Milton

Every once in a while there comes a cat of such extraordinary quality that it would be unfair not to tell the world about her. Milton was such a cat. She had it all - cuteness, sweetness, intelligence. She died today. She was cute and sweet to the end. Her purr was one of a kind and included soft chirps. Holding her was like holding the physical embodiment of love in your arms. Really. She loved everyone. She loved cats, dogs and people.  She could walk between two quarreling cats and peace would be restored.

She was kind of a foodie, preferring pretty much any food she could get. She was orange like Morris but not finicky like Morris.

Here are some pictures from her last couple of days, spreading love until the end. She will be greatly missed.

Excited Alpaca

Direct your attention to the baby alpaca in the background. That's Siggy mid buck.

Brookside Farm

The farm is getting bigger, population-wise. It is now a business. We are in the fiber biz. We even have a name: Brookside Farm. We thought of other cleverer names like Pelican West (after the great Haircut 100 lp) Stack Rock Ranch (after the rock of the same name that we can see from our window), High Desert Farm, Pheasant Ridge or Quail Ridge because there are a lot of both. Another option was Push Me Pull You Farm. But we are sticking with Brookside because that is the name of the road we live on. We figure it wont someday be embarrassing like Pelican West might or like my FRANKIE SAYS RELAX tattoo. 

This is one of our fiber animals. We will also harvest the antlers when they are big enough. No antlers.
Below is the three month old daughter of the above fiber animal.

Cowboys

Occasionally, cowboys show up near the farm. At first there were two cowboys on our road. They were moseying up the road looking for a couple three cows. They don't walk, they mosey. Satisfied, they moseyed back to the truck and pulled through the gate to the same side of the fence as the cows. That's when we noticed another truck. Both trucks pulled long livestock trailers. One contained three horses and the other was empty. The cowboys cleverly set up the two trailers close to the fence to create a chute to help get the cows into the empty trailer. 

Expertly, the cowboys rounded up the cows and into the trailer they went. One cow did try to squeeze her 500 lb frame through an 8 inch gap in the bars of the fence but she quickly changed her mind and went into the trailer with no further protest. 

These were real cowboys. They looked to be in their 60s. They appeared to be in pain - sore hips, bowed legs. They're still looking for and old, black cow.