Sweet Luigi

The boy is starting to shed his fuzzy winter face, a little bit at a time.

Readers, Please Comment

Readers,
Sending you a "please, please, oh please" message.

A new feature through the blog allows me to see how many folks are visiting the donkey site.  Yes, lots :)))) (at least to my standards).
But I'm not receiving comments  :((((
Help turn my frown into a smile, by leaving a little response.

It brightens my day.

Work Continues

Steps 3 and 3 1/2 of previous post are done!  Right on schedule, for a change.  Last weekend was spent moving manure from the "pile" to the pasture.

Yup, four hours of shoveling *#$! into the bucket of the tractor where it got dumped onto the pasture.  At about hour 3 I actually didn't care that my (yuckie and old) tennis shoes were covered with the brown stuff.  

Later in the week Rick spent quite a bit of time spreading it.  He had to change his technique in the middle of things -- particularly true when you're jury-rigging implements.  No, we're not going out to buy the proper equipment for this one-time project.



You can see from the picture what a good job we did of killing the weeds -- gone!

Rototilling guy is supposed to come Monday -- please, don't let the weather screw things up again!

Pasture Project Hits Snags

We've got some catching up to do with the pasture overhaul.  Weather conditions have caused major delays and I'm getting very anxious.  We have 7 steps and we've only completed 2.  Woe is me!

Step 1:  remove dead/unneeded shrubs
Step 2:  remove weeds (which in our case means most of the pasture)
Step 3:  spread manure
Step 3 1/2:  fertilize
Step 4:  till
Step 5:  compact soil
Step 6:  sow seed
Step 7:  rake

Holy crikies we've got a lot left to do.

Who would have thought it would be so hard to find a local farmer to till.  I think I've spoken with everyone in our community and beyond.   Would you believe the only person we've found (and you betcha we booked him) is about an hour away.  Everyone else I called either 1) didn't call back, 2) said our pasture is too small for their equipment or 3) just said we don't do that.

We won't make it by mid-May as had been recommended by MSU Extension Service.  By the way, I highly recommend taking advantage of their services.  The "pasture guy", Phil, has been as nice as a guy can be, spelled out the process for me, and reassured me when I called back with more questions and anxiety oozing through the phone.

We're due to complete steps 3 and 3 1/2 before farmer comes on May 14 and then we have to hustle our bustles to finish 5-7.

Wish us luck, gang!

Anxiety Sets In as Weather Delays

We've been delayed significantly with our pasture project due to weather conditions -- too cool temps and wind.  Today was another example.  We decided to forge ahead with weed spraying in spite of the cooler temps (means you have to wait longer for the herbicide to work) and once at the ready, found the wind was much too forceful.  Another potential work day down the drain.  We've got to finish this stage soon or we'll be in real trouble!

So, we set to work on two other donkey-related tasks.  Clearing out a consistently mushy area right in front of the shed, and straightening out the fencing that keep the donks separated from hay and straw.  (They had recently done a right fine job of pushing the fence in toward the straw and made a holy mess of things.)  We scraped and shoveled the mush out and then laid some sand on top.  Rick found some scrap metal to weave through the fencing to brace it against nosy noses.  Ha!  Take that you three hooligans!

The semi-relaxing afternoon meant I was able to spend a leisurely hour working on some homeade soup.
Yummy.

A New Start

Work has begun on re-invigorating the donkey pasture.  We're starting over to cultivate a sustaining source of food (there's not much of value left now).  To those readers shaking their heads, clucking, saying "but they didn't do it right", I say, but we tried.  Brush hogged the fields to prevent weed seeding.  Kept the donks off in the spring.  Just didn't work.

Step 1:  remove dead bushes (mostly autumn olive)
First Rick cut down all branches and, after the donkeys had examined them carefully and chewed any last goodness from the bark, they went into our burn pile.

Here's Rick using the tractor to extract the bushes.  Hard, hard work.  

Close-up of the remnants.

The dogs pretended to be king of the mountain, resting casually but regally on top of the dirt piles.

Today we begin Step 2.  Killing weeds.  Good times...

Mauled by Three Lovies

It's a beautiful March day in Michigan (no, we normally never ever say that) so I thought it a fine time to take a deck chair out to the donkey yard, park it for a few minutes and talk/scratch things over.

I started with sweet Fran.  Was giving her good scratches when normally touch-me-not Gabby horned her way in.  She was insistent!  It's my turn.

Although she is normally adamant she does not want her head touched, I started scratching the side of her face and she couldn't get enough.  More, more, more...  She was practically in my lap.

I got stomped about three weeks ago by Natural, the large equine boy, and my foot is still tender.  So while Gabby is getting closer and closer,  I was anxious to keep that right foot out of the line of 300-lb beasties.

About this time, Luigi, not to be outdone by anyone else's cute antics, pulled his if-I-inch-my-way-backwards-you-won't-notice-me trick until his behind was pushing the chair.  Thought I was going to get bowled over so I politely told him to knock it off.  Then Fran and Gabby started to snipe about who's getting way too much attention. Sitting there wasn't the wisest move.  Who am I with anyway, the three stooges?

I got a brush out of the tack box in the shed and started some vigorous brushing.  Wasn't that just the cat's meow.  Ooh-la-la.   Everyone enjoyed their turn immensely.

A fine March afternoon indeed.