THEY AREN'T ANY HAPPIER............!!!

The donkeys seem to think we have lost our minds. Except for an occasional whiney bray, and rushing to show us where the gate is, whenever they see someone moving, they seem to have accepted their fate.  That doesn't mean when the gates are opened they don't try to get out, or if they are let out, they take off at a rapid pace, to start vacuuming up beans for 4 hours or so.  

They aren't interested in mush or hay, both of which they need to counteract the beans in their system.  When Penny coliced a few years ago and had to have surgery there was a ball of beans in her system, that would never have passed, because there was no fiber mixed in to keep them from gumming together.  

This is the worst year we've ever had for beans and John started early this summer cutting down on their hay in preparation for bean season.  

It's like a buffet

Jasper spends all his allotted time out, under the tree by the house where we park the golf cart in the shade.  He just stands in one place, scarfing up beans.  He had slimmed down and was really looking good.  But I noticed this morning his fat pockets are showing up again.  It will probably take until next bean season to get the weight they all gain this bean season off them.  

I'm happy to report Big Gus is back to normal, eating his hay and trying to take his pen apart to get out.  He's still not going out, we're monitoring his pooing, peeing and water intake, at least for a couple more days.  An equine system is about 48-72 hours, he's been in that long and there are still beans in his poo.  It doesn't help that there is a tree hanging over his pen, yesterday he was shaking the limbs to make the beans fall.........!!   He's been getting babied, applesauce, and chunks of watermelon hand fed, which he enjoys.  John is still running his hay thru the leaf shredder and wetting it, just in case his throat is still sore from being tubed.  He's managing to eat mesquite beans if they fall in his pen, so I assume his throat isn't too sore. 

Thanks for the video Suzanne......!!

This walk was after Gus had flunked being tubed without being cross tied.  Of course the cross ties aren't that close to his pen, so we were having to walk a very drunk donkey, at least he stayed on his feet.

Last night was a race night for the Hornets at the dirt track, so off we went for a night of fun and adventure.  Last time the track was dry, the dust was so thick we couldn't see a car right in front of us.  We all managed to miss each other, although I ran into the tractor tires they have around their light poles.........twice.

Last night they had watered the track and it was as my stepfather use to say, "slicker than snot".....!! We were all slipping and sliding, although a couple of the guys figured out if they hung their left front tire on the inside dirt berm, they could stay on the track.  I'm not that smart I guess, I came within a few inches of hitting those stupid tires again.  For the 1st time in a lot of years of doing this, I pulled off the track before the race was finished because the track was so bad.  Went back to the pits, and waited for the main event.  They called us to staging before our race, I pushed the start button and...........NOTHING.......except some clicking.  John hurried to jump start it off another battery, got it started, but it wasn't really running.  Limped to staging, as John yelled, "don't turn it off".  My big worry was to keep it running, had to keep playing with the gas pedal, because all it wanted to do was die.......!!  Sat in staging a few minutes, trying to keep it running and it kept losing more power until it finally died on it's own gas pedal or not.  Even I figured out it was more than just the battery.  John pushed me back to our pits with the quad, and I left the area, went to watch the guys run MY race..........LOL  Came back and he told me to drive it up on the trailer...........really?  Sure enough it started and ran just fine.  He changed the battery.  Grrrr........!!!

He had known for awhile the battery wasn't as good as it should be, but the alternator failing was a surprise.  You can run with one or the other usually, but if both of them are weak or fail, you aren't going anywhere.  So I've been to the dirt track twice this year and not finished a race.  They have one more race but it is the same night as a race at the paved track.  I'm still in 5th place for end of the year points on the pavement, so I have to go over there.

This is my car the 21x and our friend Larry's 09 stock car

But the night wasn't a total loss.  People started congratulating me for Rod winning the modified race over at the paved track.  After the 3rd one, I figured there must be something to it.

Sure enough, he started 13th in the main and managed to squirm his way to the front.  Sorry we missed it, but I'm sure there will be video of it on the internet.