Mowing season is over! You know there is only 2 seasons - Mowing season & not mowing season. I do enjoy mowing believe it or not. There is an instant gratification to mowing. I see the results instantly. Nice neat rows of newly cut grass. When I am mowing I go into my own little world where I make plans, declutter my mind, forgive, enhance, discover and create peace in the world. I paint the house, remodel my home, buy new furniture, lose weight, color/straighten my hair, breed my alpacas to national studs, landscape my world. I conquer poverty, racism, sickness, greed, jealousy, and if Obama would just catch me when I'm mowing I could really help him out! When mowing season is over I can rejoice in laziness. Until April when mowing season starts again:(

My brother-in-law's memorial service was held here recently. He grew up here in Wellington, Kansas. His life took him all over the country. He was what most would call an "Old Soul". He accepted people, lifestyles, attitudes for what they were. He met life long friends after a five minute conversation. One of the funnest evenings I spent in my life was night fishing on Fort Myers pier with him. The hubster's mother had surgery on her back in 2005. I went to Florida to help out with her care. When she went to sleep early one night during the two weeks we were there, Roger dragged me out to "night fishing." We had poles, bait, beer, smokes and a "lets have fun fishing" attitude! We sat in a bar and listened to a live band until the sun went down. Then went out on the pier and put our lines in the water. He gave me coaching as to how to fish in deep water and I didn't catch a thing. But... he and everyone else on the pier caught shark, stingray and sea bass. I had only ever caught catfish, so I was in fishing heaven! About 2:00am we were presented with a meteor shower like I had never seen before! Shooting stars with red, yellow, green trails every few minutes. It was an amazing night I would have never seen if it weren't for him.


I really love my in-laws. I know all people can't say that but I can. They live in Florida. Kansas weather isn't always cooperative to their visits, and I hate that. They used to live here, but have been in Florida for 20 yrs. and feel the cold in their bones even when we're still sweating! My own father changed our family when my parents divorced many, many years ago. Another father figure was present for a number of years but became a false presence. But my father-in-law is rock solid at 89 years old. He cares for my mother-in-law which is challenging. They come to my house and and I think I helped them to be comfortable though I didn't have the things they really needed in my pantry, bathroom, kitchen. They accepted that we occasionally leave more lights on than we should, use the dishwasher when it's not quite full, wash small loads of laundry, and throw our aluminum cans into the regular trash. I love visiting them in Florida. I get Florida. If my ranch was miraculously transported to Florida I wouldn't appreciate the weather, but in Kansas I get it! It is always shorts and flip-flops in Florida. The Garden Shop at Wal-Mart is open year-round!

Once a year we open Sweet Grass Ranch to visitors. People can feed the alpacas, see where they live, and the care that goes into thriving alpacas. Our national organization picks a date for this event, but they don't ask us if this convenient. My husband usually works the weekend of the national event, so we have ours the next weekend. This is the second year we have opened the farm to visitors. I brought our alpaca stud Leon, into a small pen for everyone to see up close. He looked at me with a definite glare in his eye and said, "I will never forgive you for this!" I first had him within his vision of the girls paddock. He was pacing the small pen and trying to jump over his enclosure. My mother was a little nervous. She was afraid Leon would come out of his enclosure. So I moved his pen so there was a tree blocking his vision of the girls. He is really just a teen-ager in a very nice light brown coat. He and my mother relaxed.