Sunday, November 14, 2010

Signs of the Season

Luigi and Francesa

Yes, indeedy, those little faces are getting fuzzy all over again. Seems like they just shed out!

Before daylight savings changed,  the advent of fall was apparent as morning chores were being done in the pitch black with the help of a lantern. Now I have daylight to perform those duties.  But, of course, the evening hours of daylight are dwindling.  I scurry home from work to be able to take advantage of pre-dusk time.

Have I told you about our new bedding arrangement in the shed?  No, I think not.  Rick proposed we place small gravel-like stones as a base over about three-quarters of the floor and lay leftover stall mats on top.  He  drilled holes in the mats to allow drainage.  Seems to be working pretty well.  The new arrangement means  I don't have to lay an extra thick straw bedding to act as insulation; the stone/mat combo offers a nice cushiony rise from the cold ground.  I do put a smattering of straw down just to make things comfy, but the three donks end up eating most of it.

And, the colder weather does mean longer breakfast chores to get the shed cleaned out from the night and fresh straw laid for the day (they're again hunkering down in the shed at night instead of enjoying the stars)

No more wandering out in my p.j.'s in the morning for five minutes to throw hay.  Heavy sigh...

Monday, November 1, 2010

The Evil Purple Beast

Yesterday I had the clever idea of snapping a picture of Fran wearing my witch hat and posting it as such a cute Halloween image.  Right!

Dragged Rick out with me to act as photographer. It happened that I wore the hat out to the yard.  Such a  reaction I certainly did not expect.
This darn hat was 
so so scary.  
Three donkeys ran around the yard like banshees.  I immediately took it off and clucked and cooed to get them to come up to me, holding the dreaded purple beast behind my back.  One of them would take a few tentative steps toward me, but then catch a peek of the evil  thing and high-tail it out of there.  Luigi was kicking out with his back legs to keep the monster away.
So much for clever ideas...