Veteran's Day - Thank You!

To those serving now, THANK YOU! May God keep you safe from harm and bring you back to your families.

To those who have served in the past, THANK YOU! May God bless you with the strength to deal with your physical and emotional residuals from that service.

To the families of those serving now, THANK YOU! May God bless you with the safe return of your loved one!

To the families of those who have served in the past, THANK YOU! May God bless you as you deal with the residuals of that service.

And to the families of those who gave their lives in service, THANK YOU! May God bless you as you deal with your loss.

And a very special THANK YOU to my very own veteran - LOVE YOU HONEY!!!!!

Busy Busy Week!

Well I don't have any pictures - don't shoot me!! I had a nice ride on Saturday morning with a few neighbors and Lindsey rode Luna who was a total b*tch again. Geez. But I got on her Saturday late afternoon and rode her around the yard and she was perfect.

My dear friend Shirley came over Sunday to ride, perfect timing after a quick trip to Wickenburg for breakfast at Cowboy Cafe for me and Randy :) and a stop at Matt's (Serenity Farms) where I got a few necessities and a new cantle bag, AND a new water bottle carrier - which I discovered, during our 3-hour ride, works REALLY well! My frozen water bottle didn't melt!

A very nice young lady came over on Sunday afternoon to ride Maggie, our horse guest, and they clicked really well. Maggie's owner Mary came over to meet Savannah and her mom Tammy and I got some more good reports on our Ruby as well. And I rode Luna again. That's my goal, to get her going again, even if it's only 10 minutes and one time around the yard, I've got to keep her working.

Then yesterday I got the call that a deal was made, Maggie is going to be Savannah's new horse and her gelding is going to Mary's - but Mary says, he is going to be a horse for hubby and daughter - SHE WANTS RUBY! I am so happy to hear that Ruby is such a good match for Mary!

I rode Luna again and we had a real breakthrough. Normally when I send her around in the round pen without a lead rope on, when I ask her to stop she turns her butt to me - which of course is a BIG NO-NO! I know there is a way to tell her not to do that and I have been shown more than once but I just couldn't get her to face me. So I started using the lead line AND the round pen, and when I ask her to whoa, I give a little tug on the rope and MAKE her face me. Well last night I sent her around without a lead rope and when I said WHOA she just stopped and faced me pretty as you please. WOO HOO!

Of course tonight my plans to ride got sidetracked darn it. But I had Savannah and her mom here to pick up Maggie and drop off Blaze, and Mary came to meet Blaze and ride him a bit, and two other neighbors stopped in to see the new donkey foals AND one of them wanted to meet our rescue donkey Abigail and really liked her, so much she is going to try adopting her as a companion for her horse! So even if I didn't get to ride Luna tonight, it was a very productive evening!

Luna will get a double break though as tomorrow night is Midweek Fellowship and by the time I get home after 10pm I do NOT feel like riding! Blaze is our guest until Friday when I have the day off work and can deliver him - I told Mary I would bring a horse, and maybe a friend, and we are going for a little ride Friday morning as well! I'll try to get some pictures, and some more foal pictures too, very soon!!

Finally! Pictures...

Meet Charles, all dry!






When he first came out all wet, I really thought he was going to be chocolate like his father:

Then when he was almost dry, but it was almost dark, in the flashlight he looked the same color as his mom... And now, I just don't know what to think! I guess we will have to wait and see what he looks like when he grows out of that baby fuzz!

Indian Wife Named Four Horses...

That was me today. Because YESTERDAY I asked Randy to take daylight pics of our new little boy and he FORGOT. I ask you... HOW????????? Some days I just don't understand him. Now everyone is after me to post dry pictures of the little boy and I still don't have any.

So today I am the Indian Wife named Four Horses... have you heard that one? A white man asked the Indian why his wife was named Four Horses. He shrugged and said, "you know....

NAG

NAG

NAG

NAG!"

LOL but I got the job done, Randy called mid-afternoon to say he took some pictures for me. Of course it's Wednesday and we have Midweek Fellowship so I'll have to see if I can stay awake long enough after I get home tonight LATE to get them uploaded and downloaded - or is that downloaded and uploaded?

PS the young man says his name is CHARLES!

Diet Progress and...

Don't worry I have more Sarah Beth pictures for you! But first...

Today is day 8 of our 4th 11-day diet... which means it's veggie day. Can I just say that salad is NOT on my top ten list of things to eat for breakfast? Especially when the exact same thing is on the menu for lunch? However, I just keep picturing in my mind that scale this morning, that said 185.4 WAHOO!! I have promised myself that IF I can get to 180 by the end of this 11-day session, that's it for me on the quick-loss plan. I am getting awful tired of eating this way... and I have found that although it's slower, I do keep losing just following the 45 pages of regular diet tips from this plan. Randy wants to keep doing the 11 days and I'll eat with him when he does, whatever he is eating, but at work or elsewhere, I'm not going to be that strict.

I am ALMOST to a total weight loss of 25 pounds though so i'm extremely happy with my progress so far!

OK, OK, here you go...













Randy took these for me when I got home




And thank goodness I asked Hilary and Randy to take some pictures for me during the day, because even getting home early, with Susie Q going into labor, this is all I got of Sarah Beth myself today!


Dry pictures of our little boy are on order from Randy today :) so check back tonight!

Two For One???? Unbelievable...

I am beside myself with joy guys... to say again, **WARNING** graphic birthing pictures!!!

When I got to work this morning I asked my boss if I could work through lunch and leave at 4, so I could have a little daylight with my new foal and get more pics. She said no problem thank God!!!

Because I wasn't home 15 minutes, changed clothes and went out with Randy and the camera to take my gotta-have-it shot of me holding the baby donkey... We walked in the pen and I heard a gushing sound, turned to look and Susie Q is laying down in a big puddle... I said "Oh my God is Susie in labor" and Randy said yes and oh boy...

She was in the middle of what we call the "garden" - we don't grow veggies or flowers, just donkeys but the gal who lived here before, this section was her garden so we have always called it that. With her little sister, Taffy's youngster and my mini mare in the same pen, we figured Susie Q had to move. Just like Taffy she was up and down so when she got up we led her a short distance into the pen where Taffy delivered this morning and shut the gate on the others.

I know, I know, shut up and get to the pictures...

The bubble...

First hoof

Perfect presentation again, two front hooves and a nose AND a tongue, can you see it?

Hoof breaks the sac

Halfway out (blurry, sorry! i was so excited i had a hard time holding still)

Almost out

Poor little thing was SOAKED, it was weird to see two in one day and so different! There wasn't much liquid with the little girl, but this one had a LOT. Shook its head and water drops flew everywhere, shining in the setting sun. kept sneezing too and drops flying out the nose, but that was a good thing, clear all that out!!!

I started texting while I was watching, but didn't really need the distraction to make the time pass... Taffy took about 45 minutes this morning, Susie Q finished in about TEN!! One friend asked if I was home and could they come over... I said sure, but by the time they arrived baby was out and up already. And they only live 10 minutes away!

The front legs were folded like a pretzel, baby kept trying to get up and falling on its nose. I felt sorry for it and gently untangled those long legs.

Once they were out in front UP baby went... And right back down. So i took the opportunity to look under that tail and found Dillon has another son! For those of you that remember Clementine, this is her little brother.
Another Bambi on the ice!
But he wouldn't give up
And one leg at a time
UP again!!

Mama comes to say how proud she is {I know, blurry again - sigh}

Poor little guy, just like people, mama always trying to clean him up!



First visitors


And now for food...

He knows it's there somewhere...

A little out of kilter but we heard that slurping!

My babies have been pretty good about telling me their names, but sometimes it takes a while. i've got nothing yet on this one, but I told our visitor that if I don't get anything real strong... I just might name this donkey after HIM!

What an incredible day. I should be dead tired, I've been up so long, but I'm flying high!!!

And One Wait Is Over!!

**Warning** graphic birthing photos - and wow have I been waiting a LOOOOONG time to say that!!! {Yes I am grinning from ear to ear!!!}

I got woken up this morning around 4:00 a.m. by a little chihuahua, walking all over both of us, whining, and turning circles like she was going to deliver pups. Except it's Vada who is not possibly due until early December... She would NOT settle down so I finally asked her if she had to go potty and Randy said YES take her out...

I put her out the door and then decided as long as I was up and would have to wait for her, I might as well throw on a jacket and go check my big bellies out back...

The flashlight finds Susie Q, all is normal. But where is Taffy??? I finally spotted her in a dark corner, and shined the flashlight on this:

Boy did I move fast then! I ran back to the house, took off my jacket, got dressed, told Randy we're having a baby, grabbed the camera, ran down the hall to tell Hilary we are having a baby, and ran back outside hoping I haven't missed it... nope nothing has changed.

Soon Hilary stumbles out, I mention surprise that she actually came and she said she wasn't going to but then she started thinking how she had never seen anything born but goats so she came out anyway. All this time Vada was still whining and circling, getting the other dogs all stirred up, then she started trying to dig under the fence to get to us in the donkey pen. Taffy didn't need that commotion so I had Hilary go get her, and she sat on our laps - back and forth - and watched with us. Every time Taffy had a contraction, Vada would whine and circle... and Hilary will tell you that is nerve-wracking how many times a donkey will get up and circle and lay back down before she finally gets to business!!!

Perfect presentation, nose and two front feet

Head out... and with that big blaze it's got to be a spotted baby! Now I am chanting "please be a girl, please be a girl" and Hilary is laughing at me...

Halfway there...

Checking out mama while still partway inside!

Baby was even trying to get up on its front feet while the hind end was still inside!


We've got a whole baby! And yes before it could even stand up, I had Hilary hold the flashlight and I had that tail up looking... ONE HOLE OR TWO????? And WAHOO it's my little girl!!!!! Last year at Midweek Fellowship when I took in pictures of all the baby boy donkeys we had, one young lady was wondering about baby girl donkeys. I told her my hopes for a spotted girl someday, that I could keep, and we talked about names... one on my list caught her attention, her eyes lit up and she said "That's MY name!!!" so I promised her that my next keeper would be called... Sarah Beth!

You can see big sister Ellie Mae trying to see what's going on. She was a pest the whole time, thank goodness for the small pen inside the big one so we could lock her out!

In no time at all Sarah Beth was trying to stand...


Back legs working better than the front legs...

And she's up!

And she's looking a lot like Bambi on the ice!!!

And she's down... oh boy is it hard to watch a baby fall and not be able to catch it! Especially when she is so wet and getting SO DIRTY! But she needs to figure it out...

Just like people, the friends and relatives gather to see the new arrival - who is not really brown! You'll see...

Good job mama!!! Welcome to the world, Sarah Beth!!!


At this point I had to get the rest of the critters fed and I figured mama could use a few minutes WITHOUT a flash going off {grin} but hey, in order to understand my excitement, you have to know that we have had 14 foals here over the years, and I have missed all but two. And those two, well, the first one I saw just the second half of the birth and we lost that filly to heat stroke at 10 days old... the second one was a bad presentation, we lost the foal immediately and about six weeks later lost mama too. Coincidentally, that mama was a solid spotted donkey - had only a big blaze from her spotted parent... looked a whole lot like this baby! Anyway I was feeling kinda like a jinx, and even though I kept trying to see a full birth, I was always relieved when I would go out in the morning and wow there's a baby and it's all done and good... To finally see a full live birth is a long-time dream and to top matters off, it's the spotted girl I have been waiting for and I GET TO KEEP HER!!! So this was really really really a big deal for me...

I did get a few more pictures before I had to go to work, she is starting to dry off:

Precious face

I'm seeing spots...

...on both hips!

Her first earcam... see my terrified little chihuahua behind that left ear? Ty was really wanting to get to me but afraid to get too near either donkey... he just can't understand why he isn't the center of attention as usual!

Taffy being protective

It's so hard to take pictures when she stands right next to me all the time!

I had to get going, so I got sleepy promises from both Hilary and Randy to take more pictures, and phone calls later assuring it was done. Randy says she is hopping all around like a Mexican jumping bean. I worked through lunch so I could go home early and have a tiny bit of daylight time... I can't wait!!!