Donkey Beauty

 Lots of happenings in this small corner of the world.

Power outages, a greyhound in old age, a little vacation on Lake Huron in Canada, vertigo and death of a lovely young man.  And no, I won't go into the sorry details of most as I know you're here for those darn animals.

So, I give you spotlight on donkeys.  Well, two donkeys.

Let's start with Gabby.  Just Gabs in all her gorgeousness.

I have and always will regard Gabariella as a beauty.  Plain and simple.  And yes I am prejudiced.  It has to do with the shape of her face.  Sugar and Spice have more block shaped features, Gabs is oval.  Need I say more.

Not that Sugar isn't lovely in her own right.  Here she demos the runway saunter.

   
As for those darn-it-all chickens.  We've been losing a bunch of eggs to broken shells in the nesting boxes.  I assumed it was weak shells as all our girls are very mature.   But now we've come to the conclusion there is a marauder in our midst.  Quite probably one of the girls.  Now there is an old golf ball in five of the six nesting boxes most often used.  And so far so good.  The experiment is quite new but let's be optimistic.

I'll leave you with a waterfall we sought out in Ontario.   Relax and enjoy.

  Owen Sound

Canine Critters of the Teeny Tiny Farm

 Let's talk about Sunday night.  It was a doozy, a humdinger, and, hopefully, not to be repeated.

We had been on a small vacation just prior, didn't sleep well.  Well, Sunday night as I was reading before bed, we lost power.  Bad enough as it was, Phinny went nuts.  Same reaction he has to thunderstorms, or the wind.  Panting, pacing, beside himself.  A-l-l night.  Until 4:00 a.m.

Plus the donkeys bellowed a-l-l night.  Until 4:00 a.am.
I can't remember them ever doing that in the 16 years we've had donks.

Oh, forgot to mention, power was restored at 3:10 a.m.

So what was in the air - a different vibration?  Anyone have an idea?

So it was yet another sleepless night and I went through the motions of laundry and grocery shopping on Monday a complete zombie.

Faith was not bothered.  But she has never reacted to storms/wind/fireworks.  Has to have something to do with growing up at the track.

The little girl isn't doing well at 12 years.  We think a bit of senility, pain, significant hip weakness.  Racing until she was four sure didn't help that. Please send her loving thoughts.

We're in the midst of transitioning to a new small animal vet as my favorite vet in the world recently retired.  The new vet was just to the house last night (we chose him because he makes house calls) so we'll be trying some new modalities on Faith.  Hoping it helps her quality of life for a bit longer.

Lastly wanted to tell you about my new DIY experiment - making vanilla extract.
I follow Kaleb at Wyse Guide and Ina Garten and read what they both had to say about ratios and the process, which couldn't be simpler.

I combined three different beans, put them in a large Mason jar and filled with vodka.  You can use other liquors as well.  I've read it can "steep" for 6-12 months.  As with lots of other DIY projects (including chicken eggs!), I can't believe it's cheaper (haven't done the math) but I don't splurge on experiments of this sort very often.  I'll do a taste test along the way and let you know.
Right now it's steeping in a dark corner of the basement.