Sweet Adelaide

Welcome to the world, Adelaide! She joined us on Saturday morning September 26. She did have some struggles to overcome in her first few hours. Her mom, Sydney, was really not ready to be a mom yet and she rejected her little donkey baby. But with a lot of help and encouragement we were able to get many mini-feedings for sweet little Addy. We have been bottle feeding her, and the vet is coming out today to test her igG to see how much antibodies she got from her mother. If you are wondering about her name, well, being that her mom is named Sydney we thought of naming her after another city in Australia. Oh by the way, this little donkey was fathered by Hershey who we lost two weeks ago..

So Long Hershey

I have very sad news to report about lil Hershey, we lost him last Friday. Hershey had a bladder stone that proceeded to block his ability to pee. The damage was so severe, and he did not respond to treatment. Sadly, he had to be put down and he was only 7 years old. He was an exciting little donkey with a lot of life in him.. He was a true miniture donkey. The picture belows shows Hershey with Sean, both toddlers at the time, and Sean is crying because Hershey bit his finger. I love how Hershey is looking like he is checking on Sean but not really.

A bit a good news in amongst the grief is that my two four year old donkeys, Sierra and Sydney, are both set to have their first foils and I am pleased to report that Hershey is the father. Let us pray that these little donkeys come into this world and live a long full life.

Alfalfa Has Arrived My Friends

Hay season has arrived up at the ranch and it was time for the annual ritual of hauling in a big load of hay from our friends down by the river in Colusa county. This is my favorite picture of the event because Logan was wearing that funny hat that came from Isabelle's back alley. That kid is funny! You can see from the picture, that Donna was helping Nick and Logan get the tarps out and ready to go for covering up the hay stacks. Which Thanks goodness that we did that because we had some "Weather" this past weekend.. Rained all night, last night, off and on!

Here is a picture showing the semi-truck and the squeeze that pull the hay off the truck. Arlene and I were heading out to help with traffic control. This is taking at the driveway entrace to the ranch.

I quickly took this shot, while on traffic duty. Looking back down from the intersection!

This is five stacks of hay, each stack has I think about 69 bales, there is another two stacks in front of the barn. I love the smell of fresh alfalfa, so sweet smelling. This is enought hay to feed two bales of hay every day until about March 2010.

Second set of stacks, I guess I should have said 2 1/2 stacks of hay!

Say hi Nick, this is Nick taking on In-and-Outs famous 4 x 4, four meat patties, and four cheese slices. Honestly, I thought he would struggle a little bit, but I was totally wrong. He devoured it and the drink. He said his only problem was getting started, had to strategize a bit.

We picked up some yummy pears and here is a picture of Logan enjoying a pear.

Here is Hurricane Sadie, who loves my shoes for some reason, sitting in amongst my shoes and tissues that she has shredded. Looking cute and innocent as ever.

Well this is all for now.