Pushy Bee-hinds

There's nothing funnier than a pushy little donkey.  And yes, today I'm naming names.  My sweet and cuddly Francesca can be a food bully. This morning I tossed a nice fat flake of hay to get them started on breakfast while I tended to clean-up chores.  After I had finished with manure madness I got another flake to finish off the morning's meal.  Luigi, who prefers to eat solo, left the girls to wander over to this second flake.Well, little miss Franny comes over, backs up to the flake, and uses her bee-hind to not so graciously remove Luigi from the area.

I had to laugh.

Partee !!

OK, so I walk into the shed this morning to retrieve breakfast hay, and  !!!!
The only thing I can imagine from the big overnight mess is that the donks invited some friends over and things got a bit crazy.  Not to be indelicate, but I'm talkin' poop -- and lot's of it.  Everywhere...

Now come on!  I'm the one to clean up the mess and I wasn't even invited!

Little Destructive Beasts

Because we're closing in on fall, well I guess we're already there, the pasture is a bit sparse.  So today I let the donks out into the driveway grass (with a chaperone of course) and then into the house area, aka "the compound".  Yes, fully fenced.  Alas, look what the little beasts did to my mum.  Yikes.

Not totally decimated,
but a closer haircut than I'd like.







On a side note, I continue to be intrigued with Luigi's role in the herd.  Ever ever  vigilant.

A couple of days ago I heard a noise next door.  Someone was talking loudly.  Thats it.  Nothing earth shattering.  But it was enough to make Luigi stop eating hay and walk over to investigate the noise. The girls, on the other hand, did not stop munching.  

He clearly has a hard-wired directive to protect.  Fascinating.

Miss Congeniality

I've now had the pleasure of living with three donkeys for almost four years --  Labor Day will hit that mark.  And not until this summer has Miss Gabriella been a social girl at all.  Oh contraire,  I often used the "b" word when describing her.  Very touch-me-not, bossy - you get the picture.

For some reason, she has turned into Miss Congeniality this summer and I am loving it!  OK, Franny is still my love-bunny, but Gabby has really turned a corner.

Will wonders never cease...

 Gabby comes in for a close-up

Hot, hot babies

Even though the pasture is looking the best it has in three years (although there's plenty of room for improvement -- fewer weeds please), we're limiting donkey time to 4-5 hours a day.  That means the buggers still get to chew on a flake of hay at breakfast and dinner.

So, tonight after I got home from work, I rode my bike out to the donk yard (with 2 dogs in tow) to drag them in from the pasture and throw their hay.  And, spray those poor beleaguered little fly-bitten legs.  I cranked up the fan we have in the shed to "high" and placed the hay in front of it.  Luigi was hogging the full blast of air so Fran calmly found a spot to share and just stood there enjoying the breeze.  Ahhh, a little relief...

After All the Hard Work...

Could it be?  Could it actually be... that we'll have a decent pasture.  Holy moly, who woulda thought.
Those who have been following the "start the pasture all over again" exploits know how much labor and money we're put into this gol' darn donkey pasture -- all to no avail.  Last last fall, Rick sprayed an herbicide on the broad-leaf weeds and we re-seeded (again!) in early spring of this year.  It's not perfect, but we're thinking with some more effort over the next couple of years it could be what we've been striving for.  (oops, that was a preposition)
We're keeping the donks off the pasture for another few days and then we'll be letting them roam.  Already Rick has had to mow it twice to keep the weeds from seeding.  (just ignore the bare patches you see)

Here is Gunner sampling the product.

Having absolutely nothing to do with the donks, but our lilacs are glorious this year.  And we've never had such a luscious perfume from them.  There's a second bush, but didn't want to bedazzle you too much.

Three Little Ingrates

Just under eight weeks ago, I marched into a local hospital and got a new hip.  Yup, brand spanking new.  I believe the cause of my hip-decline stemmed from a horse fall 9 years ago, but that's purely my own theory.
Anyway, my less-than-perfect- condition meant husband, Rick, had complete donkey duty for several weeks; my only contact with the beasts was waving from the car as Rick drove me to and from physical therapy.

However, there was instances when dinner was being fed, the devils escaped from the donkey yard and wandered down the driveway toward the garage.  On one occasion I heard plastic tubs being overturned and hobbled at my fastest through the house and out the back steps to see my babies.  When they saw I had no cookies, they were completely uninterested in a visit and wandered off to chew at some ivy.  I was heartbroken.  I had been their (almost) sole caretaker for three years and they were flipping me off.

Well, I am still using a cane so everyday care is still around the corner.  But when I do get back into the daily routine, there is going to be a very very long conversation with those three long-ears.  You betcha me.