Well I'm happy to say that Katie was still in her pen last night when John went to let them out at bedtime.  I assume clipping the gate thwarted her new skill of opening gates.  That's "fine & dandy" BUT our little brains are filled to overflowing trying to remember all the little things we have to do to keep them from doing what we don't want them to do............!!!!  Heh, heh,heh.................!!!

Katie is suppose to be 7 years old.  The woman that found her & wanted her out of the petting zoo situation called the original owners & got a little history for her.  She had a foal about 3 years ago & refused to have anything to do with it, so she is lacking in mothering skills.  Other than that it sounds like she hasn't been mistreated, which is great.

Courtney will be coming maybe next week to do some trimming.  Katie has long feet, & she will let me pick up her feet, but she's a little squirrelly about standing still.  So we'll see how that goes. 

Katie "Houdini"

 

I've been calling her Katydid, but might have to change her name to Houdini.  Two nights ago, when I went out to let everyone out at bedtime, she was in with the other 4 jennies.  I just figured the gate between the pens didn't get latched, but last night she was in there again.  And John said he double checked the latch to make sure it was closed...............Hmmmmm.  Tonight we clipped the gate, so I am expecting her to still be in her pen.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

This isn't a very flattering picture of Katie, but it does show what I wanted to show, her very cresty neck & what might be called love handles or fat ripples down her side.  She also has a bubble butt.  Although she's carrying quite a big of extra weight, she is very quick & moves around a lot.  John went to his first physical therapy today (which I might add he didn't enjoy) & when we came home, she came down to the gate to greet us, from up by the hay barn.  We probably shouldn't encourage that, because she might get in the habit of greeting everyone that comes in.  The only time most of them care when we come home, is if we're late for feeding time, so it was nice to have her just coming down to say Hi.............!!

Well John is really getting into doing chores with one arm.  He even hopped on the tractor this morning to move corral panels back where they belong.  Gus decided this morning that with a little bit of effort he could shove the corral panels far enough to reach one of the bunks in the jenny pen.  He managed to get to his objective although I think by then the girls had finished their hay. 

This afternoon when Mike our neighbor & John went over to feed the chickens, they discovered 2 minis & good old Gus in the chicken pen.  The only alfalfa hay on the property is a bale in the chicken pen, for them to snack on.  Guess someone figured out there was alfalfa in there & between the 3 of them figured out how to get the gate open.  I guess Justin had a bunch of alfalfa hanging out his mouth when they were discovered. 

Tomorrow morning I will do a home study for Gus' new home.  I think this will be a great home for him, they think he's entertaining & they also have a 13 year old girl that will probably "mess" with him.   He definately needs directional guidance to keep his busy little mind occupied, otherwise he is very good at entertaining himself.  We finally figured out why he hangs around by the driveway gate a lot of the time.  Our local rancher lets his horses run loose with the cattle, & we think Gus is waiting up there to visit with them.  The new family has 3 horses, so he will enjoy being around horses again, I think. 

GOOD GRIEF.......!!

Well, John is up & about, in fact he has been helping with chores, abeit, one handed since Wednesday, two days after surgery.  Our neighbor Mike is coming up twice a day to help with chores & pick up poo, which really is helping.   And Destiny the young girl that helps when she doesn't have homework or something else to do is also helping.  So actually things are going great. 

Gus for some reason has got a bee in his bonnet about going in his pen.  The 1st night we "made" him go in, which took a lot more time & effort than I care to invest.  So the next time we ignored him until it was time to start putting down the feed pans.  He still wasn't interested.  Last night Destiny was here & he followed her in like a little soldier..........Hmmm..........This morning more of the same although he finally did follow John in reluctantly.  I think he's mad at me because I took a whip with me & spoke harshly the 1st night, once I figured out he was leading us on a merry chase.  I guess he doesn't like to be treated like a common run of the mill donkey, if there is such a thing.  The first night, he never looked at me once in the about 45 minutes it took us to "round" him up.  If he stopped he would look the other way.  In fact he would concentrate on something that was absolutely fascinating, "over there". 

We will be doing a home study for Gus' new home this week-end.  They are horse people & I'm sure it will be a good home for Gus.  

This morning when it was time to move Pepper out of the girl's pen into his pen, he didn't want to go in the right direction.  He much preferred to go out the other gate.  So I got the halter, went out , opened the gate & out he came.............and headed straight for Lucy & started wooing her.  The old buzzard can't hardly stand up, he even tried to mount her, without much success.  Poor Buster he usually protects his Lucy girl from outside suitors, but Pepper had on his blanket & booties & Buster must have thought he was some sort of apparition , because he took off.  I finally got the halter on Pepper, & he toddled off to his pen like that was what he wanted to do.

Everyone else seem to be doing good right now, Hanna was a little off a couple of days ago.  She's still young enough she might be getting some new teeth, I checked her over & couldn't find anything wrong.  We're still keeping Paladin in during the day when the girls are out & he gets to go out at night.  I've thought about letting him out when they are out to see what happens.  BUT, I've noticed when the other geldings start braying at each other, he joins in the chorus & paces the fence, so I would imagine his testosterone level is still pretty high. 

 South Dakota 1891

I might be out of touch for awhile.  John had rotator cuff surgery today.  A neighbor took him in this morning about 6am & they didn't get back home until about 7pm. I'll be in charge of chores for awhile.  John had thought he would be home in time today to help with chores.  Not only did he not make it in time, he looked like he had been ran thru a wringer & wasn't showing any interest in anything except getting in his recliner.  For 3 days he will be hooked up to a machine that runs ice water all over the shoulder to control swelling.  So far I've shot water across the room twice.  Finally read the instructions to detach it from the electricity to stop the pump............DUH!

I didn't notice the donkeys cutting me any slack today.  They have never figured out that if there is just one of us doing chores it's going to take twice as long, especially if they don't bother to come in & get in their pens, without a lot of drama.  I don't really mind the not coming in & I don't really mind the drama.  But I do mind them going in the pen, turning around & yelling at me because I don't rush in & give them their carrot.  Under the circumstances they are lucky to get a carrot at all............!!!

Well, I guess we've been forgiven, Rusty is back to his old self this morning.  And all the mud from him rolling in the dirt to dry up the sweat is gone.  He's back to  being  nice &  shiny white with a few appaloosa spots, hence the name Rusty, which until we figured it out seemed like a strange name for a white looking mule.

Katie the new girl really gets excited when you deliver food.  She hogs the gate, & then trots & prances with you as you carry beet pulp, hay or whatever.  This morning she hogged the gate, I poked her in the chest to get her to back up.  She was jumping all over the place & I knew what was next.  Sure enough on the way to her bunk, she spun & up in the air the hind legs went.  So we had MURDER 101 for about 3-5 seconds.  I'm not sure she was very contrite, she was way too focused on what I was carrying.   So for the foreseeable future I will also be carrying a quirt, we'll see if that gets her attention.  I hate to have to be the bad cop, but that type of behavior is not acceptable, no matter how excited she gets. 

Boy are we in the doghouse as far as Rusty the mule is concerned.  It seems in the flurry of getting chores done & getting ready to go to town, we forgot to let Rusty out of his pen this morning.  When we came home at feeding time this afternoon we were greeted by one pissed off mule still in his pen.  He had worked himself into a sweat & when we got out of the van he was screaming like a howler monkey, as he paced back & forth.

John let him out & he immediately rolled in the dirt, to dry up all the sweat I would imagine, since it was starting to get chilly.  I came bearing gifts of Mrs. ?????  Pasture Cookies, which they don't usually get except on special occasions.  He was willing to take both of them, & look for more.  We left him out while John rounded up the others, & I fixed their beet pulp & supplements.  He was willing to go into his pen when the time came, but really worried about the gate being shut.  In fact he almost wouldn't eat, he'd rather keep checking the gate.  I hope going out like normal at bedtime will settle him down.  Mules do have their own way of looking at life & it sometimes doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us mere mortals.

When we first got Jack the other mule years ago, we kept him in his pen for the first week or so.  He spent every minute pacing back & forth along the corral panel, until he had a path worn into the dirt about 10 inches deep.  We thought he was maybe missing a special buddy, but once we let him out of the pen, he was just fine.  Must be a mule thing. 

I am REALLY getting tired of nights in the teens or low 20's if we're lucky.  The days are nice & sunny, which is nice, but it would be wonderful to add at least 10 degrees to the night temperatures.  This is suppose to be a rainy season too, but so far nothing wet has happened. 

Katie is now out & about with the other girls during the day when Paladin is in his pen.  Yesterday morning Quilla came in after a night of playing with Paladin, with a gimpy leg.  I don't know what he does to cripple everyone, but he is getting quite a list. The ground is pretty rough with holes & dips all over, so I would imagine in the process of running & playing or chasing they mis-step.

This afternoon when it was time to do round-up, Katie & Hanna were running.  Hanna has not been kind to Katie when they are in the pens, so I don't know if they were playing or not.  Katie doesn't seem to mind if Hanna is a grouch or not.  Katie really moves fast for a donkey.  She's 7 years old so she isn't a wild child that wants to run all over the place.  But if Hanna acts grumpy, Katie just takes off, she doesn't even act like it's a big deal, which probably irritates Hanna.   It's hard to try to dominate someone if they aren't scared & don't really seem to care. 

Sha'ba hasn't been eating his mush the last couple of days, I'm not sure what the problem is.  I felt around in his mouth today & smelled it.  All of the few teeth he has are worn off to the gums, but they could still get infected.  But he didn't mind me poking around in his mouth & it smelled OK, so I don't know what his problem is.  He doesn't need to lose any weight.  Both he & Pepper get blanketed & booted every night.  I'll have to keep it up until the nights are above 40 degrees on a regular basis.  It's one of those things, that once you start you have to keep doing it.  So he shouldn't be too cold. 

I called today to make an appointment to have the little jack down at Dos Cabezas gelded.  Haven't heard back yet, but I hope they can do it this month before it starts getting warmer during the day.  I hope his momma can protect him if necessary, there are a lot of coyotes in that area.  He's only about 8 months old, so it shouldn't be a big deal, like an older jack. 

I heard today one of the neighbors that lives right on the San Pedro river has seen mountain lion tracks on his property.  I hope it was just passing thru, a mountain lion could take one of the donkeys down. 

GUS IS GOING HOME SOON

The man had met Gus when he was here helping John pick up poo when the movie was being shot a few weeks ago.  I never knew poo was a "prop", but they needed poo to spread on the street & Joe offered to help John clean pens in exchange for the poo.  Gus followed him everywhere he went & Joe was smitten with him. 

They have a 13 year old daughter that got a horse for Christmas & they already have a couple of horses, so it's Gus' kind of place.  Everyone was in their pens, but we let Gus out so they could meet him up close & personal.  He followed along as we visited with the other donkeys, although he did take one detour to check out their truck bed.  They said there was hay scraps in there, & we asked if there was anything else.  Joe said he didn't think so.  Well, Gus managed to find an extension cord & bite thru the insulation.  We had already told them about some of the things he does to amuse himself, & when they saw the cord, they just laughed & said they would have to tape it.  Sounds more & more like a great home for this big buffoon that needs to be entertained or he will entertain himself. 

John's cousin & his wife are here from Washington.  Gene is a master gardener & when he was here a few years ago, he said he wanted to work in our yard the next time he came back.  They have been here a few days & have worked like wild people in the yard & it's really starting to look nice.  Yesterday they went out to buy some plants & when they came back they parked in the driveway with the trunk open.  John came in & told me my donkey had just ate a hawthorne.  Number one I have no clue what a hawthorne is, & number two I'm not really sure which donkeys are classified as mine.  My first guess was Gus, but John said no.  Hmmm, the only other ones out were Lucy, Buster & Quilla.  I guess John saw Buster with the evidence hanging from his mouth.  Unfortunately there wasn't enough left to salvage, so we only have one hawthorne planted in the yard instead of two. 

KATIE IS OUT & ABOUT

We had a couple of tours this morning & afterwards we let Katie out to explore.  I don't think she quit moving all day, she was flitting here & flitting there. She didn't really attach to any of the other donkeys, she was too busy investigating everything.  This afternoon when it was time for her to go into her pen, I saw her over on the 20 acres we call Burroland.  When I called her she came across the wash & followed me into her pen.  She is very sweet & came running up to me a couple of times during the day, just to say Hi I guess.

This morning after the tours I was letting everyone out & happened to look over towards the hay pen.  I noticed there were a couple of equines over there & it looked like they were in the hay barn.  Got closer & sure enough, Rusty the white mule & Buddy the little Brat were in there eating as fast as they could.   Cisco was standing outside, obviously he knew better than to go where he knew he didn't belong, unlike the other two.  John had either left the gate open or not latched it.  Whichever it was, it didn't take them long to figure out there was free hay in there for the taking.  When I got closer I yelled & believe me they both knew they weren't suppose to be in there, they almost ran each other down trying to get out the 4 foot gate.

Tomorrow a family is coming out to visit with Gus & see if he might be a good fit in their family.  They have horses & the man has already met Gus & thinks he's pretty neat.  I hope it works out for Gus & he can get a lifetime home.