New mini donkey at the ranch! ❤️🫏

Sep 16, 2023

Happy Saturday friends!

This is my week in one thousand pictures:

Went to visit George the mini donkey again (remember, he was offered to me on my birthday) last weekend. Braved the bugs and sat on the ground:

He arrived on Tuesday, Mom's first birthday in heaven. It felt like a sweet sign from her!

Little Man Sweetness was beside himself with excitement! He even reared up and put his feeties on Wynter's back!

It seemed they might be fast friends (George on right):

And we left them like this overnight. We saw them in the morning from the windows and all was well.

But then I came out! Little Man ran over to say hi and then ran back to George and pinned his ears at him, snorting and kicking at the fence.

It was such a clear, "MINE."

And he did the same thing when B-Rad came out too. Hmmm...

So we put Wynter in with him, thinking that maybe if herd leader Wynter and George were okay together, Little Man would feel better.

Little Man and Rayn walked away to eat hay and ignored both of them lol

Wynter got along fine with George. He's very gentle with the littles. At one point Wynter was eating George-designated hay and George stood on top of it and kicked Wynter in the chest repeatedly with his itty bitty hooves until he moved away. That's how gentle Wynter is with littles. Eventually they both ate from the same piles and bag happily.

Wynter was thrilled to have access to the girl goat barn. This used to be where the horses would hang out before it became the girl goat barn:

George is a lot like Little Man and loves people. He's a total goofball:

And doesn't it look like they are being so sweet with each other? (Little Man on left):

However 😂:

Someone asked how we can tell them apart! Little Man looks like a Disney character: petite head, big dark eyes:

George reads more "donkey"—taller, longer ears, the whites of his eyes show more, especially when he's rolling them around being silly:

As I write this today (Friday) we've swapped the horses in and out with him and everything is okay. The two donkeys are getting more and more used to each other through the fence. We have hung all the hay bags on the gate so they have to share feeding space:

I wonder how long it will take before Little Man accepts him as part of the herd and not an interloper? Donkeys are very territorial and I've never introduced one to another donkey so I'm flying by the seat of my pants :-) What else is new lol

Other interesting donkey tidbits:

George is also hanging out with me and then running at the fence with Little Man on the other side in a clear, "MINE." as well.

After I saw that I thought about it a bit and started paying attention to the way George was interacting with me. He was pushing me around. Ha. He's so much smaller than a horse so "pushing" is relative but it was there. Okay...he was making it more clear than I've seen in a long time that he was playing dominance games with me.

Uh, no.

It makes sense of course, he's new and there has to be a pecking order. And as much as I'd like to sing, "All we are saaaaaaying...is give peace a chance..." that peace takes some time. Communication takes time. Trust takes time.

So we played a power game: I crowded him a bit and made him move his feet and when he crowded me, I stayed planted. If he started pushing too hard, I pushed back more, making him move his feet first. These are not my favorite things to do. I prefer positive reinforcement whenever possible. And I'll work on that too :-) It will be interesting to train this little guy in the ways of our farm. During the 75% of the time that he's not trying to exert dominance over me, he's super loving so I'm hopeful that it will work out! Won't it be fun to see these two running and playing together soon (Little Man on right):

THE RANCH:

I'm SO over summer. I'm sick of mowing so I haven't in a month! And now look what's growing around the pond:

But the Carolina Jasmine is pretty:

Miracle of miracles today is a high of 78º so I'll head out this evening to mow :-) This whole next week will be high 70s and low 80s so there is hope that fall is around the corner!

Mom's rosemary is blooming:

Wynter, enjoying the cooler weather:

And even though they are cool to see, I'm looking forward to them not being everywhere:

Sweet Raynie enjoying the long grass. Someday, maybe this can be fenced in for pasture:

Cooool, a pretty, ruffly one:

Rayn and Little Man loose in the back while I do chores. They've learned to stay close!

The Where's Polar Bear game. She was flat out on her side just before I took this:

I like to "brush" the horses with my hands:

Everyone loves Bonnie ❤️

I Love Lucy after a day of clients lol:

But earlier in the day on a break:

MEMORIES:

This is an important week in my world and one full of memories. Mom's birthday is Sept 12. This is our first birthday without her:

Decades ago my mom started what would become a fun tradition: all birthday songs are to be sung as loud and as off key as possible lol. Try it at your next birthday, it's hysterical!

Sept 12 is also the day in 2009 that my daughter came home from Ethiopia at 4.5 years old. If you're wondering about her, she has something called Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) caused by years of trauma before she came home to us. A lot of pros call it baby Borderline Personality Disorder. If you want to read more about all of that you can find that here and here.

And to top all that off, Sept 12 (2012) is also the day that Raynie came home! And now George too, crazy!

Raynie is a grey mare now but this was her as a baby:

Pretty cool to watch grey horses change and lighten over the years!

Taken the day she came home:

September 14th is my Aunt Katy's birthday (Mom's younger sister) and we celebrated last night at Second Empire in Raleigh—fun, fancy, and delicious! Also, if you're local, did you know that the chef there has Celiac? I could eat just about anything on the menu! A miracle!

Sept 16 is the day we first heard about ManChild and his twin sister in 2007. We said we'd be open to twins but didn't think it was really a possibility. Imagine our surprise when we received an email with these two 3 month old sweet bundles! Sadly, Maddie passed away at 5 months old before we could get there. From that point on it was a race to get ManChild home safely. He came home at 7 months old!

Maddie:

ManChild:

Well I was telling these stories in order and now look, we are left with a bit of sadness. Boo. Not my intention! Here, have some memes to perk you back up: