeuvres); pigs-in-a-blanket, meatballs, jalepeno-cream cheese roll-ups, bacon-wrapped jalepeno poppers, tortilla chips with hot cheddar cheese dip, loompia (Philippine eggrolls), veggies with dip, and for dessert, brownies, Russian tea cakes, oatmeal scotchies, gumdrops and petit fours. It was a terrific feast!  We also had a "white elephant" gift exchange and steal.  It was a good time by all!

Christmas Day we had an early gift unwrapping and brunch at our house.  I made a ham, a Quiche Lorraine and potato lattkeys.  We also had a variety of breakfast breads and cakes.  Then after everyone went to other engagements, Steve and I sat down for a long winter's nap!  Ha!  I swear Steve slept most of the day and I managed to finish off a whole romance novel!  Good time!

We had our first winter storm on Dec. 14th.  We actually got a little snow and had to scrape ice off of car windshields.  It warmed up and we had a few really nice days.  It has gotten really cold for us, in the 30's, and today we are having another storm.  There was snow falling again when I looked out a little while ago.  It is supposed to get into the 20's tonight.

I bought more medicine for Buddy today.  The vet gave me a break on the price, only $100 for 100ml.  It is going to cost $140 next time. Buddy's leg still has an open sore on it.  I continue to change the bandage about every other day and he continues to wear his cone.  I hope it isn't for much longer.

Steve and I are also preparing for our 40th anniversary cruise next month.  We got our immunizations, hepatitis, typhoid and regular flu.  We did not have to get yellow fever or dengue fever as they are not prevalent in the countries we are going to visit.  We are trying to get a prescription for malaria pills from our doctor.  Steve has not been able to get a response from his office yet.  I assume that is because we are still in holiday mode.  We are going to visit Mexico, Belize and Honduras.  People keep reminding us that Honduras is the murder capitol of the world.  At the briefing Steve had to attend because of his job, he was told that the police in Honduras guard the tourist cruise ship areas pretty well.  They want those dollars!  So it should be fairly safe if we stay with our group and don't wander off by ourselves.  

Steve found some carpenter's pants at Walmart to wear on the trip.  I have been looking but have not found any I like yet.  I need some of those old fashioned Oxford shirts with long sleeves to protect against mosquitoes too.  I plan to take lots of pictures and, I found out, that I have my very own cruise email account so I should be able to post stuff while I'm on the cruise.  I have not been thinking of the cruise because I have been preoccupied with Christmas, but now that it is behind us, I find I am starting to get excited about seeing a part of the world that I have not been to before.  I'm especially looking forward to seeing some of the Mayan ruins!  

I feel like we got an extra week in November this year!  I am grateful as it gave me time to recover from Thanksgiving! How does that Alka-Seltzer commercial go, "Drop, drop!  Fizz, fizz! Oh what a relief it is"?  I felt more like"Eat, Eat! Stuff, Stuff!  Oh what a pig I am!" LOL!  I swear it took 4 days to get over it!  But it was yummy and worth it once a year! And, of course, I am thankful that we have no shortage of food and many blessings for which to be thankful!

Buddy's condition is an ongoing concern since November 7, when he had surgery.  Twelve days after surgery some of his stitches were removed and the vet injected medication into another tumor in his front leg.  That medicine caused the incision in his belly to open up again.  This caused near panic for yours truly!  A big hole just where his belly button would be opened up as if there had never been any stitches there at all!  Of course this was on the Friday after Thanksgiving so no vet to call.  I had to deal!  I washed and covered the hole with the balm the vet had given me, then put a bandage on that.  Buddy scratched it off with his hind foot almost immediately!  Damn!  What to do!  Steve is brilliant!  My wonderful Spouse!  He suggested we put socks on Buddy's hind feet! Ha!  So we did.  Then I found an old belly band, one of those things that is supposed to reduce the size of your midsection just by wearing it around the house, yeah right!  But it turned out to be useful for Buddy.  I re-bandaged his belly then wrapped the belly band around him.  Waala!  With socks and belly band in place his scratching no longer worked.  

We returned to the vet on Monday, Nov. 26.  She thought the belly was healing well and removed a few more stiches from his hip.  I was afraid for her to remove all of the stitches because of what happened with the belly so leaving them in awhile longer was ok.  We also decided to go ahead and put Buddy on cancer medication.  This will stop more tumors from growing hopefully.  Frankly, I do not want to deal with any more open wounds or cause Buddy any more pain by giving him injections every time a tumor pops up on his skin.  The tumor on his front leg did finally come off but it has left another gaping hole that I am currently still delaing with.  I am replacing the bandage often and have put a long-sleeved t-shirt on Buddy to keep him from tearing the bandage off.  I had to keep the cone on his head because the bandage comes off immediately if it is not in place, even with the t-shirt on.  Today, I removed the belly band and will see how that wound is doing.  So far so good.  His leg however, is down right scary!  I have faith that it will eventually heal but right now it is pretty horrible and I'm sure it is painful.  

Buddy has to be on a new diet now that he is on the oral cancer medication.  I am cooking for a dog! HA!  He has to have cooked meat, rice and vegetables with the medication added.  After he eats 2/3rds of his food, he has to have a scoop of ice cream to calm his belly from the meds and then he gets the rest of his food.  This goes on til the medication is gone and the vet does a re-evaluation, about 4 months!  He may be on a lower dose of the medication for the rest of his life.

Life does go on! Thank God!  I have finished the Christmas shopping and we have put up our new tree.  We replaced an artificial tree that we've had for the last 25 years with a new "Martha Stewart" pre-lit and snow flocked tree.  I decided to decorate with silver and blue this year.  The tree needed a little something more.  So yesterday, I went to Tucson to get a few more decorations and bobbles.  I was glad I did not go on Black Friday because people were still rushing around in panic, rudeness mode even if there were fewer of them than on that infamous day!

Our family picture was taken on Thanksgiving Day and has been ordered in mass quantities for delivery with the traditional Christmas card and letter.  I am working on addressing cards today with a goal of having them all posted to all of you by next week.  Next week is DECEMBER!  Holy Cow!  Only 27 days til Santa comes, unless, of course, the Mayan are correct and the whole world comes to an end on December 21, 2012.  The thing is, my Lord and Savior said that "No one will know the time and day..." when He is to return.  So while I am looking forward to His return, I intend to enjoy His birthday and every day until then.

Buddy had his surgery 8 days ago.  He is recovering nicely.  With his big long surgical stitches and his big cone around his head, he became known as "Frankendog" by the grands!  Poor Buddy!  He still has all that to deal with but I know that he is doing better because he has refused to stay indoors since Monday.  The sock the vet put on his foot is not covering his pad any longer but has become a leg warmer instead.  I need to replace that sock.  I am also still giving him anti-biotics 3 times a days for 10 days.  He has finished with his pain meds.  On Monday the 19th, we will return to the vet to have the stitches removed and find out what to do next.

The vet called yesterday to say that she had the results of the tests on the tumor that was removed from Buddy's belly.  It is not good.  She said it is malignant and she was not able to remove all of it.  The other tumors that were on his hip and leg are under the skin.  The vet said they will continue to multiply,on top of his skin and just under the skin.  She said there are several options that we will discuss on Monday.  She said she does not know and cannot imagine how much it will cost to give Buddy oncology treatments because he is such a big dog.  Also, Buddy will be 9 years old in May.  He is old by Great Pyrenees standards.  The vet said they usually only live for 8 to 10 years, although I read that it was 10 to 12 years.  I have been blessed to have enjoyed this monster dog as long as we have been together.  I certainly will not make him suffer in his old age, I love him too much.

Our weather has gone from summer to winter without benefit of fall.  We plunged down to freezing this week.  I moved plants indoors and covered others.  We have switched from AC to Heat.  There is almost no humidity again and the wind is freezing.  By noon it is almost up to 70 degrees again so wardrobes consist of layers, undershirt, long-sleeved overshirt, sweater, and then a jacket.  They get peeled off one by one as the day goes on.  Steve about fell out of his seat the other day when I removed my long-sleeved shirt.  I guess he didn't realize that I had a tank top underneath.  LOL!

I finished my muu-muu for Thanksgiving.  It is brown with autumn accents.  I am working on one for Christmas now.  I will post pictures when I finish it too.  I have also been taking notes from historical books for my historical novel.  Tons of books!  I don't know how I will get through them all but I will try to get the good parts and get the history straight in my mind.  If the facts are accurate, it makes the fiction more believable. 

Only 6 days til Turkey Day!  Are you ready?  Got pies made and cranberries smashed?  Got the napkins ready and the good china out?  Me neither but we'll get there!  I wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving with your families and friends!  Laugh and love and count your blessings!  Even that overstuffed, bloated feeling you have after the big dinner is a blessing because it means you have plenty to eat!  LOL!  Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

Halloween is only a few days away.  People have been dressing up, attending parties and carving pumpkins.  We have some pretty awesome pumpkin carving artists in this family.

Buddy and I took a trip to the vet on Friday.  He has several lumps that I wanted the vet to look at.  We are scheduled for surgery on Nov. 7th.  The vet will take him at 8 am that day, do the surgery and then I will pick him up again at 4:30pm.  The vet said maybe we will be lucky and they will just be fat deposits.  One can only hope.  Buddy will have to stay indoors for a few days after and probably wear one of those cone-shaped collars to keep him from licking or otherwise tearing the stitches.  The vet also said that since Buddy is 8 years old now, he is considered a geriatric patient.  She will do additional pre-surgery tests because of that.
 
Our weather continues to be just about perfect.  The mornings are getting cooler, days are sunny and warm.  Evenings are balmy and breezy, perfect for sitting outside, watching the sun go down, having a glass of wine and just relaxing.

I am almost done with the Christmas shopping.  Yes, Christmas isn't far away.  Tucson is a winter haven for "snowbirds" so I like to try to get shopping done before Thanksgiving.  After that the roads are jam- packed and so are the stores.  No Fun!

I have a new muu-muu cut out for Thanksgiving and the fabric for a new Christmas one.  I have curtains to make for my daughter and I have started a new writing project.  One of the books I just finished reading about writers says that some writers publish a book a year and others only one every five years.  It says to give yourself 3 years to really get into writing and publishing.  One must establish a regular work schedule just as if you had a regular 9 to 5 job to go to each day.  I don't think I will be able to work that many hours at first.  I am shooting for 4 hours a day from about 9 to 1.  Writing this blog today was my assignment for today.  I am also going to the library for additional research material.  Going to the library will also become part of my working routine.

The vet asked me if I still had my alpacas.  When I told her "Yes, I do," she laughed and said "So does everyone else!"  We both laughed.  I really haven't been trying to sell the boys.  I really do like having them.  Now that the shock and pain of losing Tinker and Kardigan has eased, I am even thinking of getting more.  Steve is adamantly opposed to that of course.  So I figure, once I make some money as an author and writer then I will do as I please! Right?  LOL!

Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My!  Well, not bears.  We didn't see any bears on our end of the fall vacation trip to the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson yesterday.  We did see the new elephant exhibit, which was fabulous.  There were 5 elephants, one huge bull, 3 cows and one baby.  He was really cute.  We also saw gorgeous, majestic giraffes, a rhino with one big bad horn, gazelles, gibbons, roaming tigers and sleeping lions.  The kids had a blast and the place was packed.  I don't think I've seen so many little kids and strollers in my life.  Is there a new population explosion?

Our weather has been to die for, just wonderful, with clear cool mornings and sunny warm afternoons, temps in the 70s.  We love it!  I took tons of pictures at the zoo and tons of pictures of the ubiquitous sunflowers along our roadsides.  I love the wild sunflowers too.  They are so wild, strong and sunny.  They cheer me up just looking at them.  

I have been keeping my grandson while school has been out the last two weeks.  We have done fun things, like visit the zoo and his cousins.  However, I have not managed to do much writing because of keeping busy with him.  Not that I mind.  He will not be little forever, something us grandmas are well aware of.  Children grow up fast and suddenly you find yourself wondering where the time went. 

Buddy and I have started a new class.  We are learning to be "Pet Partners" in an "Animal Assisted Activities" Program.  We have to go through 7 classes and then an evaluation process.  We then become a "registered" team.  Once we are evaluated and registered, we will be able to visit nursing homes, libraries, hospitals and other places where people may be encouraged by the presence of a friendly animal companion.  Buddy has done an excellent job so far.  He really surprised me the very first night.  He remembered all of his training from his puppy socialization course at PetSmart.  That was about eight years ago. He even responded correctly when given the "stay" command.  He doesn't do that so well at home.  So I was very happy with his performance.  We attended the first class conditionally, that is, the trainers wanted to see how well we worked together before admitting us to the class.  We passed and are in for the entire course.  I may have to attend without him this week however.  He reeks!

Yes, my wonderful Livestock Guardian Dog, in the performance of his true duties, killed a skunk this morning. The stench woke my husband and me up at about 5 am this morning.  Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!  However, I am impressed, never the less. Why?  Because I think Buddy has learned a great deal in his many encounters with skunks.  I think he killed this skunk with one single bite and escaped with minimal damage to himself.  He does stink but he did not get black sticky skunk spray all over himself this time.  And the skunk did not escape.  I found his carcass in the old goat pen. The vultures were already circling. Steve removed the skunk from the pen to a place where the vultures will have better access and Buddy will not.  I'm afraid the stink will linger for some time unfortunately.

There has been some news around here recently of jaguar sitings and pictures taken in the area.  While I think it is great that jaguars are making a comeback in our area,  I am thankful for my big Livestock Guardian Dog who is fearless and protects us all from the wild critters.

We have had some fun and busy weekends around here.  We celebrated our first daughter's birthday on Sept. 7th with cake and flowers and gifts.  Then on Sept. 15th we celebrated her birthday and my birthday (coming up at the end of the month) by having a little tea party at the Chantilly Tea House in Tucson.  

We all made fancy hats and wore them to our tea.  We had individual salads, tea, of course, and all the fun little cakes and sandwiches that people have at a traditional "English Tea."  There were over 100 tea choices.  We chose "Ice Wine" and  a sweet green tea with pear.  We were all a little overwhelmed by the Ice wine tea.  It was extremely strong, bitter and overly floral.  Some of us added lots of sugar, which improved it somewhat, but most of us liked the green tea better.  Next time we will try 2 other flavors.  Last time we went, we chose chocolate mint and a vanilla jasmine.  They were both excellent teas.  

We also enjoyed cute little sandwiches.  Some were shaped like triangles with white bread and a shrimp salad filling.  Some were rectangle shaped wheat bread with a cream cheese walnut filling.  There were also open faced sandwiches and grapes. The sandwiches were followed by chocolate oreo scones and traditional sweet scones with lemon curd, clotted cream and raspberry preserves.  Weren't we stuffed by the time we left!  Then we walked it all off with a trip to Tucson's most prestigious mall, La Encantata.  

The Humane society was giving away lost and homeless animals that day.  My daughter found one she could not live without!  A cute little dog, he looks like a cross between a miniature Schnauzer and a Yorkie. He's about the size of a mini Schnauzer with the coloring of the Yorkie.  Turns out he is also housebroken and crate trained!  My daughter is thrilled with her little rescue and he loves all the grand kids too.

On Wednesday, Sept. 20, my friend and I took a trip over to the county seat, Bisbee, AZ.  It is about a 30 minute drive from Sierra Vista.  We visited all the little shops, historic buildings and the mine.  We had lunch at the Copper Queen Hotel. Very fancy and Victorian.  Bisbee is a fascinating historic town built on the side of a mountain just above the old Lavender Pit Copper Mine.  We also visited St. Pat's Church.  It was quite beautiful and filled with gorgeous stained glass windows.  After that, we went back to the mine and purchased a few rocks and arrow heads for the grand kids.

Our weather has greatly improved just this week.  The monsoon has finally died out and we are experiencing my favorite kind of weather, the reason most people move to Arizona.  It is cool in the mornings, about 59 degrees, then warms up as the day goes on to about 90 degrees with sunshine, dry breezes and high white fluffy clouds.  Wonderful! 

September has arrived once again.  Not that it is much cooler here or anything.  It is still very humid and hot.  We are still having rains, clouds and lightning storms.  It is definitely cooler in the mornings lately.  This morning it is heavily overcast with gray low lying clouds.  I am still watering the outdoor plants and starting to think about when I will move some inside and which ones will be sacrificed to the winter.  

My Texas Sage finally bloomed.  In fact they are loaded with lovely little purple flowers.  The bees are going crazy for the nectar.  I even managed to get a photo of a big black and yellow bumble bee this morning.

On Monday, the Labor Day Holiday, we visited Biosphere 2 near Oracle, AZ.  It is about an hour and a half drive from our place.  It is called "Biosphere 2"  because the earth itself is Biosphere 1.  It is a gigantic green house that was built at a cost of  $1.5 million in the 1980's and early '90s.  It has several different ecosystems and was built to be self-sustaining.  You may have heard of the first real closed experiment they did from 1991 to 1993 when they sealed 8 people inside.  They had to maintain everything themselves, grow their own food, purify their own water and take care of goats chickens and other animals.  They had a diet of 1800 calories a day and had to suspend the experiment because they could not do all the work and survive on that amount of calories.  There was just too much work.  They were only able to grow enough coffee beans for each of them to have one cup of coffee once every three weeks. 

Now the Biosphere 2 is open to the public and is owned and maintained by the University of Arizona.  Scientists from all over the world use it to do experiments.  They are doing one called "LEO" right now that involves studying how water affects environments and the complex interactions with water, geology, ecology, the atmosphere etc.  

It is an interesting place but it kinda creeped me out.  I could just see some Hollywood director coming in there to make some kind of horror flick or zombie movie.  

Last evening we had the pleasure of visiting with a friend who drove all the way from North Dakota.  He went to high school with Steve and me about 39 years ago!  We got to meet his charming wife and had a wonderful dinner at the Cactus Rose Restaurant in Tucson.  We spent about 4 hours catching up on all the events in our lives since we parted all those years ago.  It is funny how everyone has similar experiences and equally funny and weird relatives in their families.  We really enjoyed their visit and hope to get together again next year, maybe take a cruise together.  Something to look forward to!

Good Morning!  Good Morning!  Some days you just wake up and feel like you are blessed to be alive!  This morning it is so gorgeous outside!  It just made me smile and Praise the Lord!  It is shiny and clean from the rain we had earlier in the week.  The sky is clear and blue, as blue can be!  It isn't too hot or too cold and there is a nice soft breeze blowing.  As I sat drinking my coffee on the front patio, I watched as two little hummers fought over the petunia blooms hanging overhead. I think they are the first hummingbirds I have seen this year.  They looked young and sleek.  I'm putting some pictures up of hummingbirds in previous years.  Since I stopped putting feeders out, we just haven't had as many.

I also wanted to post some pictures of the storms coming in that we had earlier this week.  It is finally getting green around here.  We must have gotten enough rain this week to liven up the grass and weeds.  The saguaro finally looks as if he is getting some girth back into his trunk too.  It has been green, like the Emerald Isle, in Sierra Vista for several weeks now.  We just haven't gotten as much rain.  My Texas Sage bushes that line the driveway haven't even bloomed this year.  The cactus bloomed in June I think and haven't done so since.  I have been watering my raised bed and my flowers daily.  I actually got some pretty good sized zucchini this year.  I would've gotten more tomatoes if the birds and bugs hadn't taken their tole.  It is really OK however, otherwise I would've had more than I knew what to do with.

In case you are wondering, the bees did fly away on their own.  I did not have to call anyone about them.  Thank the Lord for that and that no one got stung!

My girls and I are going into town today to the fabric store.  We'll be looking for fabric for one of the girl's kitchen windows and probably have lunch away from all the children.  We also want to check out all the fall decor at the "Home Goods" store.  We all love fall and look forward to cooler days, pumpkin patches and NO HUMIDITY!  It is a great day!  Enjoy it!

Our Monsoon has been in full swing lately.  We had major lightening and heavy rain in the middle of the night last night.  I woke up about midnight to shut down the computer and let Buddy into the Arizona Room.  Now that he is getting older, I don't like to make him stay out in the bad storms or extremely hot weather during the day.  I'm afraid he is getting spoiled and has learned a new trick.  He bullies his way into the house when the grandkids are running in and out.  I usually coax him outside again with a treat.  Boy, does he love that! LOL!  He must've done it about 10 times on Friday when the grands were here.  

Buddy has developed a few lumps and what looks like a big wart on one of his toes.  I am planning on taking him to the vet about those.  But he was extremely dirty and matted in places.  So yesterday we took him to Sierra Vista PetSmart and had him cleaned up by a professional groomer.  Wow!  What a difference!  Please note his tail in the pictures.  His tail was very matted and heavy.  The groomer said he actually wagged his tail as if to say how pleased he was when she cut off all that old dead hair!  He looks gorgeous now and I'm sure the vet won't yell at me about his dirty coat at least.

I got a new car when we got back from our Oregon trip.  My old car, a Mitsubishi Montero Sport, had 250,000 miles on it and had begun to overheat whenever I drove it anywhere.  I had that car for 10 years.  My new car is not a whole lot different.  I got the same color, silver.  I also got a V-6 engine and a third row seat, which I did not have in the Mitsubishi. It is a Kia Sorento.  I cannot believe all the computer stuff that is on the new cars.  My cell phone automatically connects to the BlueTooth system in the car.  There are buttons on the steering wheel so that I can call or answer a call without taking my hands off the steering wheel or trying to hold a phone to my ear!  It is amazing!  It also has a camera for backing up so you can watch what you are doing right on the dashboard instead of turning around backwards and straining your neck and back. Of course, force of habit keeps one turning and looking back anyway, and for safety.  The gas mileage is about the same as the old car, about 25 mpg.  But it is so smooth going up my hilly dirt road, not like the hold your dentures ride the old car had.

This morning dawned bright and sunny after the big storm last night.  I was puttering around the yard, watering the plants on the porch, checking for new tomatoes and zuccinni.  I walked around to the east side of the house and WHOA!  There was this huge blob hanging on one of the mesquite trees.  As I got closer , it turned out to be just what I expected, a huge swarming mass of BEES!  Yikes!  I told Steve he better not plan on doing any noisy outdoor work today and we told our daughter to be extremely quiet and cautious if she came up to the house by the path between the houses.  I can look out the computer room window and the hive is hanging right there!  We are hoping they will fly away, but if they don't I will have to call an exterminator.  Bees are nothing to mess with here in Arizona!  

My iris that has been growing all summer finally bloomed.  Boy was I surprised when the flowers were this sunshine yellow instead of purple!  Amazing!

Holy Cow!  July passed by without a word from me!  Shame on me!  Hope you all had a great 4th!

The end of July was our annual migration to Klamath Falls, Oregon.  We flew to Sacramento and then took a rental car the rest of the way.  It is about a 5 hour trip.  The weather was beautiful for the whole visit.  We took our youngest grandson, Logan with us.  We visited Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, Lava Beds National Monument in Tulelake, California and, of course, stopped to take pictures of the always awesome Mt. Shasta.

Logan loved the "Lava hole" as he called Lava Beds National Monument.  We hiked through a cave that was great fun for him and Grandpa but was a little tedious for me.  The path through the cave was not always smooth and I am not as agile as I once was so it took a little time.    Logan wanted to go in another cave, called Skull Cave, because it is a huge cavern.  There is ice at the bottom because it is so deep.  Grandpa and Uncle Paul took one look at the 75 steep steps to the bottom and decided it was time to turn back.  Poor Logan!  He came out with a pouty face and said, "You didn't make it fun, Grandpa!"  He wanted to go all the way to the bottom but he's only 4 after all.  He did not realize the effort it would take to make it back up.  We took him to the gift shop where he purchased a cute little bat finger puppet.  No more pouts!

Crater Lake is such a unique place and just as awe inspiring as Mt. Shasta.  There were still huge piles of snow up there but that did not stop the hoards of tourists.  I got so frustrated in their gift shop that I nearly ran out screaming and pulling my hair out!  A shout from Steve's mom brought me back to ground safely.  We left the park and found another restaurant and gift shop just outside the park where we had lunch and I managed to find t-shirts for all the grand kids.  

We had several family get-togethers while we were in Klamath.  It is always fun to see everyone and get reacquainted.  Everyone is a little grayer, a little chubbier and a lot wiser!  And all the young ones are just a blast, so wild and full of life.  Were we like that once?

We came home and the grand kids started school right away.  We have also been moving Sara and Logan into Shawna's house down the hill.  It has been a process because we can only really do any work or move stuff on weekends.  Sara and Logan have moved in but she still has a few things left at our place.  

It is almost weird to me to have the whole house to myself lately.  I gave the goats and the chickens away before we went to Oregon, so my outside chores are reduced.  I still feel as if I have something to do almost every minute and yet I don't feel that I have really accomplished anything.  How weird is that?  I have been cleaning and reorganizing rooms.  I have also gotten quite a few books read.  I am starting a new diet this week and plan on starting a new workout routine next week.  We'll see how far that goes. LOL!  It would be nice to lose about 20 pounds before our cruise in January.  I'll try to keep you posted on that.

It is only 9am.  It is already 98 degrees outside. The wind is not blowing ...yet.

Yesterday, being Monday, is my heavy work day.  Before 10 am, I had washed and hung 4 loads of laundry, fed and watered the animals, watered all the plants and washed all the dishes from our busy birthday weekend.  Oh yeah! And stripped the bed and put clean sheets on it.

 Our only granddaughter turned 5 years old on Saturday, my husband had a birthday on Monday and Father's Day was on Sunday.  We celebrated all those on Sunday.  Steve got a big new bar-be-que grill for his birthday so he bbq-ed pork chops for 11 people.  We also had coleslaw, potato salad, hot dogs for the kids, applesauce and two cakes, one for Eden and one for Steve.  Eden's cake was a rainbow layer cake with all different bright colors inside.  I made a pineapple upside-down cake for Steve, as that is his favorite and he almost never eats cake anyway.  Of course, Eden got so many gifts it looked like Christmas in June!  The theme this year seemed to be horses and mermaids.  Along with her horse quilt, she also got a horse pillow and a stuffed horse.  Her aunt got her a herd of "My Little Pony" horses that had long manes and tails and combs to style them.  She got a mermaid Barbie and an "Ariel" mermaid from the movie.  For the pool, she got new water wings and another mermaid doll with seahorses that swims! Ha!  What a haul!

We had a fire behind us and a fire in front on the border.  We watched the big air tanker fly back and forth from Parker Canyon Lake to the fire behind us all day yesterday.  The smoke seems less this morning.  I do not know if either fire is out or still going.  The weather people are saying we will get record high temps this week and then get "steamy" by the weekend.  This will be a precursor to thunderstorms on the weekend and perhaps, the start of the monsoon.  I am not looking forward to the "steamy" part, but I do like the monsoon storms.  We will have to start swimming in the mornings if we want to swim at all.  Afternoons will be full of lightening and heavy rains.

Our swallows on the front porch hatched the first batch of babies for this season.  As far as I can tell there are at least 3 little wide open mouths up there when the mamma comes by to feed them.  There are probably more.  They are tiny right now.  All you can see are big mouths and eyes.  The lizards are loving the dry hot weather and are everywhere. It is a good thing because if not for the birds and lizards, we would be overrun with bugs, bugs, and more bugs.  The crickets are abundant and obnoxious with their leg rubbing.  The tiny little red ants are virtually covering the yard and everything else.  I can hardly water the animals or the plants without getting some on me.  They are nasty little biters too.  If I am wearing a sundress, which I often do, I have taken to picking it up and walking, like the ladies used to do in the Old West. Sometimes the ants will still hitch a ride, but I usually notice if they are crawling up my feet and ankles.  Then I can stamp them off before I go inside.  If they get on the hem of my dress, I may be inside before I notice the buggers!  I've even gotten them on my arms from leaning on the fence as I fill up water buckets!  Yikes!

This week our #1 daughter and her family, including 3 of our grand kids, are moving to their very own first house in Tucson.  Steve is helping move their stuff.  I will help by keeping the kids while the move is made.  Then, our #2 daughter and her son are moving into the house being vacated by daughter #1.  Steve and I will be official "empty-nesters."  Whooo-hoo!  I have been looking forward to this but I am thinking that it is going to be rather weird at first.  I will be alone much of the day.  What will I do with all that time????  Don't worry!  I'm sure I will think of plenty! 

I have been working for several weeks on a quilt for my grand-daughter's 5th birthday, which is coming up this weekend.  I finally completed it this morning!  It is so satisfying to complete an artistic project.  I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!

My cat, Loki, seems to like it too.  He planted himself right in the middle as I was trying to take pictures.  Silly cat!

We will hit 102 degrees this afternoon.  I got the ironing done this morning too right after the quilt.  It is just too too hot here to do anything that takes any effort in the afternoons.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be even hotter, 105*!  Yikes!  I really don't mind so much.  I am thankful that we have air conditioning in the house, but I also know that we can survive without it as we did a couple of years ago.  And we have the pool.  I plan to use that this afternoon for awhile.  Gotta get my exercise in you know!

Due to several fires in our area, we have been having some spectacular sunrises and sunsets lately.  I tried to capture the sunrise the other day with the alpacas relaxing in the foreground.  It came out too dark to see the alpacas.  In the one that I posted you can see the dove sitting on the wire though.  Mornings are my favorite time of day.  It is nice and cool and quiet.  The birds are just coming alive and their songs and chirps are about the only sounds.  No new problems or news has yet to invade my consciousness.  Nothing to disrupt the feeling of peace and thankfulness.  And I can just thank the good Lord for small miracles.

Here it is June again!  Hot days and cool nights.  On Thursday last week we were inundated with heavy smoke from the fire just across the state line in New Mexico.  We could not see the Whetstone Mountains just in front of us.  It was like being back in southern California with all that  brownish white smog. It made for some spectacular sunsets.  Even the moon had a pinkish glow for a few nights. That lasted until about yesterday I would say.  Then our constant companion WIND picked up big time and blew much of the smoke away.  So as much as I often curse the wind, there are times when I am grateful for it too.

My tomato plants are getting bigger and are actually producing tomatoes.  It remains to be seen whether or not we will get to enjoy any of them.  There was a good sized one I was watching.  It was starting to turn reddish orange.  I reached around the leaves to see how big it really was and YUCK!  Half of the tomato was already pecked away!  Eaten by birds no doubt!  There are several fruits on each plant now.  I hope they aren't all eaten before they are ripe.  The squash are doing nicely and there are already a few jalepeno peppers on those plants.  I wonder if they will be hotter than the ones in the store.

My geraniums that I transplanted outside are finally blooming like crazy.  So are the petunias.  I also have a large bush in the backyard that I love.  I don't know what it is as it was there before I moved in.  I call it a butterfly bush because it is similar to those.  It's blooms are dark purple and cone shaped.

The saguaro in the front yard is shrinking from lack of rain as it always does this time of year.  One of its branches it also starting to bloom.  As I was taking pictures of the blooms, I noticed a bird at eye level inside the cactus trunk.  I took a picture of the hole, but the bird hid way down inside, too dark down there to get his picture.  

We have been swimming most every afternoon.  It is very refreshing after the temperature hits 100 degrees. I worry about fires and they are popping up all over the West.  We have to hang in there and be extra cautious until the monsoon comes in July, only a few weeks away.

Mother Nature at last had mercy on us and the blasting winds stopped on Sunday morning.  What a relief!  The temperature also dropped a bit, into the 80s.  

I decided to move our three little goats from the northwest pasture to the old turkey pen in the southeast corner of the front yard.  Of course, one cannot just move animals without some changes and forethought.  The turkey shelter, while plenty big enough for the little goats, was too close to the fence.  We moved it so that the goats would not be able to jump on the roof and high-tail it over the fence and down the hill.  Steve also added an overhang at the back for additional cover from the sun and rain.  We also moved the feeder.  It is a big strong wooden box so we placed it on the wagon and rolled it onto place.  Then we had to remove the old chicken wire that kept the turkeys in so that the goats can get the hay out of the feeder.  After cleaning up the area and moving water buckets, we were ready to move the goats.

Frankie and Georgie have collars so all we had to do was get a hold on the collar and snap a lead on them.  Billy does not have a collar.  He was given to us by a neighbor and is somewhat skid-dish.  He loves to get cookies out of my hand but he stays just out of reach, not allowing petting or catching.  So, we figured we would have to lasso him and drag him, kicking and bleating, over to the new place.  Steve was walking Frankie and Georgie down to the gate to close it.  Those two walk pretty easily on the leads.  Since goats are herd animals, I thought maybe Billy would follow them instead of having to be dragged.  I went in the barn and got a can full of grain.  I opened the gate and started rattling the can and calling Billy.  Steve walked ahead of me while I called and coaxed Billy, rattling the grain can all the time.  I stopped and let Frankie and Georgie have a taste of the corn which caused Billy to take note.  He wanted his share of that treat too.  He started following!  All the way to the new pen!  Wow!  Sometimes quiet and gentle beats foolery and force.  Lots less sweat too! Ha!


In honor of Memorial Day, thanks to all the veterans and people who serve in the military.  We would not be America today if not for their brave and selfless sacrifice.  And, as a former military spouse, I thank all the spouses too.  Their support and sacrifice makes lives easier for those who serve. Thank you all!


And, Happy 30th Birthday to our son, Sam.  Our love and prayers are always with you!

Here we are nearly at the end of May!  Wow!  The year is hitting it's half-way point.  

Yesterday afternoon we watched the eclipse through specialty cardboard glasses.  The shades were so dark it was like having a blindfold on except when you looked toward the sun.  It was fascinating watching the slow but steady progress of the black moon crossing over the blinding orange sun.  I heard that is not going to happen again here in my life time!  Glad I got to witness it.

As I said in my previous post, the cactus have been going crazy blooming since we had the rain.  My desert willow tree is also loaded with blooms.  I took lots of pictures to share.

Our weather has been about the best we get lately.  The only time I notice the wind is when it's NOT blowing cuz it just blows all the time.  We are not getting the monsoon thunderstorms in the afternoons yet.  There is just not enough humidity in the air.  It was about 10% yesterday.  Once the humidity goes up to about 50% and the wind changes to the right direction, the monsoon will come.  Usually not until about the 4th of July.

This morning I watched as 2 Gambel Quail crossed the back yard followed by about 10 little ones.  They are so cute and too fast to get a picture.  I did get a picture of the Gilded Flicker that has a nest in the top of our Saguaro Cactus.  I also saw a bright yellow Warbler sucking nectar from the Desert Willow flowers.  Our yard is overflowing with birds.  The swallows have completed their nest over the front door.  They will be hatching babies in a matter of weeks.


Steve and the grand kids caught 2 scorpions and a centipede.  They put them in jars for me to see.  Creeped me out!  Ugh!  It was fascinating to watch the big scorpion kill and eat the smaller one though.  Gruesome but fascinating!  The remaining scorpion is the biggest one we've seen around here and it is so fat we are wondering if it is full of eggs.  We have Bark's Scorpions.  They aren't very big as far as scorpions go, but they have the worst sting.  This one is probably a little over an inch long, not counting the nice tail with the wicked stinging barb at the end! Yikes!


The rattlesnakes are out too.  We've seen some on the roads but have not had any close encounters so far.  I pray that they avoid our little piece of desert this year.  My daughter saw a skunk cross the road.  The tarantulas don't usually show themselves til monsoon.  So much to look forward too! 


Enjoy the flowers!

Happy Mother's Day! 

On May 9th, we had our first big thunderstorm of the season with rain and hail.  Now all the cactus are blooming madly and are quite beautiful.  It is getting hot too.  We hit 100 degrees today.  Of course that temperature is the signal to start swimming again which we did today.  The water is still quite invigorating to say the least. 

On May 10th, we had the alpacas sheared for the year.  We had a new shearer this year, a young lady named Lacey and her helper from a neighboring farm, Melissa.  The ladies were fast and efficient, completing the 3 boys in just about one hour.  All the boys had fighting teeth removed again and Prince finally had his huge front teeth cut down to size.  He seems much more comfortable now.  

After the shearing all the alpacas seemed rather dazed.  They would not even come near me when I fed them the next morning! Ha!  Didn't trust me after that is my thought.  They are slowly coming around again.  Now that it is hot again they cannot stay away when they see me drag the hose over.  They love to get sprayed with a nice cool shower of cold water.

The girls, my daughters that is, a friend and I took a "girl's day out" and went to La Encantada Mall in northwest Tucson.  We ate lunch at an upscale restaurant.  Some of us had mahi mahi tacos and some of us ate salmon and fried spinach.  It was quite a treat.  After lunch we walked around the mall and checked out all the interesting shops and stores that we don't usually get to visit in our neighborhood shopping centers or Walmart. We visited Victoria's Secret, Cold Water Creek, Anthropology, Crate and Barrel and Williams-Sonoma to name a few.  The mall itself is different in that it is 2 stories and has a big outdoor courtyard with fountains and huge trees.  It is also high above Tucson and the views of the city from there are spectacular.  What a great Mother's Day treat for all of us!

Also this week I got through my yearly check up with flying colors.  I have to continue on a couple of medications but do not have to add any.  I hope to get a call from a dietician sometime in the coming week.  In spite of using my treadclimber faithfully, I am not losing weight so the doctor recommended the dietician.  He or she will probably tell me I am eating too much, but we shall see.  Sometimes getting older really sucks!

I got my workroom cleaned up and reorganized after purging stuff for the yard sale.  I have plenty of room now to get some sewing and writing done.  Hopefully this week I will feel motivated and get myself in gear.  Then again, the pool whispers to me...

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter.  Ours was very nice.  Steve and I got up early to hide eggs for the grandkids.  We hid them all over the yard, under plants, in trees, and even in the flower pots.  An hour later, Steve yells at me, "Buddy is eating the eggs!"  Yikes!  I ran out and, sure enough, that smart old beast had eaten about half the eggs!  He cracked open the plastic eggs and ate all the jelly beans and chocolate eggs right out of them.  Wouldn't you know, it was only the ones I had hidden!  He didn't get as far as the back yard where Steve hid most of his eggs before we caught him!  I was afraid that he would be ill but he never was.  So much for revenge!  I ended up collecting all the eggs again.  I washed the shells Buddy had slobbered on and refilled them with candy.  Then Steve and Jeff hid the eggs all over again just before the egg hunt so they could watch that wiley dog!  

I used the good China for the Easter meal.  We had ham and potato salad.  Our daughters made bread and dessert.  Boy, was I stuffed!

On April 5, I noticed the return of the barn swallows.  I have no idea why, but the sight of them soaring and diving after being gone all winter, filled me with an inexplicable joy!  I love those little birds!

I spent the week after Easter getting ready for the yearly neighborhood yard sale.  It is a lot of work and I never really feel like I have much to offer.  But this year I decided to empty my over crowded book shelves and sort through my closets and drawers for all the clothes I haven't worn in over a year.  I ended up having over 150 books and quite a pile of magazines.  Last time I did this, a couple of years ago, I had the magazines out for 10 cents a piece.  They did not sell at all.  So this year I sold them for  5 cents a piece and gave one away for free.  They went like hotcakes!  I also sold my hard back books, which I love and hate to give up, for .25 each or 5 for $1.00,  I sold over half of them as well.  I put out my aprons and stuff that I made for the Farmer's Market this past summer.  NONE of it sold!  Not one piece!  People freak out when they see the price of new stuff at a yard sale!  

The first day of the yard sale went really well.  The weather was sunny and warm but not hot.  In the afternoon the wind picked up as usual.  By Saturday we were having rain, snow and sleet.  I tried to keep the sale open.  I even had about 5 or 6 hardy souls visit and buy a few things.  But after an hour with no customers and the pouring rain and cold I decided to close up shop.  I didn't do too badly.  We took in a little over $100 for one day's sale.  I just won't count all the work up to the sale!


The weather is back to sunny, if not quite warm yet.  I hung clothes out on the line to dry this morning.  The weather people promise we will be back in the 80s by the end of the week.  I hope so cuz I put all my winter stuff away all ready.


Sandy's little doxie seems to be pretty much back to normal and has not stopped challenging the bigger dogs.  Prince continues to take his medicine easily so all is well at the moment.  I have not heard back from any shearers as yet.  They are a strange lot, just busy I guess.  I posted pictures of the alpacas at the yard sale.  One lady said, "Oh!  You have Appaloosas?"  
"No, I don't have horses," is all I said.  Hehehe!

Last week it seemed that Spring had really sprung, but today we are getting blasted with 30-50 mph winds and only about 60 degrees!  Yikes!  Oh well!  I suppose I should be grateful that it is not blowing snow and hail stones again!

I have been giving Prince his valley fever medication for about 3 weeks now.  He has been very good about taking it.  I put the two good sized pills in a handful of grain and he runs to the fence to get it.  Sometimes I have to push the other two away but I do give them a little grain too after I make sure that Prince has gotten both pills.  This takes place at the morning and evening feedings.  I am about out of feed again.  I'll have to send Steve to get more tomorrow.

This weekend we spent getting our #3 daughter relocated to an apartment closer to her work.  It is a one bedroom but plenty big enough for her and her little dog.  Poor dog!  He is just a little miniature dachshund and he was attacked by a much bigger dog about 2 weeks ago.  It turned out he had several puncture wounds and a broken rib.  The vet put him on antibiotics and pain pills for about a week.  He seems to be doing fine even though the vet said it will take about 2 months for the rib to heal.  The dogs in the new apartment complex all seem about the same size as Chewy.  So maybe he'll be better off there.  Also, our daughter can now walk to her work.  That is a big help to me.


I moved most of my plants back outside last week when the weather was so nice.  Now they are getting blasted by the wind.  The wind was so bad and so cold this morning that I decided to wait til this afternoon to water.  I hope all the plants aren't dead from the drying blasting wind and no water.  In this hostile desert, watering plants becomes a ritual every day just behind feeding the livestock.


The little tomato plants that I put outside will have to be replaced.  I planted about 20 .  Each day I have fewer and fewer.  I think I am down to about five now.  No, it's not the wind or water.  It is the birds!  They are eating up the little leaves as soon as they appear!  So frustrating. Sometimes I have to remind myself why I moved here.  It was for the warm weather and our grandkids.  I guess if I ever want a really great garden, I'll have to stick to cactus and mesquite trees or move back east! Ha!


I took some pictures of the weather front that moved in about the 19th of last month.  It brought lots of wind then and snow and hail.  Now the weather people are warning us of fire danger again.  Why didn't I move to Hawaii???  Oh yeah!  It cost too much, it's surrounded by ocean and none of my grandkids live there!

Burr!  It is cold!  We have been in a winter storm watch since Saturday.  The wind has been howling and hitting 45 mph.  This morning it is snowing and hailing and the wind has not diminished at all.  The road is a sloppy mess and my car needs a good wash again.  But the weatherperson has promised that the storm will be gone by tomorrow and we will be in the 80s again by midweek.

The vet came out on Tuesday as promised.  The Valley Fever tests came back on Friday, also as promised.  The news was good and bad.  Stewie and Cimarron tested negative, but Prince's test came back positive.  Today I talked to the vet and picked up medication for Prince.  She said he may never get sick, just carry the fever.  It is unpredictable.  I am still working with the lady who showed interest in taking the boys.  She will have to decide about these results.  I'm hoping she will come visit some day this week.

The alpacas really showed their personalities when the vet was out.  There were 3 of us, all women who had to catch them and hold them while the vet took blood.  We caught Cimarron fairly easily and he stood stoically while the vet stuck the needle in his neck and took his blood.  Then we caught Stewie.  Stewie did not want to be caught so he bucked and dodged and squirmed right out of my hold.  The vet stood back and said," If you 2 can't hold them, we'll have to get a man to do this!"  Well, I just looked at her because Steve had taken the whole day off before and she had not shown up!  But we showed her anyway, the vet tech and I.  The second time we caught Stewie , we caught him in the barn and crowded him into a corner so he could not escape.  He still did not cooperate however.  He cushed!  Just laid down and then bounce up whenever the vet tried to stick the needle in him.  So the vet tech pushed down on his hind quarters and I held his head and neck while simultaneously pushing down on his withers with my knee.  I paid for that for several days afterwards with a very sore gluteus maximus!

Then it was time to catch Prince.  He was the hardest to catch but he stood quietly while the vet did her thing without moving or flinching.  He had a good trainer named Liz!

I need to put a beeper on my glasses!  I carry them around with me then leave them when I have to pick something up, go away and WAAAA!!!  I can't find them again til I back track everywhere I went in the last half hour, which could be a lot of places!  Anyway, I found them now.

Some of the seeds I planted last week are coming up already.  I am watering the raised bed outside so it will be ready to plant soon.  Our humidity has raised to a whole 4% and there is no rain in sight, at least not this week.  We are supposed to have sunny, blue skies and temperatures in the 80s.  Wonderful! 

The vet was supposed to come out yesterday morning to draw blood from the alpacas for the valley fever test.  She never showed up.  It turned out that she had an emergency surgery that took an hour and a half and then she had to perform an autopsy on a 3 year old male alpaca that had died suddenly.  Turns out the alpaca belonged to the lady who might take my boys.  She was devastated.  She did not tell me why the alpaca died.  She may not know yet.  She did say it was her favorite male.  I felt really bad for her.


Saturday we celebrated the birth of our first grandson.  He turned 10 years old!  Unbelievable!  That means we have lived on this windy desert hill for 8 years now.  One of my alpacas, Prince (Shoot to you, Liz) is now also 8 years old.  Cimarron, gray with a white face, is 6 and Stewie, beige, is 5.  My little red dog, Penny, a Tibetan Spaniel, is 14 or 15 years old.  I think she tried to kill herself this past week.  She started spewing really dark diarrhea about every hour or so.  She got me up every hour one night, scratching on the door to go outside.  I gave her a single pepto bismal tablet which seemed to slow things down a bit.  She was still eating.  She acted a little sheepish because she didn't get out in time a couple of times.  My bedroom stunk to high heaven!  Ugh!  Anyway, I think I might have figured out what she ate, CHOCOLATE!  The poo was the same color as dark chocolate and I saw her snatch a little piece of chocolate pop tart off the couch this morning before I could grab it.  I hope she doesn't get sick again.  She literally poisoned herself.  Poor baby!  I'll have to be more diligent in picking up after the grandkids or anyone else who happens to leave chocolate around or dropped on the floor.  With Easter coming, it may be a chore.


Back to the grandson's birthday, we went to "Funtastics" which is a fun park in Tucson.  You pay one price for a certain amount of time and get unlimited access to all the rides and miniature golf.  The little kids liked the flying dragons the best.  The big boys and the men liked the go-carts.  It was the perfect day for the outing.  The sun was out, no wind and it was about 70 degrees.  Fabulous!


The vet is supposed to stop by today on her way to Tucson.  I hope she does.  I really want to get this test out of the way and find a new home for the alpacas.

This has been a busy week as usual.  March has come in like a lion, blasting away at us with 30 mph winds.  It has also warmed up some during the day to about 80 degrees.  I also heard that we have a negative reading as far as humidity goes.  If you can believe it our humidity was at -8%.  The sky seems to be white instead of blue.  I started watering the raised garden bed in the back so that there will be some moisture when I get ready to plant my veggies and flowers.

Tuesday I went to Sierra Vista and got a bunch of books for research and reading.  Some of the books I wanted are at the Benson Library so I may have to go there tomorrow after I take my daughter to work.  Most of yesterday was spent reading and brushing up on writing skills and research methods. I spent some time on my new laptop adding to my diary and proofreading the 2 or 3 paragraphs I have written for my book.

A friend recommended a couple of books to help with my writing so I looked them up online today.  One of the authors, Sandra Dallas, writes books about Colorado.  I will probably get a couple of hers to get an idea how to write about Arizona.  The other author she recommended was a little more difficult to find because I was looking up the wrong name.  I was looking for David Merrill when I should have been looking for David Morrell.  I did eventually find the books she was talking about.  They look like good references also.

My grandson climbed up into my raised bed today and helped me fill the seed starter trays with potting mix.  We had to move indoors to plant the seeds because of the wind.  We planted 3 trays with veggies and flowers, watered them and put on the clear plastic lids.  They are like miniature green houses sitting on my book shelves.  The sun shines in that south facing Arizona room so the plants should germinate fairly quickly.  Then when they are big enough I will put them in the outside raised bed to be beat up by the wind and the elements.  I will never be able to skip one day watering if I ever want to get any tomatoes or squash.  The Arizona sun is brutal and takes no prisoners, unless you count those of us who are foolish enough to try to garden.

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!

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. 

No wheat, No white, No meat!  That is my new mantra for 2012.  I have been reading lots of diet and health books over the past few weeks of this new year.  I am studying Eat Right for your Type by Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo and Natural Cures by Kevin Trudeau.  At first I thought I had blood type "O" because I have thyroid problems and some of the other "symptoms" of the type O profile.  But then I actually did a blood test and found out that I have type "A" instead.  So I had to adjust my thinking and eating accordingly.  I actually started feeling better when I was eating like a type "O" but I started losing weight when I started eating like my real type"A".  Of course I have also started exercising again too.  So every little adjustment helps.

The Eat Right...  book is fairly easy and uncomplicated to follow.  Mr. Trudeau's book is much more complicated and has lots more stuff to do.  He is also a whistle-blower and tells all about our corrupted food industry and why Americans are so fat.  It is very interesting and sometimes shocking but also an eye opener.  As with all things one reads, it must be taken with a grain of salt and further research.  I read some of the reviews other readers have given him on Amazon.com.  Some say that he is a charlatan and some say he is right, so there you go. I must also balance what he says with my own experiences and knowledge.  I will use what is best and discard the rest.  My ultimate goal is to lose weight but mostly just to be healthy and not have a lot of problems as I grow older.  I have gotten several other books on natural cures and on eating organically. I will be reading those also.

Over the last couple of weeks I have also been reorganizing and cleaning.  I went through my pantry and got rid of any old or expired foods.  Then I straightened and reorganized that.  I pulled all my old cookware from my kitchen cabinets and replaced all the coated pots and pans with new Martha Stewart stainless steel cookware.  Now there is no danger from peeling or damaged teflon coated pans when anyone cooks.  I got tired of telling people to use plastic coated utensils to cook in those pans so they wouldn't damage the surfaces.  They never listened and now I don't have to worry about it any more.  


I have gotten my sewing room back in working order after the holiday chaos.  I sorted my patterns and arranged them by brand name and number.  I put all the childrens patterns in one box and the adult ones in another.  The craft patterns were separated from the clothes patterns and have their own box too.  All the fabric has found new storage boxes and been stacked on shelves or under tables or wherever I could fit them in an orderly fashion.  I got out one of the aprons I made to sell and am using it myself.  I get tired of getting a wet tummy every time I do the dishes or cook.  All my books have shelf space and the magazines are waiting to be sorted, to keep or not to keep?  That is the question! Ha!


I found a pattern for a sewing machine cover.  I think that will be my next sewing project for my new sewing machine instead of spending $24 for a new plastic container at Walmart.  


As for the animals of my little farm, they are doing fine.  I plan on putting the alpacas up for sale soon and I may do the same with the goats.  Buddy needs a grooming to get rid of all his matted tail hair but I will wait til the weather starts warming up for that.  My Loki cat is also getting his yearly matted hair and I am working on that a little at a time as he will not be still for long.  He looks really funny when the mats are cut out and he has bare spots all over for awhile.  The chickens continue to lay eggs and I plan on switching them to organic feed soon.  That will make the eggs healthier for us.  


I have gotten planting flats and some seeds.  I want to plant more vegetables in our raised bed this year.  So, it is a new year with new potential.  Mostly life continues to be good.  Praise the Lord!