Happy 17th birthday to my amazing kiddos! 🥰🥰 Got em both in this photo.

Do Macaws have a smell? Yes. They smell WONDERFUL. Like tropical flowers, fruit, cashews, spicy peppers, early morning rain, and fresh cut grass. All mixed together. My all-time favorite smell after petrichor and pine trees.

Birb in a blanket. She actually likes this, especially when I baby-talk to her 😂

Lol

One of my emu hens adding an egg to the pile, while Fred waits patiently for his nest back. In emus, the males incubate the eggs and raise chicks. They go into kind of a trance and don’t eat or defecate for the entire 53ish days it takes a chick to hatch. Good thing he was so fat lol

The beginning of a new arm on the saguaro. There are 3 new ones. Makes for 5 arms total now🌵

Happy holidays from Ariel🎄

Butterhorn rolls. Old family recipe 😋 They are a pain in the butt to make but my kids and grandma love them, so I make them twice a year. Once on Thanksgiving, once on Christmas.

I love watching her fly♥️💚💙

Glendale AZ No Kings. Took this picture right when I got there at 9. By 10am there were triple this amount of people.

I include greenwing-specific wild foods like Hibiscus flowers, Brazil nuts, and several varieties of spicy chili peppers into Ariel’s diet. The chilis and hibiscus I grow here organically. The Brazil nuts I stock up on once a year (during nut season) and freeze. 🌶️🌰🌺

She’d rather climb on mom and get some lovin’ than eat that old Brazil nut 😂 🥰

Soooo this happened. Been busy half the day stress crying & trying to get the animals out of the water. Fun times! We aren’t equipped to handle heavy rain here.. Another 1/3 inch and water would have been coming in the house. I am so relieved we didn’t get that extra half inch they predicted today!

Ariel’s wings. Already posted it to that other place but it’s such a great picture of her mid-stretch.

“Mine?”

If anyone’s at State Farm Stadium in Glendale today, observing, it would be a great idea to photograph the trash left behind by out of town Charlie Kirk cult members. I bet 99% of these people aren’t even from Arizona.

Brat

Found this last night.. Not sure how long it’s been like that but it’s a good lesson for me not to leave things I don’t want destroyed in her living room.

Big cactus, baby cactus. The little one I found growing wild in my pepper bed. Was hoping it was a baby saguaro but they don’t grow this fast.. All bets are on a baby prickly pear. The neighbors have a bunch of them and the cottontails spread the seeds everywhere.

“Does your bird ever go in the cage?” Yes, when I have to leave the house she goes in her cage for her own safety. “Does she go in her cage willingly?” No, she does not. She clamps on to her perch with her beak and tells me to “let go” until one of us gives in 😂 I usually win.

Guinea fowl egg. Aren’t they cute? The best favorite tasting egg imo. They lay from September through November here, which is good because that’s when the chickens go on strike lol.

Forgot to post these here the other day. Still amazes me watching my emus swallow huge pieces of apple whole. They eat rocks (and other things) off the ground to keep in their crop to grind up their food. Then weeks later, I find perfectly smooth rocks in their 💩 They’re living rock tumblers 😂

Wendy and LillyBeth 💙💙

Emus love apples. Especially Fred. Had to bring more out after this to make sure everyone got some.

Yellow breasted chat that sadly met its end after flying into a window at the Home Depot in Glendale Arizona. Sorry for the gory picture. I’ve never seen one of these elusive little birds here in Glendale before, and I’ve been a birdwatcher here for 3 decades.

Last night’s haboob rolling into Glendale AZ

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Volume up to hear emu noises. This is called drumming and only the females (hens) do it. They are more likely to drum at night and in the evening. I think Jurassic park must have gotten some of their dinosaur sounds from emus. Reminds me of raptors 🦖

Feathers ♥️💚💙

My moringa tree is blossoming. The little flowers smell like vanilla and caramel to me.

Told ya I was just getting started..

I’m just getting started..

Yummy hibiscus flower 🌺

LillyBeth has the derpiest face 😂 In stark contrast with her intelligent and extremely affectionate personality💙

This is not good..

Call to action: US National Protest July 4th! WASHINGTON DC AND EVERY STATE CAPITOL, CITY HALL, AND TOWN HALL. #3E #NoKings #HandsOff #Indivisible #FiftyFiftyOne #StopICE #NoKingsProtest

Phoenix, Arizona Thursday, June 26 Disappeared in America Visual Action

🎶Look what I haveee🎶 Anyone care to guess what these little cuties will grow into? Hint: They’re not chickens.

Thousands protesting all over #Arizona. #NoKings @nwvindivisible.bsky.social @wheresabe.bsky.social. #America #peacefulprotest #resist @azindivisible.bsky.social

108° in Phoenix and y’all STILL showed up?! 🔥 Mad respect (and electrolytes) to the #Arizona resisters proving #Democracy doesn't melt. 🌵💧 #NoKings #WeSeeYouPhoenix #DesertDemocracy

Arizonans showed up BIG TIME in 110 degree weather in the middle of an extreme heat advisory day!! 🌵🏜️🌞 I’ve never seen so many protests here, this is sure to break the record books. ..and MAGA said no one would show up in Phoenix today because of the heat😂

MAGA douchebro in a pathetic attempt at a counter protest. Why do they all look like that?? #NoKings #Glendale #NokingsArizona

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Ariel forever trying to steal my phone. She really would love her own phone but she’d just crack the screen 😂

Baby jubilee watermelon 🍉

BFFs 💙💙 Wendy and LillyBeth #dogsofBluesky #AnatolianPyrenees #BucovinaShepherd #Livestockguardians

“Why do people run from me?” -Fred

Watch out Wendy, there’s a dinosaur 🦖 behind you. And he finds floppy dog ears absolutely delicious 😋 🐶

LillyBeth has the sweetest face. She has just a bit of gray undertone where she should have had a mask. **Pic of her mama for reference. Three puppies were white. Lilly was the runt💙 #BucovinaShepherd