WE HAVE HAPPY DONKEYS..........

The last couple of days, we've been trying different ways of allowing them out.  What seems to work best, at least for humans is they stay in their pens overnight, which is about 13-18 hours, from 5pm to noon or 2 or 3 pm.  Of course they let us know this isn't right, but are so happy to get out when we do let them out, all they are interested in is finding beans.  

About half the trees on the 10 acres don't have any beans at all.  Hopefully we won't have heavy wind and the beans will drop as they ripen rather than getting blown off and piling up under the tree.  We don't know how long before the donkeys get access to Burroland, but so far they are happy with the beans they are finding on the 10 acres.

Suzznne took pictures of them eating beans.  They are like vacuum cleaners this is BlackJack

I think that is Frijolita hiding out in her private stash

Little Jackson out making sure those beans get eaten

Cochise doing his share for the cause

Koshare and Suzanne at Mancos, Colorado in June, making the most of the wait for the obstacle course race to begin. 

Mike is just about done with the electricity in the office and arrangements have been made for the insulation in a couple of weeks.  The heat/AC is also ordered.  The next big event will probably be the sheet rock walls and ceiling.  It's moving along, hopefully it will be finished by the time we open back up for tours September 1st.  
 

MOVING ALONG

The mesquite beans are getting ripe enough to fall out of the trees if it's windy, which of course thrills the donkeys to no end.  They are getting enough beans now that they aren't very impressed with having to leave a stash of beans they've found, laying under a tree.  Having to come in twice a day and eat hay is  eating into their scarfing up time before someone else finds the beans. Needless to say roundup isn't going very fast these days.  

What they don't know is their time out of the pens is starting to be controlled.  So far they are only being restricted from going out right after they finish eating in the mornings.  We're not letting them out until noon.  

I took pictures this morning of poo piles and they look pretty good, some beans, but mostly poo.  If and when the ratio gets closer to 50/50 we will have a problem.  Hopefully if the beans fall naturally and not a lot in a wind storm it won't be a problem.

If they can't control themselves, the next step will either be, having them stay in overnight with an hour or so out before evening chores.  Or no time out at all.  As long as the beans fall naturally we should be able to control their intake.  A large wind storm would knock too many beans down at one time, that's what happened a few years ago and they had to stay in their pens for almost 4 months, with no out time at all.  Talk about a crabby bunch of donkeys, they seemed to think we had lost our minds.......!! LOL  

We got 1/2 inch rain a couple of days ago, but that isn't enough to rot the ones laying on the ground unfortunately.  

This is looking over our back yard wall.  The tree is in the yard and Koshare is helping himself to the beans hanging outside.  Look at the beans hanging inside that he can't get to...... LOL  He has been known to stand on a trailer to reach beans, or even balance on his hind legs to grab some. 

Mike, one of our wonderful volunteers has been here almost daily working on getting electricity in the store/office.  

Thank you Mike, we really appreciate your help....!!!

 The next project will be insulation.  We already have an estimate and waiting for another one to compare prices.  Hopefully it won't take long to get it done once we decide which company to go with.  We're going to have the blown in foam insulation, rather than the itchy scratchy fiber-glass stuff.  

Suzanne and I have been looking at flooring etc. Found some we both like, of course flooring is one of the last jobs to do. Who knows, it might go on sale before we need it.....LOL  We had wanted to use paneling, instead of sheetrock,until we priced the difference..............!!  YIKES........!!!   Can't justify the difference in price, so we'll go with sheetrock.   

It's fun to "shop" for the stuff needed to finish it, but we're all looking forward to it being finished and moving in.  Hopefully it will be finished by September 1st when we will open up again for tours.  

    

WE NEVER HAVE 2 DAYS IN A ROW ALIKE........

 Our days are usually hectic and the comment "well this has been an "interesting" day" gets thrown around when we get in the house after chores and it's getting dark.  

Suzanne called one night to say there was a dog trying to get in her RV.  Our grandson was here and went out to see what was going on.   Nice friendly small white Shephard type neutered male, maybe a year old.  JR took him out in the road for a walk hoping he would take off or maybe remember where his people were.  

He was really hungry so I fed him, hoping he would be gone in the morning.  He slept on the little mat at the door all night was really happy to see us in the morning.  

The big problem he doesn't see the donkeys as a threat.  Some of the donkeys see dogs as something to  be destroyed.  We tried putting him in with the blind/deaf Charley Barker and they get along.    So he's been staying in the feed room/dog pen with Charley.  

The A/C is on, they aren't stupid.........!!! LOL

 We'd like to get him to the vet for chip check, but so far haven't got it done.  Hopefully this week.

Yesterday was the 4th of July.  Our good friend Leigh Anne asked us to walk in the Mt. Lemmon parade again this year with her and her mini donkey Jasmine. We walked 3 years ago before Covid and had a great time.  

 We took 6 donkeys and handlers, John and I rode in a Razor with John's Department of Sanitation bucket, complete with shovel and broom, behind the donkeys in case we were needed for pick-up detail.  Last parade no donkeys dropped anything and this time wasn't any different.  We dressed all in white like the guys use to in the 1800s, early 1900s although we were a little more stylish I hope........!!! .

Had a great time at the parade, lots of people along the route to watch.  They really enjoyed the donkeys.  Jasmine is quite a celebrity on the mountain.  Everyone knows her, for one thing she is the only donkey up there. The local powers allowed her to stay up there with Leigh Anne, even though she is classified as a farm animal, which aren't allowed.  They allowed our bunch and enjoyed having us there for a visit.  Unlike Jasmine who knows how to behave in pubic, some of ours push the bonds of polite behavior in public.  There is grass along the road, which when waiting for the parade to start, is pretty inviting.  

Willie was in his first Arizona parade, we were told he had been in parades before and I have no doubt he has been.  BUT....standing around waiting for something to happen, when the grass is right there, waiting to be eaten, was  pretty tempting.  He behaved himself pretty well, but did let us know he would prefer to eat grass...... LOL

There is a problem with being "IN" a parade.  You don't get to see anything except what is in front of you.  I'm sure there will be a video of the whole parade, but haven't seen it yet. 

 

So now we wait for the start

Siggy waiting to strut his stuff

Afterwords we all went to Leigh Anne's house for lunch.  Her and her husband recently bought the house they said for the view.  Can't blame them, it is an absolutely gorgeous panorama view of the San Pedro River Valley, which is where we live.  But it is a much more spectacular view from over 8,000 feet.  

Mike one of our amazing volunteers has already been working on the electricity for the office/store he was here most of yesterday.  Suzanne is so excited about finally having a desk and designated area to do paperwork.  Christian another volunteer is going to come out this week-end and figure out the walls.  So it's moving along, the insulation will have to go in before the walls, and that will be done by a contractor that blows the insulation in.  Hopefully his schedule isn't too busy.

Yesterday while admiring the nice porch on the office/store I noticed this damage that wasn't there the day before........!!!  One of the donkeys couldn't resist taking a bite I guess.  We knew wood would be a problem, that's why the siding is all metal.  We've also got a plan B if the donkeys continue to be "woodchucks".  I have a feeling wrought iron railings probably wouldn't taste very good......!!  LOL

 

Wonderful things happening.........

     The new office/store was delivered last Thursday.  It was amazing watching 2 young men haul that 40 foot building in, and maneuver it around with a Mule forklift.

Coming in the driveway, they've already slid the building halfway off the trailer in preparation for using the Mule

The Mule forklift isn't very big at all to be moving a 14x40 building; they had no problem putting it exactly where we wanted it.  

Suzanne made a video of the interior, it's just a big open space with an 8x14 storage room at the other end, and a bathroom.  Other than that it's going to be an open area for the office and store, no walls to take up space. 

    

SUZANNE'S VIDEO

Now for the hard part, getting it finished inside.  Mike one of our volunteers has already volunteered to put in the electricity next week.  We want to get air conditioning in ASAP, so the inside will be comfortable for anyone working in there.  One of the next things will be to get it insulated inside, so the walls can go up.  There's a local guy that sprays in foam, he won't be a volunteer, BUT, it will be worth not having to deal with stuffing insulation in between the studs in long sleeve shirts because of the fiber glass.  I may be dating myself, maybe they don't still use fiber glass, but I remember that stuff as being nasty to work with.  We had wanted to use paneling, but after pricing it, and having one of our volunteers say sheet rock isn't difficult to put up, we're going to sheet rock and paint.

John and Suzanne went to town yesterday, had to get supplies for Mike's electrical work this week.  They came home with a vanity and mirror for the bathroom......!!  The selling factor was it was on sale and they didn't want to miss out....... LOL  Suzanne already has her office space planned, she actually has office furniture in storage and is anxious to put it to use.  

Haven't heard when her mobile home will be delivered, everything has been done that can be done, just waiting for it to show up and get hooked up.  Since we aren't doing tours until September, hopefully we'll be able to concentrate on getting both buildings up and running this summer.  

All the donkeys are doing good.  Muchacho has settled in like he's been here forever.  Everyone that meets him falls in love with his personality.  His open sores are healing up nicely and he's looking real good.........well as good as he'll ever look.  

Dan the farrier was here Thursday.  Muchacho was not impressed with having his feet done and let Dan know in no uncertain terms that his feet were private property.  Dan puts a strap on uncooperative donkeys and they usually end up throwing themselves on the ground, so he trims them while they are down.  He didn't want to do that with Muchacho, because we don't know how healthy he is.  He seemed to be really healthy throughout the trimming of all 4 feet, and gave Dan quite a workout.  

The 1st time Dan did Justice was a wrestling match and Justice ended up on the ground with me sitting on his neck so he couldn't get up.  The next time he fussed but was much better.  Thursday he was just fine, no problem.  Same with Beefy, the first couple of times he was pretty sure he didn't want his feet trimmed.  But they figure out pretty quick, Dan isn't going to steal their feet and will give them back when he gets done.  And of course cookies help too........LOL

The mesquite bean season is just about here.  The beans haven't started falling, but they have ripened and the donkeys know it.  Yesterday was the first day we noticed them with their heads up in the trees.  At least the ones tall enough to reach the beans.  The little minis have to stand around and hopefully find dropped beans on the ground, from their taller "friends".  

Fly masks have been being lost quite often lately.  We knew we had 3 or 4 on the property and hadn't been able to find them.  Our great grandson Hunter came to visit for a few days and his dad JR came yesterday to take him home today.  They went out on a search mission yesterday afternoon and came in with 7 masks and a polo wrap.  WOW!  

MEET MACHACHO

 I always like to give a special name to donkeys that come in without a name or have had a hard life.  Machacho has had a very hard life judging from his looks.  A woman called me this morning wanting to rehome him, although the reasons she gave, didn't quite match the actual donkey.  What she probably didn't realize is when we saw him there is no way we wouldn't have taken him.  

She said she had only had him a few weeks and she had too many animals and he was having to have hay pellets because he couldn't eat hay, and she couldn't afford to keep feeding him pellets.

The obligatory welcoming committee when the trailer returns to the property.  There were more donkeys, but by the time I got ready to take a picture they went to the other side of the trailer to get a better look.

Machacho is going to be a long term work in progress, he hasn't been wearing a fly mask and has lots of habronema larvae damage under both eyes.  He has edema under his belly, and wounds at the throat area.  He also has a large open area in his right armpit.  Quite a few other assorted small cuts and scraps all over.  

Long term he has a large open area above his left nostril that couldn't be anything except man made I'm pretty sure.  He also has a smaller opening on the right side.  We had another donkey years ago that had a similar smaller opening that looked like someone had punch a hole thru to maybe use a bull snap instead of a halter to lead him.  Sha'ba also had both ears cut about half off.  Sha'ba was a term of respect for an old man in Arabic  Machacho is a word for a young man in Spanish.  Machacho isn't young, but I don't know if he even had a name when he was young.   He has a special one now. 

He was shut down when we picked him up, not involved in what was going on around him although he leads and does what  you ask of him.  We got him home and the first thing Suzanne and I did was give him a bath.  I'm not sure, but I think he liked it once he figured out we weren't going to hurt him.  His ears started rotating and he started looking around.  

We had to put Willie in his pen, he wanted to help, got in the trailer and in general was in the way.  Willie seems to be taking over Big Gus' job as amb"ass"ador.  He likes to "help" when anyone is doing something outside.  He's a lot easier to work with though, he has manners..........LOL

We gave Machacho some cut up Bermuda hay when we got him home and he ate it just fine.  Tonight he got more hay and some senior feed and had no trouble eating it, so I'm not sure what the problem was for the woman to have to feed him pellets.  Tomorrow we'll try him on some hay pellet mush, but I have a feeling he will eat just about anything we put in front of him.  

Tonight I went out to help let the donkeys out and take off fly masks.  I had some animal crackers in my pocket and although Machacho wasn't going out I stopped at his pen and yelled for him to come over.  He came over head up, ears up and trotting. He already thinks animal crackers are pretty good.  When I first tried to give him some, he sniffed at them a long time before he took one.  By  tonight sniffing wasn't necessary, but watching your fingers is pretty important if you want to keep them attached to your hand....LOL.  I doubt that he's had many cookies in his life.    

We'll probably give him a day or two to acclimate to all the donkeys and the change in his life style and then we'll let him out to roam around.  

SUZANNE'S BACK FROM COLORADO

 She and Koshare got back Sunday afternoon, after a whirlwind week-end.  It sound like Koshare lived up to his reputation.  He has always been an interesting character, with a mind of his own, which means he isn't a "go along to get along" type of guy.  

He has done really well at pack burro racing and about the only time he goes anywhere in the trailer it's to a pack burro race.  Travel for hours,  get to camp out with other donkeys, lots of people in the area, head for the middle of town, gun goes off and run, run, run for the front of the herd.  

Hmmm......  the Mancos Burro Fest wasn't a race, it was a gathering of some of the wonderful artists from the area, to showcase their talent and also to pay homage to burros, who were instrumental to the settling of the state of Colorado.

That means that rather than racing, there was a parade, and obstacle course and the burros being on main street with the artists for the public to meet and greet.  From what Suzanne said, Koshare did NOT get the memo about the difference between racing and a festival.  She said he was head up, ears up and prancing like a race horse, pretty much when he came out of the trailer and stayed that way the whole day.  

Of course people love bad boys, so he got a lot of attention, while Suzanne tried to stay in control.  Koshare doesn't have a mean bone in his body, he loves people and I've never seen him kick or bite people or other donkeys.  But he is very strong and can be very determined, which kept Suzanne busy...!!  LOL  From what she said the parade was interesting, Koshare decided to head for the front, so he got to do a lot of turning in little circles.  

The bridge that tilts, no problem

The obstacle course had  8 obstacles and 8 minutes to finish it.  Suzanne said they finished the first 5 obstacles in about a minute or a little more.  Then they came to the dreaded water crossing which put a screeching halt to their forward motion.  Suzanne said she even stood in the water, and Koshare didn't care.  It's a timed event with points for each obstacle, so he would get more points if he did the obstacle and 1 point if he at least tried it.  I guess the rest of the course went about the same.  

Squeeze thru walls of hay, without eating it

Stomp thru piles of limbs, why not

And the winner is...........Koshare complete with a wreath of sunflowers which incidentally he tried to eat.  Suzanne plans on putting it back together.........!!! LOL

Suzanne with a beautiful painting of Arlo by Elizabeth Kinahan the featured artist of the 2022 Mancos BurroFest. This was the prize for Team Koshare winning the obstacle course.  It will look really good in our new office.

Koshare isn't the only one that didn't get the message about behaving and being a good team member. Our friend India and Sparkle Nelly made the trek from Tucson to participate in the BurroFest.  

Not sure but this might be the beginning of their run, Nelly has all 4 feet on the ground, LOL

Looks like she wants to be a dancer

Nope, not what Nelly had planned for the day....

Nelly seems bound and determined not to participate, at least on 4 feet.....

After the obstacle course the burros were suppose to go up on main street for an hour or so, with the artists so the people could visit with them.  Koshare ended up in TIME OUT, tied to the trailer instead of participating in all that attention.  He was still hyped up, head up, ears up and ready to go, Suzanne said her arms were tired.......!!! LOL  

It sounded like a good time was had by all, even Koshare had a good time, just not as good as he would have liked..........!!!   LOL  Hopefully next year Koshare can try to repeat his win, only this time finish all the obstacles.    Suzanne plans on working with him in the meantime, so he knows the difference between racing and  a festival.......!!!  

Tombstone 2022 video

 I was looking for the finish for the Creede pack burro race last week-end and ran across this wonderful video from the Tombstone race this spring.  Thanks, Roland and Tin Cup for a great opportunity to get a glimpse of what it's like to be in a race.  

TOMBSTONE 2022

The monsoon is here with all the heat and humidity that brings.  I think they said a 60% chance of rain this week-end.  We've had a few........very few sprinkles so far and that's all. 

  

CREEDE FINISH THIS WEEK-END

 What an exciting finish by 2 great competitors and their handlers.

Couldn't get much more exciting than this.........!!!  Little Buttercup and Yukon are really battling for the win.  Yukon has won the 1st 2 races this season, but Buttercup is fighting back for the season.  It will be fun to watch who comes out on top.  

WILLIE'S STILL GOT HIS FLY MASK ON...........!!!

 After losing 3 masks in the first 5 days he was here, I consider it being a miracle.  Actually it isn't a fly mask, it's a fringed fly bonnet.  For some reason it's staying on and seems to work just fine as a fly deterrent.

Back when Willie was still working for a living with his lifetime owner

I think this was in 2014, looks like fun playing Wagon Train, thanks for the pictures Sue

We had hoped with Rosie gone Willie and Jasper might bond, so Willie went in Rosie's pen.  Hmmm..... they could have been on different planets and basically ignored each other, so Willie is now in Big Gus' pen which is quite spacious compared to Rosie's.  

All in all he's settled in nicely.  Don't know if he's been around jennies, but he thinks Bonnie is his type of girl.  He's not as obnoxious as Beefy, but he does like to go down to her pen and escort her out when the pens are open.  Beefy is usually there also, one day John went to let her out and there were 5 donkeys in her pen and it isn't spacious.........!!   LOL  Poor little Casper the white mini mule was trying to squeeze into the pen also so John ran everyone out.

Actually Beefy's hormones have FINALLY leveled out to gelding status, thank goodness. They said it would take about 6 months, and that's about how long it took.   He's still attentive to the girls, but he's not so focused you can't get him to cooperate.  

Our monsoon season has started, we had a monsoon shower yesterday and also today.  Not much rain in it, but enough to get our hopes up.  Unfortunately it raises the humidity and the temperature is already over 100* and the nighttime temperatures don't cool off because of the cloud cover.  Makes living in the desert interesting.......!!!

The flies of course love the humidity and heat and the fly traps stay busy.  Boaz has to be doctored every summer because of fly damage especially to the side of his mouth.  He is so cooperative to doctor don't know if he appreciates getting rid of the flies or if it's the cookies he gets when I'm done.  I had a couple of fly masks made, that cover the corner of his mouth, so the flies don't have an open pathway directly to his mouth.  Hopefully they will give his mouth a chance to heal.

This is a picture one of John's cousins took of wild burros over by Lake Havasau in Arizona.  Arizona is suppose to have the most wild burros of any state.  There aren't any around us, mostly up north or over by California.  

Nugget's opinion of snow

 

This is so funny and probably many people in Colorado thought the same thing when they got up the morning of June 1, 2022.  

Nugget's opinion of snow

Mamacita, who now has a wonderful home in California with her BFF Sasha, is Nugget's mom. We were told she had 5 babies in her life, he was the last one about 3 years ago.  

        

Mama and Nugget got a chance to see each other at the race in Tombstone a few weeks ago.  Don't know if they knew each other or not, but they were friendly to each other.  I put this picture on the blog at the time it's the only one I have of them together.  

We're now officially closed for tours until the end of August.  Sure is quiet around here and our mornings aren't quite as hectic.  After a couple of days the donkeys are going to wonder where the people with the red solo cups are.  In other words the animal crackers are going to be few and far between for the next few weeks.  

They'll have to be satisfied with mesquite beans.  We've been watching the trees and although it's really dry, they are setting clusters of beans.  They are still green and not filled out, but I'm sure the donkeys will be ready when they ripen and start falling........!!!  Hopefully we won't have a heavy crop of beans and we can monitor their time out enough to control their eating without having to keep them in the pens all the time.  

Willie the new boy, is a people donkey.  He's not been with donkeys since he was young.  He hangs in the general area of donkeys, but isn't real excited about them.  

This is the fly mask type he's wearing these days.  The 1st 5 days he was out and about, he lost 3 regular masks.  Unfortunately he's a big enough boy, my normal donkey masks are too small.  I only had 3 masks his size, so in desperation I dug this fringe mask out, we got for John Henry last fall.  So far it is staying on him. Went on the internet to buy back up and no one has them and don't know when they'll have them in stock again.  Bummer........!!!   

I guess he is going to take Big Gus' place as amb"ASS"ador.  He comes running when we go outside.  He also watches the gate, hasn't quite figured out the process yet, but I'm sure it won't take long.......!!!