Green, green, green! That is what Arizona's landscape is like now!  On Saturday we got a real gully washer of a storm.  We had an inch and a half of rain in about 4 hours!  All the washes, creeks and rivers had flash flood warnings and the San Pedro River is still full from bank to bank!  I usually go out to feed all the animals about 3:30 or 4pm but it was raining too hard then.  About 5:30, I thought the storm was ending so I went out.  Big mistake!  I fed the goats and the alpacas in their shelter because everything was so wet and they were hiding anyway to keep out of the rain.  Well, just as I was filling hay buckets in the alpaca side there was a big jump-out-of-your-skin lightening charge with the accompanying bombastic thunder!  Then, what do you think, the rain came flooding down again.  I waited under the shelter for it to slow up some but I still managed to get soaked to the skin before I made it back to the barn.  I should've had my bath soap and shampoo!  We are drying out some since then for which I am grateful!  I have to be careful filling up the chicken feeder boxes though.  It is still squishy and I almost landed on my butt yesterday!  I could just see the headlines, "Grandma Farmer Kicks up her heels in the mud after Killer storm!" Ha!

I took some more pictures of the aprons I have been making and one of the blankets from the Alpaca Blanket Project.  It is time to start thinking ahead to the holidays.  Tomorrow is September and the beginning of Fall.  I plan on changing out my decor, putting up the fall curtains I made last year with leaves all over them.  Steve wants to do some painting and fixing floors before his Mom comes for our Son's wedding in October.  I just want a new house but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.  So I'll have to be content with fixing up and redecorating.  I am looking forward to cooler weather.  

I am reading a new book .  It is titled " Horse Tales from Heaven."  It is sort of like a diary of a young woman who works with a horse back country outfit taking tours into the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana.  It is an easy read and an up-lifting one.  Of course, she is much younger than I am now, but it is still not easy doing that camping thing in Montana.  I'm strictly a warm bed, in house camper now.

It has been rainy and miserable about every day this week.  I am tired of the humidity and wet pens and hay.  The flys!  Oh MY GOSH!  I will be glad when this monsoon season is over.  

I got 2 aprons made this week.  I got grocery shopping done today.  I must be saturated with the news as well as I can barely stand to watch it lately.  I have not had one phone call about the ads I put on Craig's List.  I think everyone is trying to sell animals and no one is buying because of the economy.  No one knows if they would be able to feed them or not.  So Sad!  Unfortunately, I don't think we've seen the worst.  I think that the worst is still ahead.

We looked at a really cute little house in Benson that is for sale yesterday.  The people have done a really good job fixing it up and making it a nice home.  They want top dollar of course, even though it has been on the market for months.  There are some houses around here that have been on the market for years.  No one wants to lower their asking price but appraisals are not matching those asking prices so no one can get a loan for the houses.  It is a vicious cycle!

There is not much to report on the animals.  The turkeys and chickens continue to grow bigger every day.  The goats fleece is getting longer and heavier and muddier and, well, I just don't want to even think about shearing it or washing it.  Maybe it won't be so bad in a month or so, when the rain stops, if the rain stops....

I got a lot of dead hair off of Buddy.  He looks white again instead of reddish brown form the dirt around here.  He still needs a good grooming and some hair shaved off.  He is rusty around the edges.  His tail is hopeless and will definitely have to be shaved.  He looks so funny when his tail is shaved.  The worst part is he is self conscious about it!  He really knows he looks funny!  Poor dog!

Tomorrow I plan to go to Tucson and check out some of the store I haven't been to in awhile.  I am starting to get the bug to decorate for fall.  I love all the autumn colors and richness.  It won't take long for things to change around here once the monsoon stops and the rain dries up, if the rain dries up...

It is hotter than blue blazes!  And at 1pm, the thunderheads are building up and making their presence known already.  We probably won't get to swim today and maybe not the rest of the week as this monsoon weather is predicted to run all week.  

Steve and I have discussed it and this weekend I bit the bullet and put the goats up for sale on Craig s List Tucson.  I hope they sell before shearing time as I do not want to incur that expense again if I can avoid it.  I also decided to try to sell Prince since he is the one alpaca who cannot get along with the others.  Then I will put Stewie back in with the other boys in the back pasture.  Prince has the best conformation and better fleece than Tinker so he would be a better herdsire for anyone looking for one.  The ad will post for 45 days. If you want to check it out, you can go to www.tucson.craigslist.org.  I did post some nice pictures on there.

I also discovered that the people who hold our pool loan no longer do business in Arizona.  That is probably the reason we were not able to refinance our house once again.  The only way to get out of the loan and refinance it with the house is to pay it off with another loan here in Arizona.  It really sucks especially since our appraisal came back too low to cover the house and the pool.  So I will continue to pay as much as possible and hope that the economy and the housing market recover soon. 

While watching my grandchildren the other night, I watched the movie "Marley and Me" on TV.  Those people had no clue about training their dog!  It was an interesting and funny movie except for the sad ending.  You can probably figure out how it ended as it was a dog movie.  Anyway, the guy earned his living by writing columns and just telling about his everyday life and Marley of course.  I often wish that I could earn money that way.  Any one like this column enough to promote it?  HA!   

Enjoy the thunderheads!

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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