UNFORTUNATE SATURDAY NIGHT.....!!

My last night for points in racing did not go well.  Actually that is an understatement.  I only ran 3 laps in the main event before one of the other racers decided to door slam my car.

 This is the damage from him leaning on me. 

This is the damage after I lost control, hit the wall, lost my steering, went back down across the track into the infield.  I might add without hitting anyone or getting hit again.  Slid to a stop and the firemen came over and said "you're on fire, get out".  

Let me say I envy drivers that can get in their car and get all their gear on and organized in nothing flat, or take it off.  I don't happen to be one of them, John usually "dresses" me and makes sure everything is as it should be.  Of course he isn't in the middle of the track, so I start fumbling and bumbling around.  By the time I managed to get everything unhooked, one of the firemen came up with a little bitty fire extinguisher, and put out the fire.  I'm still not out of the car and because of my fire suit pants, probably not going to get out before the races are over...........so........one fireman grabbed under my arms and another one reached in and grabbed my feet, and out I came.  I have no idea what John was thinking, he said he was just glad they got me out.  But I have a feeling it looked like dragging a body out........LOL  The rest of the night so many people came up to ask if I was OK, never thought so many people would care about a crazy old woman.  That was rather nice, considering my car is totaled..!  That was the last point race, and the guy responsible for the damage was 2 points behind me for 5th place.....!!!  hmmmm, I wonder......????   No, surely he wouldn't do it on purpose, would he?  

Of course by the time we got home early this morning, Doug was asleep.  But this morning we heard about how the evening went.  

A few days ago, while we were gone Doug found the gate to Burroland off the post on the back side two days in a row.  We blame Frijolita, she is our gate challenger, although the rest of them seemed to appreciate her efforts and went with her.  We have been limiting their time in Burroland to cut down on their access to mesquite beans.  Guess they decided to take matters into their own "hooves".  

John fixed it and I guess he did a good job.  Doug said when he came out to round them up for evening feeding, everyone was easy to get in, except Lynn and Cheyenne were missing.  Of course he panicked, said he looked all over the 10 acres and they weren't anywhere.  Amy and Morgan came to help feed and clean pens and so the 3 of them started looking.  Amy started yelling she found them.........over in Burroland, headed towards the closed gate to finally come in for supper.  This morning those two were back over on Burroland again.  But, they goofed up, Doug was watching when they came to the fence and tried to get back in from where they had went out.  Heh! heh!  Busted.....!!!  Our land is not exactly flat, there is a lot of difference in the topography and the fence in some areas isn't low enough to stop a determined mini I guess.  That particular spot won't be usable in the future though.  

The flies are really bad right now, I guess they are trying to complete their life cycle before it gets cold.  I don't think they have to be so frantic, it usually doesn't get to freezing around here until late November. 

MULES ARE DELIVERED

REBA AND RUSTY IN THE DRY LOT

            

These two are so "been there, done that", loading and hauling was no big deal.  Got to Kris' place in early afternoon and Ruthie started yelling when she saw the trailer.

This was later when Kris put some hay in the mangers so Reba and Rusty would know this is a good place.  Ruthie after the initial nose thru the fence and a squeal or two, was more interested in what Kris put in the manger.  

 Rusty is really interested in the grass around the edge.  Wait till he gets out on 20 acres of the stuff...!!

Rusty and Reba in their stall

Ruthie and Reba in the barn

I'm sure they will all get along just fine once they are out together.  Hopefully Ruthie will get over missing her mustang friend quickly.

This morning Falena, one of the girls that just returned from foster care a few weeks ago, came in limping and laying down.  I checked her feet and they weren't that warm, but she sure is acting like she is foundering.  I gave her some bute and we soaked her feet in IV bags of ice water.  I HATE MESQUITE BEANS......!!!!  And this year we have so many of them.  There aren't enough range cattle in the area to clean Burroland if John opens the gates, but we can't let the donkeys go over there I'm afraid.  It's like playing Russian Roulette, will they or won't they eat enough beans to cause laminitis?  I'm afraid if we continue to let them over there, they will.  So.........Burroland will be closed and most of them will only have access to the 10 acres, which isn't exactly lacking in mesquite beans either.  Noticed I said most..........some of them are already overweight, or have been foundered in the past, or in the case of Falena, might be a good candidate for foundering now.  Those will not be allowed out of the pens for however long it takes to get control of the mesquite problem.  They might all end up in the pens, and we'll be out on the 10 acres with a rake and wagon, raking up beans....which doesn't sound like much fun at all............!!

The donkeys usually aren't interested in the beans once they fall on the ground and lay for awhile.  The beans start turning dark and usually get worm holes in them.  I am really hoping that once we let them over there, if there are old dark wormy beans laying around, they won't bother them.  

We'll probably ice Falena's feet again this evening, hopefully we caught it early.

Penny seems to be back to normal, after her couple of days of acting sick.  

BACK IN THE GROOVE

Didn't take Ruthie and the boys long to get back in the routine.  Yesterday morning when everyone came in, I looked out and here came John looking like the Pied Piper, with Ruthie and the boys right in his hip pocket.  I wish I had the camera, but of course as usual when a Kodak moment occurs I wasn't prepared.  

So this morning, I had the camera with me when I went out.  Of course they were over in Burroland rather than dogging John's heels.  They had been ignoring John, but when I came out they thought I might have a goodie, so here they came.  

The cold nights are slowing the flies down, but they certainly aren't gone.  John has been taking the fly masks off at night now and that's working out OK.  The mornings are cold enough the flies don't get moving very early.  

We will be taking Reba the red mule into Benson today to get her teeth checked.  She is about 31 years old and lately has been a little reluctant to take horse treats.  They are hard as concrete, but before she thought they were great.  So we'll take her to Dr. Debra to have a look.  Hope she doesn't have to have any teeth pulled, that's almost as traumatic as gelding for me.  And I'm sure they don't enjoy it either. 

BURROLAND IS OPEN AGAIN......!!!

A DONKEY GRAZES IN FRONT OF A 17TH CENTURY MONASTERY  IN N. IRELAND

It's been 3 or 4 days since they got their 2 or 3 hours in Burroland, so late this morning we opened the gate, before we let them out of their pens.  So far it's been a slow transition, guess they had given up on being able to go over there.  When I came in 2 of the minis were working that way, eating beans along the way..........SIGH.!!!

Doctoring is getting pretty easy, a couple of habronema spots, scabs but no open sores.  This morning Cisco was scratching an ear with vigor.  Stuck my hand down in it and yuck........!!!  Gooey, so I sent down a rag, which he really seemed to appreciate.  Then I squirted some Animax in his ear, which wasn't appreciated at all......!! He usually has ear problems once or twice a summer, don't have a clue as to what it is.  Brought it to the attention of a vet years ago, and she used Animax, without telling me what IT was and the Animax clears IT up pretty quick, whatever IT is..............!!!

The weather is changing into fall, it's interesting how you can wake up one morning and it looks and feels like fall.  No more 100 degrees and probably very little rain, although we got a couple of drops yesterday afternoon, so the monsoon is still trying to hang on.  This has been a good monsoon for a change, it's been years since we got a decent monsoon, so we are enjoying it, even if the rain usually comes at feeding time.

Of course all the toads and desert critters are enjoying monsoon.  This morning I saw a little toad, less than a 1/2 inch in diameter hopping along.  I had to look twice to even know what it was.  He was a perfect little Colorado River Toad, although I guess it could have been a Spadefoot, too little for me to tell the difference.  As tiny as he was, he must have been a tadpole yesterday. 

I guess Snooky can only stand being wild for 3 days and 2 nights, he came in yesterday morning on his own, as long as the door was open and we weren't standing by it.  Guess he missed his ice cream and Temptation cat treats. 

SNOOKY IS OUT AND ABOUT

The house cats (4) are always trying to figure out how to get out in the big world.  Night before last one of them managed to knock one of the screens out and when John got up in the morning, the 3 boys were out and Moogee was sitting by the opening probably thinking, "you guys are going to get it".......!!! 

Nigel wasn't too difficult, lately if he gets out he will actually let us pick him up.  We locked him and Moogee up, opened the back door and Sunny made a tactical error and came in.  Snookey has always had a wild streak, we saw him a couple of times yesterday, but haven't seen him yet today.  Last time he got out he was out for 3 days before we suckered him in.  I've made up my mind I won't worry about him, we all make decisions and sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't.  We don't have a lot of coyotes around here anymore, so hopefully he's just out enjoying his freedom.  

I had some boring things to do in Benson yesterday, John decided to stay home and try to catch up on some of the little piddlely things that always need to be done, and seem to multiply at a rapid rate.  I went in, did all my stops and everything was really going smoothly.......!!  

Headed for home and it started raining, turned  the windshield wipers on one click and immediately had to go to full on.........!!!  Couldn't see past the hood hardly, but I know the road and there wasn't any other idiots out there.........LOL  By the time I got to our little dirt/mud road it had quit raining, but everything was flooded.  I had driven thru the washes that cross over the main road and hoped the last big wash would be OK...............NOT..........!!!!  It was running about running board high on the van.  The van weighs 3 tons, so it's not going to float away like a little car.  But the weight will drag it down if the ground underneath isn't stable.  Tried to call John, (I was almost close enough to yell), but was in a dead zone for a signal.  Backed up and finally got it to ring, had to leave a message..........!!  He called me back in about 5 minutes, said he had gotten caught in the garage and had to wait it out.  

I told him I'd just sit there and wait for it to go down, but he fired up the Bronco and came to rescue me, any excuse to play with the 4 wheel drive.  He went out about an hour later and drove the van home.  

I think the donkeys are getting as tired of the rain as we are.  Although they are still enjoying all the green stuff and of course the mesquite beans.  Right now we have 6 fatties staying in the pens.  Buddy Brat is the last addition........!!!  This isn't his first "rodeo" he has to go in just about every year, until the majority of the beans are gone.  He knows when he is being mistreated and lets us know every time he sees us, by screaming and running to the gate. 

 JOHN AND BUDDY BRAT

Rosie went in a few days ago, because she was laying around and acting very ouchy on her feet, although they weren't warm.  She's walking much better, we even dragged out one of the slow feeder nets to put her hay in.  Didn't take her long to figure it out, she even knows how to shake it to get the hay to fall out, so she doesn't have to pull it out.  

They haven't even been on Burroland the last few days, if we go to town or it rains and the wash runs, they don't get over there for their 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon, much to their disgust.  Reba and Rusty the mules are particularly upset and will stand and stare at the gate for hours.  Oh! well as long as they are standing, they aren't eating....!!!   LOL

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO......!!!

Last night at feeding time, Lynn, one of the minis was very lethargic not even interested in treats and was laying down.  My WAG (Wild Ass Guess) based on "been there before" is gas colic from eating mesquite beans.  Gave her my old stand-by remedy, Equine Colic Relief, USA and we watched her.  She wasn't really uncomfortable, but you could tell she wasn't happy. 

This morning she still wasn't up to par, but was better.  Tonight she's back to normal, begging and eating normally.  

They have not been over to Burroland for 3 days, we've been going to town and it just hasn't worked out to let them out for 3 hours in the afternoon.  Tonight when we were feeding I took time out to go over on Burroland to see how the bean crop was doing.  A lot of the trees don't even have beans, which is good.  Some of them still have beans on the trees and some have beans on the ground.  But I didn't see any area that was "carpeted" with beans, so we might not be so "anal" about them going over there for a longer time.  I only got to check the top half of Burroland, so in the morning we'll check the rest of it, hopefully it will be about the same.  

We actually have 3 or 4 different types of mesquite trees on the property and very rarely do all of them have a bumper crop, or no crop.  I assume they have different requirements in order to have a good season.  We always pray for a bad crop.......!!! LOL

John got home about midnight after rescuing the car.  Turned out to be a loose distributor cap.  Simple fix, but something that will not let you go anyplace until it is fixed.  John had towed it to one of the garages in town, it was an easy find,  so she was on back on the road pretty quick. 

THIS HAS BEEN AN "INTERESTING" DAY.......SO FAR.......!!!

John was suppose to take our neighbor to town this afternoon, she doesn't have a car.  I needed to go take care of some paperwork, and get a blood test, so we decided we would both go to town......just in different vehicles.

So off he went in the van and I took off in the pick-up.  We decided to meet for lunch after he let Donna off at Wal-Mart.  By the time I got to the restaurant, the pick-up was squealing like a pig under a fence.....!!!  I asked him if I needed some belt dressing, but when he looked under the hood, I really needed a serpentine belt tensioner.  No, I don't know what it is either, but if it freezes up, it complains very loudly.  Our "go to" mechanic is right across the road from the restaurant.  John limped the truck over there and the parking lot was so full, he couldn't find a place to park.  Not a good sign, but they said they'd try to squeeze it in.  So off we went, I dropped John off at Wally-world to do the shopping I was suppose to do, while I took the van to do my errands.  Got back to Wal-mart and they both were shopped out and ready to go.  Went back to the mechanic and the truck was ready, won't tell you what emergency work costs, let's just say it rates right up there with emergency vet care.....!!!  

It had rained in Benson, and our main road home and the washes had ran and were still running in some cases.  Got home and it had barely wet the ground.  When time to do chores the rain that hadn't got here yet hit with a vengeance.  Right before we went out to get wet, a friend called and asked if John could come into Tucson to pick up her car that had decided to quit.  He said he would, but after the gulley washer, our wash ran bank to bank. 

John managed to get all the donkeys in except for Tula, and Boaz, had no idea where they were.  Of course when it's raining in sheets, the donkeys aren't the least bit interested in eating, and we weren't very interested in serving them anyway.  Just as it was about to quit, Boaz came waltzing by the feed room.  I went out to put him in his pen, and found out he could care less.  In fact when John and I both started herding him, after I chased him around for about 15 minutes, he decided we weren't going to leave him alone.  The last we saw of him, he found an spot where he could cross the wash without getting his knees wet, and was headed for Burroland.  Never did see Tula, so we assume she is over there someplace.  

When we got the call about the car, John looked at me and said, "don't you dare say it".  "What?", I asked......!!!   Usually when a day goes like this, one of us will say, "well, we aren't bored", guess he didn't want to hear that......!!!  LOL

This morning was the first morning we had done much with Penny since her dental appointment and Tyler came out yesterday. He actually came to reset Gigi's shoe.  But she has a big chunk missing from the front of that foot and he is afraid we might not get the nails to hold.  He said to call him if the shoe comes loose, and we'll have to figure out what to do.  I didn't want him to have a wasted trip, so asked him to trim Penny.  Her front feet wear pretty good, but her rear feet are real underslung probably because of her hunchback.  She was not a cooperative victim, let's say.  Even with a scotch hobble, she let us know she was not happy. 

THIS MORNING AFTER OUR POLO WRAPPING PARTY

This morning I needed to rewrap her front legs, the polo wraps had come loose.  I found out she holds a grudge, she whizzed a rear foot past my ear twice. One thing about donkeys if they want to kick you they will, so I think she was just letting me know her displeasure. 

Tonight, just about the time we got the hay delivered to the pens, it quit raining.  But the wash is now higher than it was earlier, because of the run off.  A lot of time, the wash will run and we won't get a drop of rain, but southeast of us got plenty.  

We have no idea when the wash will go down enough for John to get out with the trailer.  So it's probably going to be a long night. 

PENNY'S DOING GOOD....!!

 I hope she knows what's she's doing.....!!

After a couple of uncomfortable days, she is pretty much back to eating her mush.  Well she would be except the mesquite beans, are now ripe and falling.  Everyone seems to think they are actually vacuum cleaners disguised as donkeys and Penny really seems to enjoy the beans.  I just hope we don't have a lot of wind anytime soon, to blow all the beans down at once, or they won't even bother to come in I'm afraid. 

It's taking John longer and longer to round everyone up at feeding time.  And of course Mr. Pepper is so slow even if he starts over from Burroland at a decent time, it takes him forever to get here.  Plus the fact he usually lays down in the big wash to rest before making the final push to get to his pen. 

WASH RAN, BIG TIME.........!!!

Philmont Ranch, Cimmaron, New Mexico

Bank to bank............  We had a "real" monsoon rain yesterday afternoon.  Our back wall around the yard is about 30 feet or so from the house.  At the worst of the rain, we couldn't see the wall, it looked like some of the rain storms in the tropics I think it's called sheet rain. 

The wash ran for about 1 1/2 hours, which was getting us worried.  We had to feed later than we had planned because of the rain and then the wash running just added to the problem of us meeting friends to drive to the track with.  Our wash crosses the main road 7 times between here and civilization.  If our wash is running it is also running across the main road with the accompanying rocks, sticks, downed trees, and assorted car and house trash people have thrown into "their" wash.  We called our friends and told them if we had to take the bronco to get out rather than the van, they would have to drive.  The bronco on the highway is not fast enough to keep up with traffic.  We got a late start, the road wasn't too bad, although John had to pick his way thru the debris left behind.

Got to the track and it was sprinkling and they were trying to dry the track.  Finally got it dry got some of the race cars out to hot lap, and it started sprinkling again.  One thing about asphalt, if it's raining, they DON"T race, too slick and they wreck.  Dirt, not so much you can race as long as the spectators are crazy enough to sit in the bleachers.....!!! LOL

When we got there they had a lot of the race cars lined up behind the bleachers so the fans could "meet and greet" the driver's and see the cars up close.  Rod had his out there, so we hung around with him for awhile.  Saw a lot of spectators from the dirt track, saw drivers that had left the dirt track and are now driving asphalt and saw a lot of fans from the dirt track.  It always amazing to me that people recognize me, our track doesn't do meet and greet, so unless you actually know the drivers, anybody could be in that car and you wouldn't know them.  Not too long ago I was in the bathroom on the spectator side and a woman came up and wanted to hug me. 

We knew before we left that John was going to have to fix fences when we got home.  When the wash runs it usually damages the fence where it comes on the property and where it goes off the 10 acres into Burroland.  The donkeys don't look for places to get out, but would certainly take advantage of the fence being down.  Didn't have a chance to check the fence where the wash goes out of Burroland, so the donkeys were on just the 10 acres till this morning.  

When we came home I held the flashlight while John untangled tree stumps and huge limbs from the barbed wire.  I was standing about 4 feet from the fence on one side, he was on the other side working on a big stump.  all of a sudden the wire came loose from the stump and "pinged" towards me complete with T-post.  Caught me in the ribs, not hard enough to knock me down, but enough to remind me of why we never try to work together.  LOL

PEPPER, PEPPER, PEPPER......!!!

 Wonder what mischief the old buzzard is thinking about

Right now since we actually got a little rain, there is a lot of green stuff trying to come up and become a plant.  "Me thinks" it "ain't" going to happen, with this crew of equids running around eating everything in site.  Actually there is more greenery than they can consume and after a few days of no rain, it is starting to wilt.  But the donkeys are doing their best to eat as much as they can.

Last night at round-up, which is taking longer and longer every time, John finally got almost everyone in their pens.  Of course by the time that happens the good little boys and girls that came in on time have been in their pens for quite some time with no food forthcoming and get pretty vocal about it.  

Finally we were down to Pepper being the only one missing.  SIGH!  Went ahead started feeding the others.  While John parceled out hay, I went over to Burroland to see if I could find the old buzzard.  If he's down he's usually in one of the dust bathing areas, so I hit all those first.  When that didn't work I started following the trails, went all over the 20 acres and didn't see a thing.......well except for a rattlesnake that was slowly moving across an open area.  I got within about 10 feet of him and he never even acknowledged I was there, which was fine with me. 

By that time it was into dusk, headed for dark and John came over to help me look.  We were afraid it was going to get dark and we wouldn't have found him yet.  John went one way, I went the other and we kept crisscrossing paths, but no Pepper.  All of a sudden I heard a rattler and sure enough there was my little buddy, only this time he was coiled up and unhappy that I was about 3 feet from him.  I never saw him until I heard him, when I did a 180 and headed out......!!!!  

Still no Pepper, so we headed back over to the pen area to check down below the house again.  As I got close to the pens.............there was Pepper standing outside his pen, looking very PO'ed because the gate wasn't open.   John neglected to leave it open when he was delivering hay, so the old boy could just saunter in, if he did show up. 

We have no idea where he was, or where he came from, we do know we saw nothing of him after spending probably an hour looking for him.  We have talked about putting a bell on him.  The only way we could do it, would be to use some type of collar that would break-a-way if he got it caught on something.  Maybe something like a bungi.  I wouldn't be surprised if we did figure something out and put a bell on him, he would figure out some way to walk stealthy, so we couldn't track him.......LOL

ROSIE GOT A PEDICURE

Yesterday afternoon we had 2 couples show up for a tour.  It seems recently this has been happening more often.  We like to know when people are coming, that way we have some sort of control over where the donkeys are.  But if we aren't expecting anyone, the donkeys are usually out roaming around.  If they are on the 10 acres it isn't too difficult to find them, they usually find us since they know the pleasures of having visitors, even if treats aren't involved.  If they are in their pens we give the people cups of pellets to feed them.  But there would be too many opportunities for someone to get hurt if food was involved when they are out,  up close and personal.  They do enjoy all the petting and attention though.  Yesterday John had to ring the bell, most of them were over in Burroland.  I think the people got to see most of them anyway.  Actually I think the people enjoy being "in amongst them", more than seeing them in pens, but if given the choice we prefer the donkeys be in their pens. 

Courtney made it out yesterday afternoon about chore time.  She said she was late because of doing too much talking along the way.  I didn't notice she was late, she usually gets here about chore time.....!!! LOL  

John and I have been working on Rosie lifting her feet.  When she and Gigi came in of course Gigi's feet were beyond horrible, Rosie's were just horrible.  Gigi was of course the priority and she has done very well with her elongated shoe arrangement Tyler put on her.  But it was time to see what we could do with Rosie.  I asked Courtney if she wanted to try.  It was up to her, as we always have Tyler in the "wings" for these adventuresome situations, bless his heart.  He can bring a couple of strong boys with him, Courtney is by herself except for 2 old people that should have better sense.  She said we'd try it, so we put Rosie in the redneck squeeze, got a halter on her, tied her up short, put a rope around a front foot, lifted and ....................... Courtney went to work........!!!!!

Courtney didn't use the power tools there was a limit to what we wanted to throw at Rosie.  But she actually did really well.  No big hissy fit, no drama queen thrashing around and no biting.  The biting was important, the other day we had quite a "discussion" about lunging with mouth open, headed for "MY" arm, when she didn't appreciate me trying to lift her foot with a rope.  I didn't appreciate it and it took 5 or 6 "discussions" to get her to understand it wasn't going to happen.  Thanks goodness she didn't try it on John, he'll stand there flat footed and wonder what happened.  Obviously he's never been bitten badly by an equine.....!!! LOL  If so, he'd be much more alert.  

She didn't mind her foot being lifted with a rope, but Courtney tried to just go in and lift her foot with her hand...........Nope.......not going to happen.  Put the rope around and that's just fine.......!!!  It is so much fun to watch their minds work.

I had not looked at the bottom of her feet, Courtney said the hoof wall had collapsed and it was across the bottom of her feet.  Quilla's feet were like that when he came in.  I guess collapsing like that doesn't cause long term problems, she is walking just fine this morning. 

I took this picture of Boaz's knee yesterday.  That little map of Vietnam in the middle is why we are taking him into the vet later this month for evaluation and probable debriding again.  It is healing, but seems to have reached a level and isn't moving any further.  I have really been impressed with the Source One products.  When we took Pepsi down to his new home, Judy gave me some of the balm and powder, to see if it would help on Boaz's chronic knee wound.  I'm beginning to think the middle is proud flesh, which has been a problem and the Source One is keeping it at bay, but hasn't been able to get rid of it.  So maybe with a little help from the vet we can get this healed. 

WELL LIFE IS JUST ABOUT BACK TO NORMAL.....!!!

     This is a photo of the White House stables that were built in 1857 and burned in 1864, tragically killing several of Lincoln family's horses and ponies. Following is an account provided by White House guard, Robert W. McBride.

"One night there was an alarm of fire. The White House stables were burning. Those of us who were early on the ground saw a tall and hatless man come running from the direction of the White House. When he reached the boxwood hedge that served as an enclosure to the stables he sprang over it like a deer. As he approached the stable he inquired if the horses had been taken out. On learning that they had not, he asked impatiently why they had not, and with his own hands burst open the stable door. A glance within showed that the whole interior of the stable was in flames, and that the rescue of the horses was impossible. Notwithstanding this, he would apparently have rushed in had not those standing around caught and restrained him. It suddenly occurred to someone that possibly the stables had been fired for the purpose of bringing him out of the White House and giving an opportunity to assassinate him. Captain Bennett, of the Union Light Guard, and some others immediately hurried him into the White House, while, by Captain Bennett's orders, with a detail of the men of our company, I took charge of the entrance, remaining there on duty for several hours. "

  * * * * *

The donkeys are very happy to be back on schedule, as far as Burroland is concerned.  After about a week of restricting their time over there, they had pretty much cleaned up most of the beans, so the gate is now open 24/7 and the only time they aren't over there is when they are in their pens eating hay.  We knew it was time, when they started coming over without having to be chased.

Ruthie, Wister and  Boaz fell right back into the routine, like they had never left.  I have noticed one difference, Wister seems to be officially weaned, although he still tries occasionally.  When he tries to nurse and there's nothing there, he kicks back at Ruthie with his hind foot, like it's her fault.  

Boaz also came back with some more proud flesh growth on his knee.  Sigh!  I guess that is always going to be problem for him.  I'm debating having it taken off again or just controlling it as it is.  I'll work with it for awhile and see how it goes.  

Everyone else is doing good as far as doctoring is concerned.  Pepper hasn't been down on his right side for quite awhile.  John saw him lay down yesterday on his left side and dust bathe.  So hopefully he'd gained enough strength in his right rear leg to be able to control which side goes down first.   

Yesterday I worked with Penny and picking up her feet again.  She is so sweet and really seems to want to meet you half way.  I picked up all 4 feet, even used a hoof pick on a couple of them.  The left side seems to be OK, she still has reservations about the right, front and rear.  But she didn't pull away or kick or anything like that, she was just reluctant to pick those 2 feet up.  Once they were up, she let me hold them until I decided to put them down.  Of course I didn't hold them very long, but I thought she did really good.  

 

THEY'RE COMING HOME......!!!

Got a call this afternoon, Ruthie, Boaz and Wister have eaten themselves out of a job and we'll go get them Saturday after chores.  I'm sure they won't mind helping the others, clean up the mesquite beans in Burroland.  Maybe 3 more mouths will make it go quicker.

John is doing Poo Watch 101 and says the amount of beans is rapidly getting less and less.  We've also noticed the mesquite are starting to lose their leaves. Maybe that mean we're going to have an early winter.

MISS PENNY PACKER IS SO BRAVE

No explanation needed, I hope....!!!  Spent a lot of my childhood watching Roy Rogers and Trigger, catch the bad guys.....!!!

This morning when we were doctoring I decided it was time to work with Penny on picking up her feet.  Although at first she was a fear kicker, she's really been good lately, no kicking.  Of course we haven't ask anything of her except to try to stand still, when I need to wrap her legs. 

Mark Myers from Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue, the largest donkey rescue in the U.S. has recently put some "how to" videos on You-Tube.  One of the first ones he put up was how to pick up hooves on a reluctant donkey.  After watching it a couple of times I decided to try it with Penny.  It isn't anything dramatic, just put a rope below the fetlock and get them to raise the foot off the ground without having a hissy fit.  

Penny isn't a fan of halters and ropes, so we had to put her into the "redneck" squeeze to put a halter on her.  Then we tied her up short, and John stayed in position to feed animal crackers as needed.  She didn't seem to mind being tied all that much, which was a surprise as evasive as she is about ropes and such. 

The more I work with her the more I am sure her front legs have been roped.  I started with a front foot.  When I pulled up on the rope, she almost collapsed on the ground, I think she would have hit the ground, except I was in the way and she was leaning on me.  Back legs no problem, in fact she even let me pick them up by hand, not using the rope.  Other front leg, same scenario, almost collapse.  I did manage to get each one up for a second or two. 

The best thing out of the whole experience is, she never offered to kick at all.  Hopefully if we keep working with her we can get her desensitized enough that Courtney can trim her feet.  Because of her hunch back I guess, her rear feet grow pretty weird.  

We have a routine I guess.  In the morning when they go out of their pens, they head for the Burroland gate to wait as long as necessary.  They see John coming and they start milling around, trying to get the best position to get in there as soon as possible.  John opens the gate, and they disappear.  They are much easier to round up in the afternoon, although we still have to go over to get them, rather than they coming over on their own, which is how it's suppose to work.  John rings the bell before he goes over to find them, with the idea that they will hear it and come on over.  So far that hasn't happened. 

JACK IS SURGING AHEAD IN THE BATTLE OF WILLS

Poor John, I'm not sure he's really up to this battle of wills.  He's at a disadvantage because the fencing is barbed wire that has been up for over 20 years on T-posts.  T-posts over the years don't always stay in place which means the wire gets loose.  Plus there is the added feature of the large wash the fence goes across.  And Jack knows very well he can get thru the fence, if he just finds the right spot. 

We let them into Burroland yesterday afternoon, took an hour and 15 minutes to get them all back over here.  That's a lot of exercise for John and I, much more than we wanted.  We managed to get back with no major wounds.  Trying to keep up with donkeys in the mesquite and brush, not to mention all the dead limbs on the ground trying to trip us.  Wouldn't be so many limbs, but when they are trying to reach the beans, they break off limbs.  A lot of the limbs on the trees hang at just about eye level, but we managed to survive those too.  It's not very effective for 2 "mature" humans to try to round up a dozen donkeys on 20 acres, that have no intention of cooperating.  Our only trump card is to just keep at them, so they know we are behind them, until they finally give up.  What gets me is you can tell when they are ready to go to the gate.  Before that if you manage to get them in the gate area, they just go past it like it isn't there, usually at a high rate of speed.  Once they make up their minds they head for the gate by the shortest route at a walk.  I had a whistle I blew once, won't do that again.  It took us forever to even find them after that......!!!! LOL  Rusty the white mule was under a tree eating beans like a Hoover, ignoring me.  When I blew that whistle, I found out just how fast a 34 year old mule can move.  Of course all the others left too, at warp speed. 

I guess Jack isn't satisfied with the rationed time over in Burroland, so this morning when John rounded everyone up, Jack was missing and Molly was standing by the fence looking into Burroland.  John's already found out where Jack wiggled thru, just has to fix it.  I've always heard "if your fences won't hold water, don't get goats".  That might be a good thought for little black mini mules too......!!! LOL

Yesterday morning Daisy came in with a bloody nose on one side.  Equine aren't known for having nosebleeds, there is usually a good reason, gutteral pouch,  and ethmoid hematoma are a couple of reasons you really don't want.  Of course there is the exercise reason well known in the racing industry.  I doubt that Daisy would ever have an exercise nose bleed, not her style.  I cleaned her nose out and it felt like there might be a scratch in there.  I put some Vaseline in her nostril and this morning it isn't draining, so hopefully that's what it was.  She probably stuck a stick up her nose.

Mike and Zeke are home.  I haven't heard how the parade in Kingman went this week-end, I hope they made it.  Zeke picked up a piece of wire in the sole of one of his feet and went lame.  They were within about 20 miles of Kingman, but Zeke's health and well being, is more important than pressing on.  I hope he doesn't get an abscess, which is pretty common with a sole puncture, the place closes over because it's such a small opening and traps dirt and bacteria. 

BRATS.........!!!

Well, I must say round-up Friday night was "interesting". Most of the herd were over in Burroland and not the least bit interested in coming in to eat hay.  John went over, found some of them, got them headed to the gate, and they circled around him and disappeared.  

I went over and pretty much came up empty handed.  Went I came back, I almost got ran down by a thundering herd, headed for the gate.  John had found them and once he got Tula headed the right direction, the rest followed.  Wished I had the camera, they were running, bucking and having a great time. 

Somewhere in the melee Coquette lost Penny.  Talk about a crisis?  She absolutely panics if she doesn't know where Penny is.  John got her in their pen before she really fell apart, so then she just paced and yelled.  When Penny showed up you could almost see the relief in Coquettes eyes.  Coquette would be adoptable, she's healthy and has had training.  But her attachment to hunchbacked, fearful Penny probably means they will both stay here.  I can't see most people wanting to give Penny a home, although she is very sweet, she is not what most people want in a donkey.  Sad............!!!!  Unless Coquette gets over clinging to Penny, we won't ever separate them.  They weren't even in the same pen up at Milagros, I guess this attachment developed on the trailer ride. 

John had ran across Pepper, so we knew he was up.  But we couldn't find him, everyone else was finally in their pens........no Pepper.........!!  We had not planned ahead for such a problem getting them in their pens, so by this time it's getting pretty dark.  I went over to look for him, and finally came back to go ahead and mix up my feed pans, while John went over to look for him.  John said he walked the complete 20 acres, never saw hide nor hair of him.  Was almost to the gate to come back over here, said he heard a noise behind him, and there was Pepper, looking at him like, "you looking for me?"  

We've seen him laying down twice lately on his left side, which is great.  He can get up pretty easy from his left side, not at all from the right.  I don't know if he puts any thought into the repercussions when he lays down.  My personal thought is his right leg and hip are weak from the hip being cracked and the left leg, while not all that strong anymore, is stronger than the right.  So when he tries to lay down by collapsing his hind quarters, the stronger leg, stays up longer than the almost useless weak one, and the right one gives out first and down he goes.  Maybe the right one is getting a little stronger, so he actually has a little bit of control of which side goes down first.  I'm sure after 3 years of us having to roll him over, he knows what he needs to do, but it doesn't always work out like he'd like it to. 

Yesterday was race day, so they didn't get to go over to Burroland, but we'll let them out this afternoon for a couple of hours.  Hope it doesn't take longer to get them back, than they are over there.......!!! LOL

Finished the test for my "safe driving" award.  What a waste of time and effort, remember I said I was learning more than I ever wanted to know about Speed Racer?  After spending 4 hours studying driving safety with Speed Racer questions thrown in for comic relief, the final test of 25 multiple choice questions was all Speed Racer questions, like "What is Speed Racers favorite animal at the zoo?" or 

"What is Speed Racers favorite snack?"....!!  Afterwards they asked for a critique of the class, so I did my best.....!!!!   Don't think they will be using it as a testimonial.......!!! LOL

Racing has gone better.  The heat race was OK, but in the main event, I got a flat about the 2nd or 3rd lap.  They will let you stay on the track with a flat, unless it is the right front.  Mine was the left front, so I stayed out and managed to stay in the pack, until coming in contact with another car, flattened the right front, so I had to pull off.  You might know, there were a lot of hornets for a change and only a couple of them had fell out, even though it was late in the race.  So I got scored at 15th....!!!  That's my lowest finish this year.  Too bad it wasn't one of those nights when only 10 or 11 cars show up....!!! LOL.  We have 5 more races, two of them the same night as a make up race for a night this summer when we got rained out.  I trying to hang on to my 5th place for end of the year points, it's going to take more than 15th place finishes to keep it.  Hopefully this was just a bad night and not the start of something else.....!!!

DON'T EVER GET A SAFE DRIVING AWARD FROM TUCSON.........!!!

I have managed to get to my advanced age without ever getting a traffic ticket........well except for one in Germany for sending a motorcycle rider into the air and under another Mercedes, for being in my lane when I was turning right with my turn light signal on.  It's a long story, but in Germany there is always responsibility of both parties involved, because if you hadn't been on the road, there wouldn't have been an accident.....!!! I was only 10% responsible and he was a lot smarter.

Anyway back to the problem at hand, Tucson has cameras at a lot of their intersections, so if you run the light, they have you.  Over a month ago I was turning left and saw a flash out of the corner of my eye. Dang it had been so long I figured it must have been for the guy behind me..........nope........they sent me a nice little letter with lots of drawings, even a picture of me driving the car.  Jeesh! they don't even give you any wiggle room.  What's really funny is there is 5 other cars scrambling around in the picture of the intersection, that one is a money maker I guess.....!!! LOL

So there are options you can pay...........are you ready...........$355 and they will accept it graciously without even a thank you very much.  Or you can fight it, big chance with my face right there.  The other option is to take a defensive driving school course, which will save you money, $218 instead of the $355, and you can take it on line.  It's only 4 hours and "LOTS OF FUN"......according to the propaganda on the web-site.  

Let me say I have learned more about Speed Racer in the last 2 hours than I ever wanted to know.  I guess they put in these little tidbits to make sure you are reading everything.  You also are timed, so you can't read the page and go on until they tell you "time's up"......!!  

At least you can log out and go back at a later time.  I'm debating whether to ruin my evening or wait until tomorrow.......!!!

I can't really complain, I've got away with a lot of driving no-nos over the years and have always said if I got stopped for speeding, I'd take my ticket with a "thank you officer", and consider myself lucky.  Whoever thought I'd get caught running a "pink" light?  

On to something more interesting.  I don't know how long this toy will last, but Pepsi is really enjoying for now.  

As of today we gave up on the cows coming into Burroland and cleaning up the mesquite beans, it just isn't going to happen this year.  There isn't enough range cattle to make much of a difference, guess they sold them all.  And there are still mesquite beans everywhere along the roads, so why would they bother to come in the gate?  

So we closed the gates, and opened the gate to Burroland from over here a couple of hours before feeding time.  Most of them figured it out and away they went.  Our plan is to let them over there a few times a week for 2 or 3 hours a day, so they can clean up beans, but hopefully not gorge on them.  We'll see how it goes, I know how it will be when they go over there one day and the next day the gate is closed..........it's not going to be pretty......!!!! LOL

JACK IS SURGING AHEAD IN THE BATTLE OF WILLS.......!!!

John just came in and asked if I could watch the gate to Burroland, while he went to run Jack back.  Heh, heh, heh, I'm sure glad I'm not involved in this little mind game.  Actually he was almost within sight of the gate and let John put a halter and lead on him.  

I had a problem while I was waiting for them to get back..............BlackJack....!!!!  He wanted to "help" me with the gate.  The problem with BJ is he knows we aren't going to kill him or beat him with a stick, he figured that out years ago.  I do have a buggy whip that he will react to, but anything else is not much of a problem as far as he is concerned.  He was determined to get into Burroland, no matter what I said or did.  Once I found out John had a halter on Jack, I locked the gate till they got there, much to BJ's disgust.  

John is out there even as I type...........pounding more T-posts, he watched Jack start at the end where he was getting out, trying the whole fence line across the wash.  When he got to the end where it goes up the bank, he managed to squirm and wiggle thru the area where it starts up.  It's not actually wide enough for him to get thru, but he managed. 

I'm thinking of starting a betting pool, for when the next escape is.  Can't wait for Boaz to come home, he's another fence challenger.  Well, one thing John will find out exactly where his fences need repair...!!! Ha! 

NOT SURE WHO'S WINNING THE WAR...........!

I know John would like to think he is, but this morning he had to go retrieve mini mule Jack from the neighbor's side of Burroland.  I guess he was waiting for the dogs to come out and run the fence with him.  

No dogs, but when he saw John arriving, John said he picked up the pace.  John went out wide and when Jack saw he wasn't going to go away, John said he brayed, well actually he doesn't really bray, it's more like a pig grunting with a little squeal here and there, and took off running for this side.  John had left the gate to Burroland open, just in case, and Jack beat him back by minutes....!!!  John on 2 legs didn't stand a chance.....!! 

While they were eating, John used the T-post driver (one of his "favorite" tools) and drove 3 T-posts into the wash.  That fence across the wash is usually not actually attached to the ground, so when the wash runs, it will float up, rather than get torn out.  But little Jack Horner knows that now.  Hopefully the monsoon season is over for awhile.  I let everyone out of their pens while John was playing with the driver.  Jack went right over to his escape spot, stuck his head under the wire and started pushing and shoving.  John just stood there and watched him.  He said Jack tried and tried and finally figured out it wasn't moving like it did.  John came in crowing about how he'd outsmarted Jack.  But the next time he went out he couldn't find Jack, came in to get me to watch the open gate while he went over to retrieve Jack..........again......!!!!  Heh! Heh! Heh!  Couldn't leave the gate open, because now all the others were out too, without someone standing guard.  

John decided to look down below the pens before we went over to Burroland and he found the little monster calmly eating mesquite leaves with the herd.  It scared John enough that he pounded some more T-posts all across the wash to the other side, so the whole thing is attached to the ground.  John said he knew it wouldn't take Jack long to just walk down the fence from where he had been getting out, till he got to the unattached fence to wiggle under. 

Guess days like this is why we're never bored...........!!!!! LOL

JOHN HAS OUTSMARTED JACK, FOR THE TIME BEING

 New Forest, England............  "Can we help you?  Do you have treats?"

At least the little brat hasn't gotten out since the last time....!!! LOL  What gets me is he isn't over there trying to figure out how to get out again or anything.  It's like, no big deal, but it sure was for the couple of days he was going thru the fence at warped speed. 

I guess we're getting desperate about the mesquite bean problem.  John asked the guy we got Reba from if he knew anyone that had some cows to loan out.  Just what we need someone's cows to worry about.  I doubt that anyone would be interested in moving cattle around just because we need them to eat beans.  Wednesday at evening feeding time we heard cows west of us on the road.  I took the golf cart out to see what was going on.  I found cows wandering around, ignoring the abundance of mesquite beans EVERYWHERE down both sides of the roads.  Why would they bother to go on our property to eats beans, when they would have to walk over beans to get there.......!!! 

Then John came up with a brilliant thought..........there are at least 4 range bulls out there wandering around and at times fighting.  What if we had cows in Burroland and the bulls decided they wanted to entertain the new girls?  I would imagine most cows this time of year are already pregnant, but if not, I'm sure our fences wouldn't even slow them down if they had a reason.  Then we could not only have to go find them, but try to figure out which cows were range cattle and which ones weren't.  I think we'll forget about borrowing cows, it could definitely get complicated in a hurry.  

Our only chance now will probably be when all the weeds and grasses are no longer available for them to eat, and they will hopefully be more interested in beans.  The ranch has a spring-like area that stays flooded most of the summer, whether we get rain or not.  Can't see it from our place, but would imagine it is a rather tasty lush grassy meadow.