YESTERDAY WAS AN INTERESTING DAY...........

 Actually it started on Tuesday, when Suzanne and I went up to Tonapah to pick up a couple of jennies that needed to be rehomed.  The woman had told me they were mother and daughter and needed their feet trimmed.  

So off we went on an adventure.  Got there and was told the daughter was a hinny, which is a cross between a horse stallion and a donkey jenny rather than the normal mule, which is a donkey jack and a horse mare.  We had also been told they were not trained to lead, halter, etc.  Hmmmm........!!  I had called Michele from Lucky A Ranch, she and her daughters have done a lot of training and I thought they might be interested in work with these girls.  Now I'm going to have to tell her one of them isn't a donkey after all........!!!  LOL 

When we saw them, there was no question, they were both donkeys.  Whew...!

We could tell that they had not been handled much.  The daughter is 4 years old and had never had a halter on.  The mother wasn't interested in having one on again, but she actually loaded in the trailer by herself.  The daughter had never been handled much if any and was pretty scared, so it took quite awhile to get her loaded, but we finally got to head home.  They stayed in a pen here at the rescue overnight and we delivered them to Michele yesterday.  

They are pretty girls and I think they will be easy to work with, once they figure out no one is going to hurt them.  They haven't been abused or anything like that, they just haven't been taught anything.  The woman said she got the mom away from guys roping her over 4 years ago, and the daughter was born a few weeks after the woman got her.  

I had never been to Michele's rescue, although I did know she had some French Poitou donkeys.  So Suzanne and I loaded up and headed for her place.  

The weather wasn't exactly Arizona desert type weather.  Suzanne has all the fancy do dads in her truck, one being GPS to help you get where you are going.  May I say, we spent a lot of time backing up this dirt road that had a lot of deep ruts in it.  We got about 1 1/2 miles down this road before we figured out, it had no outlet.  The fence on both sides was too close to turn around with a stock trailer bouncing behind, so she got to back ALL the way back, until there was a side road to back into and get to head the other direction.  I was impressed, she did great, even with the ruts. 

Finally got to Michele's and wow........she has a donkey lover's paradise, and mules too, if you are so inclined.  She has about 50 total equine and has more Poitous than I've ever seen in one place.  

                    She has quite a few large pens, so everyone has plenty of space.

                                                   

                        Michelle has 2 babies 1 and 2 months old.

Everybody wants attention

This is a purebred Poitou

That's me with a couple of purebred Poitous

Their dreadlocks are really interesting.  Underneath the dreadlocks is what looks like another coat of very soft fine hair about 3 or 4 inches long.  I had wondered if the dreadlocks went to the skin and might cause sores, but they don't.

This is a 50% Poitou, he looks just like our BlackJack.  In fact I think BJ is a little bit fuzzier, especially on his face we can't hardly see his eyes.  Big Gus also has the look.  

Michele said her girls were thrilled when they got home from school to see the new donkeys.  They'll have to wait to do much training until their feet get trimmed, but in the meantime they can groom and play with them.  

Coming home we sat on the highway for almost an hour in a stall.  Never got close enough to whatever the problem was to see what it was.  There is only one highway running east and west in this area.  If they have a wreck it's not unusual to close the highway down in one direction for hours, especially if there is a fatality.  Really messes up your appointments in Tucson if that happens.  We always take a phone number, so we can call, just in case.  

Everyone here are doing good.  Ruthie was running a temperature for a few days and not interested in eating, but she seems to be over whatever she had and back to normal.  

Since Suzanne had to drive in rain yesterday, we were hoping that we would get rain out here..........no such luck, just lots of spring wind.  We haven't had a good rain in over 2 years and the plants are starting to look pretty dry.  The "experts", that's anyone you talk to say we're going to have a hot summer with a normal monsoon.  We are so dry a normal monsoon wouldn't bring us up to our annual rainfall, let alone make up for our 2 year deficit.

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'

This morning Lynn and Linda hit the road headed for Colorado, with friends helping them to move 3 trailers of donkeys and a lot of other stuff that has accumulated over the last 5 years or so.  They have decided to stay in Colorado rather than travel back and forth every 6 months and concentrate on Linda's school and probably pack burro racing.  This was the big move, they will be back in a few days to gather up the last remnants for the permanent move.  

They've been a very important part of the rescue for years and we will miss them and all the excitement and fun they brought into our lives.  Needless to say the blog won't be quite a much fun in the future.  

Suzanne is here year round and dedicated to the donkeys.  She even furnishes extra hands in the summer, when her grandchildren come out.  They love the donkeys and help with chores, as long as they aren't too early in the morning.........!! LOL

We are kicking around some new ideas for things to do with the donkeys.  John and I aren't going to start pack burro racing at our age, but there are other things we can do with the donkeys to help people be aware of how special they are and how they can become a valued member of a family.  

Who has the loading list?

Well that's one way to get out of a trailer full of donkeys

This is called "Burro Stuffing"

               How's this for advertising your intentions..!!!  LOL

  

Actually didn't take very long to load 3 trailers of donkeys and off they went.

 

Right now we've got a sick girl.  Ruthie came back to the rescue a few weeks ago after being out in a foster home as a companion for Marcy for about 6 years.  Unfortunately Marcy died, so Ruthie came back.  She fit in pretty good although she hasn't found a buddy yet.  

The last few days she hasn't been eating very well if at all.  Took her temperature yesterday and it was 104.1...........YIKES.  Called Dr. Jeremy and followed his instructions and this morning she was down to 99.8.  Tonight she was back up to 101.2.  Thank goodness she is easy to work with, some donkeys really don't appreciate having their temperature taken and let you know it.  At least she is eating her hay and mush, so she is feeling better.  She will be getting antibiotics at least 7 days, hopefully that will take care of whatever she has.  

I will be racing this week-end, actually for the 1st time this season.  The last time I was suppose to race, the car decided not to start while I was waiting to go on the track, so I didn't even get to race.  We didn't have enough cars to really make a good race anyway, hopefully tomorrow night more cars will show up.  I'm afraid our class won't race next year if we don't get more cars.  Actually all the classes could stand to have more participation .  That's when it's fun, when you have cars to pass or get passed and having to figure out how to work thru traffic.  

NEWS ARTICLE ABOUT THE DONKEY DASH IN TOMBSTONE.........

 Nice article about the donkey race Saturday in Tombstone.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.  

 Dana Cole article on the Donkey Dash

This morning about 4am, about twenty of the donkeys that were in a large pen with a bunch of other donkeys had a "great" time.  Someone figured out how to undo the chain that was holding the corral panel together and a bunch of them escaped before Lynn and Linda sleeping about 15 feet away figured out the donkey noise was getting farther and farther away.  They broke open a bale of hay and chummed most of the criminals back into the pen, by throwing flakes of hay into the pen.  So everyone got an early breakfast, including the ones that didn't get out. 

We aren't blaming anyone in particular, BUT, our Frijolita is really good at undoing chains.  She's been known to undo her gate, and just stand in the pen until someone shows up to see what she has done.  She's also been known to go around and open everyone else's gate, so they can enjoy her highly specialized skills.  She was in that pen and was one of the escapees, so what are we to think...??  LOL

Does she look guilty?

2ND ANNUAL TOMBSTONE DONKEY DASH IS HISTORY........!!

 The race was  this morning and I think there was 84 burro/human teams that started.  Suzanne and I set up our table by the Good Enough Mine to sell our t-shirts, stuffies and other assorted donkey stuff.  

 Had a drawing for the picture of Pablo, dressed up as a miner, on the left side of the table.  We haven't drawn for a winner yet, plan on doing that tomorrow morning.  

Sold lots of t-shirts and little fuzzy donkeys for the kids.  Some parents had to buy one, because the kid already had it in their grasp and wouldn't let go......!! LOL

I saw a lot of friends I hadn't seen for awhile and a lot of people stopped by the table and want to come out a visit with the donkeys, so it was a good day.

Most of our donkeys did good.  Harley one of the minis won the 6 mile race, LaRoy and Jackson finished 4th and 5th I think in the 6 mile also.  All I know about the 13 mile long race was little Buttercup won again.  She won last week in California too.  She is a little running machine, her human Marvin spends a lot of time running with her almost daily, so I guess she thinks that's what she is suppose to do.  

Suzanne took a video of the start of the race this morning.

 Donkey Dash 2021

TOMBSTONE THIS WEEK-END...........

Tomorrow, Saturday at about 8:30am 87 burro teams are signed up to take off down Allen Street  running the 2nd annual Donkey Dash.  It should be a lot of fun with plenty of excitement.  

Here is the schedule for the week-end, it looks like it's going to be pretty busy.

When we got ready to leave, this is what was happening.  Link was tall enough to get into the hay in the back of the pickup.  When we caught them, the ones that were hanging around the pickup for what hay he was dropping, all turned around and acted like they weren't involved, but we know they were........!!!  LOL

Lots of donkeys in the pen waiting for tomorrow morning.   They look like they don't have much room.  The problem is all the people are on this side of the pen, so that's where they all want to be............!!! You never know when someone might have a treat to share or want to pet a donkey and they want to be available if that happens.

Yesterday Suzanne and I went to Tucson to pick up 3 pack saddles from the older couple we got Koshare, Kachina, Anazazi and Macho Man  from a few months ago.  They had wanted to give us the saddles, but it took this long for us to go back and get them. 
 

 

While we were there, we visited with Sunny and Dusty, the 2 younger donkeys they kept.  They are the younger siblings of Koshare and Anazazi.  Very friendly and love attention.  Unfortunately the grey one has some of the same fly damage that Macho Man had.  We've offered to take them, but the couple haven't made that decision yet. 

The saddles seem to be in good shape, it sounds like they have been sitting around for at least 20 years, the layer of dust looked like it could have been longer.  A little cleaning up, some new cinches and saddle blankets and they should be very usable.

Tomorrow we will have a table set up by the Good Enough Mine, with t-shirts, stuffies and other donkey items.  If anyone comes to Tombstone for the race, if you get a chance stop by and say Hi........!!  

 

 

BUT I WANT TO GO TOO.........!!!

 You might notice that the donkey getting in the trailer is not attached to the lead.  Linda made this video today when they were trying to make a video of Oliver loading in the trailer.  

 

 

Big Gus, saw a golden opportunity to go somewhere if he could sneak in the trailer.  With Lynn already in the trailer and Oliver waiting to load, it wasn't much of a "sneak" and Big Gus didn't get to go anywhere, much to his disgust.  

His big nose is in just about everything that goes on around her.  He has no boundaries and seems to expect everyone to appreciate his "help", which almost always isn't very helpful.  Last night Lynn and Linda hauled in from California with a load of donkeys late at night.  They unloaded, fed the donkeys and forgot about a bale of hay in the back of the pickup.  

Guess who found it.  Now we don't know for sure it was Gus, BUT, he is so easy to blame, because he is usually involved in anything new, out of place or different.  He certainly makes life interesting around here.  We have to put him in his pen when we have tours.  He's jealous of the other donkeys, he wants all the attention for himself and tries to chase the other donkeys away from the visitors.  He knows he's being mistreated and tries to tear the gate down.  Of course the people usually go over to make over him and give him lots of attention, which is what he wants anyway.  

Suzanne stayed in California to help with the cleanup after the races.  The trails are marked with ribbons and all those have to be removed.  She will be heading back tomorrow with the rest of the donkeys that went to California.  

Later this week we'll all be heading for Tombstone, John and I will stay home until Saturday morning to take care of the donkeys that aren't running in the race.  Lynn, Linda and Suzanne will be going a day or 2 early to give the donkeys a chance to rest up for the race.  It should be a lot of fun, there are about 70 teams signed up to race.  A team is a burro and a person that have to start the race together and cross the finish line together.  Sometimes that isn't as easy to accomplish as it sounds.....!!! LOL

We will have a table set up on Toughnut Street by the Good Enough Mine.  If you are coming to watch the fun, by all means stop by and say HI.......!! 

 Facebook page for the Good Enough Mine

 

 

 https://www.facebook.com/goodenoughminetours

BREAKFAST TIME IN COLORADO

Looks like they are all ready for breakfast...!!

  https://www.facebook.com/burrobuddies/videos/239304881216617

CALIFORNIA OR BUST............!!!

 

Early morning sunrise, Quartzsite

 

 A little exercise in Quartzsite  

Burro watering hole in Inyokern, CA 

 Thanks to Suzanne and Linda for sharing their pictures and videos, so we all can share in the adventure.

CALIFORNIA THERE THEY GO........

Linda, Suzanne and Lynn have been busy for the last couple of days preparing for the trip to Ridgecrest, CA for the California Breakfast Burritos annual burro race.  It's not as easy as throwing a bunch of stuff in the pickups, hooking up the trailers and hitting the road.  

All the pack saddles have to be fitted to the burro that will be wearing the saddle, to make sure the cinches are the proper length and all the straps are in good shape.  That took most of yesterday into the night.  They are taking 2 trailer loads of donkeys so that is a lot of equipment.  

It will be a 2 day trip to get there, it's not actually that far, but they usually do about 300 miles a day, so the donkeys don't have to spend hours and hours standing in a moving trailer.  I would imagine once they get there they will be non-stop, until time to come back, Sunday or Monday.  Makes me tired just thinking about it.......!!! LOL

John has a new toy to play with.  We finally figured out a way to get rid of the poo.  It's amazing how much poo a bunch of donkeys can manufacture.  We always say we know they make more poo than we feed them.....!!  

We have a friend that picks up poo for us and also owns a Gator.  Her brilliant idea was with a Gator we could haul the poo to a big hole in the ground over on the 20 acres we call Burroland and dump it.  We looked for a used one and decided that people don't sell them very often.  So we bit the bullet and bought a "new" one.  There went our stimulus check, but I'm sure John Deere appreciates it.....!!!  

Sure was a pretty little thing all bright and shiny.  The 1st thing we did was fill the dump bed with poo and haul it over to Burroland.  The dump bed is really nice, you don't have to be big and strong to dump it, which means I might even be able to operate it........!! 

The local paper, the Sierra Vista Herald did an article on the donkey rescue last Wednesday, March 31st.  It was a pretty good article, this is one of the pictures they took of John and I.  Here is a link to the video they put on you-tube.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozI6-RalZ5w

 For anyone that hasn't gotten to see a burro race, it's hard to imagine what the start is like.  It's chaos, with donkeys running, or not, depending on how they feel.  Loose donkeys with their human team mate not expecting such a fast start.  Once they settle down and get away from so many donkeys and humans, crammed together and get strung out over the trails, I'm sure it's a lot of fun.  

But in the meantime, it looks like a big mess with lots of moving parts..........LOL  This is a video a young man posted on Instagram after the Black Canyon race, it was his 1st burro race.  He and Koshare finished 2nd in the 9 mile race, so they obviously worked as a team after a rough start.  Well, it looked pretty rough for the human, I would imagine Koshare was having a great time.  Some of the language is a little salty, but under the circumstances not surprising......!! LOL  There will be the picture below of the Koshare Team, then a video, another picture and the 2nd video is of Ruairi's 1st race start.

 https://www.instagram.com/p/CMYC1HLH89L/

Not sure if this was taken before or after the race, but they both look like they were having fun.  Thank you Ruairi for such a great video.  If they had been 6 seconds faster they would have won.  As it is they got beat by a "girl" named Marshmellow .......!!

The trailers just pulled out of the driveway headed for California.  The reason Lynn stopped out on the road was to retrieve a fly mask, one of the neighbors hung on a post.  That's what they do when they find one outside the fence.

 

 
 

HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE...........!!

I miss the Easters of my childhood as anyone of an "age" probably does.  So much has changed over the years, it seems like holidays don't mean what they use to.  In the stores, the holidays seem to blend together in a constant changing from one to the next one.  Heaven forbid if you are slow about making your choices for today's holiday, because everything is probably no longer available in anticipation of the next one.  Same goes for summer and winter clothes.......!! 

I just went out to take some pictures of some of the donkeys, in the afternoon.  A couple of weeks ago that wouldn't be a problem, but winter is over and spring has sprung.  The donkeys were all hanging out in shade and looked at me like I was crazy to be walking around for whatever reason.  A couple of them came up to me to see if I had a good reason for being out, like carrying treats for them.  I never did find the donkeys I was looking for.  

The warm weather has started some of the skin problems we deal with every year.  So far I am doctoring Rosie, Cisco and Boaz.  Rosie has her usual sores on her belly probably caused by neck worms.  The boys don't have sores on their sheaths yet, but if I don't start covering the area with Cortizone10, it would only take another day or two of 90 degree weather to break out.  

We haven't had to put fly masks on yet.  I hate to start putting them on, because once I do, they will be on until early November.  

Lynn and Linda have been doing quite a bit of race training with the donkeys.  Quite a few people have come out to run with the donkeys, to get ready for either California or Tombstone or both. 

Here's some videos Linda took, I still can't figure out how she can run with a donkeys and take such great videos.  I'd be on my face in the dirt.......!!!  LOL

I'VE BEEN EVERYWHERE 

DON'T BRING ME DOWN

LOCOMOTION  if you look closely you'll notice that Koshare the 1st donkey in line isn't on a lead.

We have a problem with poo, I think donkeys put out twice what they take in.  Mother nature usually takes care of it, but we haven't had good rains for over 2 years.  So we bought a John Deere Gator for the rescue to use.  I'm sure John will find other uses for it too......!!! So far he's just been playing with it.  

The donkeys I was looking for earlier today came in for feeding, so I got a chance to take some pictures.  Benji and Oliver are going to be going to Colorado with Lynn and Linda to be adopted.  Actually Oliver's adopter might come down for the Tombstone race and take him home.  Anyway I managed to get some pictures of them.

 This is Oliver, he is a large standard and will be a pack burro for hunting trips into the mountains.  He came here when his owner died.  He actually won his first race, at the New Year's Bray race, New Year's Day this year, and his new owner is a racer, so he may be in more races in Colorado.

The bigger donkey is Benji with his friend Arrow.  There is quite a size difference, but it doesn't seem to matter.  Benji came in with Jenny, from an older couple that didn't think they could take care of them anymore.  Jenny was adopted in Colorado a year or so ago is now called Nell and has an owner that dotes on her.  

Benji is also a pretty large standard and will be packing and also pack burro racing in his new home.  He's raced a couple of times, last time was at Black Canyon in March. 

Both of these will be really good homes for these boys.  It's wonderful when these donkeys can go into good forever homes