July 27, 2008

Somewhere in Time


Holy Moley, I have been trying to get to this blog forever. Right now New Mexico is getting tons of rain due to the hurricane that hit Texas. It started raining Friday and has not stopped since. This is more rain than we normally get in an entire year. We are fortunate enough to be up in the mountains. The rain is just flowing through our property on down the mountain passing through everyone’s land in the process. We have a small creek in the back of the property that is now a raging river. If it lets up any I am hoping to get some photos. Due to the rain this weekend it is giving me time to update you on what has been going on lately.

The photo above is of a plumeria plant I found at Home Depot. Anytime I have brought home a plumeria from a tropical location they usually just give you the stalk. It looks like a stick and you plant it hoping for the best. I have never been successful. I was very excited to see one with leaves. There is hope yet.

Baby update

Schaherazade’s baby is doing great. Her mom’s name is Arabian so we looked to the animated movie Aladdin for inspiration. We named her Jasmine. With those big brown eyes and long lashes the name suits her. Schar is a first time mom and she is not producing as much milk as we would like so I have been supplementing Jasmine twice a day with a bottle of whole cows milk. Needless to say I am getting very attached to her as we spend this time together.

New arrival

Novalei arrived from Washington State. She is the girl I bought at auction this past January. She looks great and fits right into the herd. We are getting a break from pregnant mom watch the next group are not due until the end of August. Although we have one Bronte looks like she could have hers any day. She is so big you would think their were twins in there.

The barn

The barn is still not done, no surprise there. It is starting to take shape. It still kind of looks like a big mess. I am just happy when they show up to work on it.

Knitting

I am still working on the back of the cabled lace vest. I have started the arm shaping, and have completed about 8 repeats of the pattern.



Our front porch attracts lots of large moths this time of year. The birds will sit on our railing and fly over to the wall and grab one to snack on. It always amazes me how large they are. This one is about 5 inches from wing tip to tip. These last couple of weekends we have been doing a lot of alpaca maintenance, worming, vaccinating, and toe nail trimming.


So much is going on, I just feel like I am somewhere in time. The days are rolling by and stuff is getting done but I often don’t know what day it is. I guess all this rain is Mother Nature giving me a chance to catch my breath.

July 01, 2008

Cherry Oh


There is nothing like a cherry festival to get you in the mood for summer.


This year we came away with a cherry pie, 2 jars of honey, and a bag of Carmel pistachio popcorn.


I ended up making this lovely cherry coffeecake with the leftover cherries. I modified the recipe a little using fresh cherries instead of canned pie filling. I just pitted and chopped cherries in half and poured a bit of sugar over them and let sit for an hour in the fridge. A few other modifications to the recipe: I added cinnamon to the cake part and used chopped almonds instead of pecans in the topping. You can find the recipe HERE.

Last Baby of the Season

Schaherazade had her baby, and it’s a little brown girl. This is Schar’s first baby.



First steps with mom watching her little girl’s technique.





Schar takes her baby out to explore the pasture.



It was a big day for the two of them. Schar relaxes and chews her cud while baby snuggles close by.

Tagged for Meme
I was tagged by Karin for the Front door/Back door Meme.

I cringed a little about being tagged for this one because I don’t care for any of the doors in this house. Eventually we will replace the front door with something more to our taste, but around here the animals come first so the door is on the bottom of a very long list. So here is the front door. It is filthy, with all of us traipsing in and out with muddy shoes this door does double time for dirt display.


The front door was not the feature that sold me on this place it was definitely the large front porch that won me over. This porch is awesome. The sun rises in front of the porch and makes it toasty for sitting with a cup of coffee and a bagel. It also is the best spot in the afternoon since it is shaded and harbors a nice breeze.



The back door, I don’t think you can get more rustic than this. One of these days I will get a group of friends together and have a sandpaper party. The whole back porch and door could use a good sanding.



I couldn’t show the doors with out showing the dog door. This was one of the first projects we did when we moved in. It is a big deal to cut a whole in your house. It took Chris and I a while to make the first cut, there is really no going back after that. It turned out great and a blessing not having to let the dogs out & in all day long.

I suppose to tag a few, how about Lauren, Kristen, Kelly & Alicia want to show us your front & back door? I would love to see everyone’s doors so if you read this blog go ahead and grab the meme if you like.