HAPPY OR SAD..........?????

We had a man up in the Showlow area call and was interested in a donkey or two.  After talking to him for awhile, he was interested in the little herd of three, Ruthie and her two boys Wister and Ruger.  It sounded like it might be a good fit, although the 300 mile distance made doing a home study and delivery problematic, at least for us.  Kathy at Longhopes Donkey Shelter said to have him send pictures of the barn, fencing, hay, feeding area, watering area, pictures of his other equine and their feet.  Leave it to Kathy to come up with a good idea.  She said that's what they ask for at Longhopes when it's a long way away.

He was also looking at a couple of young ones and this morning e-mailed to say they are going with the young ones.  They won't even get them until May, so I assume they are really young.  I'm sure that will work out good for him and I really wasn't looking forward to putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together, so it's a win, win situation.  And we will keep looking for a 3 donkey home for them.  

Steven is here today to help John put up a shelter in Wister and Ruger's pen.  We already have two shelters built like the one they are building.  John came in awhile ago to have me look at the first "bow" of PVC to see if it was OK.  Nooooooo............!  It was about a foot taller than the other two shelters.  He said the PVC was the same length, but he forgot, that pen is only 12 feet wide.  The other shelters are about 14 foot wide, so it makes them shorter.  So they are out there trying to figure out how to make it shorter.  It will have to be cut off, but how much?  I told Steve he is suppose to be the voice of reason, but he said he's not getting involved in management he's just labor........!!! LOL  

The next big project will be to replace the chain length fence between the dog pen and 2 of the donkey pens.  The donkeys have used the fence as a butt scratcher, and it's about to fall down.  The problem there is it will have to be replaced in one day between morning feeding and evening feeding.  Should be interesting, I've noticed as we get older, it takes much longer to finish things.......!!!  

I think for all practical purposes, winter is over.  We have lizards, bugs and hummingbirds are coming thru, trees other than mesquite are leafing out.  It's suppose to be in the 80's today.  Of course yesterday morning was 32 degrees and John had a little ice on his bird bath, so who knows.  I know one thing we are very dry and it's probably going to be a very hot summer.......!!!  :-(

THEY'RE BACK.............!!!!

 Daisy & Frijolita in the background, welcoming Ruthie & "monster man" home.

 

Ruthie hopped right in the trailer when we picked them up, & Wister (last name change, I hope) tried, but John had to help him by putting his front feet up in the trailer.  He hasn't learned how to jump up yet I guess.  

Cathy said she enjoyed having them that it was a fun experience.  But if she is a horse person, she'll probably be much happier long term with a horse.  Hope she finds one soon, Breezy was a little upset when we left, she needs a buddy.

He looks like he's grown a lot, John said a foot, but I think that might be a little bit of a stretch.  When we got home, since they had been here before, John just let them come out of the trailer on their own.  BIG MISTAKE........!!!!!  I was in  the house, looked out & there are animals running everywhere, dust flying & I even saw John running in the herd.  Hmmmmm...!!!!  Didn't look like a welcoming party, so I went out to see what was going on.  It seems like Jack the mini mule thought Wister would be fun to chase & once the race started, EVERYBODY joined in.  What a mess......... even old Rusty the big mule was participating & really enjoying it, bucking, rearing,  & yelling.  I ran out in front of him to aim him in a different direction & he reared, nostrils flaring & off he went.  Silly old fool, running up & down the banks of the wash just having a great time.  I went after him again to get him into his pen, & about that time Ruthie & Wister headed towards the pens where John was.  Ruthie saw John in the pens & aimed for him.  He closed the gate & that was the end of that. At least I hope today is a little more calm.

Steve is here today to help John redo the pens, so we'll have room for everyone.  Right now we're good, but when Quilla & Gus come back we'll need 2 more pens.  What really needs to be done, especially the pens on the east side is to take all the pens down & start over.  There was some thought put into the pens on the west, but the east side started as an emergency pen & as time went on, got cobbled together as more pens were needed.

Vincent Van Gogh, painting

Steve a volunteer is coming out tomorrow to trim some of the trees.  A few days ago John asked me to go around & mark which limbs I want gone, so I used bright colored plastic tape to make them.  You can probably see where this story is going.  We're on poo watch to see if we can figure out who has developed a taste for plastic tape.  John thinks it's either Ruthie or the minis, Cheyenne in particular.  It's bright pink, so should be easy to find.  Guess I'll take Steve around & "show" him where to trim.  LOL

When I took the diaper off Jenny's foot this morning after 2 days, it was pretty wet.  Dr. Voss said to soak every 2 days & I thought leaving the diaper on would be OK.  I can't tell if the moisture is what the epsom salts & betadine is drawing out of the hoof, or build up from the foot being wrapped.  It was never that damp when we were re-wrapping every 5-6 days, so hopefully it is the poultice doing it's job.  

Talked to Dr. Megan & we decided that I'll see what it looks like in the morning & if it's still too damp, I'll start changing the diaper twice a day.  I'm about out of the metronidazole, & the vet has to order it, guess they don't keep a lot of it on hand.  We're just about out of options at this time.  Dr. Voss told Dr. Megan that the only thing left would be another resection.  I doubt that her foot would take it, & if there is infection in her foot, she doesn't have much coffin bone left for them to remove.  So I really hope this works. 

It was 20 degrees here this morning.  We covered my tomato plants in the courtyard with a sheet, but a sheet was no match for 20 degrees.  It's a shame there is lots of green tomatoes on the pathetic looking plants.  I'll pull them out & prepare for next year I guess.