ALWAYS HELPFUL

 One thing about donkeys, they are very helpful and very very observant.  If anything new comes on the property, they have to check it out.  If someone is doing something, the donkeys are right there making sure it is done correctly.  

Roper checking out the tractor, probably not sure that's where it belongs

Bella "helping" Mike hook up the electricity to the office/store.  She stayed with him for the whole job  

        

   

Time for a break

John's back is a good place for Buddy to rest his head

UPDATE ON KRIS AND ROPER

 Yesterday Suzanne and I went up to Gilbert to pick up Roper and bring him home.  He doesn't act like anything happened.  This morning he was out playing with some of the other geldings, he's eating and taking treats of course, treats are his favorite thing.  

He's on antibiotics and the external stitches will need to be taken out in about 10 days.  I assume that means the ones on the outside of his cheek, I think there are some inside his mouth too, hopefully they are dissolvable.  I should be able to take out the ones on the outside, but not sure I want to tackle inside his mouth.  I'll call them next week to make sure.  

They took large margins of surrounding tissue and injected the area with Cisplatin a type of chemotherapy, it's used for a number of human cancers also.  The tissue was sent off and we should get the results back this week.  Hopefully they got it all.

Dr. Howard, Roper and Suzanne doing Roper's pre-exam

We also asked them to check his lumbosacral spine, which is in the area of where his tail attaches.  His tail starts really low compared to most of the other donkeys and his hind legs move oddly.  They x-rayed him standing and after he was ready for surgery they took x-rays while he was on his back.  No abnormalities were seen, they it could either be a birth defect or a past injury that has healed.  He was a roping donkey, so it's possible he was hurt at some time and nothing was done, just no way of knowing.

Kris has had 3 days of treatments on his sheath and is really doing great.  The first day was a battle of wills and strength.  He won the strength, and we won the will.  Once we got him in the "redneck" squeeze his strength didn't make such a difference.  He was scared although the renters that were taking care of them tried trimming their feet, but I'm not sure how much they really messed with them.  

Yesterday morning before Suzanne and I headed for Gilbert we rushed his doctoring, and he did really good.  We didn't have to "crush" him in between the corral panels and he didn't kick at all.

I think this is Waylon checking out the gator

Both Waylon and Kris are a little "short for their weight".  This is Waylon, he doesn't have quite a much weight to lose as Kris.

Kris is still rather shy about getting a halter put on him, but this morning Suzanne got that done.  She led him into the squeeze and she stayed in there with him feeding carrots, while I doctored.  He just stood there never offered to kick and no squirming.  Tomorrow I might try to doctor him in his pen without a halter or the extra corral panel.  Or I might not...........!!! Depends on his level of participation.......LOL  

Kris is on the left and Waylon on the right.  You can see that Kris is pretty pudgy with pretty good-sized pones over his ribs.  Not sure who their friend is, it's hard to tell when they have on a fly mask and the picture doesn't show all the donkey.  We have quite a few grey roan ones.

UPDATE ON ROPER

 Roper's surgery on his tumor went very well they said.  BUT, Dr. Howard is pretty sure it is cancerous.  It has been sent off for testing to make sure and hopefully to find out what kind.  Dr. Howard took as much surrounding tissue as he could and also put chemo drugs in the area.

As soon as he got back to his stall, he started looking for something to eat, typical behavior for a donkey.  We were going to pick him up today, but we had a horrible rain storm about 3am last night.  Since we were having sheetrock delivered today, I called and asked if Roper could recuperate at the clinic another day and we'll pick him up tomorrow.  The sheetrock guys will be here Saturday, so we wanted to make sure the sheetrock was under shelter until then.  

Had a man named Randy call this morning wanting to know about volunteering and offered to come out and help with getting ready for the sheetrock delivery.  The sheetrock was supposed to be here after noon sometime.  Randy stayed until about 3pm and had to leave.  About 15 minutes later the sheetrock showed up........!! LOL Suzanne and John didn't have much to do except put the spacers under the sheetrock and then get the trailer in the shed in case it rains. Judging from the clouds in the background that might happen, although the sun is shining now.  

That is 44 sheets of plywood, believe it or not.  I remember sheetrock from when I was a kid, it was a lot thicker and heavier.  

We've ordered the flooring, although the walls will have to be painted before the flooring is installed.  We're going to try to do the floor ourselves.  Should be interesting, I know if I get down, I'll have to find something to pull myself up with, or wait for someone to come and get me up........!!!  LOL

This morning I finally got a chance to clean Kris' sheath, it's swollen and has open sores on it from habronema larvae.  I'm been doctoring him every morning since he got here, in a rather hit and miss way, because of a lack of time.  At first he was OK with touchy/feely, and every day less touchy/feely and more squirming and jumping.  Yesterday he resorted to kicking in my general vicinity, which isn't something I enjoy.  This morning he was a little more insistent with his kicking although he never aimed for me.  I decide it was time to introduce him to our "redneck" squeeze.  It is an extra corral panel, attached to one end of a standing corral panel.  They go in it, and you close the extra panel on them, so hopefully they can't get good aim at your arm or break your arm with a direct hit.  

He started out with attitude, which didn't make me happy.  Suzanne was on the front end, when he kicked I punched him a couple of times.  When he didn't kick, Suzanne stuffed a piece of carrot in his mouth.  Didn't take but about 5 or 6 times for him to figure out, kicking......bad, not kicking.....good............!!! He let Suzanne take pictures and let me finish.  Wonder what he will do tomorrow morning, we have to go up to Gilbert and pick up Roper, so I might not have time to "duck and dance", hopefully he will remember all those carrot pieces............!! LOL

Suzanne hasn't shared her pictures yet, but the sores look better than I thought they would.  There's a few habronema larvae attached, I covered them with wormer, which usually kills them pretty quick.  Hopefully if I can get rid of them, he'll have a chance to heal quickly, although right now the flies are pretty bad, because of the rain and accompanying humidity.  High temperatures are OK, but the humidity is miserable.  Us desert rats aren't fans of humidity especially day after day.........!!!  

ETC

    Roper came in a little over a week ago.  We took him to the Equine Clinic up in Gilbert today to have a tumor on his cheek removed.  They will do the surgery tomorrow morning and we will find out if it is cancer or not.  We're hoping for the best, he's really a nice donkey in the time he has been here he has shown himself to be alert, curious and very easy to work with. 

    They are also going to look at his eyes.  He acts like he doesn't see well when going from light to dark, etc.  His eyes are bright and shiny, so while he's  asleep they will take that opportunity to get a better look.  That easy to work with, doesn't mean he was happy to stand still while they shined lights in his eyes and tried to get a good look.  

    They will also x-ray his hips while he's "resting".  His tail is lower than normal on a donkey and we want to know why.  It doesn't seem to bother him and he moves good but this will be a good opportunity to find out if there is something out of whack.  Since he is named Roper there's a good chance he's been roped, we don't know for sure.  Or he might have been born that way, hopefully an x-ray will help identify if there is a problem.  

 

        We also took BlackJack up to the clinic to see why he is cranky when he's groomed.  They poked and prodded him, and of course he didn't try to bite them, like he's been doing everyone that tries to brush him lately.  He had blood drawn a few weeks ago and it was pretty normal.  Drew it again and it was OK except for a slight elevation of liver numbers.  Nothing really to worry about Dr. Howard said.  

    I am going to start him on some milk thistle which is really good for "man and beast" if there might be liver problems.  Who knows maybe it will improve his disposition.......!!! LOL

    When we brought BlackJack into the clinic, first thing Dr. Howard zeroed in on was "is his hair always this long?"  He thought BlackJack might have Cushings disease   I explained that BJ probably has some French Poitou in his bloodline.  

    We brought BlackJack home and will go back up to get Roper when they call us after the surgery.  Dr. Howard is going to put chemo drugs in the surgical area, in case it is cancerous, we want Roper to have the best chance for a good outcome as medical science can give him.  

    Over the last few days, we have taken in 2 new guys overweight with neglected feet and some fly damage.  They had been in the same home for 18 years, weren't named and we were told about them by renters that were getting ready to move and were worried about the boys.  They had been trying to take care of them and talked the owner into turning them over to us.  

        John and Suzanne were moving bunks around in the mare motel and came up with the names Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings, to go with Willie Nelson that came down here from Colorado a few weeks ago.  All we need is a Johnny Cash and we will have the complete Highwaymen quartet. I guess we could incorporate John into the group..........LOL

    

This is Waylon he is the friendliest one, but I don't think his ears are as long as they look in this picture Suzanne took right after they got here.  Kris is going to take some time, but I'm sure he will settle in once he figures out, we love donkeys.  

NEW "KID" AT THE RESCUE........!!

 At four years old he is just a kid, the only other ones here probably under the age of 10 are Cochise and Oscar.  Roper came in today, he had a tumor in his mouth that had been removed and that has returned and is growing quickly.  We will make an appointment at the equine clinic up in Gilbert next week and have it taken care of.  Hopefully it is just a cranky benign growth and not cancer.

We will also probably take BlackJack up with him.  For a few months BJ has been ouchy about being groomed he acts like it's painful internally.  The best guess was maybe ulcers, so we treated him and he even got Tums daily, which is one of his favorite treats.  Hopefully they can find out what the problem is he's still acting funny.    

BJ has been here since before there was a rescue, he was our first donkey, John bought him for my birthday about 24 years ago.  We got him a friend that had to be euthanized because of health problems.  We got 3 donkeys for free and they all had health problems, actually one of them was squirrelly and the guy's grandkids were afraid of him.  From that beginning we started actively looking for donkeys that weren't wanted and found out there were a lot of them out there.  

So here we are almost 25 years later, still looking for donkeys that need help.

Sorry about the rude ending to the video, but Beefy the mammoth was trying to eat John's supper we had brought from our lunch on the way home from picking up Roper.  I had set it on the bed cover of Suzanne's truck.  The donkeys were all so busy trying to see the new guy, I didn't worry about anyone bothering it.  Obviously Beefy can multitask, in the video he is the big black donkey.  In the 30 seconds from start to finish of the video, he visited with the new guy went around the back of the trailer and ended up between the trailer and the back of her truck, trying to snack on John's supper.  

A couple of days ago, when Mike was leaving after working on the electric for the office/store, he came in worried that the big black donkey would get sick, from dining on half of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  He had the windows down in his truck, and when he got out to open the gate, Beefy moved in to see what was in there.  I'm afraid he is taking over from Big Gus, Gus could reconnoiter a vehicle with the windows down faster that you could see the problem..........!!  LOL  We sure do miss Big Gus, he had the biggest personality and a real creative mind to go with it.  I guess Beefy spent time watching Big Gus cause so much excitement and is continuing the process, he never did things like this when Big Gus was alive he was too busy chasing the girls.  We thought it would be quieter around here with Gus gone, but guess not..............!!!  Because Beefy got half of a tasty P&B sandwich as payment for his efforts I'm sure he will continue raiding vehicles when he can.

This is Roper going into his pen next door to Jasper this afternoon.  They've already touched noses and neither seemed interested in being aggressive.   We'll give Roper a day or two in his pen to get acclimated to a new home and nosy neighbors and then let him out to roam.

STYLISH DONKEYS

 I assume that eagle eyed donkeys are having to go under bushes and getting fly masks hung up to get to some of the beans.  

Can't explain how the masks are ending up around their necks.  Usually that happens when the boys are playing and the fly mask becomes a toy with strong enough Velcro that it won't come loose and the offending donkey won't let go.  

I can't remember any of the girls having a problem with masks around the neck before.  This is Frijolita and obviously there's a problem.  

Tula's is a little risque, rather than around the neck.  In the many years she's been here she has never lost a fly mask, let alone damaged one.  She gets a new one in the spring and all it needs in the fall is washed and put away.  Obviously she's having to work a little harder to get to some of the beans.

Boaz is not a big surprise, he is pretty hard on fly masks anyway.

Justice usually isn't too hard on his masks.  At least when they are around the neck we don't have to go look for them........LOL  We can't figure out how they get that way.  You would think if they get caught on the fence, the donkey would pull back the the mask would probably stay on the fence.  

John and I were gone to California over the week-end to Barona Speedway to watch 2 nights of short track dirt racing.  Had a great time and got to see some good "bull ring" racing.  They race my kind of car there, but it's too far for 2 old people to drag a race car, not sure we'd survive the experience.......LOL   It's about 400 miles one way.  

It seems like whenever we take off, something always happens.  This time Suzanne turned on the faucet in the back yard, it broke and  shot water clear across the yard.  She's real handy and actually knew where to turn the water off.  Mike, one of our volunteers that has been putting the electricity in the new office/store building also does plumbing..........!!  Of course you can't have just one crisis at a time, what fun would that be?  Cisco choked and Suzanne had to call Dr. Jeremy, Cisco was pretty much in distress and she said it took quite awhile for him to get cleared.  His teeth, the ones he still has don't match up, so he has areas where the teeth are grinding on his gums.  Dr. Jeremy said not to feed him hay, but besides his daily pumpkin, chewing hay and spitting it out is one of his little pleasures in life.  John is going to run it thru the shredder and get it as short as he can, so hopefully Cisco can play with the hay and not choke.  

We just had a rain storm go thru and our big wash actually ran for the first time this season.  It wasn't bank to bank but it's fun to see it run.  

When we drove in from California Sunday afternoon we had to stop at the 1st of 8 washes we have to drive thru to get home.  When we got to it it was high enough that 3 big pickups and a couple of cars were already there..........waiting.  

Years ago especially before the road was paved we use to get to sit and wait 2 or 3 times a year.  It was always a good time to visit with the neighbors and to catch up on what was going on in the valley.  Sometimes people would throw their car keys back and forth if someone had to get home or get to work, they'd just trade vehicles till the next day.

The pickups could have probably made it easy enough although they didn't try until the water started going down.  But the little VW across the wash and John's little Subaru set way too low, besides John's car has what they call a cool box down really low to suck in air............not water........ that wouldn't be a good idea....!!!  LOL

Finally one of the pickups got brave and went thru.  Pretty soon it was just us and the VW.  We watched the VW go thru and it wasn't any higher than the bottom of the rim on his hub caps, so we went ahead and had no problem.  The next 7 washes weren't running, it depends on where the rain fell, so we made it home in time for chores.  

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!