RAIN ISN'T ALWAYS CONVENIENT, BUT IT ALWAYS APPRECIATED IN THE DESERT

We must officially be in the monsoon, we've had 4 or 5 days of afternoon rains passing through, with ongoing humidity in the 50's, which for us is high.  I think the weatherman says we have to be above 55% to get rain.  It's appreciated.......BUT.........why does it have to usually be at feeding time.  LOL  Not good for the people and not much better for the donkeys.  Some of them will not stay in the shelters with rain making noise, so we either put their hay in the rain, or they stand out in the rain and eat later.  

John got to search for a fly mask this morning, Pancho, Ruger and Wister takes turns losing them, I think John said there are 3 out there he can't find, not to mention polo wraps and leggings.  The leggings will be impossible to find except by accident, once it rains on them, not only are they pretty flat, but they become mud color.  

My next race is suppose to be the 4th.......but..........I still haven't heard back from the track on the tire problem.  John has the car ready to go, but it won't go, if we can't put some more camber in.  I do plan on being in the pits and if anyone asks me where my car is, I will be more than happy to tell them...........LOL

Saddik's trip to the vet went pretty good.  He is no longer anemic, although we are finishing out the Vit K.  BUT, we brought up the fact that he seems to cough a lot, so they sent off blood to check for Valley Fever.......SIGH....!!  He's already on Doxycycline, just in case, probably find out Monday. The vet still thinks, he probably ate a rodent that ate rat poison.

RIP BOOFER

SADDIK AND BOOFER, LAST WEEK..........THANKS DOUG

Boofer had been doing really good until yesterday afternoon at canned dog food feeding.  John put it down and he wasn't the least bit interested.  He was drinking, but not moving around much and not really interested in interacting with us.  Last night when John went out to let the donkeys out at bedtime, Boofer was not out there.  This morning he wasn't here, so Doug and John started looking for him.  He might have spent 95% of his time over here, but I guess he still thought of the neighbor's place as home.  He was laying under her trailer, dead.  

When this all first started we didn't know much about it.  But after we got involved and started reading up on it, we found out how horrible it is.  The survival for AIHA is a 30 to 50% chance of making it one year.  He was over 10 years old, which probably didn't help.

Even with the outcome, we probably would have done the same thing again, to at least give him a chance.  We already had an appointment with the vet this afternoon, for both Boofer and Saddik to have their red blood count checked.  I called to let them know we'd only be bringing one, in case someone else needs to be squeezed in.

Saddik is still on Vit K, to help with his anemia.  Hopefully the test this afternoon will show he is in the normal range.  He seems healthy running around playing with the donkeys, taking off fly masks and hoarding them under Doug's RV.  At least we know where to find them.  Wonder if we could teach him to go out and find the lost fly masks, and leggings? 

IT'S HOT ENOUGH NOW........!!!

I'm sure it's going to get hotter and more humid, but seriously, it doesn't have to......!!! LOL  Actually we "might" get some rain by the end of the week, if the weather man knows what he's talking about.  

Not much to write about, when it's this hot, man or beast does NOT do anything they don't have to.  We feed, they eat, we doctor, they stand still and that's about it.  Courtney came yesterday to trim Gus and anyone else that would need it.  Gus has been doing real good, so we're both rather hesitant about trimming him.  It has to be done, so she basically gave him a "lick and a promise" and he seems just fine this morning.  She also did both mules.  They usually self trim, but at 31 and 36 they don't move around unless there is a reason, so we'll probably have to start trimming them a few times a year.  They are both good about it.  Well, they are good about 6 of the 8 feet.  Reba's rear feet are off limits, her former owner made sure to tell us that.  Her rear feet are still self trimming pretty good.  If it becomes a problem, we'll have to take her in to the vet to get a happy shot I guess.  

Saddik the new dog has discovered the Rubbermaid "spa", he came in after chores dripping wet.  That's better than the other night, he found the spot where the laterals for the feed room sometimes come to the surface.  He had to roll in it, because he was almost black............and rather smelly.  Doug and John managed to get most of it off, at least enough so Doug let him in for the night, to sleep on the bed.....LOL

Well I may not be racing anymore.  Saturday night, which I might add was hot as Hades, when I went thru tech after the main event they were going to disqualify me because my right front wheel had too much camber in it.  We have been fighting tire wear and blowouts every race night.  I've only finished 2 races and both of those were shortened, this one was only 18 laps and the tire was chunked enough that it probably wouldn't have lasted much longer.  John and the tech people, came to an understanding, if they DQed me, we would park the car for the rest of the year.  So they decided to let me keep my 5th place and they will have a meeting to try to figure out what to do.  They lost 3 other cars because of right front tires coming apart, so it's not just me, but mine seems to be worse than the others.  Kias weren't made for racing on asphalt, the suspension isn't very good and we can't beef it up.  It isn't allowed and they don't make after market parts for Kias anyway.  I e-mailed the track and told them it's their problem, not mine, so we'll see what happens. 

HOW HOT IS IT?

SADDIK ENJOYING THE AIR CONDITIONING IN DOUG'S RV

As you can see, he believes in comfort and knows the "drill".  He had a run in with a skunk a couple of nights ago and had to stay outside for the night.  Not exactly his style, he has a routine and it includes going into Doug's RV after evening snack a little before 10pm.  But he's back to not smelling so he can be social again.  

As far as HOT, it's suppose to be 111* over the next few days.  Anything over 100* is hot no matter how it's worded.  The donkeys get their breakfast and by the time they are let out, it's already hot.  So they basically spend the day standing in the shade.  No moving around unless it's to find a better spot, and certainly no running and playing.   The only 2 I'm having to doctor every day is Cisco and Boaz, all other doctoring is on an "as needed" basis.  They aren't spending all their time standing around, almost every morning some of them come in with cactus spines in their muzzles.  So I guess at night, they roam around as usual, once it cools off.   Boaz's leg is doing better, it's dried up and no more new sores.  I'm still keeping it covered with Underwood Horse Medicine and it seems to be doing the job. 

We're taking the race car to practice tonight, to see if all the suspension work John has been doing makes a difference.  I don't know what all he's done, most of it has been to tweak something and someone else comes up with a brilliant idea, so he goes back up to the garage and tweaks some more.  I hope he remembers all of what he has done, to if it works, great, keep those measurements, if not have some measurements to go back to.  Tomorrow night we'll be racing.   I am SO looking forward to sitting in staging for 15-30 minutes or even more if the race in front of us has a lot of yellow flags.  That asphalt will hold heat long after the sun goes down, unfortunately.  I can't imagine people coming out to sit in the bleachers and roast, just to watch a bunch of cars go around in circles.......LOL

THIS IS WHAT I'M DEALING WITH

This is what Boaz's leg looked like yesterday morning, after I cleaned it up.  Two or 3 days before there was nothing, because I've been checking his legs a couple of times a week.  Also Cisco, he  had this same thing a couple of years ago.  

It's just fine and one morning........SURPRISE.......!!!  It doesn't seem to be particularly painful, except when I use the comb to get rid of the hair that is already pretty loose.  I haven't doctored yet this morning, I wait until he's thru eating.  I did look at it when I went out this morning, and it looks pretty dry, I'll know more when I got out and clean it up.  I'll pull on the hair along the edges, hopefully the hair won't pull off easily.  

John's night blooming cereus finally bloomed last night.  He's been watching it like a mother hen for the last week or so.  They are really a neat desert flower, they have a dead looking stem, no leaves or anything to even make it look like it's alive, let alone worth watching.  In the spring it will start out with tiny little buds, this one had four and they all stayed on.  They bloom one night and by 9 or 10 the next morning are shriveled up.  There is one night moth I think it's called a horned moth, that pollinates the blooms.  If they get pollinated later on there will be a big red blob, looks something like an Italian tomato.  There is 2 of them in the back yard.  John dug them up, unfortunately the stem is so spindly the donkeys destroy them, if they step on them.  He knew of another one out on the road and watched it for a year or so.  Finally decided to dig it up, went out and someone had beat him to it.  LOL

SO FAR, SO GOOD.......!!

 GOLDFIELD NEVADA 1904

 
Saddik, was back to normal the next morning, doesn't even act like anything happened.  He sure was glad to get his breakfast, we broke it up into a couple of feedings, so he wouldn't get sick.  He spent the night in the stock trailer and we did sneak him some water.  It's just too hot here to have an animal going without water for too long.  

So he's back to playing with the donkeys and trying to take off fly masks.  That seems to be a fun thing to do, no matter what species is involved.

We're heating up again, suppose to be in the 100's for the next few days.  Usually by this time I am fighting skin problems all over the place.  So far this year I've had a few outbreaks, Boaz has been the worse so far and a few days of Underwood Horse Medicine seemed to take care of the problem, the hair is growing in really well.  Haven't had any bloody legs, because we covered legs before it became a problem.

Well, forget that....!!!  I took a time out to go doctor after everyone got thru eating.  A couple of days ago Boaz lost one of his socks.  His leg looked good and I didn't bother to put another sock on.  When John and I went out to doctor (he's my vet tech...LOL) the 1st thing I noticed was Boaz's leg from knee to hoof looked like it had been painted with shellac.  Got some water and a rag and started trying to soften it up.  As it softened the hair started sloughing off to slick slimy skin.  Only one little bloody spot thank goodness.  This is the same thing Cisco has had in the past and looks different than what Boaz had on his body that is healing.  SIGH..........  Thank goodness my new supply of Underwood showed up earlier in the week, looks like I'll be going thru quite a bit of it in the next few days. 

Coquette usually has skin problems like Boaz had, but clipping her seemed to halt that problem, at least so far.  She also hasn't had any dandruff, at least that's what it looked like.  Of course now we can see all her fat pockets, so now she is on Magnesium Oxide again.  She doesn't mind the Mag/Ox but she sure doesn't like the short rations.  Of course she knows who leaves hay, so when we let her out, she runs the pens, running off anyone that got there first. 

I've got a problem with my stable fly trap.  The way it is built lizards can get in and of course can't get out.  So far my murder rate is 3, saved 4.  That isn't an acceptable ratio, so I'm think of taking it down for awhile.  I'm not really catching that many flies, they seem to be more prevalent later in the summer. 

GOT HIM HOME.......!!!

Saddik is still a little groggy, but seemed real glad to see us, and leave that place.  Nancy sent home a bottle of Vit K to give him for awhile.  She said she has no idea why he wouldn't clot or why he is a little anemic, so we'll watch him.  I told her he runs and plays with the donkeys, so we'll watch him for awhile and see what happens.  

He gets to stay in the stock trailer for the night, with nothing to eat or drink.  I've never figured out why once they are no longer groggy, why they can't drink and eat, poor guy hasn't had anything since about 10pm last night. 

IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER.......!!!

MUST BE MY WEIRD SENSE OF HUMOR

This morning was "brain" surgery for Saddik and also we had to take Boofer in for a blood test to see if his numbers are holding or hopefully getting better.  

Everything went well until the tech tried to take Saddik's temperature. He has always been a happy camper, but that woman trying to stick a thermometer up his butt wasn't going to happen.  He was adamant enough that I thought a muzzle would be a good idea.  Even then he squirmed as much as he could with another tech almost laying on him.  But she got his temp, took the muzzle off and he was his usual happy self.

Brought Boofer home, pressed on with things to do and about an hour later the phone rang.  It was the vet wanting to know what is going on out here with our dogs?  It seems Saddik is a heavy bleeder and they had to give him some Vit K to help with clotting, just from castrating.  She said he is also anemic.  What are the chances of having 2 anemic dogs?  He hasn't acted like he didn't feel good, and he has a lot of energy, so not sure what is going on.  Nancy asked again about rat poison.  I think we started feeding him the 6th of May, which has been about a month.  You'd think if it was something he picked up before, it would have shown up by now.  Neither of them run, and as far as I know none of the local neighbors use rat poison. 

Boofer's blood test, showed his Red Bood Cells are still low, but they are about what they were when we brought him home, so at least he is holding his own.  He's still on Predisone and will be for months, so I guess we'll press on like we know what we are doing.

Right now I am having to doctor Cisco's face under his eye.  Somehow some flies got under his fly mask, and obviously were carrying some habronema eggs.  That's really irritating, but he is such a fly magnet, it isn't a big surprise.   Next to cause problems will probably be his ears.  He gets some type of icky in both ears every summer, have no idea what it is, but do know what the vet used when she looked at it one time and basically shrugged her shoulders.  I have Animax and know how to use it..........LOL

We'll go pick up Saddik later this afternoon, hope he doesn't have anymore problems with bleeding.  

MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT......!!!

As far as interpreting what is going on with the race car.  We are having a real problem with keeping right front tires on the race car.  Everybody and I do mean everybody is trying to figure it out.  A few days ago John unlocked the differential by removing 1/2 of it.  Not sure who's idea that was, but he jumped on it to try in practice Friday night.  Also playing with the tire pressures and using the springs to redistribute weight.  

MEET AND GREET AT THE TRACK, HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT

When I went out on the track, the 1st thing I noticed was I hadn't got the steering wheel locked, which means it was loose enough I could have removed it from the column.  Not a good thing.......so I limped around the track to the guy that's waves us off and on the track and asked him to please lock it.  Geesh!  Actually I couldn't tell much difference between how it handled with or without the steering wheel, it was that scary.

When I came in I told John it was squishy, which I immediately figured out, isn't a technical term to guys.  LOL  I thought it explained the problem pretty good, but obviously not.  So he played with the tire pressure and sent me out again.  When I came back in he said I was about 2 seconds off on my speed.  And I told him it was still squishy.  We did this 3 or 4 times, he actually gained some knowledge about the tire pressures and the right front didn't start chunking, so we loaded up and came home.  

The next morning John unloaded the car off the trailer and drove it around the driveway a couple of times, came in and asked how I could drive it?  AHA......vindication......!!!  I asked if it was squishy, but he didn't see the humor,  he did say taking out one side of the differential wasn't probably a good idea.  

I don't race again until the 20th of June, so he has time to play with it.  I sure hope he can figure out how to keep a tire on it, or I probably won't get to finish the main event.  

Seems like I'm doing really good on skin problems, so far.  Of course it isn't really that hot yet and the humid monsoons haven't started, but if I can stay ahead of them, maybe we won't have so many open sores.  Penny will finally allow me to re-wrap her hind legs with polo wraps without her being in the redneck squeeze.  John pets on her and tells her what a good girl she is, and she will actually stand still.  When she came here about 3 years ago, she was a very scared fear kicker, any and everything would cause her to kick viciously and a lot of times we couldn't even figure out what caused it.  These days she will just avoid you if she can.  We don't let her get away with that, and eventually she gives up.  She is still very protective of her head and face, we don't know for sure what caused her broken jaw.  My WAG (wild ass guess), because of the way she acts about her front legs, I think her front legs were roped, which is unusual.  I also think if that is true, that her jaw probably got broke from her front legs being jerked out from under her.  And I'm sure there was no sympathy given if they did break her jaw, they probably didn't even notice.

Dogs all seem to be doing good.  Anubis is back to normal, and Boofer is back to sitting in the driveway, barking at nothing, so I guess life is good.  I'm anxious to see how his blood test comes out Wednesday.  Doug is going to keep Saddik in his RV Tuesday night, because he can't have anything to eat or drink after midnight in preparation for his "corrective" surgery.  LOL  He's been real good about letting Doug know when it's time to go out, don't know if someone has worked with him, or if he just wants to be a good house guest.  Doug says he loves to sit on the couch and watch TV, or sprawl on the bed.  He's big enough if he sprawls, he's probably got more than his share of the bed.  

NO, I HAVEN'T BEEN ABDUCTED BY ALIENS......!!!

THIS IS REALLY A MOMENT CAUGHT IN TIME, I LOVE IT....!!

But it does seem like the days have been flying by.  We haven't been home one day this week.  Yesterday we did a home study for Ruger and Wister.  We sure are having a hard time finding them a FOREVER home.  These people would be great, but they live in a very hilly area, I mean up and down......everywhere.  There would be no place for the boys to run, which they run, chase and play every day.  Now Saddik, the new dog is part of the game.  They also have lots of pretty pots with flowers and quite a few tasty looking small trees.  The ground is rocky, gravelly perfect for keeping hooves trimmed.  But the lack of running room is a downer not to mention when they started eating all her pretty flowers.  I'm afraid they would live to regret taking these two because of the damage the boys would cause to their daily lives.  They would be much better with some older ones, we thought 2 jennies, but in their teens, geldings would be good too.  Or maybe a PG jenny, that way they could raise a baby.  So I will be keeping an eye on Craigslist to see if we can find something for them. They live way past the sidewalks, on solar power.  Eventually they would like to let the donkeys free range, once they know where "home" is.  When I say free range that is exactly what it would be.  Outside the fenced area around their house goes forever.  That's another problem with the boys, given free range, no telling where they'd end up......!!!  

I'm getting a new cook stove today.  I've noticed as stoves evolve and have computers in them, "things" break.  Mine has been limping along for a couple of years.  The timer doesn't work, the oven temp setting doesn't work, I have to use a match to light it and I just put up with it, but it was getting really irritating, so I bit the bullet and ordered one.  I've noticed one thing, if you don't buy something for 20-25 years it's quite a "sticker shock" moment.  I don't even want the bells and whistles, self cleaning oven and oven temp that works, and that's just about it.  But it's still quite a shock.  

It's cooled off again and we actually got a few sprinkles of rain last night.  I'm suppose to go to practice with the race car and so far today it's pretty cloudy.  If we have any moisture falling at all there won't be a practice.  The guys have changed a bunch of stuff on the car, and I need to find out if the right front tire  is going to stay together or not.  I don't race until the 20th of June, so if the tire is still wearing, they'll have time to come up with something else.  Unfortunately I think they are just about out of ideas........!!!   LOL

Boofer is feeling well enough to fight with Saddik............SIGH!  Boys will be boys I guess, but I don't need another vet bill.  He will get a blood test next Wednesday and hopefully his numbers are going up.  We've all figured out we can't give him his pills wrapped in deli meat by hand.  He has bitten Doug and both of us.  He got John pretty good, one of his fingers is pretty punctured.  It's not like I didn't warn him just before he went out with the "snack", Boofer had gotten me already that day.  So now he gets it on top of his kibbles.  

Donkeys are all doing good.  I am happy to report that I'm staying ahead of Boaz's skin problem, whenever it is.  A few days ago, we noticed he had places on him that looked like he had stood under a mesquite tree that was oozing and it had dried in his hair.  John pulled on one spot and the hair came off, leaving oozy raw skin underneath.  He had maybe a dozen places all over his body.  WHAT TO USE, WHAT TO USE........!!!  That is always the question.  We have quite a few different types of skin problems, every year quite a few of the donkeys have problems, and they aren't all the same.  If you have the vet look at it, they basically shrug their shoulders and say it's going around.  The treatment for all of them seems to be about the same, wash with a medicated soap, and keep covered with "something".  I have about 6 or 7 things to choose from, this time I tried Underwood Horse Medicine and it is really working good.  Dries the area on the first spray, then all I have to do is pull the hair around the edges the next day.  If it comes loose, spray some more.  He's the only one I'm having to doctor right now, well except for Rosie and Cisco.  They always get doctored, except for a couple of months in the winter.