BRRRRR.........so this is what winter is like..........!!!

Not really impressed......we had a couple of days of rainy, cold, windy without sun.......miserable weather.  Of course Lynn is running around in shirt sleeves for the most part and telling us how comfortable it is.  LOL  I'm pretty sure if you live in the desert a few years your body adjusts to sun and warmth and doesn't appreciate less than 60 degrees, no sun and especially wind to go with it.  Oh! well enough whining.......!!  

The poor donkeys are out in it.  The only one we really worry about is little Cheyenne, she shivers and seems cold almost every morning.  We don't have an equine blanket small enough to fit her, but drape a people micro blanket over her in the morning.  Usually by the time she is through eating, the sun is up and it's getting warmer, so we take it off before she goes out.  Otherwise the bushes would drag it off her quickly.  Which is one of the reasons I haven't ordered a blanket for her, the only time she could wear it would be when she is in her pen, which is only at feeding time.  

This is what BlackJack looked like this morning with frost on his back.  Actually frost or snow on their back is a sign of good insulation and helps to keep them warm.  

When John went out this morning there was steam rising out of the 55 gallon drum that sits over the top of the well head for the water well.  Something was making a horrible noise and there was water running in 2 or 3 directions.  

Our first thought was it had probably drained the 2000 gallon holding tank beside the well house, which would really be bad.  John went in the well house to shut off the pump and discovered, when the well was put in a couple of years ago, they did not put a shut off in the well house for the pump.  So he had to go all the way up to the garage to shut it down.  Can't imagine why they didn't put a shut off closer to the well.  

Leddy is not going to walk across that wet ground if he can figure out another way to get around it. 

Of course like anything we do around here, we have helpers, whether we want them or not.  They weren't going to step in that water though......!!  LOL  

Lynn is digging up where the water was blasting out of the ground around the well head, while John, Lola and Lennon watch.

One good thing the guy's did when they put in the well is they put a pop-off valve on the well head and that is what happened................Yippee........!!  No burnt up pump, no broken pipe and no drained holding tank, just have to replace the pop-off valve.............and............ probably should insulate inside the barrel if it's going to be getting this cold.  

When Doug left he sold his RV to Lynn and Linda, so they have been busy moving out of their motor home and into the RV.  

Doug had put a fence around the RV, but Lynn and Linda like having the donkeys around, especially in the morning, they never know who is going to be outside the door, begging for cookies.  So the fence has to go. 

  The donkeys knew as soon as the fence was going down and here they came. 

  The greasewood didn't last long........!!

 

 Lynn and Big Gus discussing strategy for cleaning up the area that had been fenced

 Casper the mini mule checking out the area

 Some of the inspectors checking Lynn's efforts

In position to accept cookies

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL...!!

Jasper wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas

   

Bella says Santa came early this year..........YUM......!!

Linda catching up on her donkey time with Levi and he is more than willing to cooperate.  He's laying on the ground and she said he almost fell asleep.  

Sometime in the next few days, we are suppose to haul an intact jack named Elgin to his new home at Lucky A Ranch in Alpine, AZ.  His owner has some serious health problems and has been hospitalized and in rehab for quite sometime.  Elgin is suppose to be friendly, but unhandled, whatever that means..........LOL  I've found out over the years that one person's "friendly" doesn't always mean the same thing.  Which is why we waited until Lynn and Linda got back to do this.  I'll probably try to call the woman that has been taking care of him tomorrow and set up a time to go get him.  I talked to Michelle at Lucky A yesterday and she asked if we could pick up a mini mule in northern Tucson and bring him too.  As with the case of "friendly", not everyone's description of "northern Tucson" is the same.  When we picked up Big Gus and Rambo, "west" of Tucson it took almost an extra hour to get there from Tucson..........LOL  John and I plan on overnighting somewhere up there anyway, so no big deal.  Lynn and Linda will come with us to round Elgin up and once he's in the trailer, they will head back home to take care of the donkeys while we're gone. 

THEY MADE IT..........!!!

This morning I woke up about 2am and decided to get up and come in the great room, where I would be able to see headlights coming in the driveway when they got here.  They hadn't showed up by 4am, so I went back to bed.  

Imagine my surprise when John went out this morning and Lynn and Linda were playing with the donkeys....!!! They got in a little after 1am, said they came in the house and roamed around for awhile.  I don't know why they didn't just stay in the house, at least it was warmer than anywhere else.  LOL

They entertained us with stories of running a Christmas tree lot this morning and are napping this afternoon to catch up on missed sleep.  Linda has been keeping a list of stories to share because she was too busy to e-mail them.  Between the helpers and the customers  I don't think she will run out of stories anytime soon.......!!!  

The four dogs seemed really excited to be back.  They don't have a lot of room at the tree lot to run around, so I guess they spend a lot of time sleeping.  So far today they have been wide awake and running all over the place.  Well Lucy was harassing Big Gus, or he was harassing her, I couldn't tell which.  The dog pen shares a side with his pen.  She was barking, snarling and lunging at him.  He was standing close to the fence with his butt turned to her, just standing there.  I think they both were getting something out of the experience, I'm just not sure what.........LOL  

Now that Linda is back I'll have more pictures to share, once she gets back in the groove.

THEY ARE ON THE ROAD...........!!!!

Linda just called and they are about 500 miles out, so they will be getting in really early in the morning.   I doubt that we will wait up for them.............LOL  Our driveway announcer is on the blink, so I guess we'll have to listen really good and hope to hear them. 

STILL NO WORD FROM CALIFORNIA

I don't think they will be home before Christmas.......LOL  Linda sent some pictures and unfortunately their wish for selling out early didn't happen.  

The boss found more Christmas trees to bring in to sell

 

I'm not sure what is going on here, the camper shell is missing off Lynn's truck and they are hauling trees.  I'm guessing they are hauling part of the trees from the semi above to another lot, but I could be wrong.

Linda has plenty of "hard" workers helping her in the booth

 

Cute picture of Lennon and "friend"

I don't think Saddik looks happy about being a lot helper, complete with hat that says so.  Maybe wearing the hat is the problem......!!! LOL

Janice is here today to do some grooming on the donkeys.  She's been coming out for 3 or 4 years when she gets a chance.  You would think they ALL would love to be groomed, but some of them don't.  So she just goes on to the next one.  Casper the mini mule was one of the 1st this morning and he was acting like he didn't want to be groomed, so she finally gave up and went on to Jasper.  So who comes over and stands close..........just in case she wanted to try again?  I think he was playing a game with her.  He ended up not getting groomed, so I doubt that was the results he wanted.......!!!  

Kevin came out with Janice and is helping John catch up with some things that need to be done, like move the bunk for Leddy and Leo over to the pen they eat in now.  Things like that are much easier with 2 people and even when I'm not hobbling around in a brace, I'm not that much help......!!  LOL  

The last couple of days, Rambo still has to be led to his pen, unless we want to invest in a lot of time, insisting that he at least walk towards the pen without turning around or heading another direction.   But he seems to be getting the idea that we don't want him running out of the pen, when the golf cart is there and the gates are open.  He does try to attack Boaz, who is in the pen next to him, when he's led to his pen and the halter is taken off, which is a little weird.  Boaz just stands there and looks at him, as he is yelling and screaming with his mouth wide open, lunging at the pipe fence between them.  If they have developed a pecking order, I don't think we've seen it.  Loki Joe and Boaz had a rocky relationship last year when Boaz came back from Colorado.  Loki Joe had taken over the job of male in charge, while Boaz was gone and wasn't interested in giving up the position.  It took about 2 weeks for Loki to finally give up top position.  I have a feeling Rambo will be more than happy to take over.  So far Boaz pretty much ignores him. 

NOT MUCH GOING ON........!!!

This is a picture of a group of wild burros in Australia taken by Tanya Hancock

 
That's actually a good thing.  I went to physical therapy earlier this week, and was suppose to go again today, BUT, cancelled because all of the exercises they want me to do, aren't really pushing my muscles and tendons.  Next week they will change my brace to allow more range of motion, which might make things more interesting.  The therapist was surprised I could touch my toes........really.........???  I guess I wasn't aware that some people can't.  So I came home and told John......guess what?  He can touch his toes too....!! LOL  

Haven't heard from Lynn and Linda, so have no idea when they will be coming home.  I do know they will be back before the 27th, Lynn has an appointment that day.  

When I went out to mix feed this morning John and our neighbor Jorja were trying to round up Rambo.  He got moved to Leo and Leddy's pen a few days ago, and they went to his pen, because the neighbor shooting really seemed to bother them in the last pen to the west.  Leddy is so happy he is usually in the "new" pen or close to it at roundup time.  There is a slight problem though with Rambo being in that pen.  When we drive thru the gates to deliver hay, all of the donkeys just stand there, with the gate open, no problem.  With Rambo.......it's a problem.......!!!  There are two gates and they have to be opened at the same time to get the golf cart and hay wagon thru.  Rambo seems to take it as an invitation to go out either gate, he doesn't seem to be picky.  So it takes 2 people, one with a small whip to corral him and get the golf cart out of the pen.  Hopefully he will decide it isn't worth it, but until that happens it's a 2 person operation. 

Rambo has been going into the new pen really well, but for some reason this morning wasn't happening.  Because of the brace I've been staying away from the donkeys, because I can't move fast enough to get away if need be, and leaving roundup to others.  It looked like no one was having fun, so I got a whip and joined in the roundup.  Rambo is big, strong, and undisciplined, in other words  he bares watching.  

When you want a donkey to move, you point where you want them to go, you tell them or click your tongue to help get the point across.  If that doesn't work you "spank".  Didn't take long to figure out the first two weren't working.  I had a long enough whip I was pretty much out of the line of fire if he decided to kick.  So I started rhythmically pounding on his butt with the whip.  I must have smacked him 20 or 30 times before he took one step.  Told him "good boy" and he stopped...........LOL  More smacking, good boy, stop...........Grrrr.........!!!  Smacked him a couple of times and it was like a light went off in his head, he walked directly to the pen and went in, just like he was suppose to do.  Wonder what he'll do tonight.....!!!  He never offered to kick or run off or anything, which I really appreciated.  LOL

John was up trying to get Turbo out of Tula's pen.  Tula really hates for other donkeys to be in her pen with her and almost every morning Turbo and Link go in with her.  Boy, I'm on a roll I think, so I I take my whip up to that pen and do my point, click and spank routine with Turbo.  You talk about an uninvolved participant............he could care less about me spanking his butt.  My arm was getting tired, but once you start you have to keep at it with donkeys or they WIN.........!!!  I finally had to change sides before he would take a step.  Once he started moving, he walked out like it was his idea.  One thing about donkeys, you never take them for granted or say they will do something, for sure.......because they won't........!!! 

Little Pepsi is limping again.  He acts so much like it's an abscess, but an abscess wouldn't get better for a few days and then get worse again.  I still think he twisted his foot in a hole or something.  

It looks like Bella is going to have to have her two proud flesh areas cut on again.  They are a whole lot smaller, one is about the size of a quarter the other one about 1x2 inches and it still has an active wound area about the size of a dime.  The next time Dr. Jeremy comes out we'll add her to the appointment list.  I usually wait unless it's an emergency until there are 3 or 4 animals that need to be seen.  

A lot of times he comes out when Tyler is here to do foundered feet, I think Tyler's coming the 2nd of January, so maybe  then.  Last time Tyler worked on Gus, the decision was made to put the casting material back on his front feet to give the feet support they don't have inside because of bone misalignment and demineralization of the coffin bone from chronic founder earlier in his life.  Tyler had left it off the time before to see how Gus would do and he wasn't as comfortable without it.  He's done much better this time, so I have a feeling he will always have to have the extra support.

Heard from my daughter-in-law Lisa that she and Janet a mutual friend want to walk donkeys in the Rodeo parade.  They want to dress up as miner's wives, which would be cute.  I signed up for 12 donkeys, so far I think we have 7 walkers, counting me.  I'm sure my knee will be OK by then.  John is going to watch and tell us how good we did..........LOL  He's afraid his hip might give out again, like it did last year.  Lynn and Linda found out Leo has pulled a cart, so they got the brilliant idea to get a cart for Leo to pull with John in it.  They got the cart, but none of us know how to drive one, don't have harness yet, so there are a few problems with having a cart in the parade this year.  Maybe next year, we ran out of training time this year.  

SECOND DAY WITHOUT SUNSHINE...........

Desert rats really like to see a little sunshine at least once a day.  At least it's warmed up a little, no more 19 degree mornings thank goodness.


Linda sent some pictures from California to share of the tree lot and some of the goings on.  It looks like Santa fainted in slow motion, poor guy.  Linda didn't say what happened to him, but I thought it was funny.  

Santa's little helpers, I'm not really sure about Lynn's hat.  LOL

WOW.....they certainly are bright.....

 

Guess it wasn't green enough....

I would have never thought of this....wonder if it was a special order?

Lynn had a birthday this week and it looks like the cake has suffered "Lynn" damage before pictures. 

Linda figured out an answer to the problem...!!  Shows things aren't always as they seem.  LOL

Some of the guys and other Christmas decorations they have to sell besides trees

 Last night we had not one but two neighbors seeing which one could shoot the most ammunition in the least amount of time.  One of them is using a 15 round clip, not sure what the other one was using.  

They started right after we put the donkeys in for supper, just about sundown.  Leddy and Leo are in the last pen to the west, one neighbor is straight west and the other one is northwest.  Out of all the donkeys those two seem to hate gunfire the most.  We talked about moving them to another pen, BUT it's the noise not the close proximity, so it would still be just as loud no matter where we put them.  At least they didn't try to charge the panels, they just ran around in their pen and went into Boaz's pen when John opened the gate.  

John has been doing the doctoring and he's just about out of business......!!!  He's down to just three, still doctoring Bella's flanks where Dr. Jeremy took 2 growths of proud flesh off.  The areas are still getting smaller, but have a ways to go to be gone. 

 Link has still got a bald spot on the top of his tail.  When he got back from the Burro and Burrito run in Tucson, he had rubbed all the hair and some of the skin off the top of his tail, in the trailer on the way home.  John has been putting vaseline on it to keep it soft, so the hair follicles don't die from drying out.  He says he thinks he sees new hair coming in, I  hope so, I don't think they make toupees for donkey tails.........!!!  LOL 

The other day I caught little Pepsi straddling a dead limb on one of the mesquite trees beside the house.  I thought I checked him all over and didn't find anything.  So a few days later I caught him again, this time besides just checking his sheath, I checked farther back and sure enough, it felt rough and scabby and he really appreciated having it scratched.  John's been putting steroid creme on it and says it is feeling much smoother and I haven't seen Pepsi doing his thing, so I assume it isn't itching as much.  He feels like he was probably gelded by a vet, rather than poor Cisco, who was probably gelded by a cowboy with a pocketknife.  Cisco has extra folds, etc and every summer, has to be doctored, for some kind of yucky outbreak of bacteria or fungus.  Once he gets it, it's pretty much there until cooler weather.  I was surprised that Pepsi was having a problem this late in the year. 

John brought the motor for my new race car back from our son's in Tucson yesterday and today we are taking it to a friend that has a good machine shop to take it to.  It's got a blown head gasket, hopefully that's the worst thing wrong with it...!!!  At least something is being done, hopefully.  First race is March 9th..........!!! 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINK..........!!!

I knew it was about time, but I had to ask Linda for sure.  As of today he is a year old.  He still looks rather under done and probably will for the next year or so.  He's still got some growing to do.

He's got his head in the Dutch door of the feed room.  When we put that door in we actually thought we were doing it for air flow.  But we quickly found out, it is also a place for donkeys to stick their heads to see if there might be something to eat being offered. 

Lynn and Link out on the main road talking to our neighbor Vic

 

Lynn and Link, taking a break from training

Today when we were leaving for  physical therapy for my knee, when we went out to get in the car, Rambo was chasing Coquette with lust in his heart.  She was kicking him in the chest and the jaw and he seemed to think it added to the fun...........Jeesh.....!!  They were running thru the pens, which is why I always want all the gates open, so the girls have as many escape routes available as possible.  Years ago we had a jenny being chased by Paladin another silly boy and she tried to jump over one of the corral panels and got her foot caught.  I found her literally hanging with her foot caught up high.  Yelled for John he had to go up to the garage to get a saw to cut the upright pipe on the panel.  Thank goodness she was a donkey, a horse probably would have panicked and broke her leg.

John said earlier this morning Rambo was romancing Lynn one of the minis and she was trying to cooperate........  if and when we ever find a home for him, it will have to be JENNY FREE....!!  He no longer challenges the geldings, but he sure likes the ladies...........!!!

It was 19 degrees here this morning at sunrise.  One thing about the desert, as soon as the sun comes up it usually starts warming up.  It didn't get short sleeve weather today, but with the sun shining brightly, it really nice, even if you have to wear long sleeves.

The snowbirds, " ie" winter visitors have been coming in for the last month or so.  You can tell who they are, we've got on jackets and long sleeves.  A lot of them are in sandals and shorts......LOL

Nineteen degree weather means ice on the water buckets, actually pretty thick ice.  Donkeys will not break ice to get a drink.  Although all the pens have buckets in them, they aren't heated.  We have a heated automatic waterer and also a 100 gallon water tank with a heater floating in it.  Although John breaks the ice on the individual buckets, we've noticed they all wait until they are let out of their pens and drink at one of the 2 heated places instead of drinking cold water.  Not drinking enough water can be a problem in the winter for equine and can cause colic.  So it is pretty important to make sure they drink enough.

I'M MAKING THE EFFORT TO TAKE PICTURES

Big Gus is a fan of humanity, not other donkeys so much, including Rambo, who had been his companion for about 6 years, until they came back to us a few weeks ago.  They basically ignore each other.  But whenever we go outside or Big Gus sees anyone, we get greeted with a very loud deep voiced "Hi" and he comes to us to be petted.  

He spends a lot of time out by the area around the driveway gate and if he is farther away and we drive in he always heads towards the gate to say hello.  It's never been a problem..............until a couple of days ago.  

John and I had been to Tucson and when we got home Big Gus wasn't actually very close to the driveway.  Since I've been in the brace, I just sit and John has to open the gate, drive in, and close the gate.  Big Gus saw us drive in and headed for the gate, as John is doing his thing.  John drove thru and all that time Big Gus was moving towards the gate.  When John drove thru I noticed that it looked like Big Gus was going to get there just about the time John got out of the car and back to the gate.  That's what happened and it wouldn't be a problem.  When the donkeys do that, we just trap them behind the gate.   Big Gus didn't even slow down as he maneuvered around the gate and towards the road.  The few times this has happened wasn't a problem, because the greedy donkeys always stop to check out what is available to eat.  Not this boy, he hit the road headed east, with John in hot pursuit.  

Didn't take John long to figure out this wasn't going as usual, so he came back to the car, drove up to the house, got the golf cart and a halter and lead and took off after our wayward "fur" child.   

We were late getting home, so I went out to start cutting up carrots and fixing feed.  Went out to start rounding up and here comes Big Gus out of the big wash.  How in the heck did he get back on the property?  And why?  The last I'd seen of him he was moving out on those long legs as a pretty good speed, headed down the road.  

John finally showed up with explanations.  For those that have been out here, by the time John caught up with him, he was to the mail boxes, which is about a 1/4 of a mile.  The mail boxes are on the paved main road, with traffic.  Even though it is open range country, people don't pay that much attention and cows are hit.  I'm sure they wouldn't pay anymore attention to a big floppy eared donkey than they do to the cows.  

So John bails out of the golf cart, with his halter and lead and surprise, surprise.......Big Gus isn't the least big interested in John and his halter and lead.  John can put a halter on a cooperative donkey, and uncooperative one......not so much.  I guess they wrestled and tussled and went around and around for some time, before John managed to get him haltered.  John said he ponied behind the golf cart just fine.  Rather than drag Big Gus all the way to the driveway gate, John let him in the gate beside the wash, which is why that's where I first saw him.  

So in the future, I guess coming in the driveway gate might get a little more exciting, with Big Gus around........!!! LOL

I must say his fanny looks much better than it did. 

    

Here is a cute picture of Lil' Turbo, sparkling white Casper and little brother Link.  Casper is actually staying home and hanging with the A team, which consists of these two, plus BlackJack, Loki Joe, Boaz, Tula and Frijolita.

You might say this is an after picture, after a 1/2 inch of rain yesterday.  I don't know how he can get that dirty.  What's really interesting is, once he dries out he is pretty and white again.  Jasper is behind him, and isn't much cleaner. 

Jasper is a love bunny, he loves to be around people.  He's lost quite a bit of weight and his feet seem to be comfortable now.  He use to walk like he was walking on eggs or hot coals.  He isn't a speed demon, but he goes wherever he wants.  He is almost always the 1st one in his pen at feeding time, has a certain corner to stand in so he can see the hay wagon coming around the corner.  I guess that makes the hay get there faster. 

IT SURE IS BORING AROUND HERE

That isn't necessarily a bad thing though.  Since John and I are holding down the fort with the help of our neighbor Jorja, while Lynn and Linda are in California, selling Christmas trees, boring is really a good idea.  

Jorja comes over every morning, helps John feed while I make up feed pans, and then she picks up poo.  She usually only picks up 4 days a week, but she has a responsibility streak down her back that seems to make her think John and I can't pick up poo the other 3 days.  It's been awhile, but I think we still remember how to do it.....LOL   She also has an eye for something not right, which I really appreciate.  If she sees something out of whack, like yesterday morning she noticed little Cheyenne was shivering.  It was in the 20's and the sun hadn't come up yet.  

John had put her in the pen, but most guys don't seem to have that roving eye for noticing things sometimes.  So Cheyenne got a blanket for a little while.  

Rambo is still being a jerk every once in awhile, he was after Coquette this morning.  John said she was kicking him so hard it sounded like she was kicking a board or something on his chest.  Doesn't seem to deter him at all.  I've heard stories of jacks chests being laid open from being kicked, haven't seen it and don't care to either.  I wish he'd find another hobby.

Everyone is settling down to the low key routine, and going in their pens really good.  Well, some of them won't go into their pen until they see the person coming with the treat.  Over the years we have unfortunately "trained" them I guess.  Most of them will stand outside their pen until someone shows up with a carrot.  

Linda just called from California, they are staying busy and I guess it will get even busier as the days get closer to Christmas.  It makes me tired to hear all the things going on, especially the crisis', well to me they would be a crisis they seem to just handle them and go on. 

Anytime we are outside, Big Gus is usually right with us.  We were out talking to a friend that brought by some fresh eggs and BG had to see what we were doing.  John and I were sitting in the golf cart and the next thing we know BG has his head in John's lap with his eyes closed.  That's when you get to know just how heavy a large donkey head is.  He wouldn't leave, so I got a rag to clean his eyes, that got rid of him.........LOL  

Penny and Coquette stayed with us for quite awhile, trying to beg cookies.  BG wasn't begging he was just enjoying being with us.  Most of them came by and since no cookies were offered, headed on somewhere else for a day of donkey business.

 

Team Justin made the Weekly Reader.  I didn't even realize they still had Weekly Reader in schools.  I always enjoyed them.  They've been around for a LONG time, if I had them in school........LOL

Linda and Justin doing their thing don't know which race from this summer

  

 

Saddik thinks he's a lap dog........!!

He likes hanging out with the guys at the tree lot

The guys like to take the dogs out for walks too.  No wonder the dogs like it there.

Lola doesn't care what is happening as long as she has her ball

It's a good thing Linda sends me pictures or I wouldn't have anything to share.  I need to get back into the habit of taking pictures again.  LOL