Molly & Jack went to their new home today!

Jack is a typical little boy I guess, "Oh! look the poo pile is waiting to be cleaned up, let me roll in it".....!!!   Molly rolled, but she, being a lady rolled in the dirt.  

They hit the ground running around trying to see everything there was to see.  Hombre was in a pen, much to his disgust, he wanted to be out & have fun too.  They are going to let the mules run around for awhile, & then put them in a pen & let Hombre out.  Tomorrow Beverly has a group of friends coming over to meet the new kids.  Hopefully by then, they will settle in & Hombre can be out with them. 

This is Beverly bribing Molly with an animal cracker to come & say "HI".  Molly was willing to stop long enough to grab a cracker, but wasn't interested in wasting much time being social.  Mules are sometimes a little stand offish with new people.  It's almost like you have to earn your right to be in their "herd".   Beverly is going to be an indulgent member of the herd, hopefully she will be in charge.  If not, Jack probably will be......!!! LOL

BlackJack has been in a temporary pen, so now will move into the mules pen.  John just finished the shelter in that pen, which I'm sure BJ will enjoy, since there was no shelter in the temp pen. 

ABANDONED DONKEYS IN COLORADO

 If you enjoy your freedom, thank a soldier, this Memorial Day!

People just amaze me sometimes, I imagine he ended up with so many donkeys, because there is at least one intact jack in there someplace, or Kenny wouldn't be here. The rest of the jennies are probably also pregnant.

(Double click on donkeys in the above sentence for the link to this story)

QUILLA & JUSTIN PLAYING

 I was going thru some of the pictures on my computer & came across this cute sequence of Quilla & Justin playing with a deflated Jolly Ball.  I don't know how the company can get away with saying they are guaranteed.  We haven't bought one in a long time, but anytime we did get a new one, they usually last less than a week, before someone bites a hole in them.  

This one actually is still here & is still played with, although it looks like road kill.....!!!

"You know you want to play, Quilla"

"It will be fun, trust me"

"You have to get a bigger bite or this isn't going to work"

"Now you've got the idea"

"Don't raise your head so high"

"OK, my neck is only so long"

FIRST SNAKE OF THE SEASON.......!!!

Not in very good shape by the time John found it in the back yard.  Just a little baby, had 2 rattles & a button.  I assume one of the cats killed it, & ate the head.  Not sure that's a real good idea, isn't that where the poison is........?????  All three outdoor cats were here this morning, looking perky, so guess it didn't hurt them. 

PEPPER IS GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME.........!!!!

When John went out to let them out at bedtime, he came back & said something was wrong with Pepper.  Went out to check him over.  He was very restless, probably in pain, had gut sounds on both sides.  Tried to lay down a couple of times & I found out why he ends up on his right side.  If he does try to lay down, because his left side is stronger than the right side, the right side goes down first, so he ends up laying on his right whether he wants to or not.  

We watched him for awhile & I decided to give him a colic remedy I've used in the past 3 or 4 times with good results.  Even though he's usually "difficult" to work with he was more than willing to swallow all of it.  It smells good enough to drink, guess it tastes good.  We watched him for awhile & it didn't take very long for him to act more comfortable.  John said he'd get up & check on him in a couple of hours.  I told him if Pepper was acting normal to go ahead & let him out of the pen.  John went out about 1AM, came back in & said Pepper was trying to plow thru the gate & John at the same time, so he let the old buzzard out........!!!

This morning he was, as usual, obnoxious & opinionated, although he left a little more of his breakfast than usual.  Whew, I hope he's just going thru a stage.  It seems like he will go along for weeks without having any problems & then we get to spend a lot of time, looking for him, getting him up & whatever else he can come up with.  The ears are still up & perky, so life goes on I guess.  

ANIMALS MAKE LIFE INTERESTING....!!!

 My Great Grandson Hunter, sitting in his Grandpa's race car, going to start him early I guess...!!! LOL

One thing you can say, when the weather warms up, critters start moving around I guess.

Yesterday I noticed 3 of the 4 house cats fascinated with something behind a large green frog fountain (don't ask, it was a gift) in the spa/laundry room.  I looked down & low & behold, there was a pretty good sized camel spider.  That's what they are called in the Middle East, I think in the U.S. Southwest they are called Child of the Desert or Sun Scorpion. 

I know one thing they are very fast & very very ugly.  I've never seen any in the U.S. as big as the ones on our compound in Saudi, although this one was probably at least 2 inches long.  I was pretty sure he didn't want Moogee's foot dragging him out of where he was trying to hide.  I got my "catch" cup & piece of cardboard & took him outside after showing him to Mother.  Can't say she was very happy to see him, but was thrilled when I said he was going outside.  I would imagine he is responsible for us not having our usual spring cricket invasion.  When I was feeding the wolf spider this winter, some of the crickets escaped, but I've only seen one.  

This morning when I woke up, I looked at the patio door & there was a mouse clinging to the screen outside.  Where it came from & what it was doing, I have no idea.  I yelled for John, because I knew he wouldn't believe me if I just told him about it.  He came, he saw, & went to get a bucket to "catch" it in before the 3 outdoor cats found it.  He went outside with his bucket, stuck it up under the mouse, & the mouse looked like a flying squirrel, as it evaded the bucket.  John spent the next few minutes chasing the poor little thing around the courtyard, to get it out before the cats found it.  It looked well fed, John said it's probably been sneaking in to eat cat food. 

This morning Pepper was missing, John finally found him over in the big wash on Burroland.  He has been down for quite awhile, although when we rolled him over, he got up pretty quick.  But he had bedsores on his boney shoulder, hip & face.  As soon as he got up the ears were perky & he started trying to walk, although it took awhile for his legs to work.  I wish he would just lay there, & wait for us, rather than try to get up on his own. 

JUSTIN'S FLY MASK FOUND.....!!!!

Two days ago, Justin came in without his mask.  Lately Wister gets blamed for all fly mask removal.  Since he's figured out how to get them off, we see him pulling & tugging on just about anybody.  Even Rusty the mule has to put up with the game.  Once Wister gets ahold of the mask he's like a bulldog, he hangs on as long as he can.  In Rusty's case, if Rusty raised his head up high, he could probably sling Wister cross country.  He usually just stands there patiently waiting for the little monster to let go.  We've never seen any of the donkeys besides Ruthie his mom discipline him.  They all seem to put up with his baby shenanigans with good humor.  

I didn't have an extra mask that would fit him, so we've been diligently looking for his.  This morning John just happened to be down in the wash & saw the mask up on the bank, in a place we would have never thought to look.  So now we have the mask & no Justin, they are all over in Burroland for the afternoon.  The Vel-cro on that mask is about worn out, so I think we'll put that mask on Lynn & use her mask for Justin.  So far Wister hasn't messed with the girls's masks, so Lynn should get along OK with worn out Vel-cro.  

That's our son's Super Stock car next to my little Hornet Saturday night.  Now that's a REAL race car.  I'm not really sure what he thinks about me racing, but he can't hide...........  We run the same number & the cars are both orange & white, so he can't disown me......!!! LOL. 

I'M SLEEPY & THE DAY IS STILL YOUNG........!!!

Sundays after Saturday night races is always pretty low key.  The donkeys get fed & that's about it for the day.....!!!!  John sits in his recliner & "watches" the race he taped last night.  We already know who won, & he isn't a favorite in this house, so John doesn't mind missing most of it as he catches up from getting to bed about 3:30am.  

This is Reilly, my passenger for the night.  He's somewhat of a gear head, and I think he had a good time.  We finished 2nd in a rather ho hum heat race.  The main event was a lot more interesting.  He got to see other cars up close and personal, we "kissed" one of the big tractor tires in the middle on our way to get back on the track, after someone had rudely sent us in that direction. We did some "agricultural" racing, which happens when you go into a corner too fast or too high on the track.  It's a good thing our track doesn't have walls, or I'd never survive.........!!!  And I didn't tell Reilly, but the the last 2 laps were a little more exciting than I expected.........the gas pedal stuck wide open.  That's when we did some of that off the track agricultural racing, we were going into the corners a lot faster than I wanted to.  It "fixed" itself just about the time they threw the checkered flag.  John will check it, but it probably got some clay or a rock caught up in the cable.  Not a fun experience.  

One of the cars rolled over which brings out the red flag.  That means STOP right now, wherever you are on the track.  I stopped behind one of the other cars & all of a sudden BANG.............!!!!  Someone wasn't paying attention I guess..!!  Of course it pushed me into the car I had stopped behind.  I asked Reilly what car it was, he said black.  About half the cars are black & he couldn't see the number.  I figured whoever it was backed up, so I decided to back off the car in front of me.  When I backed up, the "black" car was still there close enough I got him.  If you believe that, I'll sell you some ocean front property in Arizona........!!!  Heh, heh, heh...........!!! 

John was so proud of his new bumper he got to replace the partial bumper from last race day, see how shiny it is & not a scratch on it in the picture above? 

The hood doesn't look so good either.......!!!!  LOL

The back has a few "wounds" too, for some reason last night was pretty rough.  

We managed to finish 6th.

We got home so late because our good friend Larry won his 3rd race & the track wanted to see the inside of his motor.  It takes awhile to tear down a motor, even with lots of help.  He was legal, which was a disappointment for some other Factory Stock drivers.  Larry's a real good driver, he doesn't need to cheat.  He's won main events in 5 decades & has a chance for another championship this year.  He has been a champion at other tracks, but not this one.  Hope he gets it.....!!!

I have no idea where or when this picture was taken, but it's neat......!!!

Racing tonight, the winner of the drawing for a ride-along is a 14 year old boy.  Talk about disrupt his family's lives..........they were suppose to go to a wedding tonight.  His Father is going to the wedding, & his Mother is coming to the races with Reilly to take pictures.  Glad I wasn't involved in those arrangements, I'm assuming the wedding is on his Dad's side of the family......!!!! LOL  I told them after I found out it was getting complicated that we could do it later, but I guess Reilly was afraid he might not get to go.  I'll try to take some pictures too.  Hope it's a good night for racing & he has fun.  

I've thought for quite some time that Rusty the white mule was developing Cushings.  His hair was long & unkempt looking, goopy eyes & lethargic.  My local vet wouldn't do the ACTH test, but would give me a script for pergolide......!!  A little backwards, but it is Cochise County....!!  Anyway Rusty developed the pergolide fog within 2 feedings, so I kept getting smaller capsules until I was down to .25 once a day & he still stopped eating & stood around like he was drugged.  While I was waiting for the pergolide to get here I had started him on Chasteberry & he likes it.  I finally gave up on pergolide & he's been on Chasteberry for about 3 weeks.  The biggest differences I see is he is slicking out & he's got a lot more energy.  Of course that's about the time Reba came, so maybe she's making a difference, who knows.  He does seem to feel better & certainly looks better, so we'll use the Chasteberry for awhile.  Eventually it will probably stop working, that's what usually happens, but we'll see how it goes.  

Everyone else seems to be doing good.  Gus has his socks on & Quilla his polo wraps to protect their fly damaged legs.  Gus actually has a little hair on his legs, but it wouldn't take the flies long to eat thru it.  Poor Quilla's legs are smooth as satin, where the damage is.  He managed to lose one of the wraps the other day.  It was red & John still didn't find it for days, although he looked all over the place.  Found it when he was looking for fly masks....!!! 

The flies aren't too bad yet, but my fly traps are really jamming out.  I've noticed before, this time of year seems to really fill up the traps, then once it gets real hot the traps don't seem to work as well.  

Little Cheyenne is finally starting to look healthy.  She was so thin for awhile I guess because of infection (Naxcel took care of that) & also something wrong with her jaw.  Still don't know if it's arthritis or TMJ, either way she will probably always have to be fed by herself, because she eats slow.  

Pepper choked on his cut up hay one morning.  I worked with him for about an hour, was just getting ready to give him a shot of Banamine, & he acted like he'd cleared..............That means his ears were perky, he was using his head as a battering ram & wanted out of the pen.  John asked if we should let him out.............why not......!!  If we followed the instructions for a choke with him, (one being no feed for 24 hours) someone would probably get hurt.......!!!! LOL

Went out to a friend's place yesterday.  I knew she had a draft, but I had never really been up close & personal with Boomer.  I reached up to feed him some hay & realized I had never seen a mouth that big before, coming right at my hand.  Stacy wasn't home, but when I e-mailed her about our adventure, she said said he takes treats out of her mouth............!!!!   YIKES, she said he's never bit her, although he is a rescue & has flashbacks to when he was abused.  He is over 18 hands tall, that's 6 feet & weighs almost 3000 pounds.  She said riding him is like sitting on a sofa, I can believe it. 

LOOKS LIKE JACK & MOLLY WILL BE GOING HOME

We did a home study today for Jack & Molly, the mini mules.  It should be a good home, perhaps a little indulgent, but I'm sure they both will enjoy the attention.  They will have a beautiful black quarter horse gelding named Hombre, that has been by himself for the last month or so, since his mare friend was put down.  He seems to think he is a pocket horse, & believe me he was way too big for that......!!!!  LOL

Jack should be thrilled to have a horse of his very own, any time they are working on a movie over at the movie sight across the road, Jack is usually in the corner of the fence, as close to them as he can get, yelling at them.  Hopefully Hombre will like having little friends with long ears.  

A friend of the family has been visiting with her 2 molly mules.  She travels all over working as a camp cook or wrangler, depending on what they need her for.  They both were very pretty, & satisfied to look at us from a distance.  That's one thing about mules, they aren't probably going to smother you with attention if they don't know you. 

The man is having some health issues right now, but he has built stagecoaches in the past.  In fact a couple of them are used in Tombstone to give rides to the tourists.  So hopefully when he gets to feeling better maybe he'll build a little buckboard or wagon of some kind for the little mules.  Molly would probably be satisfied to just hang around & look cute, but Jack needs a job or he will get into trouble....!!!