It was another hot one this past week! We are glad to be getting some relief though this coming week with temperatures in the 90s instead of the 100s. Thankfully, it does cool off at night so I’m able to let the kids go out and play in the mornings before school.

We are looking forward to monsoon season though! We’ve been getting some pre-monsoon weather to taunt us with rain.

Clouds building up to the east of us near the mountains. Unfortunately, there was no rain by us even though we ended up with cloudy skies and possible virga later in the day.

Our property seems to be overrun by roadrunners! We can’t go outside without seeing at least one. One morning I went out and saw four just chilling in our inner yard. They are quite unafraid of people and pretty much ignore us if we ignore them.

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Roadrunners sleeping on a saguaro

Our chickens seemed to tolerate the heat well. I went out every day every few hours to check on them and give them ice water or cold treats. They are growing quickly. None of them are laying yet but we aren’t expecting any eggs from our older chickens for another couple of weeks to a month.

Blue laced red wyandottes at 7 weeks old

Some of our plants and trees are at the end of their flowering season, but there are still plenty of flowers or fruit to see.

This is a buckthorn growing right outside our back gate. I think it might be a bitter condalia because of the matte surface of the berries. The berries aren’t edible but they are still interesting to see. The thorns (more like spikes) on this plant are ridiculous, definitely to be avoided!

Globe-shaped puffy yellow flowers on a sweet acacia tree

This cholla is not in the greatest spot in our inner yard, but it is out of the way, which I am thankful for! I would not want the kids running into it! It has some pretty flowers though. I almost didn’t get to see them because it’s in the “garden” area of the inner yard that we don’t venture into as much.

Flowering palo verde with ocotillo

Josh has really put his smoker that he got for his birthday-anniversary-Christmas gift to good use! He smokes something almost every weekend. Yesterday, he smoked Filipino barbecue for dinner: pork and chicken pieces marinated in a Filipino BBQ marinade then put onto skewers. It was delicious!

Our biggest change to the homestead this past week: we got a kitten! Our second oldest son loves animals (and animals always love him) and he especially loves cats. He was sad that we had to leave behind our two outside cats when we moved out of California and he was missing them. Through the nextdoor app, I found someone who was giving away free kittens and we went to visit the kittens so we could pick one out.

This is Mitzi! She’s only about 7 weeks old. She’s a calico and we are hoping she will be a short hair cat. She’s playful and sweet and has taken to the kids and the house quickly.

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In this video, Mitzi is playing with her ball on the couch.

She doesn’t sleep very well at night yet, but fortunately, I don’t have to deal with it. She sleeps in my two oldest boys’ room and they have to be awake with her! Guess they are kind of seeing what being a mom is like!

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers out there today, including moms of our furry and feathery babies!

-Lynn

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