YOU CAN'T SAY OUR TOURS AREN'T INTERESTING........!!!

Thursday morning was quite busy around here, some of it planned, some of it not.  It was hay delivery day, which of course is a very important day around here from the donkey's point of view.  Happens about twice a year complete with a squeeze to unload the hay and put it in the hay barn.  

We also had a tour that morning they showed up on time and Suzanne and her granddaughters were showing them around.  So far, pretty normal. 

All of a sudden we started hearing sirens out on the main road and Suzanne saw 3 people coming up out of the big wash.  One was a women and she fell in the wash.  They came up right behind Tula and Mariah's pens just about the time a helicopter came up over the trees, which freaked Mariah out.  We figure she was probably rounded up with helicopters last summer when she and her herd were gathered off the range by the BLM.  

So here comes 2 guy's in civilian clothes running down the driveway, are they friend or foe?  We're starting to get confused......LOL  I gave the woman a couple of bottles of water and they took her away.  

We're all trying to figure out what is going on, the couple on tour were from San Diego and said it reminded them of how it was before they built the wall on the border.  Hmmmm............perhaps they have identified the problem.  

Before it was over there were 3 helicopters flying around, one of them is in the picture above just above the trees.  The INS, Border Patrol, Sheriff, Benson police and I think highway Patrol were all in here running around.  Two of them had the driveway blocked, so the hay truck and squeeze couldn't get out.  Another one, got the brilliant idea to take off down one of the trails Lynn had built for the golf cart.  Wish someone had gotten a video of that, especially when he got to the 90 degree turn down in the NW corner.  It's just barely wide enough for the golf cart, guess they don't get chastised if they bring the SUVs back with dings and scratches.  John saw him backing up to find a wide enough place to turn around.  If he had asked us, we'd have told him that wasn't a SUV trail. We noticed they weren't real interested in talking to us about anything.......LOL

I had an appointment in Benson, and they were still running around and flying over with the helicopters when I left.  We asked one of the guys what was going on.  They had been chasing them from New Mexico about 60 miles to the border at speeds over 100 mph.  Usually when they chase a car the illegals give up pretty easy.  I guess since these guys were so determined to not get caught they figured they weren't just illegals. We'll probably never find out the rest of the story, but it sure was exciting around here for awhile.  John did find out they finally caught the 2 guys, which is a good thing.  If they had not caught them, the illegals would have been out here in the middle of nowhere without transportation and would be looking for a car to steal.  John told one of the officers he was glad they caught them, otherwise we'd all have to arm up and become our own Homeland Security......!!! LOL

The hay truck and squeeze finally got out, Suzanne continued with the tour and life settled down, back to normal.  

Later in the day, this roadrunner was pecking at the patio door.  They do that quite often, not sure why.  We have a pair of ravens and at least one pair of roadrunners nesting on the property.  They both are hard on our quail babies.  Haven't seen any babies yet, I don't know what the average survival rate is for them, but a lot of times we will see a pair with 10-12 babies to start out with and later on they might only have 1 or 2.  The roadrunners are also hard on our lizard population, especially when their babies hatch, that is one of the main food groups for baby roadrunners.  They usually only raise one, baby roadrunners are cannibals of their siblings.....UGH!  

 

 

This morning we went to a meet and greet at Indy's and Jerome's house.  They invited a lot of their friend's to come and meet Carlos on the left and Nellie on the right, their new "fur" kids.  

They are really nice donkeys, seemed to enjoy all the attention  and were very gracious to all the visitors.  Carlos is almost at a perfect weight.  Nellie is a little "short for her weight", but they are aware of the situation and she is on a diet. 

The plan is to have them pack burro racing hopefully by October 12th when the inaugural  race in Arizona will be held in Superior, AZ.

Haven't heard from Linda how the race went this morning, saw pictures of snow they were going to be driving thru to get there.......!!  Hope they are having fun..........!!!!