Alpacas of Somerset Farm

The value of Livestock Guardian Dogs can never be overrated.

We are home. Thank you to those who sent prayers and words of concern. I don't think it is possible for me to explain the depth of my gratitude.

This is our morning update.

We are going to be able to bring ourselves and our animals home. I am so grateful to be able to say those words. My heart goes out to those who cannot say the same thing. We live in a wonderful community and it is filled with support for those whose homes did not survive.

Farm work doesn’t make you stronger. It doesn’t make you anything. It reveals you. There’s gym strong and then there’s farm strong. They’re mutually exclusive.... The toughest women you’ll ever meet spend their days on a farm. There are more uses for twine than you can possibly imagine. You can tie up a hole in a slow feeder, fashion a tail strap for a horse’s blanket, mend a broken fence and use it as a belt. Well that certainly didn’t go as planned, is one thing you’ll say quite a bit. Control is a mere illusion. The thought that you have any, at any given time, is utterly false. Sometimes sleep is a luxury. So are lunch and dinner. And brushing your hair. If you’ve never felt your obliques contract, then you’ve never tried stopping an overly full wheelbarrow of horse manure from tipping over sideways. Trust me, you’ll find muscles that you never knew existed on the human skeleton to prevent this from happening. When one of the animals is ill, you’ll go to heroic lengths to minimize their discomfort. Their needs come first. In summer heat and coldest winter days. Clean water, clean bed, and plenty of feed. Before you have your first meal, they all eat. When you lose one of them, even though you know that day is inevitable, you still feel sadness, angst and emotional pain from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. And it’s a heaviness that lingers even though you must regroup and press on. You’ll cry a lot. But you’ll never live more fully. You’ll remain present no matter what because you must. There is no other option. You’ll ask for so many miracles and hold out hope until the very last. You will, at least once, face-plant in the manure pile. You’ll find yourself saying things like, we have maybe twenty minutes of daylight left to git ‘er done whilst gazing up at a nonspecific place in the sky. You’ll become weirdly obsessive about the weather. You’ll go out in public wearing filthy clothes and smelling of dirt, sweat and poop. People will look at you sideways and krinkle their noses but you won’t care. Your entire day can derail within ten seconds of the rising sun. You can wash your coveralls. They won’t look any cleaner, but they will smell much nicer. Farm work is difficult in its simplicity. You’ll always notice just how beautiful sunrises and sunsets really are. Should you ever have the opportunity to work on a farm, take the chance! You will never do anything more satisfying in your entire life. -Author Unknown See more

Saturday August 28 Update: Fortunately for us, nothing has changed from my Friday Report. So many others are still displaced and don't have any idea of when they might be able to get back to their homes and property. The firefighters continue the fight day in and day out. Friday, August 27 update. The following message is what we have been waiting for. From the Calfire update this morning "In the far SW on the southern line of this front, lines continue to hold above Slug Gulch. Fair Play can continue to relax a bit more each day." We live in Fair Play. We might be able to completely exhale soon. We are feeling so blessed and thankful.

We are so grateful to our friends for taking us in during this fire. They run an animal rescue organization too. https://www.facebook.com/furlivesmatter.org Check them out. If anyone would like to help us thank them for the help they are giving us and the rescued animals they have helped please consider a donation to their Fur Live Matter organization.

Wow, where do I start? Many reading this may know our ranch is being directly affected by the Caldor fire. We are located about 4 miles away from the southwest perimeter. We are under evacuation orders. The alpacas and livestock guardian dogs were moved to our friend's ranch last Tuesday and they are safe. We are in a 'wait and see" mode right now. I am humbled by the number of people who have reached out with offers to help. Some are people who only know us because they visited the ranch at some point in time. I will report back on this page when I can. I am providing regular updates on my Dianna Daniels Jordan FB page. Thanks again for the outreach and prayers.

Anyone who has visited our ranch has met our amazing Livestock Guardian Dogs. This video was not taken here but demonstrates why we appreciate our dogs so much. https://fb.watch/7kWJsETVGw/