global warming... or a very bitchy mother nature?

summer is here. and it's a real booger. this heat is relentless. i don't know why i bother checking the forecast. it is always in the 90s with a high heat index and heat warnings week after week forever and ever. sometimes mother nature might get a wild hair to drop down to the 80s. but it's a high 80s. and she counters that with extreme humidity.

luckily, we finally have had some rain. however, the rain arrived in spontaneous thunderstorms followed by immediately sunny skies. never enough steady rain to fill our ponds (which dried up again since last post). fortunately, our pigs have made a wallow deep enough in their pond to collect water when it rains. the duck/geese/goat/sheep pond is now mud only. so an old bath-tub is a make-shift swimming pool for water fowl. and water troughs and dishes are set out for hoofed creatures. animals don't seem to mind. it just adds a lot more work on us humans.

it has been enough rain to perk up the fields and the garden. cucumbers and tomatoes galore! the bigger the better! lots of pickles and salsa from here on out.

back to the heat... how hot has it been? it's been so hot, our computer fan burnt up. until we have time to repair, i am using a back-up laptop which does not have a slot for my camera card. so you will have to settle for words only.

if there were photos... they would be of our male goats and male sheep. the boys are back in town (front lawn). yes, it is time for the sexes to be separated. our flock is big enough now to make this possible. and the lawn is full of beautiful green grass and wild flowers. the boys are thrilled. the GLOPs are happy to be reunited with their hoofed friends. and i love looking out the kitchen door in the morning while i make coffee to see tito and marton peeking in asking, "what's for breakfast?"

somewhere in storage there is a box containing an adaptor for my camera that i believe can be plugged into my computer for instant download. if so, photos will be forthcoming. to be continued....

in the meantime. pray for steady rain, cloudy skies, and cooler temps. and while you are at it, pray for peace, and love, and unicorns, a clean gulf coast, and magical garden gnomes that will do all your weeding whilst you sleep. a girl can dream.

hay, it's what's for dinner (can i get a doggie bag, please?)!

it's officially winter. the ground is frozen which means time for hay. three round bales arrived over the weekend. which makes for some happy animals. the donkeys/horse/llama got one bale. the goats and sheep got another. and for some reason, the dogs claimed the third. who knew? hay, it's not just for breakfast anymore.

this just in... donkeys love hay!

the long and lean queen of the castle

"i got short legs, so this square bale's mine"

gratuitous pic of tito von peenerhaus

cracker goat strikes again

kids love kids (and llamas too).

we had a tiny visitor yesterday. delaney (jason's cousin ron's daughter) flew in all the way from sunny california to visit family (and more importantly, goats). she loves them. especially tito. but was very concerned about tito's negligent mommy (842).

welcoming committe member baby snakes greets ron and delaney

and offers kisses

while tito and his big sis little bit crash from all the excitement

life goes on.

life is a roller coaster. you coast, and coast. you feel a thrill when you turn a loop but then all of a sudden you throw up the funnel cake you downed earlier and wish you could just get off and take a nap.

that's how things are these days. the good days coast by. sometimes you don't even notice them. which is a shame. you don't realize that nothing is going wrong. you just keep sweeping the floor and feeding the dogs. and then you have bad days from hell. like yesterday. jason's dad was rushed to ER. seizures. possible side-effect from his stroke. might be able to control with medication. fortunately, might not impair his ability to heal and recover. never the less, still scary as shit.

we try to deal with these things. but the dogs still need to eat. and the floor is definitely in need of sweeping. possible bull-dozing.

luckily the coaster scenery is often pleasantly distracting. for example, tito von peenerhaus has learned (with the aid of porkchop's doggie steps) to access my reading chair. he hasn't learned to read yet. just nap. which is what i'd love to do someday.

tito and jerry blissfully sleeping