Life is good

Friday I was the first person to the office in the morning. A homeless man sleeping in front of the front door startled me as I nearly stepped on him. I woke him and he moved out of the way. Instead of snarling at him to get a job, as I might have done at one time, I asked him if he wanted a cup of coffee.

            He gratefully accepted and waited outside until I came back with a cup of the freshly brewed stuff. He thanked me, took his coffee and headed down the sidewalk to do what ever it was he was going to do that day.

            On Monday I left work to go do yoga with my friend Lisa. Afterwards I stopped by the grocery store then moved over to the gas pumps to fill my car. As I was waiting for the pump to finish, I watched a man standing at the corner of the driveway, sign in hand, panhandling. Most of the cars went by without stopping, but one pickup did slow, the driver handed the man some money and drove on. As the truck pulled away, I saw the man bend his head in prayer. Whether he was praying for himself, or the driver, I couldn’t tell you, but it made me reflect on my life for a moment.

            I had just spent time with a good friend; I had a car full of groceries; I was working on a tank full of gas; I was headed home to a loving husband and a sturdy roof over our heads. I was blessed in so many ways.

            In my purse was two dollars. It was the change from a large order of fries I had bought earlier in the day, not because I was particularly hungry, but because I just wanted some french fries. As I pulled way from the gas pumps, I fished the two dollars out of my purse and a handed them to the man on the corner. As he leaned into the car to get the money he said, “God bless you ma’am.” All I could think was; he already has.

            Will these small acts of kindness make a huge difference in these men’s lives? Realistically? Probably not. But if a butterfly can flap its wings in Mexico, and cause a typhoon in China, imagine the potential a couple of dollars might have.

            Someday it may be me sleeping on the sidewalk, and it sure would be nice if someone brought me a cup of coffee.

Shearing 2013 -- DONE!

Shearing is once again behind us! This year, with a little help from our friends, (okay, a LOT of help from our friends. Thanks Pat, George and Chris!) we got everybody done in one weekend. There were a few minor injuries, mostly to the people, that I'm happy to say everyone is recovering from.

We sheared just in the nick of time. The day after we finished, we had a major wind storm. The gust where so strong that it actually blew a couple of bales of hay off the stack. I can just imagine the nightmare shearing would have been in that kind of weather. We would have been chasing fiber all the way to Casa Grande!

I meant to get some before and after pictures of the alpacas, but I set my camera down and forgot all about it until we were cleaning up on Sunday. So all you get is an after shot.

Jack-in-a-barn

 

This and that

The heat has been teasing us. We'll get hot for a couple of days, and we think here it is. Then we'll cool back down for a couple of days. No 100 degree days yet, so at least we get to ease into it this year.

The funky weather tends to catch the alpacas off guard every year, and every year we have one or two that don't stay hydrated enough and get impacted. This year it was Cartigan. I use a product called Magnalax, it is a laxative with a mild antacid, with a nice minty flavor. I know for a fact it has a minty flavor, I also know that alpacas don't particularly care for mint flavoring. Anyway, two  or three doses and it usually gets everything back in order. Cartigan was no exception.

We took Jack off medication again. So far it's been five weeks and we're keeping our fingers crossed. This is the longest he's been of meds in the last two years.

I've had a little free time recently so I've been working on the web store. People have been asking me for years if our yarns and such are on line. I finally figured out how to do it. I should be able to add some more of our one of a kind finished products as well, so check it out. Just remember it is still a work in progress, so if  it looks kind of unfinished, well, it is.

The big activity for this week is shearing this weekend. I'm hopeful that we can get everybody done, but if there are a few left by Sunday evening, I'll just get them finished up over the next couple of weeks in the chute.  Then it is back to the old routine of skirting, and tumbling and washing and....  you know how it goes.