Fuzzy pods

With cottonwood flurries blowing around our feet and wood doves fluttering overhead to find a place for the night, my big brother taught me how to open up the premature almonds for a tasty snack. A big branch that hung over the trail to Rawley's trailer was heavy with fuzzy green pods and he reached up to pick one and cut it open. Inside a thick layer of soft white flesh engulfed a tiny creamy white almond. With a flick of his wrist he pried it out and I popped the watermelon rind tasting thing into my mouth.

!!!!!

Too shocked for words:

"If you're in Arizona and look even remotely like some policeman's idea of an illegal immigrant, a law signed today says you will have to produce papers showing you're in the USA legally whenever and where-ever an officer requests this -- and so will anyone else with you."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html

Guess I'll be dyeing my hair anytime I go to Arizona...

Cackles

Today I laughed harder than I have in many months. Squeezed in the back of the pickup my ribs heaved and tears dripped from my eyes as I tried to hold the milk bucket still out the window. Both Rawley and Luke came to help me milk today since I can only milk with one hand and therefore go half as fast. (Although if I concentrate sometimes I can beat him!) With only two and a half people on the way back we didn't have a way to carry the milk since Mapache, Arnica and Pinto together produced six buckets. While Rawley drove carefully holding one of the milk pails, Luke held his bucket out the other window. Me being the smallest I climbed into the tiny back seat of the cab and sat backwards so that I could manage to fit my left hand (the good one) out of Luke's window. All crammed and howling with laughter we slowly made our way back to the farm only to find that we couldn't untangle ourselves too easily...

Menagerie

It makes me so sad that you can see a big portion of the Capay Valley's wild animals just by driving down Highway 16. On my way back from ultrasound therapy with my Edna Mode look-alike today I saw: a skunk, a fawn, numerous house cats, raccoons and even an otter.

To make matters worse, TD is going downhill again although this time it's her back legs that don't work.

On a happier note I got to spend the morning in Dru's garden weeding and making paths in the crazy weather. First it looked like rain but then the skies parted to show a peak of sun for a few minutes before showering hail down.

busy monday

A few things:

1) With rain due to come in a matter of hours, everything was on high alert. The pre-precipitation frenzy meant that most of us spent the entire day transplanting whatever we could get our hands on. (Corn, melons, statice, tomatoes, calendula etc.) It was great to finally see all our hard work in the greenhouses finally pay off.

2) More proof that Rawley should actually be my brother: today as we were transplanting melons with the water wheel, I was singing Jorge Drexler under my breath and he actually knew what song it was!

3) The lamb herd has been moved right below my trailer so I get to watch them chew on the trees. At this very moment Tiny D and Hazel are touching noses.