Sometimes you just can't believe your eyes and looking at the moon tonight will give you that feeling. On Wednesday night, June 18th, step outside after sunset and look to the east. You'll see a giant shape rising At first glance it looks like the full Moon. It has craters and "seas" but this Moon is strangely inflated.

There's no better time to see the full Moon than June 18th as it is a "solstice moon", coming two days before the beginning of northern summer. This is significant because the sun and full Moon are like kids on a see-saw; when one is high, the other is low. This week's high solstice sun gives us a low, horizon-hugging Moon.

On a much more practical note one of the things I have learned about alpaca farming is that certain pieces of equipment will break at the worst possible time and if you live even 30 minutes from the nearest store then a journey in and out of time can be very time consuming and frustrating. So create your own mini store on the farm and keep the items you are most likely to need close to hand. It does tie up some cash and space but makes life much less stressful when something suddenly lets go unexpectedly. And with gas prices going up all the time any trips that can be avoided should be avoided.