End Of July? When Did That Happen??

I can't believe here we are, the end of July.  I feel like June was just ending!  Time is flying by way faster than I ever remembering it happening as a kid.

Today and tomorrow we are under a heat advisory.  Today we are looking at 103 and tomorrow at 101. Yet tomorrow is supposed to be the worse of the two days. After Wednesday, the temps finally start to dip a little bit down into the 90s.  With an 88 on Saturday.  It is so crazy to see that we are hotter here than in Georgia!

Today is pretty overcast, so it might help a little bit. But that's not cloud cover.  Upper level winds are bringing in the smoke from the California fires. It's the craziest thing to see a smoke forecast in motion, where is shows the movement of the smoke and where it is the worst.  Looking at makes me think I should be watching a storm pattern, not a smoke pattern.  There's about six or seven North-ish of us. The closest which is still about ninety minutes away and no threat  to us, is up near McCall.  People in the area can't get in or out as all the roads have been closed.

Looking at images of some of the devastation from the Idyllwild fire which was arson, they caught the suspect who was seen throwing light flares as he drove down the road. And Carr Fire over in Redding.   It's heartbreaking.

We've had a hawk hanging out in our trees the last few days.  There are at least three or four pairs that live around here, but this one has been here alone as far as I can tell. It cries and circles every day just about.  I went out to check on the chicken and found two hawk feathers. They can't get her, she's pretty secure in her pen.  We had three ducks left, they were pretty much allowed out around the yard. They'd go in their pen at night.  When they started fixing the roof though, they hightailed it to the little watering hole on the neighbor's property.  They were on their way home when they were attacked by a weasel. They were found after the fact by the neighbor. They were so close to home when they were attacked. 

Momma T. has already started tearing down the pen area where they all used to live, the chickens and ducks.  Once it gets cooler, we're going to build new pens and redo the fencing. Then we'll look at getting more of both.  We almost had a turkey given to us, but the person decided to keep him after all.

If you would have told me one day I'd be living with farm animals, I would have said you were nuts. But now, I can't imagine not having them. I miss our "Big Girls". They used to let us pick them up and pet them. They would come to the back door and chatter at us.  They were the best.

Today is also the last day of Camp NaNoWriMo.  I haven't done as well as I would like.  I even lowered my goal, but I still think I am going to miss it.  I need roughly 2300 words to win.  Not impossible, so who knows. Maybe I will get a big spark of inspiration and bring it home at the last minute.