A Heron In The House and A Donkey On My Doorstep - (part 2)

After last week's harrowing event, I thought I'd lighten things up with a pictorial update of Donkey Boy. I'm not sure exactly how we've managed around here these last 15 years in the country without the love, companionship, and complete adorableness of Donkey Boy. He has moved in and made himself at home. Although we "put him to bed" in an enclosure at night (for his own safety), for the most part he pretty much has the run of Ararat Acres. He has proven himself to be trustworthy and liked by all the animals....although Murphy and Elvis (aka- "the boys") are by far his favorite running buddies. He has managed to sneak into their pasture at least 3 times, and all 3 times, The Boys appeared to be delighted by his presence. What makes this unusual is that Murphy is still a stallion, and therefore should not be all that friendly towards testosterone toting equines (other males). Such creatures could be considered a threat to his manhood, if you get my drift.

In the above pictures: Donkey Boy and Elvis race each other. Elvis and Murphy watch Donkey Boy (not pictured) hang out with me. Donkey Boy and Elvis in conversation.

Additionally, Donkey Boy has mastered every set of stairs on our wrap around porch. At any given moment during the day, we may hear "tip tap tip tap tip tap" as he wanders around the porch, looking for someone to scratch his ears, face, back, belly, etc..... Heaven forbid that our windows be open and he hears us inside the house. Then, we may get a donkey serenade until we go out and do some obligatory ear scratching.

Donkey Boy checks out one of the cat's lairs.

Donkey Boy and Leo The Wonder Kitty explore to the left........."Come On...I'll show you the right side too". (Doesn't this sound like the next super hero duo to conquer the world: DONKEYBOY AND LEO THE WONDERKITTY....TO INFINITY AND BEYOND! )

Currently (as of this post), the only place still out of bounds is inside our house. Hey, we do have our limits....at least for now. Charlie keeps threatening/asking about putting furniture protectors on DB's hooves so that he won't mar the antique wood floors we have. (And this, from a man who...in his former life.....was somewhat of a city boy!) We are still normal enough people to keep the donkey out of the house :). That's all I have to say about that...for now anyway.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (aka, A Week In My Life)

Sometimes I look back, and the beginning of the week seems like a month ago.....so much crammed into only 7 days, especially when you realize that,........why yes, I do work full time in addition to all the "extras" in my life.

Exhibit A:

The apple tree, laden with apples = picking said apples and then making 4 batches of apple butter and canning the goods (that was an after hours weeklong activity). The fourth batch was actually pear butter with a hint of apple and all are Dee-lish! Canning too, appears to be a success. I am testing the waters and hope to do more of this in the fall.

Charlie managed to nail his toe with the nailgun = a trip to the emergency room (note: picture below is not for the squeamish!). This slowed us down a bit this past week.

Driving our friends, The Waits, to the airport in the wee hours of the morning so that they could make their life transition to Honduras. Happy and sad all rolled into one ball of emotions that early morn. Oh so proud to be able to call this sweet family our dear friends. We cannot wait to see them again.

A trip to the lovely dump with my beloved. Note: the first picture is what the North Texas Municipal Water District wants you to think the dump looks/smells like. The second picture is a better rendition of what we saw as we unloaded a trailer load of debris. I have a rant (regarding what we saw), but I'll save it for another day....I'm thinking a letter to the county might be in order. Anyway....please notice that I WILL follow my hubby pretty much anywhere, even to the dump. I made note that I was THE ONLY female at the dump proper. (Can I see a show of hands, ladies, if you've been to the dump at least once). Being a true farmgirl, I have now been there at least 4 times.

I won't even mention getting a new pasture access ready for our "boys", Donkey Boy getting the big sniparoo (ie- gelded), or Charlie and I doing an incredibly thorough job of getting this house clean. My man is a great vacuum-er even with a hole in his toe :).

How in the world anyone could be bored with their lives is beyond me.

Cutest Donkey on the Block

Eight days ago we adopted again. How do you say no to such a cute face?

Especially when it's attached to such a personable little donkey attitude. All 29 inches of him. Welcome Diego! We were going to change his name to "Don- key ote", but Diego is the name he came with, and it just fits him. We call him Donkey Boy most of the time. Neither one of us can imagine Ararat Acres without him........ Good thing, because there is a good chance we'll both be in our 80's when he dies. Anyone (younger than us) interested in inheriting a miniature donkey someday? Stay tuned for updates on the newest (and darn cute) kiddo in the pasture.