Seeing Stars

Wow! Can't believe it was the first week of August I posted last.

Not much that's exciting has occurred in the meantime - which is good from the perspective that excitement isn't always a good thing, I suppose. The ponies have been enjoying the last days of summer winding down. The nights are getting earlier, and the mornings are definitely getting darker. I'm dishing out cat food, grain and morning supplements in the granary with the help of a light, and on moonless mornings my headlamp sure comes in handy. Then it's out among the beasties in the dimness, distributing feed pans and velcroing on their fly masks.

Thankfully, the fly masks do fit under their halters so I can get those on while they eat.

Our morning parade is now made by the light of the moon - some days it's bright enough to cast shadows and Squeak looks almost yellow when springs out to attack my feet and risk squashing as I trip my way back to the barn. Not sure why, but I never seem to fall over anything on my way TO the pasture with my hooved escorts.  So far the morning trips have been mostly uneventful. One morning we spooked several deer and sent them careering off into the brush. Another morning it was a cow and a brand new, still wobbly calf. We gave her a wide berth, but she was surprisingly unconcerned.  The horses had all the native wildlife spotted before we started, apparently, because other than pricked ears they didn't bother reacting.

They aren't quite so blase about the newest potentially encounterable obstacle though, perhaps because it's of the equid persuasion. The cow folks have four small donkeys, which until very recently they've kept up at their home barn. For whatever reason, possibly because the (this year's) baby is getting bigger, they've decided to turn them out with the cows.

"Egad!  I think it's moving - what in the world is it?"

The initial spotting of the new "holy crap, that's not a cow!" critters occurred on a bright, windy afternoon. Mutual snorting and retreat on both sides of the fence. So far, we haven't met them in the dark, but we did encounter them coming up to drink last night as I brought the ponies back down. Again, much with the snorting. Thunder particularly grew about a foot. He's the only one that hasn't seen a donkey up close and personal prior to, and he was NOT impressed.

Small, but incredibly cute

 I'm not too concerned about them interacting through the fence, but am hopeful the "run away!" mindset continues, at least on the little guys' part - meeting them up close coming or going  might be slide over into the bad kind of eventful, as I suspect one's an uncut jack - didn't investigate personal bits to determine for sure yet, though. (Only two of them are really interested in being friendly, but they do know about treats - lol!)

No riding to speak of - I keep resolving to do better, but so far it's been less riding and more other chores that need to get done.  Fingers crossed that Mother Nature continues to provide us with a long fall, and maybe I'll get my list of have-to-do knocked down and get back to the fun priorities!

Wordless Wednesday

Beware of Donkeys bearing books?

No, don't beware, and yes, you read that right - donkeys.

Donkey's boost Ethiopian literacy (BBC news story)

In Ethiopia, donkey-drawn carts bring children in remote villages books. The Donkey Mobile Library, Ethiopia's first, has another mission as well - the donkeys pulling the carts are part of a campaign to help improve treatment of donkeys. The program's mascot is Queen Helena, an elderly donkey who has been retired and no longer pulls the cart, but still accompanies it from village to village. (She looks quite popular, if a little silly in her crown!)

A nice two-fer, literacy & animal welfare education!