This morning is is gray and gloomy and COOL! Cool is great but it won't last.

Last night my three pygora kids got out of their little pasture. They were wondering around the front yard bleating and bleating really loudly! They didn't know what to do with themselves. It was dark of course. I managed to get them back in their pasture but they proceeded to try to jump right out again through their feed box. So I'm pushing their heads back, trying to keep the three of them inside the box and yelling at the top of my lungs for Steve. All the windows in the house are opened and I'm thinking, he will never hear me! So I kept on yelling and pushing goats and getting stabbed with sharp little horns and bitten by sharp little teeth and finally Steve came out. H'e carrying the grandbaby! Yikes! No help there. Then grandbaby's mom comes out! Hallelujah! So while Grandpa holds the baby and the flashlight, Sara and I get the lid back on the box and weigh it down with rocks and bricks! They are still in the pasture this morning with the lid in place. It will have to be fixed more permanately of course. Something always needs fixing on a farm. The cuts and scapes on my hands from moving rocks and boards and sharp little teeth will heal by themselves. Thank God for small favors!

We had a nice surprise on Sunday. We have one little white hen. She is probably 5 years old now. She disappeared for awhile. I thought she was hiding away to die, but, nope! She was hiding away to hatch her two new baby chicks! They are so cute. They are both little yellow puff balls. One is a darker yellow than the other. The mom has moved them all back in with the rest of the chickens. She is a very protective mom and I think they have a chance of growing up. I have had chickens that killed the chicks but I think those chickens have passed away now.

The two big dogs had a squabble tonight over a frog of all things! I think Lux, my daughter's collie mix, wanted to eat the frog and Buddy probably wanted to protect the ugly thing! We've had quite a few big green frogs this year. They are the biggest frogs I've ever seen. You wouldn't think there would be frogs in the desert, but they show up every year when the monsoon hits. And they make the creepiest frog noise. I don't even know how to describe it. When I first heard it, I thought a cow was dying somewhere. They have some kind of protective coating too. If the dogs lick the frogs or bite them, the dogs start foaming at the mouth. Not pretty! I don't think it tastes too good either. The dogs don't look too happy and they don't do it again.

We had to go to Tucson today for doctor appointments. One was at 10:30 and the other wasn't until 3 so we went shopping. I fell in love with a big Ford truck! That truck could haul lots of hay! Maybe some day....

Today I got grocery shopping done. For once I didn't spend more than I planned! So we will have food for us and the animals for the next 2 weeks at least.

We had a beautiful hot sunny day. We spent some time outside watering plants and digging up weeds. This evening while we were outside we had 2 carloads of surprise visitors. The guy who is buying my kids came by with some of his family to see the goats. He seems excited about having them and promised to pick them up in 2 weeks. He also gave me some more money for their care for that time. I showed him what we feed them, the bermuda hay and the blend pellets of alfalfa and bermuda. I also gave him a goat care book. It is mostly about dairy goats but it should be some help. The visitors were excited about the alpacas too. Of course, they thought they were llamas. Tinker was his usual curious self and almost let everyone touch him. Prince high-tailed it as far away as he could get! Ha! And Buddy about scared the pants off everyone when he came tearing around the fence toward them. He would never hurt anyone but his size is enough to make anyone think twice about approaching him.

I am glad the kids will be going soon but I will also miss them. I hope they have a good new home.

Well, I have not gotten much done this week as far as making rolags. I have one bag of 5 done and some others. I need to do a whole lot more. I have been mostly watching grandkids this week which is always fun.

We had a terrific thunderstorm last night. Steve and I sat outside with all the grandkids and watched the storm approach from the east. The lightning was spectacular. The two oldest grandsons, ages 7 and 5, started a game of throwing their hands out and "making" the lightning happen. It was surprising how many times it worked! Ha! We had to come inside eventually and then the heavens really let loose! The thunder caused us all to shriek and cover our ears. The dogs hid under the beds and the youngest grands cried in fear! It was a magnificent storm and nice to wake up to clear sunny skies this morning!

I am still bottle feeding two of my kids, the angoras, Little Bones and her brother. That will end in about another 4 weeks. I have not named the little male as I was thinking of selling him. I am having second thoughts on that. Every time I feed him, I am impressed with his fleece and his stature. So I am sort of thinking of naming him and keeping him. It may be difficult to have two bucks around here though. Falkor is quite a handful by himself. I don't know that his fleece is as nice as his son's though. Maybe the fleece seems so nice because he is still a baby and Falkor is not.

I want to get all the goats out into pastures so that cleaning up isn't such a chore for Steve. The guy who "bought" the pygora kids has not yet picked them up even though they are ready to go. I guess he hasn't gotten his fences up or something. I wish he would get them soon.

I can really tell the difference between the pygora kids and the angora kids. The angoras have much curlier fleece and it covers them pretty much everywhere. The pygoras fleece is straighter and they don't have as much coverage. They have no fleece on their faces, legs or the front of their necks. Those places are just smooth short hair. The ones born this year, Bold-Fresh, Mouth, Snowy and the buck, are curlier than last years kids, Valentino, Silverado and Butterfly. I don't know who the sires of last year's kids are. I do know that they were supposed to be half pygmy and half angora. My kids this year are three-quarters angora. Their father was Falkor. And, of course, Little Bones and her brother all full angoras. Speaking of which, it is time to feed them again.

I finally got my pictures of the tarantula back. There have been several in the yard since I took those first pictures.

The hummingbirds are here in full force too. I watched several of them at the feeders yesterday. They are aggressive little birds and want that feeder all to themselves. They chase each other away as well as other birds. The baby swallows are as big as the adults now and have flown the coop. I cannot tell the babies from the grownups anymore. I wonder if there will be another crop of babies before they head south for the winter. One year there were 3 different sets of eggs and or babies by the end of summer.

I took some pictures of the alpacas from whom I have gotten fleece. I hope to use these pictures to help sell the fleece, as well as pictures of my own two boys. I have been reluctant and apprehensive about getting my business going. An old friend, who recently reconnected with me, sent me a story about another lady who started with alpacas when she was 60! So, his message was, GO for it! Ha! I make things too complicated. So now, in my spare time, (yeah right!) I will process my fleece and make bags of rolags to sell. If that goes well then I will take the next step. Rolags are rolls of washed fleece that have been hand-carded and made into fleece that is ready to spin into yarn. Hopefully, most if not all, of the "vegetable matter" has fallen out in the process and it is soft and comfortable to spin and turn into garments and other useful things. I also have to by a scale because fleece is sold by weight. Anyway, I have to try to keep it simple for now.

Hope everyone had a terrific Fourth of July! Ours was great! Lots of food, fun and fireworks! We even had natural fireworks. There was a great thunderstorm higher up than the fireworks, fabulous lightening show!

On Sunday we gave the new kids their 2nd set of shots so they are ready to go to their new homes. I have named the little doe Snowy so I will hate to see her go. She is a very calm and affectionate little goat. Her fleece is very nice too.

I had a fright last night. At 8 p.m. I always go out to feed the angora kids, Little Bones and her brother. When I opened the back door a tarantula almost fell on my head! Tonight the same thing almost happened but I saw the spider before I opened the door. She fell off again when I opened the door. There were 2 tarantulas in the yard last night. They were very active and moved quickly. Not away from me, but toward me! Yikes! I didn't like that much. I kicked rocks at them to make them move away!

We had more rain and thunderstorms today. It kinda messes up any chance of swimming in the afternoons. Mornings are terrific, sunny and cool. But by about 2 or 3 pm, the clouds have piled up and the thunder and lightening starts. Nobody wants to swim in a lightening storm.

The humidity has brought out lots of bugs. The crickets can drive you crazy with their "singing" at night. I saw tarantulas tonight, tarantula wasps during the day, cockroaches, big green flying beetles, praying mantis and, oh my gosh, flies! Flies and more flies!

I could hardly believe the difference in the weight of the kids between the last shots 21 days ago and Sunday! I could hardly lift them by myself this time. Their horns have grown quite a bit too. The little bucks horns are much bigger and thicker than the wethers and the does. I guess Bold-Fresh really hasn't forgiven us for turning him into a wether. He was the hardest to catch on Sunday. But, animal crackers are his Achilles Heal just like all the rest of them. He loves them, therefore, he will come close enough to catch for the sweet taste of an animal cracker!

I wished I had a movie camera the other morning. Falkor went a little wild! He was charging all over his pen, shaking his horns and sending the chickens squawking and flapping! He jumped on top of the straw bale, turned and tore across the pen, bouncing and leaping. I was wondering what I would do if he managed to rip out the gate or the side of the pen. Thank goodness that didn't happen! He eventually calmed down and ate his hay like any other day. Just a wild hair I guess. I will be glad when the new panals come and he is in a stronger pen.

I have decided to bite the bullet, or go for the gold or take the buck by the horns or whatever. I am going to get my tax license and start selling fleece on Etsy. When I get all set up I will post the website on here and you can all put your money where you mouth is and support the farm by buying some stuff! I will keep you posted!

Wow! It is a beautiful morning! There was one of Arizona's famous "sun dogs" in the sky as the sun came up. We finally had a really good thunderstorm and significant rain yesterday. Everything is wet and cool this morning. The goats hate it! Buddy loves it. He's all wet and smelling like a dog. He loves the damp and coolness. He's a little muddy too and wants to share all his good feelings with me by rubbing his head against me. So now I smell like a wet dog too, HA!

I ordered the panels and gate I need to make Falkor's new pen. They should arrive in 3 weeks or less. The dealer sounded like an older gentleman and wasn't too sure about when the truck would arrive. That is OK though, at least I know they will be here eventually.

I rescued the first tarantula I have seen this year from Falkor's water bucket yesterday morning. The poor thing looked pretty bedraggled and I wasn't sure that she would survive. I just fished her out and put her on the ground to see what would happen and went about feeding everyone as usual. After I fed Buddy I noticed that the spider had moved so then I got the dustpan to move her further away from Buddy and the cats. I put her out by the goat pasture and took a couple of pictures. I will post the pictures later. She wandered off into the grass and underbrush. I usually don't like spiders much but I cannot bring myself to squash tarantulas. They are so huge and awesome.

The chickens are out of feed and the animal crackers are almost gone. Guess I'll be making a trip to the store today. Maybe I'll go all the way to Sierra Vista and have lunch with Steve.