smoke & ash

Oh boy....
Today the Day Fire doubled in size, and crept back around to sneak up on our mountain from behind.
You can see the sky turned a lovely cancerous sort of yellow brown, and turned the sun orange, then red.

Tonight I went for a walk with my 2 dogs, but came back in the house right away. Ash is falling heavily, covering the ground and blowing through the air like tiny snowflakes... but without the charm.
This is like Halloween Town snow- demented and dry and sort of creepy.

I feel so badly for the poor wildlife. They have gotten it from all sides this fire season, and they are slowly being forced into a very small area. They will have the fire on one side, and people on the other.

My dogs are now giving me "The Look"... you know, the one that tells me what a bad dog owner I am for not taking them for their walk. Only dogs and children can inspire that kind of guilt. Wait a minute! Moms are really, really good at that too. My mother is the best, she has gotten even better in her advancing years.
I have to put on my "mom proof armor" if I plan on talking to her for any length of time. Even the phone doesn't provide any long distance protection anymore.

Short blog tonight, I didn't sleep much last night. I sleep, I do, but I dream a lot. I mean- A LOT. And not just ordinary dreams either. For as long as I can remember I have had huge, dramatic, apocalyptic dreams. Steven King dreams... save-the-world-while-armed-only-with-a-toothpick dreams. I sometimes wake up exhausted, it's no wonder, I mean I just saved the whole village from a volcanic eruption- that I predicted of course, but no one listened to me did they.... no sir. I had to rescue every last one of them and hide them in a cave high above the village in the mountains.

Last night I dreamt that my alpaca due in October decided to have her cria early. In fact, when I came outside there were two black alpaca crias next to her. (for some reason, oh I know- It was to make my dream job more difficult!!- we were at one of our huge National alpaca conferences)
After I figured out that the kids were hers, I looked around and saw a little white cria laying up next to the tent wall. No momma was around her, and she was still wet and obviously not doing well.

So, my job should I choose to accept it (what choice do I have, I'm dreaming for petes sake!!) is to find the owner, to find the momma alpaca, to save the cria's life.... trouble is, seems like everyone is in seminars and I can't find any of them.
After 12 hours I find a vet, we save the cria and....... I told you my dreams were tough..... I am suddenly wading through mud and trying to round up a whole herd of alpacas at a friends ranch to get them all in a barn out of the freak snowstorm that's on it's way. No herding wands, no extra help, just me.... trying to herd many, many alpacas....... by myself..........
Is there a hidden meaning here somewhere???
---sigh--- YAWN.....
Off to bed, to sleep, perchance to..... don't even think about it.....
Slainte~
Rachelle