QUICK TRIP TO COLORADO.............

John and I spent the last 8-10 days driving to Colorado, visiting with Lynn and Linda, watching the Fairplay pack burro races and in general having a fun time, while Suzanne and our neighbor Vic got to enjoy the monsoon season and our unknown leaky roof.  

Our house is rammed earth Sante Fe. which means a flat roof with parapets.  I guess in the old days they built the parapets out of the same material as the walls, in our case it would be adobe and extremely heavy.  So in the modern age, they are framed in, stuccoed and no one knows the difference.  That is unless you get a crack in the stucco, which can happen very easily if there is any settling.  Of course the crack is usually not anywhere close to where the water finally finds a tiny opening to come inside and start dripping.  Poor Suzanne came in to the house to the sounds of dripping water on the dining room table.

She called us, we told her to call our neighbor Vic and for the next 2 or 3 days they had lots of fun when it rained.  I guess Suzanne would call Vic and he'd come up, get on the roof and chase the latest leak to put Elasti-tek roof coating on it and hope for the best.  By the time we got home the heavy rains had stopped, for which I'm sure they both were grateful.  Don't think the donkeys missed us at all, well except for getting shut out of Burroland.  Suzanne said their poo was getting to be more beans than hay, so we decided to go ahead and shut off Burroland for the duration which will probably be about the middle of September.  They are still finding plenty of mesquite beans on the 10 acres, unfortunately.  If poo patrol keeps showing too many beans, they will have to start staying in their pens more hours a day, which will really make them unhappy.

Casper the little mini monster mule has been staying in his pen most of the time.  He's gone back to his old habit of camo crawling under the fence.  He's not tall enough to gather beans off the trees, but seems to know there are plenty of beans outside the perimeter fence, so off he goes.  His footprints are all over the place outside the fence.  Suzanne kept him in all the time for a few days, but he's been going out during the day the last few days and so far he's staying in.........at least we think he is, we haven't caught him out.

Carlos and Nellie are still here.  When their family came to take them home last week-end, the lights on their trailer wouldn't work, so they are coming out this week-end to hopefully get the lights fixed.  Actually the last couple of days they've been going out when Casper is out and everyone is ignoring each other.  I think the problem when Casper was attacking, was Carlos was the new kid on the block and wasn't use to having so many donkeys to contend with.  So he was kicking at everyone, which Casper probably saw as an insult and decided to show Carlos who is the boss around here.

Had a great time in Colorado, although we sure were glad we had our jackets.  It's a lot cooler up there...........LOL

You will probably notice these aren't donkeys.  They also have a llama race.  They are a strange animal and when they run they look like someone put parts together, their neck doesn't look right.  Guess I'm use to the way donkeys run.......!! LOL  Plus they always look at people like they are looking at a bug under a microscope.  Didn't see any of them spit, but they just don't look warm and cuddly to me. 

John with either Link or Turbo, not sure which and Sugar

Leddy, Boaz, me and Sugar again.  She was making the rounds, just in case treats were being offered.  She actually finished in 7th place for the short race, which was 15 miles.  The long race was 25+ miles.  It was actually 4 miles shorter than usual, because Mosquito Pass is still snowed in. 

 

I forget what Jack's full name is.  He is actually a champion pack burro racer of years gone by.  Bill Lee was at the Fairplay jail that is now a museum as a mountain man, talking to people and having his picture taken.  He rents out donkeys to people that want to race and don't have a donkey.  I think he had 14 donkeys in the race.  He and Jack actually ran the long course.  He also has reindeer and at Christmas time Santa Claus and his reindeer are part of the local color.

John trying to entice a little rodent with sunflower seeds at the mine museum at Creede.  I'm trying to get my camera to work.  It decided to "rest" for most of the trip, so I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted to.  Linda always has her camera with her.  I guess rechargeable batteries don't last forever......!!

 

Lynn and Linda took us to this waterfall, don't remember the name, but it was really pretty.  Lots of people there, so I guess it's well known. 

This morning I finally got around to working on Big Gus' mats.  He probably has more French Poitou blood than BlackJack.  They both mat pretty bad, but he is worse than BlackJack.

Those blobs you see are mats.  I had planned on doing his belly first, which is just one big mat, but got started on his legs and body.  By the time I got done with that, I decided to do his belly Sunday.  He was really good to work on, he loves any type of attention and of course the animal crackers that go with it......!!

He looks much better and I'm sure he's more comfortable.  I can't imagine how miserable the full blood Poitous are when they aren't clipped and are allowed to grow the dreadlocks.

This picture is from the early 1900s. with all that matted dirty hair to carry around all the time.