RAIN.....? NOT REALLY...........!!

Well it tried earlier this afternoon, it was what we call a 4 foot rain.......4 feet between the drops on the courtyard for a minute or so.......!!  

When we first came to Arizona the oldtimers said the monsoon started the 4th of July.  It was pretty accurate, many years the fireworks were rained out.  But a few years ago, someone got the brilliant idea that the monsoon should start the middle of June.  I don't think they shared that information with whoever is in charge of rain, because we've never had rain that early and it's still usually pretty close to the 4th......!!  There's clouds around and obviously there is moisture in the air, but so far that's all we got.  

Still watching Cisco and Rosie's habronema spots, both of them are healing up without further infestation, but I'm continuing to put wormer or SWAT on the areas, just in case.  Other than those 2 and socks on Rosie and Penny's front legs I don't have much doctoring to do.  

Courtney came out as planned.  Mariah did really good with Courtney, after I drugged her with Dormosodan.  We brought Rosie down to be worked on beside Mariah in Turbo/Link’s pen.  Mariah wasn’t the least bit impressed.  Brought big Gus down and she went over to Tula’s side of the pen and basically ignored us.  Courtney went in to see if she would change her mind and she didn’t bite or kick or anything like that, just aggressively evasive. 

I think there might have been too many people there, Suzanne, the girls, John and I and Courtney with her noisy sander.  So I drugged her, it takes about 1/2 an hour, Courtney did the mini girls, and Cisco and John said Mariah was stumbling around.  Maybe so, but her cooperation level hadn’t changed much.  More drugs a little more time and she did really good.  Of course Suzanne was shoveling cookies in her mouth non stop, I was afraid Mariah would get sick.......!! LOL  Courtney didn’t use power tools, she just nipped off the long hoof wall.  Didn’t even rasp the feet, Mariah will wear them off walking around.  Courtney said she had the hardest feet she had ran into in quite awhile.  This time last year Mariah was running with her herd on the range, she was "gathered" as the BLM calls it, last July.  She is really a sweet donkey, but she's only 2 years old and we don't know if she will be a runner or not. 

Heard from Linda in Colorado, they had a training day for the Leadville race, which actually isn't until next month.  That's the race John and I are going to go up and watch, at least that's the plan.  Linda took Coquette out, I think for the first time and Linda said she was so focused on running, people were asking if she was available for adoption.  We've always said she wasn't because she was so bonded with Penny and Penny isn't adoptable for a lot of reasons.  But Coquette has done really well this summer not being with Penny, so who knows maybe she will stay in Colorado long term if the right people wanted to add her to their family.

This is some of the teams, they are above the timber line.  They went over 12,000 feet......!!

 

HABRONEMA VICTIM #2

Must be the season, Rosie has a sore on her chest, probably from itching on sticks or branches.  Noticed lots of flies on it, and sure enough, little white specks.  I only doctored her with topical wormer once and it seems to have taken care of the larvae.  Now we're just putting SWAT on it daily. Cisco's nose sore seems to be healing, but I put wormer on it every morning, just in case.  

BlackJack is going to get a bath today.  He's been itching a lot, we see him scratching on trees and he's got some bare spots where he scratched too long.  He isn't a fan of bathing, but he stands still for it, well fairly still once he's wet. It's like he thinks by squirming he can avoid the experience, but once he's all wet it's all over......!!!  Silly boy..........!!   

Courtney is suppose to come this afternoon to trim.  This will be Mariah's first trim and I think she will do just fine.  I picked up and cleaned all 4 of her feet yesterday and she was cooperative although I could almost hear her asking, what in the heck I was doing.  She's had her front feet picked up, but I don't know about her back feet, and also don't know if her feet have ever been cleaned out before.  But she did just fine and Courtney is pretty good working with new animals as long as they behave.

This morning we gathered up our decorations for walking in the 4th of July parade up on Mt Lemmon, at Summerhaven.  They have a parade every year and we were invited to participant this year.  We are only taking BlackJack, Cheyenne and Lynn.  Our friend Leigh Anne and India are bringing Jasmine and Nellie, so there will be one standard and 4 minis, all dressed up for 4th of July.  I think John is going to be the hit of the parade.  He isn't walking a donkey but we came up with a great idea for him I think.  We'll take pictures.......!!!  LOL 

I raced Saturday night, finished 5th and the car came home in one piece, so it was a good night.  This is a screenshot from a video of the race.  We all stayed close together for awhile, but I finally got ahead of them  I'm 2nd from the top, which isn't a real good place to be, but then again this track isn't made for 4 across racing, so none of us were in a good position.

The 6th of July I'm suppose to race at the dirt track, for the 1st time in a long time.  Haven't heard much advertising, so don't know if they will actually race or not.  We'll be ready if they do.  

OH.....GOODY.....FIRST HABRONEMA OF THE SEASON.......!!

Suzanne came in this morning when she was grooming and said Cisco had a red spot on the inside of his nose.  That sounded familiar, over the years he's usually gets a couple of habronema sores in his nose and I spend the rest of the summer doctoring them and trying to keep anymore from showing up.  

Sure enough, a small red circle with a hole in the middle.  I dabbed at it with a rag and saw the little white larvae, but needed either a needle or tweezers to get it out.  Got the tweezers, some wormer to smear on afterwards to kill any others that might be there.   Suzanne was standing by with SWAT to put on the area to keep the flies from landing on the sore and dropping more stomach worm eggs.

Poor Cisco, over the years every summer we have this relationship, he gets habronema and I dig them out.  Actually this one was pretty easy I dug at it a little bit, rub it with a rag and it was gone.  You have to realize this is on the sensitive inside of his nostril and he's so use to it, he for the most part just stands and lets me dig.

Hopefully in the morning when I check it, it will be dry and healing, otherwise we'll have to keep doctoring until it does get dry and starts healing.

Yesterday afternoon Mikaela came in and said there was a snake in one of the trees.  Hmm...to the best of my knowledge we've never had a snake a tree before, although I would imagine they are we just don't see them.  So we went out and sure enough, it was a non poisonous racer "ie" coach whip, up in the big cat claw tree by the pens.  Momma fly catcher was also in the tree having a conniption fit, which explained why the snake was up in the tree.  We knew she had a nest up there Mikaela has been keeping tabs on it. 

Up too high for John and his snake catcher pole

Hhe's trying to hide from John

He finally started going down instead of up and John just let her go, since the main objective was to get him away from the nest.

I would imagine he was pretty disgusted with our interference

Once she got on the ground he took off very fast thru the pens to a rocky area.  Hopefully we scared he bad enough that he will leave that tree alone.

We've also got a dove nest, haven't seen it yet, but the momma has been entertaining John with her broken wing routine, when he gets too close.

 A few days ago, the 1st rattlesnake of the season was over in the east pen area on the path between the old and new pens.  Wasn't interested in visiting, Mikaela had time to take a picture and that was about it.  I don't know if they climb trees or not, I sure hope not.  That would be a big surprise if one of those happened to drop on you.  I know snakes can fall, a friend of ours when I was a kid had one fall out of a tree and land on her shoulders..........glad it wasn't me....I'd probably still be running........!! LOL 

How is this for cuteness......??

This is what is called a doggie calf.  Our neighbor is taking care of it for a week for one of the local ranchers.  Her momma isn't 2 years old and didn't have any milk, so Itsey Bitsy is being raised as an orphan.  She was premature and Jorja thinks she only weighed about 10 pounds when she was born which is really small.  She is a Corriente which is one of the oldest breeds of cattle in the U.S.  So far she is doing good, Jorja is keeping her in her horse trailer, as tiny as she is, a single coyote could  kill her.  Nothing can get in the trailer, although it must be pretty boring in there all by herself except for 3 times a day when she gets fed. 

IT'S NOT EVEN SUMMER YET............

At least for a couple more days.  But it's hot enough to think it's summer.  For the monsoons to begin the weatherman says we have to have high temperatures.  Well I'm not in any hurry for the monsoons, because then it will be humid and we'll be like the rest of the country............sticky.....!!  I do admire the people that settled in the desert in the 1800s, they had a lot of trials and tribulations to overcome, one of the biggies was summer temperatures.  BUT, they worked with the weather, started working early in the morning, and at lunchtime would find something to do in the shade or rest, until late afternoon when it started cooling off.

The people I really feel sorry for were the women, can you imagine having to cook 2 times a day in the summer, in the desert using wood as your fuel.  I've canned in the summer and even with modern conveniences like air conditioning and electric stoves, it's still hot sweaty work.  A lot of people had what they called summer kitchens, they didn't even try to cook in the house.  

The reason I said cooking 2 times a day is, my granny Bolton in Oklahoma cooked a huge breakfast, had dinner at mid day.  Then for supper they had rat trap cheese (cheddar) crackers, and sardines (which I never ate, wanted to make sure there was plenty for everyone else....LOL)  and RC Cola.  Don't even know if they make that anymore.  And for desert, homemade chocolate ice cream.  They had milk and eggs and grandad like chocolate ice cream, so that was what was on the menu.  

The donkeys for the most part are just hanging out waiting for cooler weather.  Well everyone except Big Gus.   John and I went out earlier to let him out of his pen.  He's a slow eater, so he and Cisco are usually the last ones out.  

Opened the gate, he wouldn't move so I could open it all the way, had to wrestle him for awhile.  When he came out he quickly headed for the golf cart where John was sitting and parked his rather large body in such a way, we couldn't move the golf cart.  I finally got out wrestled him out of the way told John to go, I'd catch up.  I caught up, unfortunately we stopped to let Cisco out and Big Gus was there almost as soon as we were.  He knows Cisco leaves hay.  We headed up to the garage and here he comes, and heads right into the garage to nose around.  So John had to close the door before he brought me back down to the house.  That is pretty much what happens anytime anyone goes out and BG is in sight.  Whatever you want to do, he wants to help. 

Big Gus and Richelle

Richelle and the Big Guy, any time humans go outside, he's going to be there pretty quick.

Big Gus wanting the girls to come out and play........!!

Heard from Linda last night and it sounds like they are staying busy.  She sent a video link that some of the runners had taken of a pretty large bear that was along the race route.   Lynn didn't see it, but quite a few of the runners did.  It was hiding in the trees and then went across the trail and disappeared which is a good thing.  I would imagine the donkeys wouldn't think much of a bear being that close to them.  

She said Boaz and Quilla are not wearing fly masks and have no sores on them, which is great.  I'm pretty sure I'd be doctoring both of them by now.  

We are planning on driving up to Colorado in late July to watch the Fairplay race.  I think it's the longest race and has a large group of runners, so that should be interesting.  And we'll get to meet all their friends and relatives up there.  We've heard so much about them, it's almost like we already know them.    

SUMMER WITH A VENGENCE.........

At least it feels like it, it's been over 100 degrees every since the 1st day of 100 degrees.  At least the weather people are happy.......!! LOL

When it's that hot not much goes on around here.  Everyone gets fed, then they stand around in the shade until time for evening feeding.  This morning we had a woman come out to take pictures.  She had been out with her family before and wanted to photograph the donkeys.  

When the donkeys wear fly masks 24/7 the hair on their faces gets all mashed down.  Last night John took all the masks off when he let the donkeys out at bedtime.  I took that opportunity to wash them and see how many needed to be replaced.  We only had to replace 2 which is pretty good, I can usually salvage them, unless they have rubbed the eye area.  Once there are holes over the eyes from scratching and rubbing they have to be replace.  This morning early Suzanne and the girls, fluffed up everyone's facial hair, so they would look pretty.  By the time they got done with that, the flies had woke up and were starting to be pests.  

Suzanne is still giving vinegar in the feed buckets and it is helping, but I guess some flies are just more determined than others.  So back on went the fly masks  and when Natasha got here, they took them off again.  The idea was to put them back on when she got done with picture taking.  Good idea, but some of the donkeys see no reason to let you do things to them if they are out of their pen.  So Tula, Gigi and the little white devil Casper are without fly masks this afternoon.  I hope they put 2 and 2 together and figure out that fly masks are a good thing.  But I doubt it, cooperating isn't a biggie with any of the three........!! LOL

John and Larry have been working on Larry's car most of this week.  Once they got all the bent stuff off, it wasn't as bad as they thought race night.  I don't know why guys look at the car in the dark and decide it's totaled.  Sometimes it is, but most of the time it isn't.  Another racer had the parts they needed, and they've got most of the heavy work done, so Larry can take the car home and finish it.  He doesn't race until the 6th of July, so he's got time to get all the little stuff done.  He says he's done with asphalt, but we'll see.


I will be racing the 6th of July on DIRT.......!!!  At least I hope so.  The dirt track isn't very big on advertising and letting everyone know what is happening so far.  We have a schedule and hopefully it will go off as planned.   They say next year they will have a full schedule for the Hornets, if they do that's where I'll be..........!!!

This is an in car video of my car getting side slammed.  Having a camera in the car really changes your prospective.  We all blamed #9 and granted he is a squirrel and needs to control his car.  But his involvement was already over when #2 side slammed me because of #9.  Two slowed down a little, just enough for #22 to get into the back of #2, who turned me and somewhere in the melee my spindle got destroyed and that was the end of my racing for the night. 

Haven't heard much from Colorado this week, hopefully Lynn and Linda are getting caught up after last week-end.  Their 10 mile race at Crede ended up 14 miles and it was a challenging hilly race in places.  It will be interesting to see how they set it up next year.  Will they stay with the 10 mile less challenging trail............or..............will they go for the killer run?  About 20% of the racers did not finish the course, which is a pretty high DNF percentage.  But changing the course and having it longer than anticipated probably had something to do with that.

Linda said all the donkeys that run a race, get leg massages afterwards.  She said Loki especially enjoys them.  He really is a love sponge and loves attention, so I can imagine him making sure he's getting as much massaging as he can.

Here's some more pictures from last week-ends 2 pack burro races..........

Lynn and Sugar, have to admit the scenery is beautiful

Linda Lynn Jacque and Sugar trying to get the race started without a disaster.  Jacque decided he was going to the front and Linda got to try to stay up with him.  It all turned out good, but who knew Jacque would run like that.....!!! LOL 

Linda and Jacque later on, when Jacque started to focus on pacing himself........LOL

Instead of running, Pepsi and Justin got to hang out in a grassy area of town and be "show and tell" donkeys for the day.  I guess it's a hard job but someone has to do it.  Thanks for the picture Stephanie

Linda has become a stalker, wherever Rambo is, she finds him.....!!

FINALLY MADE IT.......!!!

Glad that's over now the weather people can talk about how many days over 100* we can string together.  Or start the count down to the start of the monsoon season.  Monsoon use to start July 4th and it was amazing how often the fireworks got rained out.......!!! LOL

But a few years ago someone decided that the monsoon should start on the 15th of June.  That's fine and dandy but I'm not sure that change was cleared with God or whoever is in charge of the monsoon.  Although this year everyone seems to think we will have an early monsoon, because we had such a lovely cool spring.  We'll see........

Lynn and Linda and more than 2 donkeys did a pack burro race in Crede, CO  over the week-end.  I don't know how many donkeys went with them. The course was suppose to be 10 miles originally like it was last year.  But they changed the course to 14 miles.  We haven't heard much from Linda so far I think they are recuperating.  I got a short e-mail this morning and she said it was BRUTAL.....in caps.  Monday is when she takes her tests for Vet Tech school, so hopefully in the next day or two we'll get some info.  

I know Frijolita went because she ran with someone that had to pull out at 12 miles to go home with whoever brought her.....!!!  Good grief, to be that close to finishing and not be able to for a reason like that would really be disappointing.  I hope whoever was furnishing the ride, had something really important to do......!!

Linda and Frijolita at Idaho Springs

All the kids here are doing good, my fly traps are working over time, I have 5 of them out.  I don't want any fly wanting to go in them, to have to wait because of heavy traffic......!! LOL  Each trap says it will hold 40,000 flies, so far I've replaced 4 of them.  Haven't tried to count flies to see if their advertisement is accurate or not......!! 

Doctoring is down to a minimum.  Lynn and Linda took Boaz Coquette, and Quilla, the ones that takes the most doctoring in the summer with them.  

Penny's legs need to be covered, Cisco has to be checked each morning for fly damage, so far he is doing good.  Rosie's belly in the past has always developed Ventral Midline Dermatitis every spring and we fought the good fight all summer long.  

Last year I ran across an article about neck worms.  Found it interesting, and since the treatment was just a worming routine over a period of time, I wormed her as it suggested.  So far this year her belly is dry.  It has some crusty areas, but it's not open and isn't drawing flies.  I don't know if worming fixed it or she outgrew it, but she's having a more comfortable summer so far, hope it continues.  

We are also experimenting with vinegar and B-1 to see if it helps with the flies.  Both Cisco and Penny have a terrible time with flies hanging around their mouths.  Or in Cisco's case, I think they hang around because of his nasal discharge,  he has chronic guttural pouch drainage, and a poor immune system, so the flies absolutely adore him.......!! 

I read about using vinegar for fly control, and that B-1 ( Thiamine) is one of the vitamins that is is a turn off for flies, if it is given to equine regularly.  The preferred vinegar is with the cloudy mother in it.  So I trot off to find some, would you believe Walmart has it in a gallon jug?  We were afraid the smell would be a turnoff, when we put it on their mush.  A few of them looked at it, but went ahead and ate, so it's going pretty good so far.  It seems to be helping with the flies, there are still a few "die hards" around Penny and Cisco, but 3 or 4 at a time, is much better than dozens.  So now Suzanne is giving it to everybody and it seems to really make a difference.   I must say a gallon doesn't go very far when they all are getting 1/4 cup twice a day.........!!! LOL

This last week-end I raced..........well I attempted to race.  Coming for the checkered flag 3 of us lined up across the track.  Guy on the outside, got into the guy in the middle.  Guess where he went?  Well he actually ended up in the infield, but on his way he body slammed the front of my car and got me sideways by nerfing me in the back.  Ruined the suspension on the right front.............AGAIN......!!  Of course one of the parts, isn't anything sold at car part stores, because they never fail.  They do if someone runs over you...............LOL  So John will be going to Pull-a-Part tomorrow to hopefully find a spindle.  

ooooops...............!!!

This is how our friend Larry's car came home.   Not everybody on a race track should be there, and unfortunately this is the 2nd or 3rd time this same driver has taken Larry out.  He's not picking on Larry personally, everyone tries to stay away from the guy, but he manages to get close to them anyway.  It's actually not as bad as it looks, but it's bad enough. 

We take the quad to the races so we don't have to walk all over the pits.  BUT we brought Larry's car home Saturday night and it had to stay on the trailer and attached to the truck, until John could figure out the best place to unload it.   The problem is, the ramps are so steep, he has to unload it on the car trailer.  Unfortunately couldn't do that with the race car already there. 

 

So he got the brilliant idea of unloading it into the stock trailer.  Worked like a charm......!!

 

Unfortunately the ramps for the quad couldn't attach to the trailer to keep them from sliding.  So John had to stand on the ramps at the bottom, while I drove the quad out of the trailer.  I managed to get it out and on the ground without running over him.....!!!

INCHING CLOSER TO 100 DEGREES EVERY DAY..........!!

The only problem with that is once it does hit 100* we will probably have a string of 100* days 15-20 days long.  That's what usually happens.  Not looking forward to that, but it's part of living in the desert I guess.

Things are pretty quiet around here, although we are still having a few tours.  Usually in the summer the tours slow down which is a good thing.  When it's hot the donkeys aren't that interested in visiting with people, they just want to stand in the shade and wait for it to cool off.  

Lynn and Linda are staying busy in "Forever Home Northern Satellite aka Colorado", I'm not sure when their next pack burro race is.  They have been doing some training, so they aren't just goofing off.....!! LOL  

On the trail.........!!

The link above is from a practice day they had this week.   It's Linda running with Levi, a friend Joanne running with Buddy Brat and Lynn being the encouragement in the back.  

This is Rambo with his new family in his 1st official pack burro race.  I think the other donkey is his new buddy Earl, Steve and his daughter.  I think Linda said Steve's wife was running with a burro too.

Joanne and Justin

Lynn and Sugar climbing a trail at Georgetown

Linda and Jacque at Georgetown

John has driven for a jeep tour company in Tucson for a long time.  The owners let the drivers borrow the jeeps to give tours to friends and family that come to visit.  So a few days ago, John took Suzanne and her granddaughters out for a tour on the ranch where he usually gives tours. 

John showing the girls a large area of pictographs on a large slab of rock.
 I think he said the Hohokam tribe  are the ones that did the art work.

Suzanne and the girls beside a pretty large Saguaro

Looks like the girls are tipping their hats to Suzanne and John.  John said they saw some jackrabbits, but that is about all the wildlife they saw.  There's horses on the ranch but they didn't see them at all. 

The "new" race car is finally finished, although I've only driven it once around the driveway.  But tomorrow night they are having an open practice at the track and we're going to take it out and see how it handles.  It still isn't painted and I'll be racing Saturday night, BUT, I'll be racing the old car I've been running so far this season.  The plan is to run the new car the 22nd of June, if it survives practice tomorrow night.....!! LOL