Go Away

The oh so annoying miller moths are still here. Their numbers have increased rapidly. I need batteries for the camera or I'd take a picture of the pan in the bathroom with the little lamp.  I have dumped the pan twice in the last four hours and there are still so many flitting around.  Someone on FB said the reason the pesky things haven't left is because of the fires in the mountains.
We can see the smoke from the Waldo Canyon fire.  We've had the smoke drift past here.  Peter didn't go to work on Wednesday and came home early Tuesday.  His boss and the family are staying at the shop.  They were evacuated from their home in Chipita Park.

Happy Father's Day

To all the fathers out there, enjoy your day.  Go Fishing.  I don't have a picture of my dad and I together that isn't in the photo album but this picture is of him with his oldest grandson, Andy.
Andy was about 9 months old at the time.

Please excuse the photo quality. I'm now learning a new photo program and am having issues. Update: I fixed the issue. The other issue being this posted a week early, originally.

Be careful what you wish for

I've been wanting it to rain for some time now.  The pastures are dry and eaten down.  The grass won't grow without some moisture. Thursday night it rained and hailed. The city got hit very hard with hail.  Cars were buried with hail, it was that bad.  We had about quarter inch of rain plus the hail. Friday night the same thing happened except we didn't get any noticeable hail.
What we did get was an automated call from the sheriff's office saying that a tornado had been spotted in our area and we should move to a secure location.  For us, the bathroom seems to be the best option. I had Andy and Alex in the tub.  Peter and I were sitting around and Mischka and Ringo were laying on the floor of the bathroom.  Max was outside barking at something.  Jack was laying in the kitchen. Mischka had actually been trying to sit on my lap earlier when the power went out and it started to rain. But by the time we were sent to shelter she had calmed down.
The call from the SO said they would let us know when it was all clear.  We never had a phone call from the SO about the danger being over.  For as calm as the dogs were I didn't think that a tornado was anywhere near us.

An unwelcome visitor

Saturday afternoon I went out to the chicken house to let the chickens and geese out.  Ringo, the puppy, started chasing the birds and was soon chased by the rooster and one of the hens.  He runs into the chicken house and I went in to get him.  I heard a hissing noise and looked up to see a raccoon on a shelf. It is the first raccoon I've seen around here.  We spent the next half hour trying to get it to leave. The kids were all yelling, throwing rocks.  All from a distance with a fence in between. Max was trying to get the raccoon.  The raccoon got into an old tire on the roof and Peter shot it a couple of times.  It crawled into the chicken house and died.  The chickens were pecking on it.  Is that karma, how many chickens has that raccoon killed?  Neighbors down the road had a raccoon break into their chicken house, literally tore the door apart, and killed all the chickens, didn't eat any.  Peter felt really bad about shooting the raccoon but I'd rather have my chickens, eggs and cats.  My only other experience with raccoon was years ago in Arkansas when I went fishing with my great-grandpa and we put our catch in his holding pond.  The next morning all the fish were gone. Grandpa said the raccoons got them.