This is sent to us by the Washington
Butterfly Association.

----------------------------------------
Storms in Mexico
----------------------------------------
There has been a disaster of extraordinary proportions in the heart of the monarch overwintering area. Unprecedented rainfall from 31 January - 4 February led to flooding and landslides that resulted in the loss of many lives and the near destruction of the towns of Angangueo and Ocampo, the two municipalities that serve as hubs for those visiting the monarch colonies at Sierra Chincua and El Rosario. The community of El Rosario was also hit hard with a major landslide that buried more than a dozen residents and destroyed bridges and homes. The consequences of this disaster will be felt for years by some and for a lifetime by others. Angangueo will never be the same - the one we remember before the flooding is gone.

We had a great time as usual at the candle making playshop on Feb 13th, 2010. There were so many people! We melted tons of beeswax from Willa's bees, and people brought their own eggs and cartons. We had lots of wicking for straight candle dipping too.

Here's how we did it:

After breaking the top off the egg and pouring out the gooey insides, we washed out our eggs. Then we set them in the egg cartons, and carefully filled them with hot wax. While they were cooling, we prepared our wicks by dipping them briefly in hot wax and straightening them with our fingers.Then we car

efully lowered in the prepared wicks into the eggs, and let them harden and cool. When they were cool, we broke off the outer egg shell and viola! !!!! We had egg shaped candles! It was so cool to make these.

We are going to have three sessions of Little House on the Prairie Summer Camp this year, so stay tuned for those dates. There will be one camp each month in June, July, and August. We hope you will join us for this full-filled adventure back in time! And don't forget about those homemade ice cream, fiddlin, square-dancin hoe-downs on the last day!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Knickers Coloring Contest! We have a winner:

Weston Bosworth!

Congratulations, Weston. Here is the winning picture:

And Willa, our judge, sent this message to all participants:

"Thank you for entering! It was very difficult to select one winner. There were good points about each entry. Weston Bosworths drawing was selected for the first place award.

We felt that it represents Knickers new freedom to run and play again. She had been living in a dark stall and was so undernourished that she could no longer run about. She now lives with her new friends, Jet and Trigger, where you will find her grazing in the field and trotting up to the barn every evening for her dinner.

Thanks again for the great drawings!"

The Alvord Family,
Willa, John, Savannah, Tyler, and MaryAnn

Here are our runners up: