What? The AC is out AGAIN??????

Summer is almost over, thank goodness. It’s been a rough one.
Not for the animals, they took it all in stride, but the electronics have taken a beating. We’re working on the sixth motor on our AC unit. To be fair, we’re talking about two separate parts, the motor on the condenser out side, and the motor in the blower inside, but we did blow up four blower motors in the span of one week.
We witnessed one of the most spectacular lighting storms I have ever seen, which was to precursor to the demise of the first blower motor. Lightning hit the pole in front of the house. It’s a fairly creepy feeling to be standing in the dark asking “do you smell smoke?”
Motor number two was the replacement we bought the following day. We didn’t notice it was a 1/3 hp motor, when the one we took out was a ¾ hp. It lasted about 15 seconds before flames were shooting out of that one. (ok, I exaggerate a little, it was actually a fairly small flame…)
Motor number three blew after we called the AC repair guy back (we were now enlisting professional help) because the blower fan wouldn’t shut off… ever (but the house was nice and cool). Apparently there was a short in the capacitor and when he hooked the ground up (which he neglected to do the first time), well you guessed it, flames.
So, now with a new capacitor and some new relays, motor number four seems to be holding its own. Of course, we lost power again last night. APS hates us and wants us to suffer.
The generators are getting a work out this year.
On other repair news, we kept busting a water line to one of the swamp coolers, but we have since replace the entire thing and I hope that will be settled for awhile.




Ok, so it hasn’t been all bad, our terri socks arrived from the mill and I have to say I am extremely pleased with the results. Our cable socks are on their way, and I expect the crew socks by the end of the month.
I’ve been busy at the loom. I’ll be attending a craft show in two weeks and have been trying to get as much done as possible before the big weekend.
I’ve also been busy halter training Adama and Heilo before the New Mexico State Fair. I think this will be a good place to get the boys started in shows. Here’s hoping they don’t knock me on my butt.

dog days of summer

Ok, I’m finally tired of summer. The weather is just teasing us now, giving us a day of 97 degree temps, followed by a day of 108. Though last night we had a little monsoon action from tropical storm somebody or another, which produced a 20 degree drop in the evening. The alpacas actually pried themselves away from the swamp coolers and fans to go graze on the tiny smattering of grass that we have left. They even felt good enough to get a short pronk going.

On the craft front, I finished my guanaco and silk scarf and started warping the loom for another scarf. This one is a departure from most of my others in that I’m using a lot of color instead to texture. It’s all baby alpaca, hand dyed in blues and purples. And I have already learned a very, very important lesson: double check the amounts of yarn needed before you put it in the dye. That’s right folks! I calculated what I would need for the warp and forgot to add in the weft. Can you tell I use math for a living? Oh well, I’ll just dye up some more and have yet another, slightly different color, yarn to add to the mix. It’ll all work out, you’ll see.

I also finished up some novelty yarn I had been working on. It’s kind of funky and REALLY bright. Not sure what I’ll do with it yet, oh well, I have time to figure it out.

Sonoran desert toads

Ok, for years now I’ve been telling the gang back east about the toads we have out here during monsoon. I always say they’re the size of dinner plates, and I always get the same response: “sure they are, Claud, been sipping that wine again have you?”
Well now I have proof! One of the big ones has taken up to bathing in poor old Lonesome’s water bowl every night. Last night I brought him up into the light and got a picture. I even got the ruler in there so you can all see that I am not, in fact, exaggerating. The things are HUGE!
They are also fairly toxic.
I’m told they contain two types of toxin in their skin. One is fairly nasty and can kill a full size dog; the other is some sort of hallucinogen. Apparently it’s quite the trip to lick the toad, but don’t eat it.
Right.
I’ve no worries about any of the humans or alpacas messing with the toads, but our pit bull-healer-billy goat mix is addicted. Every morning it’s the same thing: “Molly, leave the toad alone. Molly, I said leave it. MOLLY! Get away from the stupid toad!”
Of course by now, the idiot dog is seeing sounds and hearing colors and apparently enjoying it because her tail never stops wagging. Then she jumps on the dachshund, which is on a more straight and narrow path in life. If you can’t eat it, what’s the point, is Daisy’s motto. Anyway, Molly gets bit for efforts on getting Daisy to play. It works for them.

I love a contest!

I just got Georgia Mountains new newsletter, and I'm thrilled to see that their partners, Amia Yarn Company is having a contest! I love a contest. All you need to do is go to their blog (http://knitwitchblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/contest-time-again.html) and it will instruct you on how to enter the drawing up to THREE times.
Whoohooo, prizes.

Ok, must go finish entering. Good luck everybody!

Another weekend behind us. It was a most productive weekend, fleece wise. Pat and Linda came out on Sunday and we spent the morning out in the shop working away. It’s always more fun to work with company, though Pat was rather quick to point out that it was the most humid day of the year. But we’ll let her grumble, because she brought us lunch! Yeah Pat!

I ‘m still playing with dyes and techniques. I solar dyed some yarn for a scarf project I’ve got in the back of my head. Then I put some white batts in the exhaust and set those out to cook in the sun. I also got some onion skin dye started and picked a bucket full of prickly pears to get a dye started in pink. The prickly pear dye is fermenting in my laundry room. It will be interesting to see how that turns out.

I have a new scarf on the loom. All I need to do is press the last one and it’s done. Plus I’ve finished spinning the silk that will be the warp for the guanaco and silk scarf I plan to start when this current one is finished.

The weekend ended with a pretty good size monsoon storm rolling through. Of course I forgot I had a fleece out on the drying rack until the very last minute, which had me and Brian running out in the rain and dust to get it into the shop before it blew all the way to Mesa. Oh well, I may have to rewash that one.

Happy July! Summer is well and truly here, as we've been at over 110 degrees for the last half of June. Temperatures are starting to come done now as the humidity is increasing. Which can only mean one thing: Monsoon is HERE! Last years was one of the driest on record, so lets hope for a little rain this year.

We took off for the long weekend and headed up to Northern Arizona, to a place called Clint Wells. For those of you that think Arizona is just one giant desert, I have proof that there are wet, green areas. You just have to go looking for them. We spent an afternoon playing down in Clear Creek catching crayfish. The crayfish have taken over much of the riparian habitats in Arizona and are actually killing off native species of fish, so we have the Az Dept of Game an Fish's blessing to remove them from the streams. Which we did. And then we ate them. Tasty.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the alpacas are hanging out by the fans and swamp coolers. They get belly hosings a couple of times a day to help with keeping them cool. Though some times I wonder if we aren't actually making it worse as each time they get wet, they run right out into the sun and start sun bathing. Everybody except Vela, one of our little borders has discovered the fun of playing in the hose. As far as Vela is concerned it's nothing but a giant green snake spitting venom at her. Make a mud puddle, however, and she runs right over and starts to do a happy dance in it. I have really got to catch in video since it's hysterical to watch. She literally gets in the middle and just starts stomping all four feet making the mud splash all around her. Kids.

The only other excitement around here was finding Aries in with all the girls this morning. I'm guessing her rolled under the fence since all the gates were still latched. I don't think he got into any trouble, but at 17 months old, it's not impossible. Um, hey Linda, remember all those open girls you left over here....?

Happy Tuesday

We're back. It's been a rough couple of weeks with the tragic loss of two of our girls. It threw us down for awhile, but we're a resilient bunch around here. I took a little of my own advise and have been spending a great deal of time with the alpacas. These are some of the most therapeutic animals on the face of this plant, in my own humble opinion. You simply can't stay down when you're around them, especially when one of the crias has discovered your toes and believes they must be some sort of exotic treat. Alpacas may have no top teeth, but it still smarts when one nips you.

I've also thrown myself into sorting fleeces. I've only got 30 days left to finish skirting show fleeces. I've got seven more to go between mine and Linda's. Then I've got to get them boxed up and off to the ACFNA fleece show in Colorado.

And we have a new product that we've been designing packaging for. Introducing.... Alpaca Poo Tea! We've been accepted on a nation wide ag site, Localharvest.org, and have submitted our request to sell this wonderful all natural fertilizer. We should know in a couple of days if we're in. Plus we'll get it on our own website with the next up date which should be ready to go up next month.

Well, that's all for now.