Alpaca Wrangling

So Temera has requested that I, Christina, who is the nephew's girlfriend, write the blog today. Why, you may ask? One word: ALPACAS. Today, as you may already know, was the day that the alpacas got sheared. THAT was an adventure. Temera got repeatedly spit on and kicked and stepped on, on the ankle, the stomach, the thigh, even on her pretty little face. She is currently lying on the couch with ice on her back. She's got some pretty good bruises, the poor woman.

So back to the Alpaca Wrangling, today was interesting. It took a total of 4 hours and 7 people to do it. None of the boys were happy about being shorn, least of all Moses. Despite his beautiful wool, he was the one that beat up Temera the most, he was jumping and rearing and just in general being a butthead. The little guy has hard too, he kept slipping out of the halter. Buster Brown was actually the best, he was very patient and just stood there, despite having to be shorn with hand clippers because he was last and the clipper blades died. He was the one that I was helping hold. Before, I was keeping the rest of the herd wrangled, and with Buster being the last to be shorn, I gave Temera a break. She was excited, thinking that I was gonna have to do an alpaca throwshown, but Buster just kinda sat there, much to her dismay, haha. So now, Temera and John don't have a herd of Alpacas, they have a herd of Q-Tips.

So after that whole traumatizing ordeal, Kevin (nephew) hosed the alpacas down, so all is now forgiven. The rest of the day was nice and calm. Temera left to go to the chiropractor, john got home and promptly went downstairs to play Halo with Kevin. Temera got home, we made dinner, ate, the boys went outside to clean a gun and Temera and I went to scour books to find pictures worthy of her necklace-making. Currently, The guys are downstairs attatched to the XBox again, Temera's sleeping on the couch, Buluga is laying happily on her bed and I'm watching Law & Order. Buluga is wonderful, as cute and sweet as ever. She's finally calmed down around me, the first time I came here in April, she would shake and cower and freak out when I was aorund, now she wags her tail and comes to see me. The animals are all bedded down and and all is calm on the Halley Ranch. OH, speaking of the farm animals, after John scared the poo out of the chickens and them laying their eggs in an undisclosed location, we found them. Temera and I went on an egg hunt, and finally found them in a giant pile of wood and dirt. Somehow, the chickens managed to climb like, 4 or 5 feet onto this pile, find a nice little patch and lay eggs. We grabbed them and counted 16. FINALLY, we get farm fresh eggs again.

I love it here, I wish we lived closer. Mukilteo is way too far away. I found a new home away from home. Temera and John are exactly like me and Kevin, and they make it so fun for us here. I wish we didn't have to leave so soon, I would have loved to stay for a few weeks. I miss living in the country. I really love everything about this place, the people, the animals, the atmosphere, even shoveling horse manuer =) I'm excited for tomorrow, John is taking Kev to the gun range tomorrow, which Kev has been VERY excited about. While they're gone, Temera is gonna teach me to make jam, and we're gonna make jewelry, and make dinner, and goof off and have girl time and it will be awesome! =)

pictures of cute Q-Tip-ness will be posted later, because the computer is being tempermental. Hang tight.