LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR..........!!!

     BOAZ HAS BEGGING DOWN TO AN ART..........THANKS SHANNON

I think spring is my favorite time of year, especially in the desert.  Some of the trees are budded and in Tucson flowers are blooming.  Of course if it's a mild winter, which this has been, the flowers usually bloom all winter.  Not here, though, we are still getting nights in the 20's.

I got my 1st shipment of fly predators from Spalding last week.  Usually they start hatching within a couple of days.  But it's been 5 or 6 days and so far there is less than a dozen, of the 10,000 suppose to be in the package.  I'm thinking they might have gotten too cold, somewhere on their trip, although they only come from Nevada.  At least that's the main address  This happened once before and they sent me another order.  I'll give them a few more days.  

Had a woman here this morning from a magazine called Edible Baja Arizona.  I don't think I had heard of it before, although my friend Michelle, says it's available in Bisbee.  She is doing an article on things to do in Benson and choose us as one of the places to go.  She had never been around donkeys and they did their best to show her what wonderful representatives they are of the species.  She seemed to enjoy meeting them, so I hope it will be a favorable article........LOL

DOUG AND FRIENDS, I HAVE NO IDEA WHO'S BELLY IS THE FRAME........ANOTHER OF SHANNON'S PICS

We're all brain storming about the parade in Tombstone the 18th of March.  Jeanne is working on Leddy and Blackjack's costumes. I was suppose to figure out how to put the bow ties on Justin and Pepsi.  Those that know me probably are aware that I don't sew.  If something loses a button it generally is immediately removed from the wardrobe.........LOL

So the idea of me trying to put something together that would hold up for the complete parade probably isn't going to work out very well.  Linda has been talking to Jeanne and she has agreed to make collars for them........!!  Thank you Jeanne, this will be so much better, believe me........LOL  She's already got the blanket for BlackJack finished and it looks fabulous.  She even put shamrocks on it.

THIS IS JUSTIN DURING HIS FIRST "FITTING".......HE DOESN'T LOOK PLEASED.  

 John will be leading BlackJack and his costume came in this week.  John is such a good sport, he goes along with whatever we think up.  In this case Linda found this outfit and it really is funny...........!!!   I hope BlackJack likes it, or we might have a "rodeo" instead of a parade.......!!! 

LINDA ALWAYS HAS HER CAMERA READY.....!!

The rest of us will probably just have St. Paddy T-shirts on, don't want to distract from the main characters.   Once we get the costumes all figured out and fitted, we'll start taking them out as a group, dressed to see how it goes.  I don't think Leddy and BJ will be a problem, although BJ hasn't seen John's costume yet........!!!   Jeanne is still working on Leddy's rainbow and pot of gold and of course the hats and collars for Justin and Pepsi.  Those 2 "might" be a challenge, they really prefer to be "wild and free", we'll just have to see how it goes.

I do have some sad news to report.  I got a call from the Cochise County Health Dept to tell us the Wildlife Center euthanized the bobcat and it was in fact rabid.  The health dept was checking to see if any of us, were in direct contact with it, which none of us were.

From what I know about rabies, euthanizing is much better than dying from the disease.  One of my Mother's cousins died of rabies in the 1920's in Oklahoma.  She was 3 years old and they had a litter of puppies, she had been playing with.  She went into convulsions and they headed for town in a horse drawn wagon.  She was riding on her mother's lap, wrapped in a blanket.  By the time they got to town, she had chewed all the flesh off both shoulders.  What a horrible way to die, and what a horrible situation for the family.