BUSY MONTH JUST ABOUT OVER....

 If I was taking bets, I'd bet we have had more visitors this month than ever before.  Almost every day, one day we had 4 or 5 tours, which kept us busy.  We love it when people want to see the donkeys and the donkeys REALLY love to have tours, when they see the Solo red cups come out they know it's going to be a good day......!!! LOL  Solo cups mean animal crackers in the hands of people that think they are cute and don't know one cookie works as well as a handful.  Many of the donkeys have learned tricks to get people's attention.  

                                                    Jasper's trick is showing his tongue

Boaz wiggles his nose and shows his teeth and actually has quite a list of tricks, if one doesn't work, he'll try another one.  

Justice is trying to learn from Boaz, their pens are next to each other.  Justice sees Boaz getting more cookies, so he's trying to work the people too.

 Mamacita usually sings when the people get to her pen, she's a soprano.......LOL   Rosie  does her thing by fleman.

Of  course LaRoy is still working on his rope technique.  On December 12th I put a video on the blog  when Suzanne took some donkeys out to Empire Ranch for a week-end celebration of LaRoy trying to get some of the other donkeys to play with him.  He actually has one purple rope that he uses to get people on a tour interested.

I have just wasted a lot of time, probably not as much as it seems like, trying to find on my "NEW" hated computer the still pictures I took that day of him with his rope to put on the blog today.  But can't find them, Win10 obviously thinks I am much smarter than I am.........LOL  So no pictures to share of the little guy and his rope.......Grrrrr!!!

YIPPEE....  FOUND IT.........  The people on tours are a lot more interested than the other donkeys were that day it looks like...!! 

His technique is still a work in progress, most of the time he waits until we've already visited with him and Jackson and have moved on to pick up his rope, which doesn't work really well for getting the expected cookie.  He'll figure it out, hopefully.........!!

Our local bank usually has a corner set up for local artists to display their work, and this month they had an artist named Larry Scott showing some of his digital artwork.  

Letter from Home

This one of Mike Benjamin and Zeke caught my eye and I got in touch with Larry.  Mike and Zeke were dear friends for years along with Mike's wife Teresa.  They did a couple of walks to raise money for our rescue, one from Ft. Huachuca to Tombstone, one up north that ended with them being in a parade in Kingman, AZ.  Mike passed away a few years ago, Zeke recently and Teresa this month.  I'm glad we got a chance to know them all, good memories and I love looking at this picture.    

OUCH & DOUBLE OUCH............!!!

 

Today was hay delivery day, one of the donkeys favorite days a couple of times a year.  As most of you probably know lately the prices on everything has been going in the wrong direction.  With the price of seed, water, electricity to run the irrigation wells, etc, not to mention the price of gas to haul hay from the west side of Arizona, the hay delivered today was over $2.00 a bale higher than it was in June when we got the last load.  The price of hay at the feed stores, is in the neighborhood of $21 a bale and will probably be higher in a couple of months.  The broker said some of the farmers have said if the foreign buyers ever stop buying hay, they will probably quit growing it.  I guess they pay even higher prices than local buyers.  The problem with hay if there is a shortage, drought or like in Texas a few years ago massive fires everywhere, the prices go up...........but they never go down.  Once people are willing to pay the higher price, there's no reason to lower it I guess.  😠

Well, forget what I said about Beefy being a gentleman around the girls.  Today Ruthie decided to give him the eye and he took it seriously.  Boaz or Koshare couldn't tell which one, things were moving too fast decided to protect her virtue.  After about 10 seconds of pretty serious yelling, screaming and biting, whichever one it was, decided she was on her own and left the area.  I might have read that wrong, but neither of those 2 have ever showed an interest in the girls before..........!!! LOL

We had to go to Benson today, so Ruthie got to stay in the pens and Beefy got to hang around like a lovesick calf.  He is usually easy to work with and goes in his pen at feeding time, but tonight he was bound and determined to hang around Ruthie's pen.  

He's 15 years old and has only been gelded since early December.  He also has bred mares and jennies, so he's been there, done that.  It's not surprising that he would remember the good old days, they weren't that long ago.  Tonight Ruthie will get to go out and he will have to stay in, at least I hope he doesn't challenge our pens, they probably aren't up to the strength of a determined mammoth if he wants out.  If the party continues tomorrow, I brought out the Vicks to put in his nose for a few days or until Ruthie stops acting like a silly teenage girl.  That's an old trick used when a stud is going to be around females that might think the boys are just their type.

BEEFY HAS SETTLED IN NICELY

 Not sure the "A" team girls aka Tula, Frijolita and Ruthie would agree.  They do not particularly care for him and try to run away from him when he heads their way.  Doesn't seem to work though, he spends quite a bit of time within their sight just looking at them.  I haven't seen him misbehave with them, but obviously they think he has bad intentions.  He's only been gelded about 7 weeks, when he first got here he was in "lust" with the mini girls, especially Mamacita.  Guess he finally figured out that wouldn't work, so started eyeing the big girls.

He actually very well mannered.  He does not like his feet messed with, his former owner said he had been mistreated by a farrier before she got him.  He has a crooked front foot that I will have Dr. Jeremy look at and maybe x-ray when he comes out again.  

We've had tours almost every day recently. One tour was 43 people........!!!  John and I started out one in front one in back and it didn't take long to figure out that wasn't going to work effectively.  So we just turned them loose and we moved around in case they had questions.  That worked out really well, we'll keep that in mind for the future when we have a large group like that.  

Our cat population is growing.  We have a black cat that has decided he likes the cat food fed on the back porch and knows what time meals are served.  He needs corrective surgery, aka, neutering, but we'll wait until Suzanne gets back from Indiana to live trap him and also to take Charley the blind/deaf cattle dog someone dumped in the neighborhood last summer to have a tumor removed from his eyelid.  We took him in for evaluation for cataract removal to hopefully help his vision.  The vet told us these cattle dogs have a genetic problem with their retinas and sure enough they tested him and cataract surgery wouldn't help him see.  He's got a nice large pen, access to the feed room that is heated or air conditioned depending on the weather, a 5 gallon bucket with assorted doggie treats in the feed room that everyone knows is there and Charley expects everyone to give him some.   He has trained us to feed him only beef dog food, none of that chicken stuff.  Not sure what his life was before, but it's pretty cushy these days.  Hope I never find out who dumped him...........!!  

Sorry, no pictures.  We have lost the cord to recharge my camera and until Suzanne gets back I don't have anyone to take pictures for me to share.  My camera is an old Kodak and the cord has the smallest plug I have ever seen, I don't think it's more than 1/8th inch long.  John got a 4 way plug and even the smallest one wouldn't fit.  So until we can find such a tiny plug I can't recharge my camera.  😠

TODAY WAS A FUN DAY AT THE RESCUE......

 Today was a fun day at the rescue. Susan our usual week-end poo person, wasn't here this week-end, so it was just John and I. We fed and hurried to get poo picked up before 3 tours showed up. Just as we dumped the last wheelbarrow in the Gator, the tours started showing up, some even brought goodies for the donkeys. We divided the groups and just about the time we finished the tours, volunteers started showing up to groom, clean water buckets, pick up the after breakfast poo and of course meet Beefy. 

 Even got some work done on the pens. Corral panels get moved around and pretty soon gates don't open and close like they should after the donkeys have rearranged them. After the grooming was done, the donkeys were let out of their pens for the day and the real fun began, an afternoon of interaction with the donkeys able to come and go as they wished with the volunteers. 

 I saw some amazing things happen. Tula has been here about 13 years and is still afraid of people. 

TULA

 She came up to me to take an animal cracker and later took crackers from a young girl. This is the 1st time she has taken treats from anyone outside her pen in daylight. She use to sneak up behind John in the dark when he was letting them out at bedtime and he would give her a cookie, but never in daylight.  Alyssa tried with Casper and he even took crackers from her. This is a big breakthrough for these two. 

CASPER aka BLANCO DIABLO

This was Beefy's first time to be out with so many people and he did really well, he is polite and gentle, loves getting brushed and kept his cool when Siggy and Harley tried to pick on him.  Yesterday John saw Siggy and Beefy drinking out of the Rubbermaid water tank together, they will probably end up best buds once the initial bounderies are worked out.

BEEFY IS TRYING HIS BEST TRICKS ON ME...!!  Thanks Kelly......

 Gus even behaved himself, well except for going into the garage thru the walkin side door twice. He really gets uncooperative when you catch him at something, and try to make him move. He can glue his feet to the ground and you can't move him. But he didn't try to attack the other donkeys that got too close to the people, which is a good thing.  He even missed out on getting in the hay barn, when the gate was left open.  About 6 of them did find it open and sneaked in quietly.  The donkeys have learned when they are doing something they are aware they shouldn't be doing, they can get very quiet.  One of the volunteers asked John if they were suppose to be in there and when he went in the barn, it was pretty easy to tell they shouldn't be there.  They took off like someone shot them from a gun.  

BIG GUS CLEANING UP HAY SCRAPS

I was very proud of all the "fur" kids.  They had a choice to hang out where people were or go do their own thing.  Some of them passed thru and would come back around, but some of them like Cochise, BlackJack, Harley, Buddy and some of the others spent most of the afternoon interacting with whoever was available to pet or just hang out.  There was no squabbling, which is a miracle, especially with Big Gus out and about. 

I think a good time was had by all........!! 

BEEFY HAS ARRIVED....!!

 Beefy got here yesterday morning.  He's a real pretty Catalonia mammoth, probably weighs about 800 pounds.  He's not a lot bigger than Gus, maybe 2 or 3 inches.  He's a lot louder than the other donkeys.  The owner said he's never bit or kicked or shown any type of aggression to man or beast.  We let him out of his pen this morning for an hour or so by himself so he could figure out escape routes if needed later.

His pen is next to Gus, so that was the first hurtle.  Gus doesn't like other donkeys and certainly not new ones.   And he wants to make sure everyone knows his opinion.

  Actually after we let everyone out, Gus minded his own business, but not so with Cochise and Siggy.  Siggy the little micro mini chased Beefy all over the place.  Most of the minis have a Napoleon complex and don't seem to know they are little.  Cochise spent a lot time chasing him all over the place too.  We'd go out and check every half hour or so and someone was usually chasing him and he was just trying to mind his own business.  

My main worry was the jennies.  He's only been gelded a month tomorrow and has bred both mares and jennies, so he knows what he was put on the earth to do.  Ruthie, Tula and Frijolita stalked him for quite sometime, single file, looked like a bunch of vultures, he ignored them just like he tried to ignore the boys.  

The last couple of times I've checked on them, he's been by himself eating greasewood and the others are dirt bathing, eating or just standing around waiting for something to happen.  

The one I worried about was Casper the little mini mule.  He likes donkeys better than horses or mules, but I did see him get close enough to Beefy, when Beefy kicked back, he got his leg caught on Casper's back for a couple of seconds.  Since then Casper has been hanging with the girls, which is where he usually is.  When he is in attack mode, he can really be nasty, he isn't playing, he's serious about wanting to hurt them.  

John closed the gate to Burroland this morning, we don't know if he will be good to go back in his pen at feeding time later this afternoon.  If he goes in without drama, we'll open Burroland in the morning and things will be back to normal.  

Here's some pictures of Beefy,,,,,,,,,,

No problem coming out of his pen, he was ready........!!

Visiting with Boaz and Justice

Found the wash pretty quick

ETC

 Not much interesting going on around here.  We are having quite a few tours since the 1st of the year suppose to have 16 people later this afternoon.  

Suzanne is still in cold country, she is hoping to be back by the end of the month.  John and I are  holding down the fort, with the help of some volunteers that really make a difference.  John and I could do it by ourselves but it would probably take us all day without their help.  The donkeys have really been good about being cooperative, I guess we've gotten into a routine that works for them.  Most of them still won't go into their pen until a human is standing there with a piece of carrot.  In their mind they seem to think they get a treat for going into the pen, not for being in the pen.  If per chance they do go into their pen, if the human doesn't show up very quickly, most of them will go out of the pen and wait until the human sees them go into the pen.  One of the things that makes life interesting........!!!  LOL

Although Suzanne isn't here yesterday Koshare and Siggy, got to go on an adventure up Apache Junction.  They had a big 100 year celebration and invited the BRAY club to bring burros for a fun run to let the public see how much fun donkeys are.  It was by invitation only, they didn't want to have too many teams and wanted to keep the number of teams manageable.  The race at Superior in Oct had about 80 runners with burros, which makes for an "exciting" start in the middle of town in the street.  The start yesterday at Apache Junction had a few malfunctions even though there were only about 20 teams.  Fun to watch.......!!  Some burros haven't figured out that the idea of a race is to hear a loud noise and start running straight forward, so it takes a little while for everyone to settle down and all head the same direction.  

Kelly and Jeff from Yuma came in Friday late afternoon, hooked up our trailer, the 2 boys hopped in and away they went to Apache Junction.  Renee brought little Siggy out of his pen to the trailer, he ran and jumped into the trailer, like he had somewhere to go and a short time to get there.  He didn't care where he was going I guess, he just knew it would be an adventure.  

Siggy strutting his stuff ....!!

Koshare and Jenni on the trail......  

                                                                                 

Eero with Lilli and Heather with Robbie

            Siggy checking out the scenery.......

Top 3 finishers in the long course, Koshare 3rd with Jenni, Lilli 2nd with Eero and Robbie 1st with Heather.  Jenni and Koshare are quite the team.  Jenni raced for the 1st time in Superior and they finished 1st in their distance.  They finished 3rd yesterday in Apache Junction.  Jenni is going to start thinking this is easy at this rate.....!!! LOL

Robbie going for the win.........

I wonder what Eddie thinks of a burro puppet?

Nice picture of Renee and her little buddy Siggy.......

I'm not sure who took all the pictures, but thank you for making them available to be enjoyed by all.

We went to some friend's house last night for dinner.   Sunsites was suppose to have fireworks, but the weather went really bad and they were cancelled.  We were suppose to be there at 5, but when they cancelled moved it to 6.  

Just as John went out to round up all hell broke loose, 50-60mph wind, heavy rain  (1.12 inches in the rain gauge ), couldn’t even see the Little Rincons west, actually couldn’t see anything much past your extended arm.  Blew the hay cart over, believe it or not, the cart stayed attached to the golf cart and didn’t break it.  The bungies even held, so it was laying on it’s side with buckets intact.  The hay in the top buckets is in Safford or maybe New Mexico..........!!   We just left them like that, the bottoms were to the wind, which protected the rest of the bucket while we figured out how to feed and survive…..LOL  Harley and Buddy’s buckets flew into the wash, just found Buddy’s this morning.  Our neighbor Vic lost a couple of mesquite trees.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been that wet, with my clothes   on.  

Found out this morning Casper the little white mini mule's shelter has a couple of loose metal 10 foot strips that covers his quonset hut shelter.  They are still up, but a little twisted.  John checked all the shelters and Casper's was the only one damaged.  But most of the pens had water standing in them.  By this afternoon the water was gone, but the pens are pretty muddy, reminds me of slugging thru mud to take care of my ducks, chickens and Ringo my horse, before school.  At least we don't have snow to contend with.....!!!!

The donkeys are really being good about coming in I guess because of the weather.  Many times they are in the pens, but not always their pen, which causes issues with the perceived owner of the pen.  Some of them don't mind, a few of them really have an issue with "squatters" and let them know it.  I'm sure you're not surprised that Big Gus is one of the most possessive about his pen.  

Gus enjoying having volunteers available to take care of his needs, getting groomed and picking up poo.  He had a good momma, she taught him to poo in the same place every day makes it easy to pick up.  Some of them like Frijolita walks as she goes, she can leave a trail over 50 foot long and does almost every time.  

Gus actually does not like donkeys, he much prefers people.  I would imagine he has spent most of his life with horses.  He usually just ignores the donkeys, occasionally he and Casper the little mini mule chase each other, which looks pretty weird.  Cochise for some reason likes to hang out in Gus' pen in the afternoon.  They share one side of their pens, don't know why Cochise doesn't hang out in his own, maybe he likes seeing Gus' have a tantrum.....LOL  

We have 2 indoor/outdoor cats Julius and Smoky and Julius has been missing the last 3-4 days.  We were afraid he had outlived his desert smarts that have protected him for over 10 years.  His mother a feral cat had litter after little of kittens for 3 years before we finally caught her in a live trap and had her spayed.  Only 3 of her offspring survived.  Two of Julius' brother are indoor only cats, Hobo the mother cat turned up missing not long after she was spayed and Julius chose to be an outdoor cat and probably didn't come in the house for the first 5 or 6 years after Hobo disappeared.  

John had noticed foot prints on the car, which is always in the garage and wondered if Julius at gotten in the garage and couldn't get out.  This afternoon he left the door open and all of a sudden Julius showed up like normal at the house wanting in.   Hmmmmmmm.....!!  Have no idea how he got in the garage if that's what happened.  Don't know why he didn't get out when we drove the car out.  Or why he didn't come out when John was puttering around in the garage, which he does almost every day.  

All the donkeys seem to be good, most of them are a little cranky about the weather, can't blame them.  They hate to be wet, but no one is limping or have hair missing or wounds from play fighting.  Still have a few flies when the days are sunny, haven't have many flies the last few days.  It's suppose to get into the teens over the next couple of nights, which means breaking ice in the morning on the buckets in each pen.  They have two water sources that are heated out of the pens, so the water in the pens isn't all that important.  In fact even if we get the ice off their buckets, a lot of them wait to drink till they have access to the warmer water.