EVERYONE WILL STAY IN TODAY

MAKES YOU WANT TO SMILE, DOESN'T IT? 

We're going racing tonight, and to speed up round-up we have decided to leave them in for the day rather than fight the fight.  Needless to say we are NOT going to be very popular.

Last night when John went to let them out at bedtime, he came in and said Pepper was down in his pen and unresponsive, although he was breathing.  By the time I got my shoes on, rounded up a flashlight and got out there, he was standing up, rather shaky on his front legs.  I'm afraid his body is going to give out before his brain, his legs are so wore out.  Usually 3 of the fatties get the run of 7 pens, so we moved him to one of the end pens, once he would move, so they could have the other 6.  I think he was probably in REM sleep, because except for shaky legs, he was his usual obnoxious self. 

John checked on him this morning and he was standing by the gate, swinging his head around, which means he isn't happy, all that green stuff and beans out there and we've ruined his schedule...!!! LOL  He was walking a little better too.  He might be putting too much mileage on those legs, searching for the best goodies.  Last night I had to go all the way to the north fence of Burroland with a halter to get him.  It took us forever to walk across 20 acres.  For one thing you must go on the trails he prefers, or you "ain't" going.  Since we don't know which trails are preferred, it's rather hit and miss.  If you try to go on the wrong trail, you end up with 4 hooves dug in, until you make the right decision.  Sometimes you can throw the lead across his back and he will show you, but he was pretty slow last night and not willing to move without encouragement, ie animal crackers.

The track hasn't decided if we will race tomorrow or not, they are having a 2 day event and added us tonight just a few days ago.  I would imagine they will take a vote at the driver's meeting about tomorrow.  My vote would be no........these 2 day events just about kill both of us and it really messes up the donkeys schedule.  Of course they would prefer there was no schedule or pen time at all........ just greens and beans..........LOL   It hasn't rained for a couple of days and the weatherman isn't predicting rain until a 10% chance late next week.  By that time the greens should be shriveling up and not be quite as tasty.  John noticed a couple of days ago, they are ignoring the beans that have been on the ground for awhile and are turning brown/black, which would be really good, if they won't eat them.   

MORE OF THE SAME

 Courtney made it out last night and was amazed at how much hoof wall everybody had grown, in this monsoon.  And frog, lots of frog, some were as much as 1/2 inch longer than the hoof itself.  So this morning I'm dealing with sad looks and "my feet hurt" looks.  

It's been awhile since Pepper got down on his right side, but this morning he was down in the wash and had been for quite sometime.  

Unfortunately there was a pretty good size limb right above him and I was afraid he wouldn't be able to get up with it there.  So John cut it off, had to take it off in pieces because of the weight.  Didn't want it to fall on Pepper's head.  

 This is Pepper after he got up trying to figure out if there are any beans close enough for him to get to them.  He checked out the limb and you can see in the foreground where he laid long enough to dig a hole with his head and legs.  The hole he digs if he's been down for awhile makes it difficult to flip him over.  He got trimmed last night.  By the time Courtney got to him it was dark, she works with a headlamp.  She came in his pen, petted him, picked up a foot and said, "is this Pepper?"  He has put on so much weight this bean season she didn't recognize him until she looked at his foot.  He is looking really good for him, unfortunately everyone else is putting on weight too.  Frijolita is really plumping up nicely, it will probably take all winter to get the weight off all of them, and then we can do it again next bean season.............SIGH

 

Here is a picture of Miss Reba the mule, with one of the masks Michele fixed.  She wanted to try the dangles to see how they worked.  They seem to be working just fine and one good thing about the mules, they don't lose their masks.  

It looks like we'll be racing Sat and Sun this Labor Day week-end.  Weren't suppose to, but the track put out the word to see if the Hornet drivers were interested.  Most of them are, I'm not really, putting us on the program with less than a week of warning is a little much.  Besides one of our driver's that has to work both days can't come, and she's in 4th place.  She suggested having non-point races, which would be fine, then I wouldn't have to go.............BUT..........I don't trust the track not to change their minds about having points once the drivers get there and start complaining because there aren't any points.  I'd hate to not show up and then find out later they decided to make them points races. 

PEPPER IS GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF US........!!!

At evening feeding time yesterday Pepper, the old codger, choked.  Not that unusual for him, the mush was probably a little bit dry.  I noticed his respiration was high, and he was kicking with a hind leg, which is unusual for him.  

I tried my usual choke fixes and it seemed to clear, but he was still breathing fast and acting uncomfortable.  Finally he laid down for awhile and wiggled and squirmed while down there.   I gave him some banamine and Equine Colic Relief USA, which I've used more than once and really seems to help with gas colic.  Mesquite beans certainly could cause gas colic and I was hoping that was what he had.   He did feel a little warm, so I took his temperature.  When I "inserted" the thermometer I got a very loud, long equine "blessing", so I assume the colic stuff had done it's job........  I ordered 3 more bottles this morning to have on hand.  Can't say I'm too thrilled with a blessing of mesquite bean aroma at that close a range though............LOL

Before we got done with chores, Pepper was up and picking at his mush.  When John went out to let them out at bedtime, he was banging on the gate to get out.  So out he went, our theory is, we'd either find him in the pen, which he hates, or find him on the 10 acres.  

When John got up this morning he went to find Pepper, found him under a tree, ears up and eating for all he was worth..........!!!!   Bit the bullet again, old buzzard.......!!! 

Courtney was suppose to come yesterday afternoon to trim and Pepper is one that has to be trimmed on a regular basis.  He isn't easy to do anyway, because of his legs, it's very difficult for him to stand on 3 legs, Courtney usually ends up almost holding him up on her back.  She got hung up and is coming this afternoon instead, so hopefully he'll be able to stand for her.  I watched him walking this morning, when John had to go with a halter to get him out of the trees.  He reminds me of a puppet with strings, being worked by someone that doesn't know what they are doing, the legs go every which way.  But it doesn't stop him from going out to see what's out there.......!!!  

I raced Saturday night, won my heat race and was ready for a good night.  About half way thru the main event, when I was running 2nd to the guy that is in 1st for end of the year points, the car started acting up.  It would run good in the straight away, and almost die in the corners.  Needless to say I didn't stay in 2nd very long, talk about frustrating........!!!!  These times are one reason why I don't run a Go-pro camera in my car, they have audio.........!!!  LOL  Managed to squeek out a 6th place finish, they moved me up to 5th because the guy in 5th didn't go to tech after the race.  But he like most of the "grown" men running in the Hornet class whine and squalled and they put him back in his position.  After the races I went to talk to the race director, who actually is a good friend and he agreed he shouldn't have been put back, and said he would change it..........  starting to need a score card to keep track...........I told him no, just leave it like that, BUT, this makes a total of 15 points I've lost in 3 different calls by officials this year.  Getting into 1st place by the end of the year is getting farther and farther away, I'm afraid.  For one thing the guy in 1st, NEVER has a bad night, he doesn't always win, but he's almost always in the top 3, unlike me, I have highs and lows, it's seems.........!!!

Talked to 2 guys that know foreign cars and they both said fuel pick-up, either the fuel pump or a lack of gas for some reason.  The main reason for a lack of gas if the fuel pump is OK, is not enough gas in the fuel tank.....!  We don't like to have too much gas in the cars because of the weight, but we do like to have enough to finish a race.  John has been putting in a couple of gallons at a time, but can't remember for sure when the last time was..........!!!  Needless to say he is really hoping the fuel pump went bad.........!!! LOL

BURROLAND IS OPEN AGAIN......!!!

A DONKEY GRAZES IN FRONT OF A 17TH CENTURY MONASTERY  IN N. IRELAND

It's been 3 or 4 days since they got their 2 or 3 hours in Burroland, so late this morning we opened the gate, before we let them out of their pens.  So far it's been a slow transition, guess they had given up on being able to go over there.  When I came in 2 of the minis were working that way, eating beans along the way..........SIGH.!!!

Doctoring is getting pretty easy, a couple of habronema spots, scabs but no open sores.  This morning Cisco was scratching an ear with vigor.  Stuck my hand down in it and yuck........!!!  Gooey, so I sent down a rag, which he really seemed to appreciate.  Then I squirted some Animax in his ear, which wasn't appreciated at all......!! He usually has ear problems once or twice a summer, don't have a clue as to what it is.  Brought it to the attention of a vet years ago, and she used Animax, without telling me what IT was and the Animax clears IT up pretty quick, whatever IT is..............!!!

The weather is changing into fall, it's interesting how you can wake up one morning and it looks and feels like fall.  No more 100 degrees and probably very little rain, although we got a couple of drops yesterday afternoon, so the monsoon is still trying to hang on.  This has been a good monsoon for a change, it's been years since we got a decent monsoon, so we are enjoying it, even if the rain usually comes at feeding time.

Of course all the toads and desert critters are enjoying monsoon.  This morning I saw a little toad, less than a 1/2 inch in diameter hopping along.  I had to look twice to even know what it was.  He was a perfect little Colorado River Toad, although I guess it could have been a Spadefoot, too little for me to tell the difference.  As tiny as he was, he must have been a tadpole yesterday. 

I guess Snooky can only stand being wild for 3 days and 2 nights, he came in yesterday morning on his own, as long as the door was open and we weren't standing by it.  Guess he missed his ice cream and Temptation cat treats. 

SNOOKY IS OUT AND ABOUT

The house cats (4) are always trying to figure out how to get out in the big world.  Night before last one of them managed to knock one of the screens out and when John got up in the morning, the 3 boys were out and Moogee was sitting by the opening probably thinking, "you guys are going to get it".......!!! 

Nigel wasn't too difficult, lately if he gets out he will actually let us pick him up.  We locked him and Moogee up, opened the back door and Sunny made a tactical error and came in.  Snookey has always had a wild streak, we saw him a couple of times yesterday, but haven't seen him yet today.  Last time he got out he was out for 3 days before we suckered him in.  I've made up my mind I won't worry about him, we all make decisions and sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't.  We don't have a lot of coyotes around here anymore, so hopefully he's just out enjoying his freedom.  

I had some boring things to do in Benson yesterday, John decided to stay home and try to catch up on some of the little piddlely things that always need to be done, and seem to multiply at a rapid rate.  I went in, did all my stops and everything was really going smoothly.......!!  

Headed for home and it started raining, turned  the windshield wipers on one click and immediately had to go to full on.........!!!  Couldn't see past the hood hardly, but I know the road and there wasn't any other idiots out there.........LOL  By the time I got to our little dirt/mud road it had quit raining, but everything was flooded.  I had driven thru the washes that cross over the main road and hoped the last big wash would be OK...............NOT..........!!!!  It was running about running board high on the van.  The van weighs 3 tons, so it's not going to float away like a little car.  But the weight will drag it down if the ground underneath isn't stable.  Tried to call John, (I was almost close enough to yell), but was in a dead zone for a signal.  Backed up and finally got it to ring, had to leave a message..........!!  He called me back in about 5 minutes, said he had gotten caught in the garage and had to wait it out.  

I told him I'd just sit there and wait for it to go down, but he fired up the Bronco and came to rescue me, any excuse to play with the 4 wheel drive.  He went out about an hour later and drove the van home.  

I think the donkeys are getting as tired of the rain as we are.  Although they are still enjoying all the green stuff and of course the mesquite beans.  Right now we have 6 fatties staying in the pens.  Buddy Brat is the last addition........!!!  This isn't his first "rodeo" he has to go in just about every year, until the majority of the beans are gone.  He knows when he is being mistreated and lets us know every time he sees us, by screaming and running to the gate. 

 JOHN AND BUDDY BRAT

Rosie went in a few days ago, because she was laying around and acting very ouchy on her feet, although they weren't warm.  She's walking much better, we even dragged out one of the slow feeder nets to put her hay in.  Didn't take her long to figure it out, she even knows how to shake it to get the hay to fall out, so she doesn't have to pull it out.  

They haven't even been on Burroland the last few days, if we go to town or it rains and the wash runs, they don't get over there for their 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon, much to their disgust.  Reba and Rusty the mules are particularly upset and will stand and stare at the gate for hours.  Oh! well as long as they are standing, they aren't eating....!!!   LOL

THIS MONSOON IS GETTING OLD.........!!!

 A GIRL AND HER HORSE

Almost every night at feeding time the rains have been rolling in, which makes for grumpy donkeys and grumpy people.  

Last night it was almost dark by the time John managed to get "almost" everyone rounded up.  Boaz decided he didn't want to, so we ignored him until everyone else had been fed.  By that time it was flashlight dark and he is dark brown.  I was hot on his trail, until he took a turn and I never saw him again.  I covered most of the 10 acres, never saw hide nor hair of him.  Did find 3 skunks roaming around too.  They didn't seem overly upset, although the tails were high in the air as they toddled off. 

So far this afternoon it's sunny, but these thunderstorms don't take long to build up and rain enough to make the wash run.  

Dr. Debra asked if I could send her a couple of pictures of Penny and write a little bit about her story.  I sent it back to her last week I think it was and I got her latest e-mail newsletter  today.  Maybe her story will make some donkey owners aware that they need just as much care as horses do. 

FATTIES ARE IN LOCK-UP

John's in to tell me they are done eating and it's time to doctor.  I'm pretty sure I've posted one of these pictures, but can't remember which, so I'll just throw both of them in and go doctor......LOL

I've been doing pretty good with habronema since I got Boaz's mouth healed.  So yesterday I noticed a bunch of flies on Pepper's fly mask where his eye is.  Took off the mask and the eye was swelled shut, with rub marks at the corner.  Looked suspiciously like a habromena infestation.  

We leave the fly masks on 24/7, well at least we try to leave them on.  Some of the boys insist on using someone else's as a toy on a regular basis, which keeps John busy looking for masks.  Anyway every few days we take them off and clean the crunchies from their eyes.  Unfortunately fly masks are not a guarantee.  No one bothers Pepper's mask, so some enterprising fly obviously went up under it, since the last time we checked his eyes.  I put Ivermectin wormer on it, (as per vet won't hurt eyes) and this morning the little critter was dead and ready to be removed.  At least the one I could see, there may be others, so I slathered more wormer on.  As soon as it looks like they are gone, I'll add triple antibiotics to help it heal. 

The beans are still falling and the donkeys are on a mission to make sure they don't go to waste.  Rosie usually has a limp and it's been worse lately.  Don't know if it has anything to do with the beans or not, but her being overweight makes it an easy call to keep her in the pens.  Started a couple of days ago, after the others are thru eating, letting her have all the pens.  Of course she and Gigi are bonded like glue, so Gigi is staying in with her.  

As of this morning Coquette and her bonded friend Penny are also staying in the pens.  Coquette has a lot of skin issues, on her legs, neck, withers.  Of course she isn't the only one, but she's one of the worst.  Yesterday she got a bath in medicated shampoo and if you want to see how lumpy your donkey is, wet them down.  She was actually losing weight, but the bean season has put that on hiatus  for awhile.  Her crest isn't big and hard, so she probably isn't insulin resistant, but she sure is lumpy.  Penny could probably eat all the beans she wants and not gain weight, but unfortunately Coquette freaks out if she loses sight of Penny, sooooooo.....!!!!  

This afternoon we are delivering Ruthie, Wister, and Ruger to the annual, "donkeys clean up 5 acres of weeds" for a friend.  Karla called this week to see if we had any available.  I asked her what her bean crop looked like, and she said her trees don't have very many beans, hope she's right.  We'll find out this afternoon.  With them gone, it will give John a good opportunity to rework the fence between their pen and the dog's pen.  It's chain link right now and has been abused over the years to the point that it's pretty saggy.  Hopefully that project won't just get added to the "honey do" list, and the donkeys clean the 5 acres before John fixes the fence..........LOL

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO......!!!

Last night at feeding time, Lynn, one of the minis was very lethargic not even interested in treats and was laying down.  My WAG (Wild Ass Guess) based on "been there before" is gas colic from eating mesquite beans.  Gave her my old stand-by remedy, Equine Colic Relief, USA and we watched her.  She wasn't really uncomfortable, but you could tell she wasn't happy. 

This morning she still wasn't up to par, but was better.  Tonight she's back to normal, begging and eating normally.  

They have not been over to Burroland for 3 days, we've been going to town and it just hasn't worked out to let them out for 3 hours in the afternoon.  Tonight when we were feeding I took time out to go over on Burroland to see how the bean crop was doing.  A lot of the trees don't even have beans, which is good.  Some of them still have beans on the trees and some have beans on the ground.  But I didn't see any area that was "carpeted" with beans, so we might not be so "anal" about them going over there for a longer time.  I only got to check the top half of Burroland, so in the morning we'll check the rest of it, hopefully it will be about the same.  

We actually have 3 or 4 different types of mesquite trees on the property and very rarely do all of them have a bumper crop, or no crop.  I assume they have different requirements in order to have a good season.  We always pray for a bad crop.......!!! LOL

John got home about midnight after rescuing the car.  Turned out to be a loose distributor cap.  Simple fix, but something that will not let you go anyplace until it is fixed.  John had towed it to one of the garages in town, it was an easy find,  so she was on back on the road pretty quick. 

THIS HAS BEEN AN "INTERESTING" DAY.......SO FAR.......!!!

John was suppose to take our neighbor to town this afternoon, she doesn't have a car.  I needed to go take care of some paperwork, and get a blood test, so we decided we would both go to town......just in different vehicles.

So off he went in the van and I took off in the pick-up.  We decided to meet for lunch after he let Donna off at Wal-Mart.  By the time I got to the restaurant, the pick-up was squealing like a pig under a fence.....!!!  I asked him if I needed some belt dressing, but when he looked under the hood, I really needed a serpentine belt tensioner.  No, I don't know what it is either, but if it freezes up, it complains very loudly.  Our "go to" mechanic is right across the road from the restaurant.  John limped the truck over there and the parking lot was so full, he couldn't find a place to park.  Not a good sign, but they said they'd try to squeeze it in.  So off we went, I dropped John off at Wally-world to do the shopping I was suppose to do, while I took the van to do my errands.  Got back to Wal-mart and they both were shopped out and ready to go.  Went back to the mechanic and the truck was ready, won't tell you what emergency work costs, let's just say it rates right up there with emergency vet care.....!!!  

It had rained in Benson, and our main road home and the washes had ran and were still running in some cases.  Got home and it had barely wet the ground.  When time to do chores the rain that hadn't got here yet hit with a vengeance.  Right before we went out to get wet, a friend called and asked if John could come into Tucson to pick up her car that had decided to quit.  He said he would, but after the gulley washer, our wash ran bank to bank. 

John managed to get all the donkeys in except for Tula, and Boaz, had no idea where they were.  Of course when it's raining in sheets, the donkeys aren't the least bit interested in eating, and we weren't very interested in serving them anyway.  Just as it was about to quit, Boaz came waltzing by the feed room.  I went out to put him in his pen, and found out he could care less.  In fact when John and I both started herding him, after I chased him around for about 15 minutes, he decided we weren't going to leave him alone.  The last we saw of him, he found an spot where he could cross the wash without getting his knees wet, and was headed for Burroland.  Never did see Tula, so we assume she is over there someplace.  

When we got the call about the car, John looked at me and said, "don't you dare say it".  "What?", I asked......!!!   Usually when a day goes like this, one of us will say, "well, we aren't bored", guess he didn't want to hear that......!!!  LOL

This morning was the first morning we had done much with Penny since her dental appointment and Tyler came out yesterday. He actually came to reset Gigi's shoe.  But she has a big chunk missing from the front of that foot and he is afraid we might not get the nails to hold.  He said to call him if the shoe comes loose, and we'll have to figure out what to do.  I didn't want him to have a wasted trip, so asked him to trim Penny.  Her front feet wear pretty good, but her rear feet are real underslung probably because of her hunchback.  She was not a cooperative victim, let's say.  Even with a scotch hobble, she let us know she was not happy. 

THIS MORNING AFTER OUR POLO WRAPPING PARTY

This morning I needed to rewrap her front legs, the polo wraps had come loose.  I found out she holds a grudge, she whizzed a rear foot past my ear twice. One thing about donkeys if they want to kick you they will, so I think she was just letting me know her displeasure. 

Tonight, just about the time we got the hay delivered to the pens, it quit raining.  But the wash is now higher than it was earlier, because of the run off.  A lot of time, the wash will run and we won't get a drop of rain, but southeast of us got plenty.  

We have no idea when the wash will go down enough for John to get out with the trailer.  So it's probably going to be a long night. 

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY HATE BEAN SEASON.....!!!

PROUD MOMMA

We had mostly wind with a little sprinkle here and there yesterday afternoon.  The beans have been ripening and dropping a few at a time, which of course was very exciting for the donkeys.  Somewhat like a scavenger hunt.  Well, the wind dropped any bean that even felt like dropping.  There are beans everywhere and donkeys vacuuming as much as they can.  

Unfortunately it's a 2 edged sword.  Too many beans can cause founder, not to mention a lot of weight gain, which none of these guys need.  We fight the battle of the bulge 24/7/365, as it is.  The ones that have already been foundered or are chronically foundered certainly don't need to eat beans.  They are even falling in the pens, of course those won't last long and as soon as the over hanging limbs divest all their beans, the pens will be a bean free area.  BUT, what to do with 30 acres of bounty........????  

If we keep them off the beans, the beans will fall anyway and lay there, especially since our local ranch has very few if any cattle left to free range.  There aren't enough little critters around to eat them all either.  

We are going to try keeping them on the 10 acres at night.  That way the 10 acres should get cleaned up pretty quick.  Then we will let them over on Burroland for a few hours in the afternoon to get a start on cleaning up that area.  I'm sure after a couple of hours of vacuuming, they will not be at all interested in coming in for carrots pieces, and hay.  John will have his work cut out for him, trying to get them in the pens. 

They aren't the least bit interested in coming in to eat.  In fact some of them almost run if they see us out trying to find them.  Right now they are in for breakfast and some of them aren't even touching their hay.  This brings up another problem.  We do Poo101 watch to make sure beans don't take over.  If it looks like beans are at a higher percentage of poo, than other material, they get to stay in their pen, sometimes 24/7 until bean season is over.  Buddy Brat has done that quite often.  But if they stay in the pen, the beans are still going to be out there.  SIGH!

PENNY'S DOING GOOD....!!

 I hope she knows what's she's doing.....!!

After a couple of uncomfortable days, she is pretty much back to eating her mush.  Well she would be except the mesquite beans, are now ripe and falling.  Everyone seems to think they are actually vacuum cleaners disguised as donkeys and Penny really seems to enjoy the beans.  I just hope we don't have a lot of wind anytime soon, to blow all the beans down at once, or they won't even bother to come in I'm afraid. 

It's taking John longer and longer to round everyone up at feeding time.  And of course Mr. Pepper is so slow even if he starts over from Burroland at a decent time, it takes him forever to get here.  Plus the fact he usually lays down in the big wash to rest before making the final push to get to his pen. 

POOR LITTLE MISS PENNY PACKER.............!!!

Lately Penny had not been eating well.  She mostly eats mush, but does like to chew her hay.  She wasn't eating either very well.  

Dr. Debra Tibbets, no longer lives in the area, but comes to Cochise County on a regular basis and we made an appointment.  Dr. Debra has a rolling dental stock, which is really neat, they have a place to lay their head, unfortunately Miss Penny is too short to be able to use the pillow, so we had to use John instead.  He sat on a trunk, holding Penny's head and Dr. Debra sat on the ground.  Veterinary medicine is a real glamor job you know......!!! LOL

Looks like she has had a broken jaw, which isn't a real big surprise.  She has been a roping donkey and from the way she behaves, they roped her front legs.  Rope the front legs and I'm sure she had a few head first crashes at speed.........!!!   I'm sure they had a vet come out and treat her........NOT.....!!!  She was just an expendable roping donkey.........!!!

Her teeth are wearing funny and she had one that was loose.  Well we thought it was loose until Dr. Debra started trying to get it out.  It was very loose on one side that exposed a lot of the root. on the cheek side, not so much.  Because of her mouth shape, it was almost impossible to get the extractor where it needed to be to clamp on good enough not to slip off.  

In the picture with the pen, the angled top part, should be level across.  That's how a lot of her teeth are wearing.  The bottom picture shows how the root was almost gone on one side.  One side of the root had been exposed a long time.  

The worse angles were on one side of her mouth and were starting to cause a hole in the side of her cheek.  This loose tooth was on the other side, so she was basically out of a comfortable way of chewing.

Of course tonight her mouth is probably very sore.  She was a very good girl, considering how distrustful she is.  Of course it took 3 times as much drugs to even get her almost out on her feet.  Her ears were still listening and her eyes were still alert, although she couldn't hardly stand up.  

We took Coquette along as a buddy.  Actually it was more for Coquette than Penny, Coquette gets frantic if Penny is out of her sight.  We were afraid Coquette would freak out, without Penny being here and spend the whole time frantically running around looking for her.  She's done that more than once, when for some reason they got separated.  

It will be a bute night for Penny................!!!!

PEPPER IS STARTING TO SCARE US...!!

He was down again last night when John went out to let everyone out.  John had taken down the wall that got in the way last time.  This time he was positioned in such a way that if we turned him over his hind legs would be up against the back wall of the shelter.  

So we had to use ropes again to get him scooted around.  He had been down quite awhile, which of course is really hard on his bones and legs.  It took him a lot longer to finally stagger to his feet.  Then he seemed disorientated and really was moving slow, didn't seem particularly lame, but not interested in walking either.  He finally got down to one of the pens a couple of gates down and stood facing the panel where his gate would have been.  I think he was confused on where he was.  We tried to figure out the shortest route to get him out of the pens and I used animal crackers to motivate him.  He moved for awhile and then laid down again.  I think both of us were thinking the same thing about that time.  

We came in the house for awhile, went back out and he was out eating weeds.  Of course that leaves us wondering what would transpire this morning, would he be up or would he be down someplace.  This morning, he came toddling in with the Tula group, slower than a snail, but hanging in there. 

His pen is one of the smallest pens, so we've moved Coquette into that pen and he will be using her larger pen, so hopefully if he gets down, at least he won't have to contend with walls and posts.  

Everyone else is doing pretty good.  Still got skin problems on quite a few of them.  The other day I sent John out to find something for skin problems.  He called me from the feed store and said he was looking at MTG, which stands for Mane, Tail, Groom. I had used it years ago, but had forgotten about it.  It really is pretty good stuff, so I told him to bring it home.  It's really helping with the dry, flaky, scaly stuff that eventually will break out in wet hairless sores.  So between that and the Underwood Horse Medicine, I think we are starting to get ahead of the skin problems.

Still have the stable flies on their legs, which I'm using the men's crew socks and polo wraps for.  No one has any great big nasty sores, so I'm not complaining.

I put out a new fly trap this morning.  It's a solar fly trap made by Arbico.  I was amazed at how flimsy it is and rather disappointed.  Then I read the instructions and after mixing up the bait, you have to let it work for 7 days before using the trap.  Jeesh!  I just want to kill flies, not learn new skills......!!!  This morning I poured the bait into the little cup in the bottom and had about 4 or 5 flies helping me........hmmmm that's promising.  Checked on it about an hour later and there were already about 20 flies dying in the sun.  Well, maybe this is going to be a good deal after all.  One thing they said is, if the temperature is above 95 degrees, the metal is too hot for the flies to land on, so you have to set it in partial shade.  I have it in the sun now, but probably should go out and move it into shade, because I'm sure it will be above 95 this afternoon.

Tomorrow we will take Penny to have her teeth looked at.  She is missing a lot of teeth and has teeth growing every which way in her mouth.  This should be fun, Dr. Debra has drugs which will help, I hope.  We have been trying to get Penny use to fly spray.  That has been interesting, she is not bothered by either kicking with her hind feet or striking out with both front feet.  She has been so abused that I doubt that she will ever be trustworthy, but she does need to learn not to be quite so reactive.  She is much better than when we got her, but she does bear watching.

WASH RAN, BIG TIME.........!!!

Philmont Ranch, Cimmaron, New Mexico

Bank to bank............  We had a "real" monsoon rain yesterday afternoon.  Our back wall around the yard is about 30 feet or so from the house.  At the worst of the rain, we couldn't see the wall, it looked like some of the rain storms in the tropics I think it's called sheet rain. 

The wash ran for about 1 1/2 hours, which was getting us worried.  We had to feed later than we had planned because of the rain and then the wash running just added to the problem of us meeting friends to drive to the track with.  Our wash crosses the main road 7 times between here and civilization.  If our wash is running it is also running across the main road with the accompanying rocks, sticks, downed trees, and assorted car and house trash people have thrown into "their" wash.  We called our friends and told them if we had to take the bronco to get out rather than the van, they would have to drive.  The bronco on the highway is not fast enough to keep up with traffic.  We got a late start, the road wasn't too bad, although John had to pick his way thru the debris left behind.

Got to the track and it was sprinkling and they were trying to dry the track.  Finally got it dry got some of the race cars out to hot lap, and it started sprinkling again.  One thing about asphalt, if it's raining, they DON"T race, too slick and they wreck.  Dirt, not so much you can race as long as the spectators are crazy enough to sit in the bleachers.....!!! LOL

When we got there they had a lot of the race cars lined up behind the bleachers so the fans could "meet and greet" the driver's and see the cars up close.  Rod had his out there, so we hung around with him for awhile.  Saw a lot of spectators from the dirt track, saw drivers that had left the dirt track and are now driving asphalt and saw a lot of fans from the dirt track.  It always amazing to me that people recognize me, our track doesn't do meet and greet, so unless you actually know the drivers, anybody could be in that car and you wouldn't know them.  Not too long ago I was in the bathroom on the spectator side and a woman came up and wanted to hug me. 

We knew before we left that John was going to have to fix fences when we got home.  When the wash runs it usually damages the fence where it comes on the property and where it goes off the 10 acres into Burroland.  The donkeys don't look for places to get out, but would certainly take advantage of the fence being down.  Didn't have a chance to check the fence where the wash goes out of Burroland, so the donkeys were on just the 10 acres till this morning.  

When we came home I held the flashlight while John untangled tree stumps and huge limbs from the barbed wire.  I was standing about 4 feet from the fence on one side, he was on the other side working on a big stump.  all of a sudden the wire came loose from the stump and "pinged" towards me complete with T-post.  Caught me in the ribs, not hard enough to knock me down, but enough to remind me of why we never try to work together.  LOL

PEPPER DOWN AGAIN.......!!! RACING "SORTA" TONIGHT

Well, it isn't racing for me, but our son, Rod is racing at Tucson Speedway, the asphalt track in his modified, so Mom will be in the grandstands, rooting for him.  John will go into the pits to help Rod, and be his spotter during the main event.  People keep asking if I'm going to go over to the asphalt track to race.............NO NEVER.....!!!   As boring as it is to watch, it couldn't be much more fun to drive, at least from my point of view.  A good friend of ours that has raced almost as long as we have has raced both dirt and asphalt, won championships in both and his opinion of asphalt is just about the same as mine........LOL  John has told me he wouldn't let me race asphalt anyway.  It's not as forgiving as dirt if you lose control and go somewhere you don't want to go, like head on into the wall.  I think always in the back of John's mind is........if she gets hurt, who will help with the animals......well you have to admit it's certainly a thought with merit......!!! 

Last night when John went out to let everyone out, Pepper was down in his shelter on his right side.  Turned on the lights, got our ropes and headed out.  This time he was laying in such a way we couldn't roll him over, his legs would have been up the side of the shelter wall.  So we had to turn him at least 90% to get his legs to a position where he would be able to get them under him.  He weighs close to 500 pounds and it was really a wrestling match, that we weren't sure we were going to win.  For once he didn't try to help very much.  John tried pushing, and that didn't work.  Couldn't use the ropes on his legs to drag him, afraid to do more damage to his fragile legs.  Getting a rope under him to pull on him from behind his front legs was almost impossible.  We finally got it figured out enough to get him moved enough that he could sit up on his sternum and after a few minutes he struggled to his feet.  Acted a little disorientated, and spooked at me being in there with him, like he didn't recognize me.  We don't really know how well he sees, so maybe that had something to do with it.  As soon as he got rested up, out he went and immediately started eating beans that had fallen in the little rain storm we had.  Didn't get much rain, but obviously enough wind to keep the bean eaters happy.  John is going to remove the shelter wall today, hopefully.