Before and after...

 the alpacas finally got sheared today!!!!! I am SO relieved and I know they are too. It's been so hot here. And I've been afraid to get them wet, thinking the other guy would be here any day and they'd be wet and couldn't be sheared. So now, they can get soaking wet if they want to. And they sure did, right after they were done.

And look at these poor little skinny guys! They are so happy to have all that 6" of fiber off of them! They were not happy at all while it was happening though. Poor guys. But it was ALL worth it.

They got their   feet trimmed. CDT shots. Eyes checked. By the way, they were both bright pink!! So no sings of parasites!

But man, are they little now!

And Sugar is wet. He lays down like this when I spray them down.

And the sheep kept looking at them and sniffing them. It was quite funny! But they are all back together again and doing great. SO glad this is over. And I met a lady who lives in the area who shears alpacas who said she will do mine next year! So, this will not happen again.

Market booth

 This was my booth last Saturday at the Catoosa Market. I borrowed all these wooden crates from Susan at the feed store. She's so sweet. I just think pottery looks good in wooden crates.

I also brought my hand spun yarns and dryer balls. I sold a skein of yarn! And a lot of dryer balls.

And sold a lot of soap too. It was fun. But really hot. And a long day.

I'm an empty nester. Again.

My baby barn swallows grew up too fast. They were just hatched a few weeks ago. Harry and Sally are just really good parents. 

This was a few days ago. There were 5 of the babies. But 1 fell out. There was not a whole lot of room in that little nest. And they got big fast!

This was yesterday morning. They were getting ready to fly. I put the cats in the cat room, so they couldn't get any of the babies while they were trying to fly.

Just look how big these guys are! They are all so sweet. I talk to them all the time, so they were never afraid of me.

This was yesterday, after I got done milking the goats. The first baby flew out to the wire. I had to be gone all day, so was going to miss all the fun.

When I got back home, I went to check on them. This is what I saw. The only one who flew out, flew back in to his siblings. Couldn't get back in the bed though. It was too full!

And this was later this morning. I went back out after milking, and saw 6 birds on the wire. Then they all took off flying around. It was so pretty to see.

But then a little while later, I went in to get the milk out of the freezer. I looked up and saw one of the parent birds on the wire in front of the nest. Then it flew over to that board to the right. I didn't even see the little baby over there. Can you see it?

It was just sitting up there, being really quiet. The next time I went in, it was gone.

So I am now an empty nester. I will miss those birds a lot. It was so fun to have them there, for such a short time though. I worried about them too much though. And I am so sad that one of the babies didn't ever get to fly.

But there will be more again. And they will come back next spring.