I am so excited!! I have a snow day! Well I can pretend I'm snowed in, and pretend I saw my name on TV saying I didn't have to go to work (actually it's Saturday).
I was up early this morning and must show you the pictures I took. I'm trying to understand this picture taking stuff. I don't know what all the little pictures on the dial are for (I think it helps with the picture taking). I know landscape, portrait, auto. See what I mean:






This series of pictures was a little blurry. I have a tripod, but it seemed a little much to handle in my pajamas and slippers. The moon was beautiful shining on the snow. We really do live in the country, but if you look close you can see the (blurry) lights of the Wal-Mart parking lot. Oh well.

...farm living is the life for me! Sanetha.

Our poor sheltered alpaca males think that every time we halter another animal they're going to breed. They puff up their chests, stand on macho mountain and act like obnoxious hormone driven teenagers. "WE'RE JUST PUTTING THEM IN THE TRAILER... GEEZ!" When we halter the girls they think they're getting bred and get a little sluggish like they want to be caught but they don't want to seem "easy".

We got all the 'pacas and grandsons loaded up for the show (grandsons have nearly as much equipment as the animals). It was a two hour drive to Shawnee Oklahoma for the Alpaca Blast-off. We set up stalls, displayed our ranch information and penned the animals in record time. I made new pamphlets and business cards for this show. I sent the grandsons to collect business cards and pamphlets from other farms to get ideas on improving ours (is that cheating or resourceful?). I would like to make our pamphlet fun(!?),exciting(!?),educational(!?).

Hubster and I show our animals. I walk the animal into a ring with a judge and all the other animals in our class. Animals are divided into classes by age, sex, color, breed,and length of fleece. An hour before I have to show, my heart pounds and the lead I'm holding gets sweaty. THEN when I get out in the judging ring I always have to pee! I picture sitting on the pot with an alpaca staring at me with the look saying "how come you didn't go before we left home?" and I am able to presevere until the judging is over.

Ebony took a 5th place (green ribbon). I showed her (cardiac arrhythmia, diaphoresis and all)!

Isis took 4th place (pink ribbon). Hubster showed her. Hubster is cool in the ring. He even showed someone else's animal!

So...we are home from the show. Christmas is over. Winter drags on. I hope I can blog more. ...farm living is the life for me! Sanetha

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSIE!!!
Just have to tell you about my sis. My best memories of being a child involve my little sister. Playing with dolls, going on vacation, or hanging out on the couch, she was the best part of my childhood. Now she lives the life most of us dream of (at least me anyway). She is a career girl. She lives in a cabin on a lake. She and her husband spend summer weekends on their boat. Having a birthday in January has always kind of sucked. If it wasn't snowing, it was too cold to go anywhere to celebrate. It is too early for spring/summer stuff and almost too late for winter stuff.


Disneyland 1965

Andover, Ks. 1964

You can tell which one is me. When she was around I always had a big smile on my face.

Saturday Morning

Boy have I developed a great appreciation for Saturday mornings. This past year I have been working a Mon-Fri job. In nursing, those are hard to come by. Especially a Saturday morning that is free to do whatever! I can clean house, play with the 'pacas, read, watch HGTV, plan a project or just sit and dream! I could take a walk around the ranch if I wanted. So many possibilities! So what would I do if I had a million dollars and a Saturday Morning to do whatever? You know I'd probably do exactly what I'm doing right now! Work on the blog (it would just be a little more exciting). Life is good.

The weather today is to be fairly nice for January. No snow, no wind chill factors, no ice. One morning this week we had fog that froze on the trees. The newspaper called it "hoar frost", sounds like an S.T.D. doesn't it? Life is good.

I haven't been getting up at 5:00 in the morning to work on the blog, like my New Year's resolution plan. But that is OK. Because New Year's resolutions are goals. If my resolution was to lose weight I wouldn't have accomplished it by January 2, right? Every time I work on my blog in the morning I've accomplished something. Life is good.

Next weekend we will be going to an alpaca show in Oklahoma. We're taking two grandsons. They add an extra bit of fun when they go with us.(Except maybe if you remember my "OOPS!" blog from a few months ago). One is coming for the first time. All the animals we're taking have been to a show before so we're not sweating their performance. I come home from each show with a list of things we should bring next time that would make our presentation better (then I misplace said list before next show). We love to see all the animals at the shows. Beautiful fleeces, beautiful animals. Helps us pilgrims know what to strive for in our breeding program. Life is good.

Trapper and Rocky have somewhat of a competition going!? I hadn't let Trapper outside since the demise of his reproductive organs. Now he is making up for lost time finding mice. He gets them, brings them to the door, then Rocky picks them up and presents them to us, like he was the one that trapped it. He will say something like "look what I did"! We will congratulate him, (doesn't hurt to encourage him). But we know who really got the points for that one. Life is good.

I belong to Epsilon Sigma Alpha. We are a national group of women that raise funds for charitable organizations. Our main charity is St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Our little chapter is very close. We celebrated our 45th year in 2007. Recently we lost a sister. We know she is in heaven working on God's garden with her husband. Life is good.

...farm living is the life for me. Sanetha.

Bitter cold in Kansas

The last few days I have been on a sort of vacation. I'm not at my employers' establishment, but I am running my butt off! Hubster and I are cleaning out two garages and a basement room. These rooms are 40 year black holes. Everything that we haven't known what to do with has been sucked into them. Here is just a speck of the guest list: old computer printer, 8 track tape player, Playboy magazines, stereo speakers, bread machine (I was sure it could be fixed), bottles, a basket casket, cast iron wood burning stoves (yes, I do mean plural), a ten speed bike, rocking chairs, wicker chairs, tools, sad irons, baby bed, military memorabilia. We separate things into the trash pile, keep pile, and auction pile. I have been good about not bringing stuff back into the house. The picture of the young girl, goes. The little red wooden sewing rocker that is beautifully simple, goes. I already have 3 wooden rockers in my living room.

It is bitter cold here in Kansas. We are making extra preparations to keep our alpacas protected from the below 0 wind chill factors. Shelter for our females consists of a three sided carport. The shed is open to the east. There is a split down the middle with a gait on each side. Another gait in the middle is access to each side. When the wind blows snow around we get drifts inside. So we build a wall of hay bales over half the east opening. Hubster then wires the bales to the gait so the animals can nibble on the hay and won't pull it over. We have always had a heater inside the water trough, so we humans don't have to break ice. Our animals poop in the shed. I know. I know. This is the bane of most alpaca owners. There are acres of land to poop on! WHY DO THEY POOP IN THE SHED? Because of this we don't put straw on the floor. It is too huge a mess to clean every day. But yesterday we put a layer of straw down to provide a little extra insulation when they are cushed on the ground. They have warm, thick, fleecey coats so they will be fine.

Yesterday, we said goodbye to the reproductive organs of Trapper. They were gone before their prime, never put to good use, a loss to the feline species. But, NO BABY KITTIES ON SANETHA'S COUNTRY LANE!!! WOOHOO! I swear his MEOW is an octave higher this morning. Is that really possible?
...farm living is the life for me. Sanetha

I had an epiphany this afternoon (I had to look up the spelling and meaning of this word in my ancient dictionary). I glanced at a picture of my daughter and her family taken several years ago and thought "she looks like me"! I've seen this picture a thousand times. In this picture she has dark hair but usually it's light. She is beautiful, blond, muscular. So unlike me. I'm dark haired, clumsy, fluffy. I got tears in my eyes. I won't tell you how old we are. I was only 17 when she burst into my life and changed me forever. I may have ended up a bar fly, drug addict, or somebody's b---h! But no I am her mother and her children's grandmother. How lucky could I possibly be! I love you Sharon. ...farm living is the life for me. Sanetha.

This is what greeted me this New Year's morning. The table. This symbol of our home we purchased at an auction 7 or 8yrs ago for $50. It has been surrounded by holiday meals, birthday cakes, craft projects, giggles and tears. It has been piled high with alpaca fleece, clean clothes, bills, shopping finds or groceries, at one time or another. It never ask for anything in return except to be occasionally wiped off or repaired. Its only repair now will be a permanent fix. Probably will no longer be able to go short or long with the addition of a leaf. Mourn our table. Or cheer, I GET TO BUY A NEW ONE!!! (I swear it was that way when I woke up.) ...farm living is the life for me! Happy New Year!!! Sanetha.