MONSOON CONTINUES

This is a picture of a grumpy mule named Reba.  The wadded up mess behind her use to be her "temporary" shelter that had been up for a year or so.  A couple of days ago we had a lot of wind, lightening, thunder and rain going sideways right at evening chore time.  This was the result, actually a couple of the other shelters didn't fare much better, but at least they are standing on their own, and John could fix them.  He's already figured out how to put in another wooden shelter in the mule pen.  There is already one shelter in their pen, but it isn't big enough for 2 mules.  We also got 2.5 inches of rain, in about 1/2 an hour.  It's much nicer when the rain is a little less pounding, most of it runs off, when it's that hard.  

I raced again last night.  We only race about once a month, I almost forget what I'm suppose to do between races..........LOL  I finished 5th again.....!!  That's about the best I'm going to do with my car and the competition.  Brought it home in one piece, but it sure looks weird to look out in the driveway Sunday morning and see a clean car sitting on the trailer.  

Amy and Doug fed the donkeys and Doug let them out at bedtime, so we didn't have to when we got home.  It's really nice to have them taken care of, so we don't have to at 1:30 in the morning.   At this track we have to be there before 3:30 in the afternoon, so I guess we'd just double feed them in the morning and leave them in the pens until we got home after midnight.  This is much nicer for them and for us.  At the dirt track we didn't have to be there until 5:30, so we just had to feed them a hour or so early.  Of course they had to stay in the pens until we got home, they would start yelling when I got out to open the gate..........!!! 

Everybody is doing real good right now.  Heard from Ruthie's foster Mom and she is doing just fine.  They have a lot of desert grass on their property, which cuts down on the hay they have to feed.  Hank the horse is still smitten with her, Diane says whenever they are standing in the barn, Hank likes to hang his head over the divider and lay his head on Ruthie's back and she just stands there.  He's never done that with Marci, her other donkey.  Ruthie and Marcy have finally gotten use to each other and bonded, after a pretty rocky start.  Ruthie is a take charge type of gal and her moving into Marcy's space was a little rough, but Diane said they get along fine now.

THE GRAND EXPERIMENT

Well we'll see how this works out.  Some of you might remember that Wister and Ruger are both overly attached to Ruthie, their mom.  Diane and Steve, whom Miss Daisy belonged to said they would like to foster a donkey as a friend for Miss Daisy's mom, Marcy.  Since we haven't managed to find a home for the 3 donkeys together, I got the brilliant idea of seeing how Ruthie would adjust to being away from the boys, even though she has never shown much interest in the jennies around here.  And also seeing how the boys adjust to her not being with them.  Since it's a foster and they live fairly close, if it doesn't work out, it won't be a crisis to go get her.  

Today was the day.  This morning after she got done eating her hay, we loaded her up and away we went.  She hopped out of the trailer, looked around and didn't seem overly upset by this change in her lifestyle.  

 This is Ruthie with Hank.  Hank was really fascinated with her, didn't want her out of his sight........she..........not so much, she basically ignored all his attention getting antics, of which he had many.

 Marcy wasn't sure she wanted to interact with Ruthie, but after being a little stand offish, they touched noses thru a fence that will separate them for a couple of days.  Neither of them showed willingness to be passive, so not sure who will end up in charge.  They will have to figure it out. 

On the way home we had to wait for a train to pass by.  Once it was gone, there was a train work truck on the other side of it, ready to get off the tracks and on the road.  I've never seen one change it's mode before.  There is a set of little wheels in front of the front wheels, where the man is standing.  The little wheels are the ones that pull the truck along on the tracks.  We got to sit there and wait while they  pulled up the little wheels, then drove off on the road.  It's interesting to see how things work, especially something you never thought about.  When I was a kid I remember seeing little work carts going down the train tracks, with two guys pushing handles up and down to make it move.  This looks a lot easier.......!!! LOL

I'm back...............!!!

Seems like I've been gone for awhile, but I think it's just because there is a lot going on, in many different directions.  

Saturday we took the race car out to the asphalt track for me to practice.  This is the 1st time I've ever tried asphalt.  To start with when I pulled out of my parking spot in the pits, I heard this horrible bang, like something broke.   It did, but the guys said it was OK...........WHAT.....???  Loud noises and going out on the track, just don't seem to go together, you know what I mean?  It seems I had turned too sharp because of the locked differential and busted the CV "ie" U-joint.  Never was a problem on dirt, but concrete and asphalt aren't as forgiving.  I am keeping score on what I don't like about this grand experiment.  

My son Rod, had told me there are 2 transitions on the track.  The bottom 1/3 of the track is flat, which is good.  The middle has some some banking and up by the wall has more banking.  The fastest way around the track is up by the wall.........but of course that comes with a certain amount of "do I want to be this close to the wall in case of an "emergency?" thinking.  The middle is where I was running, because if you run on the flat part, it will send you up towards the wall coming out of the corners.  Not a good happening.  But he also told me that you don't want to get one side of the car in one transition and the other side in another.  Dirt was so easy, just go out and have fun.  

I did OK, didn't wreck or wreck anyone else.  But I also wasn't up to racing speed.  I didn't find it all that much fun, but then again it was all new, and I was busy trying to figure out what I need to do.  There is another practice this Saturday, so I'll try it again.  

We are taking a couple of donkeys up to the Phoenix area tomorrow.  One belongs to a friend that has pasture, and her donkey can't be on pasture because of being chronically foundered, so he comes down here when she has grass.  We send Quilla, our marshmallow man as a companion, she has 2 horses, but they don't buddy up with Gus.  When her grass starts growing and getting green, we'll go pick them up and bring them back.  

A few days ago a woman got in touch with me.  They had been boarding a couple of donkeys for some people.   One of the donkeys has ouchy feet.  She has been x-rayed and nothing really looked bad, but the woman says if she doesn't give her bute, she can't hardly walk.  I guess the owners are tired of not only paying board, but paying for medical supplies and treatment.  They had decided to euthanize them, which upset the woman that had been taking care of them for the last year.  She asked if we could help.  Of course as usual we are over our self imposed limit and really don't have pens for them, although with Quilla and Gus gone for a couple of months, we actually do have available pens.  We finally decided that she could foster them for us and we would pay for their feed and care.  We're still trying to figure out if that would be best or if they do need to come here.   Although the woman says they only feed bermuda and only 5 pounds per donkey they are rather plump.  She did mention they occasionally get a little sweet feed............hmmmmm.........!!!  

This is Marcy, the mom probably late 20's, early 30's

This is Daisy Mae, the one with the ouchy feet, probably about 17-18

We are taking Daisy to the vet next week for some testing, to see if anyone can figure out what is wrong with her.  John came up with an idea, maybe it isn't her feet, maybe she's got problems with her back.  ????????