WILDLIFE ARE MOVING AROUND

Last night we were watching the vast wasteland called TV and the cats were on point, 3 at the back door and the other one, at one of the windows.  Just about the time I said something, I heard the distinct sound of a unhappy rattlesnake.  John got a flashlight and sure enough, it was right by the screen door, on the other side, thank goodness.  

Cats can really focus when they want to, and it was really hard to get them away from the door.  All this time the snake is letting the world know his opinion of the situation and John said he couldn't hear it.  Too many years working on jet planes, his hearing isn't very good.  That's an understatement when the sound is a cranky  snake...........LOL   

Lately the cats have been exceptionally obnoxious, picking on each other or demanding their space or whatever they can do to be the picker or the pickee.  Either way, a few days ago I  armed myself with a spray bottle  of water.  If you ever need to get a snake to move, water will usually do it.  Rather than go off the porch, it got up against the wall of the house.  So John was real careful when he went out to feed the birds this morning, but the snake was gone.  

This time of year we usually see more snakes than any other time of  the year, they are getting ready for hibernation and eating  heavy.  We've had 4 donkeys bitten by rattlesnakes and all of them were in Aug/Sept.  

A few days ago, the "cat patrol" was in the spa room, yelling and screaming like banshees.  We had just went to bed, so we got up with a flashlight.  Thought it was probably one of the tomcats, but it turned out to be a  desert  fox and it was right by the open  window, where the cats were having their fits.  It wasn't afraid of them, but it took off when it saw us.  We don't see fox very often, mostly skunks and raccoons.  

This morning I found a nice fat scorpion in the bathroom sink.  Guess that explains  why we don't see bugs or spiders in the bathroom anymore.  Sorry, but he got relocated outside.  I don't mind scorpions, but not in close proximity.  

The donkeys are still on limited hours out of their pens and have just  about quite eating the beans, unless the wind blows some down.  There's not many left in the trees, which is a good thing.  We haven't checked Burroland yet to see what the bean situation is over there.  Haven't heard many cows lately, but hopefully even if they haven't eaten all the beans, they should be getting unappetizing the longer they lay of the ground.  

What a difference even though they are both equine..........!!! 

OBTW haven't seen the black kitty since he was in such a hurry to get out the back gate.  Also haven't seen the orange kitty that has a date with destiny Monday.  I might have to cancel his "surgery"............LOL

TIME MARCHES ON, AND THERE ARE LESS BEANS........YEA.......!!

It's going pretty good, they are up to 5 hours a day, from noon to 5pm.  We are watching to make sure they eat their hay, if some of them don't eat their hay, they will have to stay in.  The hay is important to add fiber and bulk to their systems, to hopefully keep the beans from gathering up in a ball and impacting.  

This was last year during bean season, when Coquette did stay in for awhile.

Coquette is about the only one that looks at her hay with disdain on a regular basis, and wants to wait for the good stuff.  Just about the time we decide she needs to stay in, she will eat just enough hay to change our minds.  Maybe she has ESP tuned into our minds, who knows............LOL  

There's not many beans in their poo now, so we'll probably check out Burroland and see if the few range cows available, have made a dent in the bean crop.  We'll start them out just a few hours over there for a few days to see how it goes.  Hopefully a few days of introduction and we can get back to pre-bean normal routine.  I know the donkeys will be more than ready.  

If you look on the bottom corner of the window there is a roadrunner, sitting on the outside of the window,  looking in.  We have a couple of them that hang around the house, looking for a lizard snack and have been known to take a hummingbird.  I have no idea what he wanted, he sat there for a few minutes and then disappeared.

Haven't heard much from Lynn and Linda, although she did send some pictures of an outing they had on Mt. Huron, which is 14,003 feet high.  YIKES.......I'm glad she sent pictures, so I won't have to ever climb that high to see how gorgeous the area is.........LOL

TAKING A BREAK

 

SADDIK AND LENNON SOMEWHERE WAY ABOVE THE TIMBER LINE

DOWN OFF THE MOUNTAIN, LOTS OF WILD FLOWERS

RESTING UP FOR THE NEXT ADVENTURE

I raced last Saturday night, finished 3rd to the 2 guys that have  been finishing 1st and 2nd to my 3rd or 4th.  Now I'm 15 points out of 1st place.  And the other guy is moving up more each race.  We will be running two 25 lap features the 2nd of September, and he'll probably pass me for 2nd place then, unless something happens.  Not that I'm wishing him any bad luck............LOL 

Heading out for the races Saturday, with the quad in the bed of the truck.  We were having to get to  the track, unload the car, unhitch the trailer, drive out of the pits to a place that was high, to use the ramps to get it out of the bed of the truck.  When we were ready to head for home, John had to reverse the process.  So he is using the flatbed trailer, we drove the quad up the ramps to the trailer, then ramps up into the pick-up.  John didn't like the way I did it, so I guess he'll do it from now on.....LOL  We have an enclosed box trailer, that we could use, I'm not sure why that hasn't happened.  Our grandson has it, but he isn't racing, doesn't like asphalt and waiting for the dirt track to open.  So it will be available for awhile I'm afraid.  The dirt track doesn't seem to be doing what they need to do to open for racing.  Hopefully by next year they will figure it out, but I'm not holding my breath.  

SO FAR, SO GOOD

The donkeys seem to be resigned to only getting an hour or so out of their pens.  But they do know how to tell time, and know when it's time to go out......!!!  

We've noticed the beans that have been laying on the ground for a few days are not being eaten, which is a good thing.  They are eating the newly fallen beans and all the greenery that is everywhere.  So this afternoon we'll let them out for 2 hours and see how it goes.  There are still plenty of beans up in the trees, that will fall when the wind blows, so I don't think they will go hungry.  

Haven't heard from Linda about how their race went last week-end as yet.  I'm sure they are busy, busy, busy and she'll get around to it sooner or later.  

We're in a drying out time, no rain in the forecast until probably Sunday.  I hope so, I'm suppose to race this Saturday, it's been awhile since our last race got rained out.  But the rain does help the fallen beans to become uneatable, so I wouldn't mind rain, just not on Saturday......!!!  

1903

 

WELL, THEY GOT THEIR HOUR......!!!

They ate their breakfast like good little boys and girls, so John and I started letting them out at 4:02pm yesterday afternoon.

 This is Buddy Brat and BlackJack hoping me coming out at an odd time, might mean good things will happen.  

The minis saw BJ and Buddy get out, and started milling in anticipation

You can see how far they got when the gate opened......LOL  There's 4 little butts lined up with heads down

Just about the time we got everyone's gate open which only took about 5 minutes, the sky opened with lightening, thunder and a real frog choker of a rain storm.  Lasted about 40 minutes, off and on which if you are keeping score was eating into their hour of "out" time.  

Those white spots are rain drops that showed up in the sunshine during the deluge.

I don't know if they continued to scarf up beans during the rain, or stood with their butts to the rain as usual.  I do know when the rain finally quit at 5:10pm it was like trying to round up cats.  They were determined NOT to go into their pens and if it took running and trying to hide, so be it.  Let me just say, John Doug and I got our exercise in the mud and wet bushes.  But we did manage to get them rounded up at 5:57pm which was a miracle.  

When doing a roundup like that it is absolutely necessary to find a victim and stick with them until they figure out you aren't going to give up and the only "safe" place is the pen.  I must admit most of the time, us humans were pretty far behind the chase, but they knew we were back there and one by one gave up.  Should be a little easier today and after a few days, they should go into their pens with little effort.  At least I hope so.......LOL

They are eating their hay and mush now as usual, and as long as they do so, we'll continue to let them out for an hour.  There are beans everywhere, and the wind that came with the monsoon rain yesterday afternoon, knocked down a lot more.  We noticed this morning the beans that have been laying on the ground for a few days and have been rained on are starting to look rather unappetizing, at least by our standards.  Hopefully this means they will ignore those and only eat fresh fallen ones, which is bad enough. 

IT'S HARD TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO.....!!

COLORADO RIVER 1898

 

It rained yesterday afternoon during roundup for evening feeding, which always adds to the fun.  Of course when it's raining the donkeys don't like to move, they just hunker down and wait for it to quit.  It took John and Doug about an hour to finally get everyone in their pens.  The wind had blown down a lot of beans, so most of them weren't the least bit interested in our offering of hay and mush.  

When John went out at 9:30 last night to give them a treat and explain to them, they would be staying in their pens overnight, it went pretty well, until he headed for the house and they were still in their pens.  Some of them, Rosie for one let him know that this wasn't acceptable behavior and yelled for quite sometime with others chiming in.

I was actually surprised there wasn't much braying overnight, at least not enough to keep us awake.  This morning we figured they would have eaten their hay, but quite a few of them obviously are holding out for the good stuff.  

After chores this morning John and I took the golf cart around on the trail Lynn made this spring to see just how bad the beans are.  They are pretty bad, John said we need 150 volunteers with rakes to make a difference..........  So what to do?  

I guess they will stay in their pens until they start eating hay and mush like they should, so they won't be going out today at all.  My plan is once they start eating proper food, they will get out one hour a day right before evening chores.  At least we'll try it.  I would imagine it will take 2 hours to round them up, since one hour of freedom to eat beans probably won't be enough by their standards.  

This isn't even addressing the issue of Burroland and the vast amount of mesquite trees over there.  The cows are going in there but I think we'd need about 150 cows to go with those 150 volunteers to make a difference..........LOL  Unfortunately when we look up into the trees, a lot of them are still loaded with beans. 

IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN

Tonight is going to be a traumatic experience for all the donkeys............they will be kept in their pens overnight.  And will continue to stay in at night until the tasty weeds and mesquite beans are gone or at least not as tasty as they seem to be now.  

All the rain we've had this year has cause the vegetation including beans to explode.  Our greenery isn't as tall as a lot of people are having to contend with, I guess the donkeys walking around and nipping off tasty bites has kept it under control a little bit.  We've seen areas that are waist high and still growing, on the way to town.  

All the donkeys are fat except for svelte Miss Penny Packer, she seems to have a built in calorie counter and only eats what she needs to keep her girlish figure.  The ones like Rosie, Buddy Brat, and Coquette are eating machines and they look like it.  Getting weight off them is almost impossible even when there isn't that much to eat on the property.  

So this calls for drastic measures........!!!  They will stay in until noon, like they've been doing for weeks.  When they go in to eat in the afternoon they will stay in until noon the next day.  So they will get about 4-5 hours out a day.  And if they continue to reject their mush and hay, which has become SOP recently, they may lose most of that. Gus will still get moved during the day to the temporary pen by the dog pen.  He could stay in there 24/7 but there isn't a shelter in case it rains.  

It's going to be real noisy around here I would imagine.  They are all so anxious to get out of their pens, you would think we use them as torture.  We've told them that many donkeys are kept in a little pen and never get to go out to explore and snack on flora and fauna, but they don't seem to care....LOL  So this is going to really upset their applecart, I would imagine.  

The greenery will dry up pretty quick without rain.  In fact some of it is already wilting.  But the beans will be viable, until they lay and turn black.  Don't know how long that will take, but I guess we'll find out.  

Did have something good happen this week.  Because of the rain we've been having Chris couldn't deliver hay and we were getting down to raking the hay barn floor, if the weather didn't let up.  Not that most of the donkeys would care, they have been less than appreciative of the hay they've been getting lately anyway. 

INCOMING

HAPPINESS IS A HALF BARN FULL OF HAY....!!

The weatherman finally strung 3 or 4 days of no rain together in the forecast, so we made a date, and it worked out.  We use to get twice as much at a time, but it took a year to use it.  Chris is willing to bring half a load and come out more often, so that's much better for us.  

The flies right now are horrid.  My fly traps are working overtime and of course I still use the fly predator wasps, BUT, right now the cattle flies that sit on their backs are bad and the stable flies that chew on their legs below the knee are busy.  I don't think the cattle flies go in the traps, they actually don't bite the donkeys, They sit on the donkeys backs and make them twitch constantly waiting for a cow to come by I guess.  I'm not sure about the stable flies, but I doubt if they get in the traps.  They feed within 2 feet of the ground, and the traps are in a tree.

Our son Rod, raced his modified last week-end and finished 2nd, which is his best finish on asphalt.  It was a great race to watch, he and the 1st place car battled back and forth and Rod lost by about a foot, at the checkered flag.  

His margin of loss was even less than this picture taken during the battle........!!

Lynn, Linda and the boys raced 15 miles at Leadville, CO last week-end.  I don't even want to think about how far 15 miles is.............LOL  And that was the short run, the long one was 29 miles....!! 

They finished, the boys behaved themselves, no more jackass meltdowns and Turbo and Lynn got to round up a couple of wayward burros.  I guess at one time Lynn was holding on to 2 burros and Turbo after he and Turbo ran them down.

The race started at over 10,000 feet and went up from there........!! 

Linda and Leddy discussing strategy, maybe?

Turbo sporting his new hat.....!!!  

 

https://www.rei.com/blog/run/welcome-to-the-unusual-sport-of-burro-racing

Here's a link, Linda sent about one of the racers, it's an interesting read, she might have won if she had gotten her rest...........!!!   LOL

STARTING TO LOOK LIKE THE MIDWEST

This really doesn't look like the desert, does it?  This stuff is growing while you watch it I think.  As long as we get rain, I guess it will just get taller.  The donkeys are doing their best to eat some of it, but some of it they won't touch.  They also are not "touching" our lovingly prepared donkey meals.  That is scary, we still have memories of Penny last summer when she impacted with mesquite beans and had to have surgery.

We're on poo watch and so far they are eating beans, but it looks like they are actually eating more greens, which is a good thing.  

We're in a drying out time right now, haven't had any rain except for sprinkles the last couple of days and nothing in the forecast until late next week.  A few days of hot weather without rain and that green stuff will shrivel up quickly.  

The hay broker that delivers our hay has been putting it off for the last couple of weeks because of the weather.  She is going to try to deliver a load Tuesday, so hopefully the weather will stay dry at least until then.  We're getting down to where she either brings a load or we have to buy from the feed store, so we have our fingers crossed.  We'd only buy enough to tide us over, but we would have to unload it in the barn....... by hand..........LOL 

 John and Doug have been having fun, John usually on the tractor and Doug with a shovel.  The feed room septic system started backing up.   Years ago when we were trying to figure out how to get the beet pulp grey water from the feed room, to someplace else a friend said, to put in a plastic barrel, like a small septic tank and it should work.  It has, BUT, after many years it plugged up.  We figured the barrel was full, so they dug it up and it was fine.  NOW WHAT?

That's where the barrel was sitting

Start digging out pipe, at least at the 2 curved places.  NOTHING......!!!  Next idea get a plumbing snake and get rid of the plug. 

When John rented it they said it was 100ft, but it was only 50ft.........!!!  Didn't really matter since it went in about half way and hung up.  Came out with little bitty tree roots on the end.  Mesquite trees are really good at finding water and don't let a little thing like pipe stop them.  

So he has an idea of where the blockage is now.  Rod, our son is racing his modified tonight and a friend is racing our late model, so today is going to be a short day for working.  John's out there putting the barrel back in, since the problem is at the other end, which should be good for a couple of days.  

I came up with what I think is a brilliant idea, why not put something on the outside of the pipe where he finds the invading roots, like weed killer, or a lot of salt or something to discourage the roots from getting in again.  I suggested RoundUp, but John doesn't want to use it.  It is about the same thing as Agent Orange, which he dealt with in Vietnam and has been under treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma since 1999.  NHL is one of about a dozen diseases the VA recognizes as caused by Agent Orange.  I guess I'll see if there are any good ideas on the internet.

Linda sent some pictures taken last week-end at the Fairplay race.  The donkey boys didn't have a real good day.  I think Leddy had a jackass meltdown and broke a little tree that Linda had tied him to, so he could have some "quiet" time to reflect on his bad behavior.

Here is a link to a video from one of the local TV stations about the race.  http://www.9news.com/mobile/video/news/burro-days-has-been-around-for-quite-a-long-time/73-2675568

They put a mic on Linda for the entire race and it really turned out good.  

 Turbo was doing great in this picture.  As you can see not all the trail is nice and smooth, but he seemed to be taking it all in stride.  They ended up behind Linda and Leddy.  Linda said when they came in  Lynn's sunglasses were missing and I think Turbo got to find out what a stud chain is and found out he isn't stronger than a telephone pole.  He is so strong, even though Lynn is also strong, a human is no match for a donkey that insists on doing it his way. 

But they all finished, which is the  goal.  They are suppose to race again this week-end, hopefully the "fur" kids will behave themselves this time. 

DID YOU MISS ME.........?????

I have been without internet for 4 days, consequently I couldn't update my blog.  It all started with an electrical storm, that didn't seem that close until it "zapped"  my router for the computer.  Called my provider and they were out that afternoon to replace it.  That evening when I was making sure I hadn't missed something while my router was down, we had another nasty storm, only this time it as really quick, really loud and I saw fire in my computer corner, where I was sitting.  And my brand new router,was no more.  The poor thing only lasted about 6-7 hours....!!!  Called again and was told they had no more routers, I wasn't the only one having router outages.  We had a lot of nasty weather for 2 or 3 days.  They had them on order and it took till this morning to get them.  Robert, bless his heart came out as soon as they got them.

We've known Robert since he was about 3 years old.  His mom has been in this valley probably close to 50 years and he was raised here.  I was looking for a rooster when he was a little bitty thing and his mom said she had an extra one, she'd drop by next time she went to town.  Unfortunately Robert was with her and he was under the impression that rooster was his.  Oh! my, talk about a rooster loving breakdown.......I hope the rest of her trip went better than the few minutes they were here.  LOL

Heard from Linda about their latest burro pack race last week-end.  She said the boys seem to be figuring out what they are suppose to do.  This year was suppose to be mostly training to get the boys use to all the excitement and being out of their comfort zone.  She said when they were loading Leddy and Turbo, Quilla started braying.  I guess he likes going on adventures too.  Maybe if they have another parade, that's more his style, but I guess he's ready to go anywhere now.  I told her Quilla and Boaz are going to be bored when they come back down here, we don't do anything exciting, like they do on a daily basis, there's always something going on up there, it sounds like.

Here's a nice picture of Leddy all ready to go, or resting afterwards, I'm not sure which.  She said he's lost some weight, which is a good thing.  He was a little chubby before they left for Colorado.  All this running and training is good exercise.

Unfortunately, the flies have finally arrived in Colorado and the donkeys are having to wear flymasks.  I'm sure the flies aren't as bad as they are in Arizona.  You would think with all the rain and humidity, the flies  would have plenty of moisture.  I don't think they are as bad as when it's really dry, but they are still a nuisance.

Here's Quilla showing off his fly mask and leggings.   The boys were already wearing masks and Quilla was wearing leggings when they left in early May, so Colorado weather is definitely better for them. 

I had to put leggings on Coquette this morning.  I've been able to keep her legs from getting bloody with daily doctoring, but noticed this morning a couple of spots that were open, so she's now covered on all 4 legs.  Gus and Penny are the only others having to have their legs covered.  So I'm actually having a pretty easy summer of doctoring this year, thanks to Linda.

We're still fighting the battle of the mesquite beans, not to mention green stuff growing everywhere.  Most of them are looking at our offer of hay, like we're trying to poison them by giving them "equine jerky" as my good friend Claire called it years ago.  Why would they eat hay when all that green stuff is out there just for the taking.  Coquette just looks at the hay like we aren't very bright if we think she's going to waste her time eating "THAT".......!!  She's plumped up nicely and when the season is over she is going on a diet along with some of the other chunky ones. 

We have had a few cows go on the 20 acres.  John opened the gate a few days ago, hoping they would go in.  But I don't think they've made a dent in the mesquite beans over on Burroland.  There are still quite a few beans over on this side and the donkeys are eating all they can find, but there's always more when the wind blows.  Even with all the rain, none of the ones that have fallen have turned black yet.  Over here the donkeys are eating them before they have a chance to lay very long.  But they are piling up over in Burroland.

Thanks for the pictures, Linda.