Still Hot

This morning when I started to the barn, I found Katrina, my almost 2 year old alpaca laying in the path dead. It has been so hot and I have tried very hard to keep them cool, but with temps in the 95-102 range repeatedly and no rain since early August (oh, every now and then we get our allocation of 50 drops), it has been very hot and dry. In spite of no rain, the humidity has been absolutely unbearable. In the posted picture, Katrina is the one on the right. The lighter colored one is her mother, Alina. She will be sorely missed as she was a real sweetie.

I don't know if it is normal or not but many of the cornfields are already harvested. Leaves are falling from the trees too. Isn't it a bit early for all this? Just wondering as it doesn't seem like fall yet and I thought all this happened later in the fall. Well, I just wanted to share about Katrina. It will help me deal with her loss. Thanks for letting get this off my chest.

kate of WindSong

Hotter than.....

Wow! The weather man kept saying it was going to be hot today, but I seldom put much stock in their forecasts. However, this afternoon we jumped in the Prius to drive up to Hope to mail some e-bay packages and the temperature outside remained at the 100 degrees mark the entire time we were out. The hottest day of our summer so far and it is in August!

I don't know much about other people, but I know how much I value my friends and the friendship that I have with them. Tonight, I had a rude awakening. I went to a friend's house to pick up some things of mine that I've been trying to collect for the past 5 months, but could never get anyone home or commit to being home. I was met at the back door of this so-called friend's house and given the third degree by this person's husband. He went so far as to call me a bitch because his daughter lied and told him that I was rude to her in a phone call that I had made to their house to try to find them home.

I have been trying to make contact with this person to gather all my items so that they won't be in her way and her husband claims he threw them in the landfill. He threw over $500 of rubber stamps in the landfill!!!! I'm not sure what I have done, if I have done anything for them to treat me this way. But I guess I have one less friend than I thought I had. A real friend would not avoid another friend when they are trying to collect their possessions. I'm sorely disappointed in this woman and I wish her well in spite of her avoiding me for whatever reason it might be.

Well, I need to move on. We haven't had supper yet and I need to fix something even if it isn't good for me.

Rain Finally Came!

We have gone a long time with out rain this summer. To give you an idea of how long, we have mowed grass only 1 time. We have almost used half of this winter's hay because the pastures are dry and getting sparse. Then this afternoon it happened.

Rain began falling! I mean a lot of rain, not hard that runs off, but a good steady rain for over an hour. Now as if the voice of the earth is calling, it is raining once again with another steady rain that will soak in and nourish the roots enabling the sheep to eat grass again. We are almost 8 inches behind in rainfall this year. We don't live far from a waterfall and for the past 6 weeks the creek bed has been so dry that there isn't any water to make a fall.

The rain is like manna from heaven right now at a critical time for all the farmers and gardeners. I am so thankful that God hears prayer.

Fair Results

Remember the coral colored yarn I have in my last blog? Well, it got a blue ribbon at the county fair. I was the only entrant in that class though so blue is as good as it gets. Unfortunately, my shawl didn't do as well. It got a red. I wore it to church a couple of times back in the spring and must have worked some ends loose. I didn't bother to check it before taking it to the fair. My fault.

I still have "Brownie" for sale. He is a nice ram with beautiful fleece and someone is going to dearly love him and his fleece as it is delightful! I also have 2 white twin Shetland/Finn rams that have absolutely gorgeous fleece! If you don't want a ram and only need a fiber sheep, we can provide you with a wonderful wether with gorgeous fleece also. I love my boys, but we don't have enough pasture for them all.

Last Friday, some knitting friends of mine came out and we did Kool-Aid dyeing. I haven't got pictures of mine, but will have later today to post them. I think you will be delighted in what you can do with Kool-Aid. It isn't dangerous either, but if you are going to do a lot of yarn, it is costly. Makes for a good experiment.