I THINK THIS IS GOING TO WORK OUT.......!!

Some of you know my Mother has lived with us for a couple of years.  She has become frail and bedridden, and I finally decided to put her into Palliative care thru Hospice.  So far so good, the nurse has been out, today Roda who is an aide came and bathed and washed Mother's hair.  I think besides the lack of eating, hygiene has been my biggest worry.  I was pretty sure someone that knew what they are doing could wash hair and bathe her without any drama.  I always had to divide it up, bathe one day, hair the next...........maybe.  Roda got both done and Mother thinks she's a nice lady.  YIPPEE!  Hopefully this "love fest" will continue for the long term.  

We had lots of wind today, which is always great fun.  The donkeys hate it almost as much as we do.  This morning old Pepper was banging his gate wanting out.  I kept yelling at him to stop it.  I finally decided to haul his feeder out of the shelter hoping he'd finish eating.  Well, surprise, surprise he had finished his mush and was well aware that the next thing was to go OUT......!!! 

I've recently cut his mush down a little.  He's put on some weight, you can't feel his ribs as easy and he really looks good for an old guy.  But with his hip and knee he doesn't need to be carrying any extra weight, so he's on a diet.  Guess I haven't figured out how long it takes him to eat these days and he let me know it.  He's only been down on his right side twice in the last 6 months or so.  One afternoon I went out to the feed room, while John was doing round-up.  I looked out the window and saw a grey leg waving around in the big wash. I yelled at John and sure enough, there was Pepper, flopping around digging holes in the wash with his legs and head.  I could tell he weighs more, when we flopped him over with the ropes, I didn't know if I was going to make it or not..............!!! The other time John got him over by himself, but I'm pretty sure if he gets down with John not here, I'll have to call a neighbor.  

Boaz is still acting a little off.  I thought he was back to normal, but he's still not wanting to be touched and when we put the hay and feed out, he stands in the corner looking out over the land, like that's the most important thing going on.  He waits until we're on the golf cart headed out the gate before he starts to eat.  

Looks like we're going to have to get a load of hay in June.  We've been helping some others with hay, so it isn't going to last as long as we thought it would.  I will probably call the same broker we used last time.  She has her own squeeze and doesn't mind coming out here, which is a plus.  John wasn't thrilled with a lot of the bales, some of the hay was really, really long.  The donkeys don't seem to mind it, but it's not easy to pull apart to weigh, so John would prefer shorter hay.  The problem with buying a large amount of hay is it's a large amount of hay.  If there is something wrong with it, like mold of course you can negotiate with the broker.  But I don't think being too long would be a biggie.  And it wasn't all of the bales, maybe 1 out of 5.  John swears when they find out it's for donkeys, they bring hay that horse owners don't want.  I'm not that cynical.....................yet.......!!!