Another Perfect Weekend

As the days get shorter and the flowers fade away from the occasional light frosty nights, my heart is heavy at the dawn of a new season. Now, typically I welcome new seasons unless they resemble winter in any way, shape, or form. Winter is my least favorite season and it even makes it hard for me to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and change of decorations in and around the house. I know winter is coming next! I try every year to take it in stride and some years are better than others but this year seems harder than ever.

We had a perfect weekend two weeks ago and we enjoyed working outside with the alpacas and various other projects getting ready to hunker down for the cold weather we know is coming. The following week was sprinkled with some frosty nights and we figured that fall was just about over and then along came daylight savings...now it's just about dark when I get home from work and I have to scurry around to get my outside chores done before I need a flashlight to finish up. The lights on the outside of the barn are good for getting me to and from the chicken coop and the other side illuminates the horses paddock nicely. But, the alpacas are in the dark if I'm not quick. I try to get to them first thing.

Several weeks back, we put our heads together with several friends to plan a final trail ride for the year and the date we settled on was this past weekend. We all met at S & S Stables on Hillsdale Lake. This was the first time any of us had been to this particular campground. Several of us arrived Friday night and more arrived on Saturday and a couple even dropped in Saturday and Sunday as well to visit. The trails were really nice and the campground hosts were remarkable! The horses had nice pipe stalls and each trailer had water and electricity. We'll definitely go back there again! The weather could not have been better. It was cool in the morning but by the time we saddled up to ride, a long sleeve shirt was plenty of cover.

I don't imagine we'll have very many more weekends like that but if we do, I will welcome them with open arms!

We were supposed to take delivery of our two suri girls from Colorado this week but I got a call from Suzanne today saying that the transporter would not clear Cheyenne for travel. She's the baby and not quite 3 months old. She has picked up a cold and had a bit of a runny nose left over. There's an upper respiratory virus going around the alpaca and llama communities all over the country that has ranged from no symptoms to runny noses, trouble breathing, early deliveries of preemie crias and even many have died from it so it's not taken lightly. As much as I wanted them home, I'm OK with them staying until everything is cleared up. They are now booked on his December 2nd trip.

Until next time...