I returned from California on Tuesday.  Don't care if I never have to fly again, although I know I will.  I had a very relaxing time away from grand kids and animals.  My girlfriend and I spent the first two days at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.  We had the perfect hotel smack dab in the middle of everything.  We just parked the car and walked to all the shops and restaurants.  The weather was very different form Arizona, much cooler.  I enjoyed the foggy damp mornings and windy sunny afternoons.  We ate clam chowder from a bread bowl, fish tacos and salmon while we looked out over San Francisco Bay.  There were plenty of big ships and sail boats.  Sea Lions lazed on the docks and gulls flew overhead.  People watching was also fun.  We heard tourist speaking languages from all over the world.  

On Saturday we drove back up to Chico, CA to my friend's house.  She is currently taking car of 16 dogs.  They are mostly dachshunds, but she also has a couple of fox terriers and a chihuahua.  Most of the dogs are up for adoption as they are rescues.  My vacation continued as my friend put me up in her gorgeous guest room and served me food and wine! Ha!  We watched several good movies including, "Sherlock Holmes", "The Lovely Bones" and "Capitalism: A Love Story."  My friend also made homemade ice cream, chocolate and cherry.  It was to die for! Heavenly!  We also shopped in Chico and went to see Julia Roberts in "Eat, Pray, Love."  Overall, I had a very good time.  Lots of food, fun and girl conversations!

Steve and Sara took good care of all the animals while I was away.  It was strange to come back to a green Arizona!  Steve said it rained and thunder-stormed every night while I was gone.  California has not had any rain all summer.  Everything was brown and dusty except near the ocean.  It is also more humid here at home.  I guess it will be that way til the monsoon is over next month. I could hardly believe how much the chicks and turkeys have grown!  Little Casper also seems bigger.  He will be 4 months old soon.  I will start weaning him by cutting down to one bottle a day starting next week.  Everything is still damp and the flies have not diminished at all.  Steve sprayed some of the alpacas with horse fly spray while I was away.  I will have to start doing that every day I'm thinking.  

My alpaca blankets and scarves came from the Alpaca Blanket Project while I was away.  They are fabulously soft and a blend of lots of alpaca colors.  I only got 2 of each this time so I plan on keeping one and selling the other or giving it for a gift.  I used the time away to make decisions about my little farm and the directions I want to take.  I think I will be downsizing some.  More about that later. 

Here we are a week into August already!  I finally managed to catch one of those big green frogs in the daylight so we could get a picture.  Lux seems to have finally (maybe) learned that they are not good to eat or play with.  I yelled at her to leave this one alone and she actually did!  The animals continually amaze me at their understanding of my words.  

We have been having lots of monsoon rain.  This year is a little different from previous years in my opinion.  The storms seem to be arriving very late in the day and then spewing their wrath on us all night. The conditions seem to be absolutely perfect for the flys this year.  The turkey pen is the worst.  And the smell in there from the fly trap is, well, not very nice to say the least.  I really don't know how to get rid of the nasty pests.  

The monsoon is supposed to slack off a bit this week so our temps will be soaring back up to 106*.  I really hope it doesn't get that hot especially since it is still pretty humid.  I guess I cannot complain when I consider other places in the world that are having much worse conditions right now, like Pakistan.  At least I have shelter and many other amenities that make life easy.  I am grateful for all that I have.

I am getting 2 blankets and 2 scarves from the Alpaca Blanket Project since I sent them my fleece.  I will post pictures as soon as I get them.  I am excited about that.

I am going to California in two days to visit a friend.  We will be staying in San Francisco for the first 2 nights and then going to her home in Chico.  I am looking forward to our visit, seeing SF again and getting away for a few days.  I plan on taking pictures and will post them here when I get back.  Bon Voyage!

We had a monster storm yesterday and half the night.  The lightening lit up every window in the house at the same time and the rain came down in torrents.  Today the San Pedro River, which is normally a dry river bed, was flowing fast and furiously.  Muddy brown ripples flooded the entire channel from bank to bank.  We don't see that very often.


All the animals got wet and pathetic looking.  The turkeys were the worst.  Poor things!  Their pen got soaked inside and out and I cannot do much except wait for things to dry out.  Flys are really bad this year.  I thought I wasn't keeping things clean enough but people at the feed store were complaining about the pesky things too so I guess it's not just our farm.


This morning the neighbor's yard was invaded by bovines.  They got really close to our fence this time causing the alpacas to freak out.  I went out and took pictures and then drove the car toward the beasts and honked the horn, hoping they would go in the other direction.  They just looked at me.  After awhile the neighbor's came out with brooms and started herding the heifers and calves out their gate.  They have done it so many times that nobody gets excited any more.  It's just a leisurely stroll following the cows out the gate.


I was offline for awhile because our "router"? that connects the computer to the satellite stopped working.  I didn't realize how much the computer has become part of our lives.  I missed being able to post here and answer email.


I actually mailed 4 boxes of fleece to the Alpaca Blanket Project on Friday.  I will be lucky if they actually use my fleece and pay for it.  I continue to be excited about the blanket project though.  I hope to buy some blankets this year.  My next project is to send my best fleece to Vanity Apparel.  They will make scarves for me and send them back.  I may try to sell them or maybe I will just give them for Christmas gifts.  I am also researching mills to see what my best option is for the goat fleece. 

We had rain again last evening and looks like we will again today.  Lux, our border collie mix, got mixed up with our giant green desert frogs.  It is pitiful to see and you would think the dog would learn to stay away from them!  But she continues to grab and shake them while they play dead and secrete their poison foam into her mouth.  She then gets all wobbly and bug-eyed.  I'm sure she cannot even see while under the influence of the poison.  We then try to hose out her mouth with water and get the foam out and off of her feet while she fights and struggles against our attempts to save her pathetic hide.  Then we feed her copious amounts of milk which she actually seems to like even in her stupefied state.  Once the milk starts doing its good work, she usually starts acting like herself again and the crisis is passed.  I just wish she'd learn to leave the dang frogs alone! 

I also shrieked as I turned the water on for the dog as two big tarantulas ran away from the faucet!  I had a dress on, the hem down to the ground, I didn't want any big hairy spider crawling up that skirt!  OOH!  Gives me the willies! Ha!


We also had a beautiful rainbow after the rain right over the house.  Pretty cool!


I have packed up some of my alpaca fleece for shipping to the Alpaca Blanket Project.  I went around to the various shipping companies yesterday to find who will ship it for the least amount of cash.  Looks like the USPS wins.  One store did have the 12 x 12 x12 inch boxes that another mill asked to ship fleeces in.  I was amazed at the cost of the box, $5.47, just for the box!  Then this company wanted four times that much to ship the box.  They said they were faster than the good old USPS, but please!  How much faster could it possibly be to justify that much money!  So, as I am not in a big hurry, I will use the USPS.  I want to get a few more fleeces skirted and boxed up so I will probably try to get that done while I am waiting for payday to roll around on Thursday.  Sometimes it is darn inconvenient not having credit cards anymore, but the inconvenience is far outweighed by the fact that stuff is paid for up front and I no longer have to worry about that costly monthly payment hanging over my head.

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Lightening flashed and thunder crashed and the rain came down in buckets.  The ear-splitting thunder sent the cats into hiding and the chicks piled up on top of each other trying to escape the tempest.  I ran out to the barn to close the door and find something for the chicks to hide under.  I found half of an old dog kennel and threw it on the floor of the chick pen with the opening away from the outside.  The chicks couldn't get under it fast enough.  I got soaked to the skin on my way back to the house.  Buddy, the "I-never-want-to come-in-the-house" dog was nearly barging in the door to get away from the storm's wrath.  The buck goats huddled together in their small shelter, head-butting and dominance issues put aside in favor of a dry spot and comfort.  Alpacas huddled together too, their differences forgotten.  The turkeys, well, turkeys aren't very bright.  The three Royal Palms (black and white birds) had figured out how to get to their new pen so they were huddled in the shelter in that pen.  The Bourbon Reds, which are brown, were trying to get through the fence to get with their buddies and failed to even figure out that they could still go inside out of the downpour.  This was Saturday afternoon.

Since then we have had bad storms all around us every afternoon, but we have not gotten a direct hit as on Saturday.  Doesn't mean it wasn't exciting around here just the same.  On Sunday night the turkeys, all in their new pen now, decided to roost on the fence and in the tree overhanging the pen.  At about 8pm, I was on the phone and Buddy and Lux started going nuts.  They had something cornered by the garage but I couldn't see what it was.  I yelled for my daughter to help, got off the phone and went after the dogs.  They were after one of the turkeys who had gotten out of the new pen all together!  We all had a merry chase, we did!  The dogs finally treed the turkey in one of the bushes in the yard.  I never heard such a hideous noise! The turkey was actually hissing at the crazy dogs!  Buddy was just trying to keep the bird from escaping but I wasn't sure about Lux.  She is part Border Collie so maybe she was just trying to corral the bird too but we put her in the house just the same.  Then I slowly and cautiously reached into the stickery bush and wrapped my hands gently around the panicked bird's wings.  When I had a good hold on him, I pulled him close to my body and he seemed to relax and just let me put him back into the old pen. He did not seem any the worse for wear and the chasing. 

One of the Bourbon Reds was now in the goat pen.  We couldn't really see her because it was dark but we could hear her calling to the other birds.  I decided that the three in the new pen needed to be put back in the old pen too or they would be out again before the night was over.  I went into the pen and tried to encourage them back to the old pen through the door.  Of course, I didn't get much cooperation.  I had to grab each one and force then back inside.  By that time, the hen in the goat pen had returned to the fence.  I figured she was going to try to get back in with the rest of the flock so I waited to see what she would do.  She jumped back up on the fence and started stretching her neck looking for a way back in.  So I went out and encouraged her into the new pen.  Once she was back in there, I went inside and put her back in the old pen with the rest of them.  I left them all in the old pen.  I think they stay there because it has a roof of sorts and they figure they cannot escape and roost in the tree.  It struck me as paradoxical, this little incident.  Here I am chasing turkeys so they will stay in their pen and be safe from dogs and other predators when all the time my intention is to slaughter them for our Thanksgiving dinner!

I got up at about 5:30 am to the beautiful sunrise.  I am pretty exhausted now as I have been very busy today.  After feeding all the critters, I decided I could not wait another day to move the Delaware chicks to their new pen.  Of course , one cannot just move critters, one must prepare.  

I first had to re-install chicken netting on two sides of the pen.  It had been removed when the goats were in that pen.  I think the chicks are still small enough to slip through the chain-link fence, hence the chicken wire.  That put a pain in my back.  But I wasn't done.  I cleaned out two old metal chicken feeders, filled them and attached them to the fence just high enough for the chicks.  I cleaned and filled the waterer, put new pine shavings inside and out and then it was time to move the chicks.  That is always a challenge.  I tried encouraging them with a broom but that just made them squeak and go into panic mode.  I ended up catching each one and moving her to the new pen.  They seem to like it fine but are a little slow to realize they can go outside.

Next I opened up an old door in the turkey pen so that they can move to their new pen too.  I decided to see if they will figure it out on their own so have not actually moved them yet.  Then I cleaned up the barn and started sorting fleeces to send to the Alpaca Blanket Project.  I got 3 done before my back started killing me. So now I took some drugs! Ha!  Just aspirin!  

I went online to order a "BagButton."  It is supposed to suck all the air out of the plastic bags that hold the fleece so that it will be easier to ship.  I hope it comes on time.  I have to ship the fleeces before the end of the month.  


We are really into the monsoon now.  We are getting storms and nice lightening every day.  Usually it starts out sunny and gets cloudy, but this week we had 2 whole days of gray nasty looking clouds and darkness.  It made the tarantulas come out.  We've had to chase a couple out of the yard so the dogs wouldn't kill them.  I don't usually care whether or not I kill a spider but I make an exception for tarantulas.  They are just too awesome to kill!

It has been rainy and overcast all day.  It made it better for doing farm chores and we accomplished many today.  We reinforced the small alpaca pen in the back.  We added more plywood to divide the shelter, removed the gate on the alpaca side, re-wired places where we thought Casper or the goats would try to get out and moved feeders and water buckets.  Once we felt like things were pretty secure, we started moving animals.  The alpacas were easy.  All we had to do was open the gate and they went into the larger pasture.  Since we were moving goats we decided to trim their feet first and then move them.  So Caramel, Casper, Mouth and Little Bones got toenails trimmed.  Steve trimmed while I held.  They were all pretty well behaved once they were caught and placed on their behinds.  Only Little Bones protested and I think only one little "bla-a-a-ah" came out of her mouth.  After that we put some animal crackers, which all the goats love, in a dish and started leading them to the new pen.  First we moved Caramel and Casper.  We put a leash around Caramel's horns, just in case.  We had to go passed the buck pen and we weren't sure she would not try to stay there.  She did try to stay there too but ended up stopping just long enough to leave a little perfume pee to drive the bucks crazy.  I carried Casper and the cookies and they both went right into the new pen.  Caramel made a lot of noise at first  but seems to like her new surroundings now.

Then it was Little Bones and Mouth's turn.  Little Bones followed me like she had been taught to heel.  Mouth was a little more curious and took several bad turns including heading out the drive way, stopping to visit with the bucks and getting stuck behind a fence.  Eventually, Steve had to grab him by the horns, strattle him and get him into the pen.  Of course, Casper, being a baby still, immediately tried to go through the fence into the alpaca pen.  His head and new little horns went through with no problem but when he decided to backup, his little horns stuck on the wire and he started wailing!  There is nothing as alarming as a kid goat screaming when they are terrified.  Just as I got there to rescue the little guy, he managed to get out.  Hopefully, he will remember the fear and not do that again.  They all seem to like the bigger enclosure.  They had to get a few head bumps out of the way and Casper is learning to use his small size and speed to stay out of the reach of Mouth's horns.  I'm sure they will all settle and be a herd soon.  It rained some and they all took to the shelter without forcing anyone to stay outside so that is a good sign.

After that was all done, Steve removed all the old hay and manure from the barn pens.  I then scattered diamatacious earth all over the ground in both pens.  This is to help get rid of the flies and other insects.  The DE is made up of skeletons of ground up sea animals.  It is sharp like glass and damages the larvae and exoskeletons of insects.  I got the kind that is organic and not harmful to people and animals. It looks like a white powder or talc.  I will let the pens dry out for a couple of days and then move the turkeys and the Delaware chicks into those pens for awhile.  They are not big enough to move to the large space I have for them yet, but they are big enough to need more space now.  I may separate the Royal Palm turkeys from the Red Bourbons.  All the Royal Palms are males.  The Red Bourbons are male and female.  It is obvious now that they are getting so big.  I feel good about what we accomplished today.  Now, if we could just get that other pasture fenced!