HAPPY AUTUMN, OR FALL AS I KNOW IT....!!

My goodness someone has a lot of time on their hands, don't they? But I'm glad they do, so the rest of us can enjoy it.

The jack is now going in the pen to drink water, but not to eat, so I guess that's progress. John asked our friend if he would come & rope the jack, he's still thinking about it.....!!!! (G)

I called one vet's answering service, & haven't heard back. I perhaps shouldn't have mentioned squeeze chute & dart gun in the same sentence. I am really spending a lot of time trying to figure the logistics out. My next step will be to personally talk to a vet that is suppose to have a dart gun.

This morning Quilla had an outbreak of the bloody spots on his leg. It's just a small area, where I had not been putting enough thunja zinc oxide on I guess. So I greased it up good & added powdered zinc oxide on top. Usually the zinc oxide cream ended up covered with dirt, so maybe the powder will help with that little problem.

John cleaned the junk out of the cars yesterday. This morning he found things he missed strung around on the ground with Chester looking very proud of himself. Of course at the rate they are prowling in them for goodies, John won't have to worry about anything blowing out on the highway, when he tows them to Tucson, hopefully this week.

Right now we're in the high 90's during the day & the low 50's at night. Certainly makes it fun to decide what to wear..........!!! All the donkeys are growing their winter hair at a rapid rate. Daisy's seems to be growing in normally, rather than all that wild growth she had last winter. She has been on pergolide for most of the summer, & although she isn't losing weight very quickly, she seems to be perkier & less hairy. She & Quilla are still eating together, & seem to have reached an agreement to ignore each other. It's not as entertaining for us, but seems to work for them.

This is the jenny & her little jack we saw a few days ago. They were very friendly, unlike the jack. Got a call from May yesterday & getting him into the corral with food & water isn't going well. Although her cow doesn't have a problem & is eating his hay too. The cow doesn't see monsters hiding in that corral I guess. She said she would call in a few days to update us.

In the meantime we are having to think about plan B. We have a racing friend that works at a dude ranch not far from Dos Cabezas. Although I hate to do it, we will ask him if he & a friend could rope him for us. I have to weigh one roping experience against being used for roping on a regular basis.

I still haven't figure out all the logistics, if anyone has any brilliant ideas I am certainly open for suggestions. I'd love to have access to a squeeze chute to put him in long enough to tranqualize him before gelding.

I would imagine that these 2 cars look like junk to most people. Obviously to donkeys they look like toys. John is hauling these cars to Tucson for a neighbor as scrap. Yesterday he hauled them over to our property to await their fate, hopefully this week.

This morning when he went out, the upholstery & anything else left in the cars that looked interesting had been removed & strung out in a pattern that met with their approval. Most of the windows are broken & jagged with loose glass all over the inside. I checked everyone & there isn't a scratch anywhere. But they sure had fun. I hope the entertainment value has worn off & the donkeys will leave them alone until he can get them out of here.Our latest visitor, nice & fat getting ready to hibernate I guess. Yesterday it was out in the open headed across the driveway. John was going to catch it with the catcher & put it in one of the brush piles. But after we watched it for awhile, we figured out it was actually heading for the nearest brush pile, so I took a picture & left it alone.

WILD MULE.........!!!

John got to chase a mule yesterday, allllllllllllll over the neighborhood. John was dragging a junk car thru the driveway gate, & Rusty the white mule took advantage of the situation when John stopped with the back of the junker in the way of shutting the gate. John said Rusty wasn't that close he didn't think. Obviously Rusty was close enough, saw an opportunity, took it, & OUT THE GATE HE WENT, with John rapidly losing the race tagging behind.

I was in the house & wasn't aware of what was going on, until later when John came dragging in & said he needed my help. I guess Rusty had gone to the T intersection, let John catch up & decided to snort & run. He ran all the way to the end of the trail. John said he ran around some brush, disappeared & a few seconds later came running back out with 2 cars in pursuit. Ran back to the T & headed west past our driveway.

When John got to the driveway, he peeled off to come & get me. I ran out got my treats, halter & lead (like that was going to happen............ :-), we jumped in the golf cart headed down the driveway.....................& noticed a big white mule at the gate waiting to be let in. I got out, opened the gate & Rusty waltzed in like it was no big deal.

Well it was a big deal, he's the first to escape out the gate in all these years, all the time he was out poor old Jack was screaming bloody murder & John looked like he'd been dragged thru a wringer after all that frantic running around. He found out a mule can get thru a gate faster than a man can get gate closed with a car in the way. He also found out this wonderful relationship he thought he had with Rusty under normal circumstances, doesn't count when Rusty had a taste of freedom.

Not sure why he came back so quick, I would have thought he would continue running around & exploring until the normal time to go in his pen to eat. Unless we could encourage him to come back. Maybe getting chased by the cars took some of the fun out of the game. I bet they were as surprised as he was..........!!! (G)

YEAH.......COME GET ME..........!!

Yesterday we went out to check on the 2 jacks that need to be gelded. Hmmmm..........this is going to be "interestin". The big jack is running on 40 acres & she was right, he's wild. I took sugar free peppermints, & animal crackers, & the best treat of all ginger snaps with me to show I was a friend bearing gifts. He all but told me what I could do with my gifts.........!!!! She has a smaller pen & said she would start feeding & watering him in there. If she can get him in there, & also keep him in there, without getting out, hopefully we can back the trailer up to the gate & run him in the trailer. Of course that brings up another problem. Most vets really prefer a cooperative patient, & I have no idea how they could put him out to do the surgery. A dart gun comes to mind......!!! (G) He's a pretty boy, but she doesn't want him. So I'm afraid if we do get him gelded, & he goes back there he'll either just continue to run wild or she will give him to the first person that will take him, probably a roper. I'm sure he's the type they like to "play" with. So we've talked about if we can get him in the trailer, if we can find a vet to geld him, if they can get it done, then bringing him out here, putting him in Max's old pen, which is about 36 x 40 & trying to work with him. I have this thought in the back of my mind, that if he does come out here, he & Tula will probably become an item. Just what she needs, someone that thinks like she does.

This morning started out a little unusual. John went out to start rounding them up, & I came out later. Just as I got to the feed room, I heard thundering hooves running over from Burroland. Looked up & it was Buster & Chester, running & wrestling. At first I thought they were playing, but I don't think so, Chester was trying too hard to intimidate Buster, & Buster seemed to appreciate me breaking it up. He went over to Lucy to soothe his shattered nerves.......!!! (G) Chester didn't look mad or didn't try to continue, so I have no idea what was going on.

Then John noticed Buddy Brat wasn't eating his hay. For Buddy not to eat, you know something is wrong. We watched him for a few minutes, & he laid down & tried to roll. So I went for the banamine & John got a halter & lead. We walked him for about 30 minutes, actually John walked him, he wouldn't walk with me. He seemed to be just fine, even pooed, so I would imagine he just had some gas colic. This is why it doesn't do much good for us to plan our days we never know what is going to happen.

I guess for the foreseeable future I won't be able to add pictures to my blog. My new CPU isn't recognizing my external hard drive, where all my pictures are...........at least I hope they are still there. I am not a computer person, just know enough to use one in a limited sort of way. So I will have to take it to a geek I guess. ;-(

Yesterday John & I went out to visit with a couple of our alumni, Shiloh & Belle. They went to their new home a couple of years ago, & it's a great home. Shiloh has even come out of his shell more & came right up to us to be petted. As Cathie says, "they know they are loved", which is wonderful. They have 2 horse buddies now, although Cathie said the donkeys weren't too impressed at first with these interlopers. The horses names are Risen & Shine, isn't that cute.? Very nice, well behaved horses.

Belle is having problems with her old nemesis, habronema larvae. Not on her face, thank goodness, they keep a fly mask on her 24/7, which means no flies can drop their little hitchhiking stomach worm eggs. But she has a place on a front leg that is bloody, & I saw at least 3 larvae in the wound. Paul has been treating it, but until the larvae are gone & the flies are outsmarted, it will just keep getting worse until cold weather. We go racing tonight & will drop off a "care" package of Ivermectrin to use topically, equaide for the wound itself, some gauze rolls to wrap it so the flies can't reinfestate & tape to hold the gauze. Hope it helps, it will if they can keep it covered.

Well as of this morning Daisy seems to be back to normal. We saw her get a big drink this morning, & she was talking to us like she usually does, so I guess that crisis is over. She was actually doing good last night, so good I didn't try to get mineral oil down her. For both of our sakes.........!!! (G)

Frijolita is now eating in Max's pen by herself & doesn't seem to have a problem, except she wants out as soon as she gets thru eating her hay. She gets done before Buster & Lucy, so that sort of shows that she's been getting more than her share.

Still mice free in the feed room. I've kept the live trap set, just in case, but so far no takers. I'll probably go ahead & put it back in the hay barn, until next time.

I got a call from a woman a few days ago, that has an older jack & also a pregnant jenny with a 4 month old jack by her side. Someone gave her the big jack about 16 months ago....................!!!! Hmmm??? She wanted to find a home for the jack, but after I explained how impossible it is to find a good home for a jack, I had to became part of the solution. They both need to be gelded, but that particular operation has become so expensive, $225-$325, even though we said we would haul them, she can't afford to pay the vet. Some of the rescues & sanctuaries get grants to help people get medical care for their equines, even paying for euthanasia if needed. I think we will be able to get them both gelded without any cost to the woman, thanks to a very generous sanctuary not even in our state. It's all about the animals & what is best for them.

Unfortunately she says the jack is wild, & we need to find out if it would be best to haul them or to have a vet go to her place & geld them. We will go check out her place next week & see if we can figure out a plan that will work & be less stressful for the donkeys. Since the jenny is already pg I guess there isn't a real big hurry to have the big guy gelded.........!!!! (G)

Well this has certainly been a couple of "interesting" days. Monday I was having so much trouble with my computer I decided to reload Windows.............."WHATEVER YOU EVER DO, DON'T DO THAT".........!!!! I liked the old days when you could reload a program, & life pretty much returned to normal. First thing I noticed after reloading Windows is.............it wiped all my data off the hard drive. All the personal stuff like pictures & letters, documents, etc.............GONE........!!!

My hard drive had been giving me an error message for a few weeks when it loaded anyway . So yesterday we made an emergency run to the "puter" store. Because my computer was 5-6 years old they didn't recommend just replacing the hard drive. I'd already figured that out, although it was a shock to John. (G) So for the next few days or weeks, I will be attempting to get my life back. What did we do before we had these machines? I think I read a lot.

In amongst all this drama, & believe me it can get dramatic when I remember something that is missing, John came in from feeding the chickens last night & reported a rattlesnake caught in the chicken wire. Over the years we've had 6 or 7 get caught, one unfortunately we found too late. So we gathered up the snake grabber & our little plastic box & headed to the chicken pen. Destiny was helping feeding last night, & seemed to think this was lots of fun. In fact she wanted to take the snake home to show her folks, which didn't happen... (G)

I was in charge of the grabber to keep the head from turning back & biting John, while he was trying to cut the wire enough for the snake to get out. Destiny's job was to try to keep the silly guineas from running over the snake. They seem to operate in a panic mode most of the time, & with 3 people & a snake in their pen, they upped the panic into high gear.

Once the snake was loose we were just going to let it go, but it tried to go thru the wire on the next pen. Obviously not the smartest rattlesnake in the world. So John caught it & stuck it in the box. He & Destiny took it over into Burroland & turned it loose. Since we've been turning all the mice loose in the chicken pen, & we haven't seen any of them, I have a feeling I know what's happening to them................!!!! YUCK! They probably became "Snake Snacks"..........!!!

Last night when John let the donkeys out at bedtime, he came in & said Daisy was standing with her ears down & wouldn't take her carrot. Standing with the ears down wasn't so bad, but not taking a carrot is very unusual behavior for Daisy. We sat out in the pen & watched her for awhile. She was stretching her neck out like they do when they choke, but her mouth was dry, in fact too dry. I sloshed some water in her mouth, & gave her a shot of banamine. I watched her until about 1am & she was acting a little perkier. This morning she was a little better, but still not talking to us, & begging for carrots. I called the vet & she said this time of year when the weather starts to change a lot of times horses will act funny, not really off, but not really perky. Daisy got another shot this morning & ate about 1/2 her hay. She pooed & peed last night, but hasn't today. If nothing hits the ground by feeding time this afternoon, the vet said to get some mineral oil down her. This is one of my least favorite things to do, by the time you get any down them, you need a bath, they need a bath, & they are giving you the "if looks could kill look". So I'm hoping when we go out to feed, she greets us with a big bray & complains about being in the pen all day.

MICE FREE......!!!!!

I am happy to report that although we are keeping the trap ready & waiting, so far no more mice. John trimmed the limb & nailed the warped board, & it seemed to fix the problem. I spent most of one day cleaning the feed room top to bottom after not catching a mice for a couple of days. Well not exactly top to bottom, John noticed I didn't clean the top of the refrigerator. As I told him, I'm not tall enough to see up there, so from my point of view, it doesn't need to be cleaned.

Burroland is a definite hit. Poor old crippled Pepper does his best to be the first one in line waiting for John to come over & open the gate. They get such pleasure from going over there, it's really sad to think of all the equines in the world that live their lives in small pens or stalls, awaiting the pleasure of their owners. When we go to town we pass by 3 mules that live in a small pen by a hay field. There is no shade of any kind except for a very small tree, maybe 8 feet tall. Certainly not big enough to make shade for 3 mules. I don't understand the mindset of a human being that would not do whatever they could to make sure animals under their responsibility were kept in comfortable conditions. It doesn't take much, clean water, adequate food & shelter to get out of the weather, be it sun or rain.

I don't know what they do over there, but for the most part they all stay together in a herd. Except for the 2 mules, I don't think they go over there at all. John has been going over in the morning & "escorting" them back over here. I told him this morning he is setting a bad precedence a few days of that, & they will think they don't have to come over here until someone shows up. I ring the bell & expect them to show up., although my expectations aren't always met. The minis usually bray when they hear the bell, but they don't come running.

Everyone seems to be doing pretty good right now. Quilla is the only one I am having to doctor every day. All four of his legs have to be covered with zinc oxide every day to keep the flies away & also to helpfully get some moisture into the tissue.

We're probably going to start feeding Frijolita by herself. She's been eating with Buster & Lucy, but we think she is eating more than her fair share of the hay. Lucy has started checking out the feeders when we open the pens, which she has never done before, so I assume she is still hungry. Firjolita's opinion of eating alone without access to more hay than her ration

BURROLAND IS UP & RUNNING......!!!!

John never works on anything without help........!!!

Last night we wondered how long it would take them to find out Burroland was open after being closed most of the summer. We took their masks off at feeding time, & opened the gate. Only Lucy, Buster & Frijolita were out, but when John went out at 10pm to let the others out, Buster & Lucy were already gone, he followed their little hoof prints thru the gate. Frijolita was waiting for her treat, don't know if she had gone over with the other 2 & came back or what.

This morning there was no one in sight except for Jack & Rusty the mules, & of course Sha'ba who stays in at night. John found them all in one big herd, even BlackJack was with the group. Usually if you go after Tula the rest will follow. It started out that way, but by the time John got her to the gate, everyone except Quilla had peeled off along the way. Quilla is fickle, I thought he liked Jenny, but he seems to like all the girls...........well except for his pen mate Daisy.

When we let them out this morning, I would imagine they will make a bee line for the gate, that's what they usually do, for a few days, until they figure out they only get over there at night.

THE BICKERSONS CONTINUE

Well maybe it isn't the Bickersons, but Daisy & Quilla are not exactly bonding as a couple. It just posturing they usually aren't even close to each other in the pen, as they pin their ears & shake their heads & Quilla turns his butt. They eat in a bunk & since there are 2 sides to the bunk, there's no problem. We tried feeding them in 2 places, in the bunk & also in a feeder on the ground across the pen. If there was any hay left in the feeder once the bunk was empty, Daisy controlled it & Quilla watched. Poor old henpecked guy........!!! (G) We went back to putting all the hay in the bunk, so when they are done, they are done.

Quilla's legs are still doing good, as long as I put the zinc oxide on every morning. I think the fly season is winding down, which helps a lot. He actually looks like he's losing a little weight. That's one reason we have him & Daisy eating together, they both are on a diet, & they eat at about the same speed.

A few days ago Chester came in limping on his bad leg. He DID NOT want behind his shoulder touched at all........!!! This morning he is almost back to normal, so I assume he stepped wrong & hurt it. Although we have x-rays of his elbow which is where everyone thought the problem was, from what Martha that comes out & massages him said, it's probably higher. The next time we have someone else x-rayed, we'll have his shoulder x-rayed & see what it looks like. Or we might take him up to Gilbert when it cools off. We have to take Pepsi up to have a sarcoid removed from under his eye, so Chester could ride along & keep him company.

John finally got a chance to check out BurroLand yesterday, & reported the cows have done a good job of cleaning up the mesquite beans. He did find a couple of areas where the fence needs to be fixed, so once that's done, they'll be able to go over there at night once their fly masks are off for the evening. I think Quilla is the only one that hasn't been over there, but since he travels with the herd, I'm sure it won't take him long to figure it out.

MOUSE PROBLEM SOLVED........HOPEFULLY......!!!

Yesterday John went on a mission to find out how the mice were getting in the feed room. He checked out the dog den area, & there was nothing there. He started going around the building on the outside, trying to think like a mouse I guess. A couple of years ago the little critters, chewed a hole in the plastic pieces on both sides of the air conditioner & were using that as the highway to goodies. John covered the area with boards, but yesterday he noticed that not only had one of the boards warped so there was a hole big enough for a mouse to get thru, but there was a limb from a tree laying on top of the air conditioner. GOOD GRIEF.........it was a virtual highway with no detours. Up the tree, over the limb, in the warped place & "party time".............!!!! For the first time in months there was no trapped mouse last night, or this morning........!!!!! We have our fingers crossed that this fixes the problem. I have been itching to clean the feed room, especially under the sink where we set the trap, & which seems to be their place to hang out.

John is going to check Burroland today to see if the cows have eaten the mesquite beans. Everyone seems to be doing just fine. Quilla's legs are doing good with a covering of zinc oxide every morning. I've noticed his legs are bleeding a little bit occasionally. Before I put the zinc oxide on in the morning the skin is dry & probably itches. Yesterday I noticed him rubbing his leg with his muzzle, & just that pressure caused the skin to break. I'm glad to find out it isn't really the problem reoccuring, just the thin skin. Hopefully over the winter we can get the skin in better condition for next summer.

Yesterday a friend was here & we were going in the feed room to get something. Nicky was so thrilled to see someone he wiggled out of the door. In the process of getting him back in Anubis also got out & took off like a greyhound, well at least half a greyhound. Nicky went back in pretty easy, but in the meantime little mini Pepsi was following the half a greyhound as she tried to check out the whole area around the pens. He kept her moving as a pretty good pace & he finally got close enough to her, she decided that she REALLY wanted to go back into the feed room. I think if he could have caught her he was going to do her bodily harm, even though she isn't that much smaller than he is. Perhaps all the threatening the dogs do thru the fence, isn't such a good idea after all........!!! (G)

This morning when John was doing the round-up it was Quilla's turn to go into his pen. You could almost see the wheels turning as he decided he didn't really want to go in there. He turned & trotted off, which was a shock........!!!! We were told he was crippled when he got here, & we hadn't seen him move any faster than a sedate walk & at times if he stepped on a rock he would limp. This was a bonafide trot, so I guess he's feeling pretty good. It took both of us to get him corralled enough to go in the pen. Actually it took me growling at him in my "I"m in charge" voice more than us chasing him around, because quite frankly he was winning that battle.

This afternoon we moved Honcho & Remington from their old homes to their new one. Remy isn't really into halters & leading & all of that nonsense. When we got there, they were in a small pen & between gates & corral panels we got them in such a small area behind the trailer they really didn't have much choice. I shook the a pig paddle, which sounds like a rattlesnake behind them, popped Remy on the butt with the paddle, & he hopped in. Before we got Honcho in Remy came out again, but by that time there was very little room left behind the trailer, the back gate was almost closed. So with a little shooing & arm flapping, they gave up & went in the trailer.Jacquie trying to goose Honcho, which didn't bother him at all......!!!

The trip to their new home was uneventful except for Remy rubbing his butt raw on the front of the trailer. Many of the donkeys that don't like to be in a trailer, will brace themselves against the front of the trailer so hard, they rub all the hair off. If it is a long trip they will rub it bloody. This was a short trip, so he just rubbed the hair off . Lynne their new Mom managed to slap some Swat on it before they came out of the trailer. This is the boys in the round pen at their new home. After a few minutes of looking it over, the gate was opened & they were checking out a big field when we left. This will be a good long term home for these boys, & they will keep Lynne busy trying to keep ahead of them.

SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED.........!!!

We have been hauling mice out of the feed room 2 or 3 a night depending on our attention to emptying the trap & resetting it. We've caught well over 50 mice this summer & considering the building is concrete block with the only opening being a magnetic closing doggie door for Anubis & Nicky we haven't been able to figure out where all the mice were coming from & how they are getting in. The getting in part is still not solved..........BUT.......... we're pretty sure we are having repeat mice.

This morning John took the latest little "guest" over to the chicken pen area across the wash. He rounded up donkeys, & when it was time to start feeding he was in Daisy & Quilla's pen, stuffing a pill down Daisy's reluctant gullet. He felt something hit his foot, looked down & it was a mouse headed from the direction of the wash for the feed room at high speed. John watched & the little critter went in a dog size hole the dogs have dug under the poured concrete floor as a den. John said it looked exactly like the one he took over this morning. Not sure that is true, but it was coming from the right direction & seemed to know where to go. John had to go to town today & didn't have time to investigate the "doggie den" to see if there is a hole somewhere in the concrete that is letting them get in.

Tomorrow we will be hauling Honcho & Remington to their new home, so John might not have time to check it out. That's OK we've got this mouse catching process down to a fine art. I make a suet for the wild birds from lard, peanut butter, oatmeat & cornmeal. Believe me, I could sell that for mouse bait it is definately a rodent favorite.

TRIM DAY.............!!!!

Courtney came this afternoon to check everyone out & finish Quilla's trim. She only trimmed his club foot right after he got here.

She thinks the inside of his clubfoot probably looks worse than the outside. He stood real good considering he hasn't been trimmed in over 9 years. She even used power tools on him a little bit, which he wasn't real sure about. But animal crackers & getting them seemed more important than raising a fuss over a disc sander.

She looked at Lucy's udder which is still swollen although seems to be a little better. She said it might be a scorpion or something like that. If Lucy was laying down I guess a scorpion might sting her if it felt threatened. I'm giving her antibiotics. John said maybe we should take her to the vet, but I'm pretty sure they'd prescribe antibiotics anyway. As long as she is improving, I'll continue to treat her myself.

Chester got a trim also. He stood pretty good for him. She always trims his good front foot first. He seems to stand better on the bad leg, if she does it that way. He is the only one that will not allow power tools. We tried to tell him everyone else lets her use the power tools, even the girls. But he doesn't seem to care..........!!! (G)