CASPER IS BACK IN SOLITARY AT THE NEIGHBOR'S

Yesterday morning, a neighbor left a message on my phone asking if Casper was missing.  No, he wasn't he was here with the donkeys when it was round up time for breakfast.  She came by on her horse and told John that earlier, like about daylight 2 cowboys in a pickup were trying to catch him on the main road.  She said he must have spent quite a bit of time outside her fence, because there were little bitty foot prints all over the place.  Needless to say he outsmarted the cowboys and escaped to head home.

Casper fights horses.  When Kris's 2 mares were here, he thought Apache was cute and he and Mel went at each other thru the corral panels.  Always before he had only been around geldings as far as I know, but he and Mel sure didn't get along.  Of course Kris said Mel was a drama queen and she did seem to want to be in charge of everything around her.  She certainly wasn't going to be in charge of Casper, if he had anything to say about it......LOL   

So I have no idea why he was trying to get into an area that had 3 geldings in it.  As I said he was here for roundup, so we are left not knowing how long or how far he has been traveling.  We had caught him a few times hanging around outside our fence, and we'd yell at him and he'd scoot under the fence.  The neighbor is probably not a mile away by road, who knows what route he took to get there.  

He may be standing still, but you can bet that little mind is whirling.......!!

So we called Vic and he said bring him over.  Talked to Vic this morning and he said Casper is "pissed".........LOL  He won't have anything to do with them, won't take a cookie and is spending his time running the fence line looking for a weak spot.  If the little devil ever finds out how good mules can jump, I don't know what we'll do........!!!   I'm trying to find a little molly mule or mini mare that needs to be rehomed, but haven't had any luck so far. 

Doug's son Conor was here for a few days for a surprise visit.  He lives in Michigan and decided to drive down and surprise his Dad.  He left this morning, heading back to Michigan.  Not the best time of year to come to Arizona for a visit, it was hot the whole time he was here, but I think they had a good visit. 

We actually got 1/2 inch of rain last night which is much appreciated.  We are hoping for a good monsoon this year it's been so dry for almost 10 years the desert is starting to look rather bleak especially the prickly pear cactus.  They say a good chance of rain the rest of this week.  If we got 1/2 inch every night that would be great.  

I like the night rains, otherwise it usually rains at chore time, which adds a new dimension to chores.  Night rains also cut down on access to mesquite beans, because when it rains the donkeys hold up with their butts turned to the rain.  They aren't eating when they are standing, so that's a good thing.  They only have access to the 10 acres right now.  Hopefully we'll get enough rain to turn the fallen beans in Burroland black and the donkeys won't eat them.  Sure wish there were a lot of range cattle like there were a few years ago, so we could open the gates and let the cattle clean them up.  

Heard from Linda in Colorado, she actually sent pictures of Lynn's foot after he had a chain saw accident and sliced thru his heavy boot.  Not a good thing to do, especially when you have races with dog, and burro races planned.   Hope this doesn't mess up all the fun things they have planned for the summer.