YIPPEE.......!!! I CAN MAKE PICTURES AGAIN.......!!!

I don't think it's a permanent fix, but one of the Blogspot guys, figured out a go around.

This is what my kitchen looks like this morning.  If we had been smart when we built the house, we would have not went for beauty and went for permanency.  We had lovely wooden windows with aluminum clad on the outside.  Over the years what little rain we got, started getting between the clad and the wood.  We now have window frames than have either rotted or dry rotted.  Not sure what the difference is, but do know you end up with gaping holes where wood should be.  

So there is a crew here today, replacing the worst ones on the south side of the kitchen and great room.  I'm sure they will be lovely when they are done, and it's suppose to be done by tonight, but in the meantime, the disruption drives me crazy.  I know, short drive.............LOL  I have a friend that is having major remodeling done to her house and she has my admiration.  There is no way I would survive that..............LOL  

This is the longest we've ever lived anywhere.  Being in the Air Force for over 20 years, we moved every 2-4 years, so remodeling and replacing wasn't much of a problem.  But if you live in the same house for years, I guess normal wear and tear catches up with you.

My new cook stove is also causing consternation.  Got it a few months ago and have noticed the oven would make booming noises like it was getting too much gas.  I kept complaining and John seemed to think I was being whiny.  Until he was watching TV and I was baking a pie.  It had blown the oven door open before, but he didn't take my word for it.  This time he did..........LOL  Just got a call from the stove guy and the factory says this has been a problem and the igniter needs to be replaced.  I'm surprised they haven't done a recall, because believe me you need nerves of steel to stay in the kitchen area, when that thing blew..........LOL

The donkeys of course aren't happy today, they are staying in the pens.  They are entirely too nosy, and helpful when workers are here.  We would let them out if they went on about their business, but that isn't their M.O.

Here is a cute picture Doug took of Boaz.  Boaz has learned how to beg effectively and this look is what gets the goodies flowing in his direction.

WORKS EVERY TIME.......!!

THE EXPERTS ARE ON THE PROBLEM

I went to my blog server and voiced my disapproval of not being able to download my pictures, without Google's nose in my business.  Seems like I'm not the only one, quite a few people jumped onto my message, and now the Forum moderator has asked us all for some information to try to figure out what is going on.  So we'll see, seems like it would be easier to go to Google and ask them what they are doing, but maybe I don't see the "big" picture.

It was 17 degrees here this morning, Doug's water is frozen until later in the day.  Of course all the water buckets have to have ice broken and netted out.  At least the heater is still floating in the Rubbermaid tank.  Although everyone has small bucket in their pens, we also have 2 other areas for water and they are both heated, so they have access to open water all the time when they are out of their pens.  

The reason I mentioned the heater floating in the Rubbermaid is a couple of days ago it wasn't.  It was sitting on top of the insulated box around all the faucets that go to the feed room, pens, etc.  None of us know how it got there, someone had to grab hold of it floating in the water, and hang onto it long enough to drag it out, when the electrical wire probably stopped it from going any further.  Over the years it's never been a problem before with the donkeys.  But, Saddik the new dog was not here before.........so he's getting the blame, unless we catch one of the donkeys dragging it out.  

Although they don't enjoy the cold weather, I'm pretty sure they are all enjoying, no fly masks, no polo wraps or socks on their legs and no doctoring.  I'm going out this morning and gathering up all the fly masks to decide which ones are salvageable which ones to throw away.  I think quite a few of them are still good, but I'll still have to get in touch with Colorful Equine to order a supply to start out next spring. 

We'll be taking Jake home to his herd Friday.  The little ones are big enough to take care of themselves and the other jenny hasn't had a baby, so we'll give it a try.  If she does have a baby, we could always go back and bring Jake back here, if we thought it was necessary.  He's really a nice donkey, gorgeous and very sweet and mellow.  I'm sure he will be glad to get home to his family.  The 8 donkeys adopted together by one couple, were a active herd, Jake was the herd jack, 5 jennies and 2 weanling jacks.  It's not often a little herd like that would get to stay together, so this is a special situation.  They now have 3 more little jacks to have gelded in the spring.  It would have been cheaper if Jake had thrown jennies instead of jacks........LOL  One of the jennies got her neck trapped in the fork of a tree this summer, probably broke it and couldn't walk, so had to be euthanized, unfortunately. 

Since we are in a cold snap, John has upped everyone's hay, which they seem to appreciate.  At least they aren't leaving any, like they were during mesquite bean season.  Except for the 3 fatties, Coquette, Rosie and Buddy Brat, the others all look pretty good, so I don't think a little bit of extra hay to help keep them warm, will be a problem.

NO PICTURES TODAY

I'm not sure what is going on with my blog.  For some reason it won't let me download pictures from my computer, which is what I usually do.  Instead it wants me to sign in with Google and download from my on line account................HUH.........????  Didn't know I had one and that isn't what I want to do anyway.......!!!  So I'll just press on and hopefully I'll be able to figure out what is going on.  

After the Great Garage Caper, John did find some damage.  One of his racing posters disappeared except for the 4 thumbtacks at each corner and a little bit of the poster that was under the thumbtacks.  Who to blame, who to blame..............Rosie was there and she is our alternative eater of wood a paper.  What's really funny is she didn't leave a scrap, she at the WHOLE thing, about 2' x 3'......!!! LOL  

Actually weight wise everyone is doing pretty good right now.  Most of their mesquite bean access has disappeared, and the only ones still obese are the usual, the a fore named Rosie, Coquette and Buddy Brat.  I am going to continue trying to get weight off those 3, but I think it is a lost cause, unless I starved them, which I won't do.  It also would be dangerous because of hyperlipidemia, where the liver releases fat into the blood stream and basically suffocates them.  

Thursday we will take Penny and Daisy to have their teeth done.  Penny is going for a follow up appointment and Daisy has been quidding a little bit.  She's about 30 years old more or less and hasn't been checked for a few years.  We're trying to decide whether to take Coquette with us or not.  She is permanently attached to Penny as her BFF...... to the point of being absolutely skitzo if Penny gets out of her sight.  I can imagine what she would be like, if we put Penny in a trailer and hauled her out the gate.  John's afraid she will stress too much.  We've actually taken Penny a couple of times and Coquette was OK when we got home, so I don't see it as a problem.  We'll see how it plays out I guess.  

We are also getting ready to take Jake back to his home.  He's the young BLM ex-jack that had been a herd boss, until last spring, when he was captured, gelded and actually adopted by a couple along with his whole family of 5 jennies and 2 weanling jacks.  Of course the girls were PG and we were afraid the babies would get hurt if Jake had not forgotten his JOB...........!!!!  So he's been here about 2 months, while the 3 new little jacks, get a little bigger and stronger.  Jim says the 3 little ones, usually hang out as their own little herd, and not as attached to their mommas, as they would be if they were by themselves with just momma to play with.  Jim says the mommas don't even care if they wander off.  Jake actually isn't real hormonal, at least not as much as Pancho.  Pancho becomes a little tiger when the girls cycle.  Sometimes he and Boaz will spar a little, so far Jake just watches the show.  He's really a nice, well behaved young man.  We had waited for awhile because there is still one jenny that hasn't had a baby, but she isn't acting like she's going to.  I'm sure if she is PG, as soon as we haul Jake home she'll have her baby........LOL

BAD BAD KIDS

This is what happens when John left the garage door open this afternoon to come down and watch some of the last NASCAR race of the season.  Don't know how long they had access, but they had dragged a box of car parts down and had eaten a lot of the cardboard, didn't hurt the car parts, thank goodness, or John would have probably been very unhappy.......!!!   LOL

For some reason I'm not getting the sound for the video.  There is sound where I downloaded it to my computer, so not sure what is going on.  If you hear sound, let me know..........LOL

He had my car out to start painting on it, this afternoon was nice and sunny, perfect painting weather, with no wind.

Of course like most things around here, he had help...!!

YIKES IT'S AMOST THANKSGIVING, CHRISTMAS IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER..!

Holidays have become so commercialized, I almost dread them anymore.  I was in Walmart the other day and they already look like Christmas is NOW.   Even had a decorative sign saying only 30 some days until Christmas.  Guess I'm getting old.........!!!   LOL  

And poor Thanksgiving gets stuck between adults dressed up for Halloween and the Blitz of Christmas shopping.  Do people still make homemade costumes anymore?  I don't even think they had store bought costumes when I was a kid.  If they did, I never saw one.  

As for Thanksgiving, John has given me a pass, again, this year.  We will go out to eat, but I have promised him I'll cook a breast, so he can have sandwiches.  I think he likes that more than the original meal anyway, as long as there is lots of cranberry sauce, lettuce, onion and mayo.  

I am still checking Rosie's belly every day, but except for that I'm officially out of the doctoring business.  Her belly still has 3 areas that are scabbed over.  I have thought before she was about healed and the next thing I know those areas get bloody.  Have no idea exactly what it is, it's not down the middle, which is normal for ventral dermititis.  Earlier this summer I heavy dosed her with wormer in case it was neck worms.  But it didn't seem to make a difference.  The homemade salve made with DMSO and Nitrofurazone seems to help, but you have to keep using it past the time you think it's healing.  I guess next spring I am going to start doctoring before anyone has skin problems.

RAINY DAY

Well not exactly rainy, mostly misty and dreary.  I know it's late fall and we should expect "weather", but in the desert we get crabby if the sun doesn't shine.  

But, I didn't have to doctor anyone this morning, so that's good news.  I just wish all the bare legs would grow back hair.  Unfortunately when they have raw, sores year after year, eventually the hair follicles give up the fight, and no more hair grows on their legs.  Quilla is the worst, he had no care on his legs for about 9 years.  So I would imagine every summer they just got worse and worse.

Some of the others have scarring, hopefully we will be able to keep them from getting any worse.  All in all everyone is doing good right now, although they do seem to think we are being rather stingy with the hay.  John is still cutting them short, as long as they don't try to eat the shelters..........well except for Rosie, she eats shelters or anything else wood, just because........!!!

We've had a little visitor in the well house area for a few days.  A few nights ago, John was checking on the water tank by the well house and noticed a rattlesnake curled up between the tank and the well house.  Didn't think much about it, but when he went in the insulated box on the other side of the well house later, he got nudged when the snake tried to move away from him.  Said it was a scary experience.   Ha!  I'm sure it was.

Over the years we've had mice in the well house and I would imagine he is catching mice before going into semi-hibernation for the winter.  We've seen him, in the well house, stretched out, warming up, in the box and beside the tank.  It's driving Doug crazy, he's the type that says, the only good snake is a dead snake, so the idea of not killing it, is rather foreign to him.  He's really keeping his eyes open when outside though.....!!!  So is John........!!!   HA!

Haven't said much about racing since my car got wrecked.  We had a replacement car the next week, so John has been busy working on it.  It has actually been a road racing car, so it has a roll cage already in it and other racing parts.  But it still takes time to get it ready for the 1st race Feb 5th.

There is still talk bout the dirt track "maybe" having a local race schedule next year.  I couldn't race this car on dirt, so we are looking for another Kia, since we have 2 good motors for a Kia and also the roll cage in the wrecked one, could be taken out and put in a new car.  They aren't that easy to find, at least cheap ones.  We need to find one that has a bad motor, the people just want to get rid of. 

If the track does race, they will race on the week-ends the asphalt track doesn't, in other words every other week.  John seems to think I will need to race at both tracks, so I'd be racing EVERY week.  And John would be crew chief and fixing boo boos.  I don't know why I have to keep racing at the asphalt track, if I have a dirt track to race on.  I'm not sure such a schedule wouldn't kill both of us.....!!  It takes us until Wed to recuperate from racing on Sat. night as it is. 

ALMOST AN ARTIFICIAL HOOF

Courtney was here a couple of nights ago to rebuild these nasty feet.  The bottom 1/3 of his hoofs were crumbly the first time Courtney used the the casting material a few months ago.  She has been using an epoxy type 2 stage material for quite some time to build him a sole.  His coffin bone is demineralized, so there is less than half of the bone there.  To say there isn't much stability in his feet is an understatement.  The "fake" sole really made a difference in his ability to move around comfortably

When she came out during the monsoon, the wet weather had probably caused the bottom 1/3 of the hoof to basically fall apart.  With no strong coffin bone, he had nothing to walk on.  So she said let's try using cast material to build him a foot.  

With one thing and another, she didn't get back out for almost 3 months.  She was surprised it was still on his feet, she said it only stays on horses about 3-4 weeks.  She wanted us to take it off the night before, so his feet would have a chance to dry out.  John tried every type of cutting tool he had and nothing would cut thru that material, that was wet, and flexible when she put it on.  Once it hardened it wasn't going anywhere.  Courtney came out the next day and she even had a hard time getting them off.  His feet were damp and smelly, not to mention he had about a 1/4in gap on one foot where the white line should be.  

We decided to leave him barefooted and see how he did.  John has been cleaning his feet a couple of times a day.  That gap was filling up with rocks and whatever else would fit in there.  

He'd actually been walking pretty good, but a week or so ago, he started hanging out in his pen or by the dog pen in the soft sand.  He was still walking decently, but obviously wasn't quite as comfortable as he had been.  

When Courtney came out to evaluate and decide what to do this week, she was absolutely thrilled with his feet.  She said he has more sole than he has ever had and the new hoof coming in from the coronet is tight, not crumbly.  She also told me when she was out the last time, that she was afraid we were coming down to the end.

So she decided to put another epoxy sole and strengthen the hoof with the cast material to hopefully continue to grow out good hoof.  It takes about a year to grow a hoof, so we'll see what happens.   

 

I'M IMPRESSED.......!!!

Those of you that know me personally, probably already know, it doesn't take a whole lot to amuse me. I have been blessed with curiosity, (thank you Daddy) and usually try to figure out a better way to do something......especially if it's something wasteful and/or messy.

The vet salve made with nitrofurazone and DMSO is messy.  If you scoop it up with a gauze pad, you usually get more than you want, "ie" wasteful and and more than you want usually ends up messy.  So I got the brilliant idea of putting it in a 60cc syringe with an end cap.

I'm so impressed with my "fix" I have to share it.  I can envision all sorts of salves than could probably be dispensed this way, as long as they are "runny".  There is one small problem.......getting the salve into the syringe.  This picture shows the 2 instruments I'm using.  The spoon is a tad too wide and the plastic knife is a tad too narrow, which is why I'm on a hunt for a tongue depresser.  Ellie in Florida said they have them at WalMart, 25 to a package.  Nice to know, but it would take me a LONG time to use that many, since I'm not a "use once and throw away" type of gal, goes back to that wasteful thing.  John has been to the doctor recently and I forgot to tell him to ask for one.  It was his primary care physician, which might actually have one.  Most of the specialists probably wouldn't unless it had something to do with their specialty.  His next appointment is with his gastrointerologist.  I know that isn't spelled right, but my spell checker isn't any help.....!!  Probably won't have one, but I'll send John with the request anyway. 

I'm down to only doctoring Rosie and Quilla, still checking the others each morning, but so far they are doing great.....!!!   

John is almost back to normal, except he doesn't like to kneel on that knee.  Yesterday he was working on my race car for next year.  One thing that has to happen is the key start has to be disabled, so we can start it with a button.  The wiring is inside the dashboard.  At his mature age he doesn't bend as well as he use to and in order to get underneath the dash, he had to take the steering wheel off and take the seat out.  Even then he said he got under there and almost couldn't get out.  It took a lot of squirming and using the roll cage to pull enough to get out.  I guess I'd have found him at feeding time, but by that time, he probably wouldn't have been very happy.   He did get the wiring out and the button installed, which is a good thing.  If he hadn't have accomplished his mission, he would have really been unhappy, I would imagine.....!!!  LOL

31 DEGREES THIS MORNING....!!

Not sure what these are, the info said India asses, they look like Kulans a type of Onager.  Onagers can not be tamed and are pretty dangerous to work with.  Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue has 4 of them, they picked up as strays a few years ago.  Texas has canned hunt ranches, where people that don't want to waste a lot of time, can go and kill an animal of their choice.  The ones at PVDR probably escaped and of course the ranch wasn't going to go looking for them.  They have to be kept in special high pens because they can jump, anyone working with them have to be aware at all times of where they are.  Mark told me about one of the workers leaning on the fence on one side of their pen a few years ago, talking to someone.  This was a smaller pen only about 30 feet square and the Kulans were on the other side watching him.  He was talking, not paying attention and all of a sudden his arm had been bit and he had been kicked.  By the time he reacted, the Kulan was back with the others, watching him.  Mark said they never tame one little bit.  But they sure are a pretty animal.  

Still not having to put on fly masks, which is a good thing.  At the rate they were tearing them up and losing them, where we couldn't find them, we wouldn't have enough masks to last if the weather stayed warm enough to keep the flies happy.  I'll wait until after the holidays to order masks for next year.  I order in the winter, when Colorful Equine probably isn't as busy.

We had a little bit of excitement around here yesterday.  John and Doug were out doing whatever it is guys do and I was on the computer, as usual.  Doug comes in yelling, couldn't tell what he was yelling about, but it seemed important.   I finally understood that John had fell off the ladder and was laying on the ground.  Memories of about 4 years ago, flashed thru my mind, when John fell off a ladder in the courtyard and compound fractured his arm.  Sure enough, got out to the feed room, where they had been trying to run an antenna thru the roof and ceiling, and he's moaning on the ground.  Said it was his leg, so I started poking and prodding, didn't get much reaction thank goodness.  Although he was a little touchy with the muscle and tendon behind the knee.  Then he complained about his ribs.  Poked them a little bit and not much reaction, so we decided to get him up and standing.  That went good, and except for complaining about not being able to take a deep breath, he was good to go, even did chores.

This morning he's still complaining about breathing, had to cough a couple of times and didn't enjoy that.  But the leg is OK except when he turns the ankle.  So I think he's going to be OK.  Now as to what happened.  For quite awhile after the earlier fall, he wouldn't get on a ladder, then he started getting on one and I guess had become a little too complacent.  Doug had been holding the ladder, but John told him to go in the feed room and see if the antenna was coming thru the hole.  While Doug was gone, John over reached the ability of the ladder to stand on uneven ground and down he went.  I think it's a guy thing.......LOL

Had some real nice people out today to visit with the donkeys and do some grooming. Now that it's cooling off, we're starting to have more visitors.  The donkeys really enjoy getting groomed, some of them like Frijolita will yell and scream until someone grooms on her and then when they go on to someone else, she starts yelling again.  I think she got groomed 3 or 4 times.

I'M ALMOST OUT OF THE DOCTORING BUSINESS......!!!

It's amazing what a couple of weeks of nice weather will do for skin problems.  We're still doing doctor patrol every morning before they go out after breakfast, but for the most part I just check the ones that need it and do a little touch up, with my homemade salve.  

When I first started using it, I was going thru a lot of it everyday, because of waste.  Using cotton or a gauze pad to scoop it out of a container, means you scoop out more than you need.  Since nitrofurazone has caused cancer in rats, and I'm a cancer survivor, I don't want to scoop it out by hand.  I tried gloves and there was still a lot of waste and my hands are so small, even small gloves end up hanging off the ends of my fingers........... soooo.......... time to put on my thinking cap.  

By the time you add DMSO to the nitrofurazone it makes a runny salve, not bad, but in the summer you have to keep it in the frig.  I have 60cc syringes and some of them even have caps for the end.  Why not put the salve in the syringe and just squeeze out as needed, and smear around with a gauze pad?  Voilla'...........really works good....well except for getting the salve in the syringe, that is a little dicey, it's not runny enough to just pour into the syringe, of course not.  I think a tongue depresser would probably work really well, BUT, who has one of those laying around and I don't plan on going to the doctor anytime soon to see if they'd give me one.  I tried an ice cream stick, which was really ineffective, so my latest tool is a plastic knife.  But the idea is a keeper.........!!!  

One day it was cool enough, John left fly masks off for the day.  It was such a treat to see their faces for a change, I'd almost forgotten how beautiful their eyes are.  

Everyone are still on short rations, even though the mesquite beans are gone.  Occasionally someone finds a few and we see the beans in their poo, but they certainly aren't getting very many.  They are also a lot more interested in coming in at feeding time.  John has upped the hay a little bit, but they are still only getting about half of a full ration, especially the fatties, like Rosie, Coquette and Buddy Brat.  Rosie lets us know if she isn't being properly fed, she ate 2 of the cedar boards in BlackJack's shelter last week.  She will eat wood whether she is fed or not.  I've had people ask if she cribs........no she doesn't, she simply eats wood..........LOL