Sunday, March 31, 2019

GOOD GRIEF, WHAT NEXT........????

John is back in the hospital.  Saturday Lynn, Linda and John helped friends Indy and Jerome "murder" their oleander that had been on their property probably 60 years.  The reason...???..... they are about to become new donkey parents and oleander is one of those plants that is highly toxic to equine.  Actually it is toxic to all animals including people.  Just a leaf or two can be deadly.  


This is what the 14 (I think it was 14) oleander looked like when we got there. 

Jerome had done a lot of preparation, with the chain saw.  That oleander is going DOWN........!!!  LOL



If nothing else Indy is determined......LOL

While everyone else was murdering the oleanders I took our truck to get new tires put on the front.  Coming back from Tucson the other day I was driving and I told John it was really loose and driving weird.  He had a new tie rod to put on it and the tires were wearing because of that and a few other things in the front end.  Got home and John found a bulge and belt separating.  .......!!!

Some of you know I generally take speed limits as an unappreciated suggestion, so as usual I was "driving up on the wheel" as they say in racing.  If that front tire had blown we might have went for a wild ride....!!  At least there wasn't a wall to run into..........LOL  

This is the 1st swipe with the backhoe

While I was gone they all were really having to work to get the roots out of the ground.  John's little tractor had to huff and puff and a few times the front wheels were off the ground.   Indy and Linda were dragging and stacking.  Lynn and Jerome were working with axes, a chain saw and a digging bar.



And muscle power......!!



Jasmine came by to give her stamp of approval on all the work being done

Lunch break Leigh Anne and John are talking and you can see what I'm doing.....LOL  Indy had quite a "spread" for us to eat.



Leigh Anne and Jasmine have walked probably hundreds of miles on the Arizona Trail over the years and Jasmine is quite the  ambassador for burros.  She carries all the equipment and supplies on her little pack saddle & they will stay out for days, camping out.  . 

In case you've never seen a spadefoot toad up close.......!!!  We also found a couple of night snakes, they look like earthworms and they sure can wiggle, very hard to hang onto, but Indy and I managed to get them relocated.


The root system is deep and sturdy....




Didn't look quite this good when we left, but I think Indy and Jerome got out there Saturday morning and leveled it out. 

 

More dump runs, I think Indy said they had made 13 trips with the limbs and all the above ground growth.  Most of this is roots. 

As soon as the fencing gets put up, the donkeys will move in.  Indy and Jerome have ran with some of our donkeys.  In fact Jerome won the fun race at Empire Ranch a few weeks ago, with Sugar.  Sugar is one of our alumni and seems to love to run.  

Now to answer the "what next" question in the headline.  John is back in the hospital. Saturday morning when he got up, his hands looked like baseball mitts, they were so swollen.  All day, he was pretty lethargic, we thought maybe it was because he worked on the tractor all day Friday.  But as the day wore on, his temperature started rising.  So off to the emergency room we went.  I wonder if they give frequent user awards for patients that keep coming back?  They decided to send him to one of the hospitals in Tucson.  Being sent to another hospital isn't as easy as it sounds I guess.  They made that decision about 9pm and the ambulance didn't haul him until about 1am.  I made a joke that I guess someone had to die for a bed to open up, I don't think the nurse thought it was funny.........LOL

I went in to see him today and he's doing much better, although they did a test and he has some sort of bacteria in his GI system that is getting stronger antibiotics.  And it is highly contagious, so all the medical personnel have to put on gowns when they work with him.  I didn't have to gown, so we decided it's because they go from patient to patient. 

They also think he might have some dead tissue in the wound on his leg.  I don't think so, the wound is dry and healing, but then again I didn't go to medical school, so I think they have decided to clean it out tomorrow........lucky John.....!! 

Lynn, Linda and Suzanne have been keeping the home fires burning, as in taking care of the donkeys and giving tours.  I guess we've been discovered, we've been having tours almost every day and some days two or three.  Suzanne made up a facebook page for the rescue, I don't know if that is generating traffic or not.  We love for people to come out and learn about the donkeys.  People really seem to have a good time with the donkeys, and the donkeys have learned to be "cute", they love attention.  

Grooming has stopped for awhile.  Last year a couple of the donkeys had what you might call "spring crud".  The hair would fall out and leave bald spots, that eventually would hair over.  Grooming is one of the things that gets lost in the day to day happenings.  But this year Suzanne and Linda started coming out almost every day to groom on the donkeys.  They even brought a couple of their friends out to groom, Sandee and Bonnie.  First Boaz had some bald spots, then Rambo and pretty soon a lot of them were having the problem. The only thing we could figure out was, grooming was passing whatever it is around, so then they kept grooming, but carried a bucket of bleach water to drop the brushes in between donkeys.  

It was still showing up, so for now, grooming has been postponed.   Whenever they come out, they take some of the donkeys out for a walk, which is fun too.  The other day Suzanne went out with them, walking Levi.  She said they were walking along having a good time and all of a sudden Levi slammed on the brakes and backed up.  There was a pile of rocks with some dried grass and Suzanne said she saw something that could be a snake, but she didn't investigate any further..........LOL  So Levi is her hero these days. 



 Thanks, Linda and Indy for the pictures.........!! 

2 comments:

ellie k said...

What a good posts, thanks. Sorry to hear John isn't doing well bu glad you have all the extra help now. Will some of your donkies have a new home when the bushes are gone and fence in at Jarone's(spelling) place?

Tish said...

No actually Indy and Jerome are getting a couple of donkeys from a family that had a daughter with long term health problems and they need to rehome the donkeys. It will be a win/win for the donkeys and also for Indy and Jerome, they will be a great "parents".