Heating up

 Hi all,
Things are starting to heat up hear in the southland, daytime temps in the 80s are the norm with an occasional 90 mixed in. Evening and morning temps have been pleasant so if we have outside work to do or we want to walk that is the time to do it.
 The past few days we have been finishing off the garden, we had a hard freeze that took out some of it and a couple bunnies that pigged out on new plantings. We erected a fence and replanted now we can wait to see how it goes.
 It's not all work here, we mixed in a couple fun days to. A trip to Amelia Island State Park on the north side of Jacksonville with Amanda, Pat, and his mom Gayle. This beach was a bit different as the tides create serious currents so no swimming allowed, but is very popular with the fisherman. It is also one place where you can drive your vehicle right to the waters edge. But, beware four wheel drive is required and that tide really moves in fast so don't walk off and leave your vehicle for any length of time.

Parking on the beach

Amanda & Gayle

 Another day Amanda took us to the Gulf Coast Livestock Auction in nearby Madison. This is a two day event as they sell not only standard livestock but exotics to. They say if Noah had it on the ark you might see it here. Amanda was a good girl and didn't expand the farm today.

  We did have a couple new farm experiences this past couple weeks. One day we got to assist with the alpacas getting sheared. A lady came in and sheared, trimmed the hooves, and lower teeth of the three alpaca. Anne Shroeder came from Maryland. She travels a big circuit and really knows her job. She explained really well so we knew how to help with no one getting hurt.

Taking care of the teeth

One done, one more to go

Pat holding Jazzie

 She also does it so smoothly and quickly to not stress out the animals. It was all pretty neat, and Patrick was the only one who got spit on, Haha we had fun with that.
 The other newbie for us was Amanda had bought her first alpaca in November and it was suppose to be pregnant due in March. Turns out not the case, well the seller was good on their word and brought a male over on Sunday for breeding.  So we got a whole lesson in how alpacas breed. The females don't go into heat but need to almost be put in the mood for the act to take place. Pretty funny as the lady who brought the male actually had a recorded breeding to get the female into the mood.
 Saturday Wendy, Amanda, and I ventured to Tallahassee for the annual Springtime Fest. They had craft booths, music, and lots of good food. We were quite impressed with downtown Tallahassee and need to plan more time checking it out.

Capital

War memorial

Large parade. Lots of beads

 After spending time there Amanda drove us the gulf for a peak at one of the beaches she had used. We also checked out St Marks Lighthouse that dates to 1842.