New Year

So I haven't been the best at keeping up with the blog but I'm going to do alot of things better in 2009. I try not to make resolutions because they never happen but I'm trying to do better at procrastinating. If that is even how you spell it.

Ok on to the barn. Well, it is so cold tonight all 27 animals are going inside the barn as we speak!!! So of course we notice we aren't equipped to keep 27 donkeys, horses and cows in all separate stalls but they are making due bunking up. We have the farrier coming out tomorrow and I imagine we will be frozen before he is done trimming. The last crew we got in has not been trimmed in a very long time so I'm sure it will prove to be quite a challenge.

One of our donkey friends is coming out to pick out on of the new jennies on Saturday she is ready to add to their herd. And I think we may get to keep Beauty, I think Debi Musgrave has decided to get Bonnie instead of Beauty which makes Kris very happy because he has came quite attached to her in her 2 times here.

Hopefully 2009 won't have the bad luck we had with the animals at the end of 2008. So far so good. We did manage to sell 51 animals in our first year. The difference this year is we should have our own babies hitting the ground, the ones we have bred for and I can't wait. I'm excited about the 3 jennies we have expecting right now and I didn't even breed them, but I am glad I didn't sell them in one of my moments of weakness.

I know I have some questions to answer from Robin and I'm sorry I haven't got back to you. The baby should have already been weaned but that is ok, sometimes if they are preemies we leave them on for up to 6 months but usually they are weaned at 4 months old. The jenny should gain weight back and look better after the baby is off of her. The foal has probably just pulled her down. As long as you know you are up to date on her worming and rotating it accordingly she should start to gain weight back even with her age. Her belly may not go back to where it goes, some don't bounce back like others just like us humans I guess. It is hard to get that before baby look again. As far as little man getting his batteries removed my vet says when you can feel them it is time. This could be before they actually drop and all jacks vary from 6 months to 2 years old the vet just doesn't want to have to go in searching for them because the surgery will be more invasive if they have to. Hope this helps I would ask your vet to make sure though. Also make sure mama is getting enough sweet feed per day with no nutrients in the grass right now (if you even have any) they get their nutrients through the feed. And it needs to be at least 10-12% protein. You can check the bag to make sure. Hope this helps let me know if it doesn't though.

As for the rest of yall have a happy new year and if you need a donkey let me know we have several that haven't made it on the web site yet and they are getting gone before they even make it on there. And one big piece of news....our Herd Sire Cheyenne's Johnny Be Good is making his big debut on the movie screen for our local School of the Arts. We will try to put up the video when we get it. He will be acting on Feb. 7 so we can't wait!!! We love it when our donkey show their a$$!!! Plus that means he is going to help pay for his part of the hay around here and every little bit counts!!!

Hee Haw Yall

The Miracle Donkeys

After a long few months The Berry's finally received their donkeys today. We had so many things happen trying to get these donkeys to Chapel Hill it's amazing that they made it in one piece. You may remember if you kept up with my updates on donkeys page on my web site that Caleb and Beau were the only jacks who survived from the Ohio crew. We did have one jenny who pulled thru but these babies saw the most since they were in with all the babies and the jenny was put in with the older ones. Caleb and Beau are now known as Walter and Henry and they have been through the mill even up to today. Friday poor Caleb had a piece of hay get into his eye and it swelled up like he had been boxing. I finally got the swelling down enough to get the hay out and it continued to swell until yesterday. Then we still had to deal with the goop coming out of it and the cloudiness it left behind in his eye. But this morning Caleb was better and ready to travel with his best buddy Beau. The Berry's also needed hay so Kris packed in 48 bales of hay into the horse trailer and then the donkeys. Well, in case you can't see this one coming, the hay fell on the boys while backing down the driveway. Meredith came around to my window and asked if we should see legs coming out the back of the trailer, my heart stopped I think. We opened up the back door and sure enough the hay fell on them and knocked them down. We through the hay off of them and got them back up on all fours and walked them into their new barn and new paddock. They were a little shaken up but I'm telling you what these little guys have really scared me since the beginning. They are the only 2 out of 5 boys to make it and had colds of their own and were underweight and Beau had ringworm and the hay in Caleb's eye and then the hay on top of it all!!!! Needless to say they have been through ALOT.

I know they have a great home with the Berry's and they are being well taken care of tonight! This barn in the picture was built especially for them, the grass grown for them to eat and the fence put up to keep them in. I'm sure after some much needed rest these guys will be up and exploring again tomorrow. I want to thank Meredith for having more faith in me with these little guys than I had in myself. I am grateful to be able to spread the joy with donkeys and continue to meet such wonderful people who share the love for mini donkeys the same as we do.

Merry Christmas and Happy Anniversery Meredith and Barnette!!!

Bottle Feeding Calves

Well, Kris has said since we moved here 5 years ago that he wanted cows. I kinda took over and have swamped us with over 70 donkeys over the last 2 1/2 years. We still have 20 of them and he has built barns and fences and cleaned out the barn countless nights. So it was time to give back a little. I got him 2 bottle fed calves. Wow, who knew it would be so much fun, the smile on Kris' face bottle feeding those calves was priceless. I have a friend who is writing a book and she has a chapter buy your husband a goat, or two. Well, if I ever get around to writing a donkey book mine will have a chapter buy hubby a cow or two. I couldn't get pictures taken today but rest assured I will have plenty of pictures in the days to come. The best picture I could find to add with this was just one of the many of Kris working on my new run in shed which he had done before it got cold outside so the donkeys would have a place to come and go as they please and I wouldn't have to go and put them in as much as usual. Thanks babe I love you!!!

Jennys for sale

If anyone is looking for a jenny we have a nice selection right now. Usually as you may know we only have jacks for sale, but recently the tables have turned and we only have jennies. They vary in ages starting at 5 months old and up from there. They are all registered but affordable. Some are bred and some are not old enough. We also have 2 small standards one is black and white and a great herd protector. All are sweet donkeys of course and if you would like to come out and see them just give me a call 336-345-5330 or email me at thedonkeydepot@yahoo.com or thedonkeydepot@gmail.com the pictures are of Beauty and Sassyfrass, 2 of our babies and they are very sweet girls.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. My favorite holiday of the year where we can all just get together and EAT!!! We don't have to worry about getting gifts and all the hoopla just get together and be friends and family. So I will start the baking tomorrow for Thanksgiving at my house with my entire family on Thursday night. So I also have to start cleaning!!! UGH! But the family is also cooking so I don't have to do it all myself. And then after starts the shopping, we will be doing the Black Friday thing, it's kinda scary fighting for toys but we do it, hubby and me every year. And then we have to get back because the farrier is coming out to finish trimming the donkeys. We spilt them into 2 groups and are going to have them on 2 schedules, that's about the only way I can afford to get them all done!! But it is worth it to know they all have great pedicures for the upcoming cold weather. All the animals are in the barn right now, it's too cold for me to be out so I don't like to leave them out in it, bless their hearts they can't figure out how to go in the new run in shed, they just stand on one side of it to knock the wind off. So I know they are cold, especially when we open the barn door and they all run in like please, can I have a stall for the night.

Happy Turkey Day Thanksgiving Day, we have an entire barn full to be thankful for. And of course the family too!!!

Rainbow Bridge

Thanks ladies for keeping up with me, even if it is just 2 of you!!! Haha. It has been a tough month or so, we are looking for it to start looking up now. I know in doing these rescues we would run into this eventually, but I still thought we could save them all! It is discouraging but I'm not backing down now! I think for now I am going to concentrate on the foals on the way and if anyone knocks on my barn door, of course I won't turn them away. I still haven't added the Rainbow Bridge page to my site, I have been putting it off, but I'm going to cowgirl up and put it out there for these guys because they all deserve it. And cross my fingers that I won't have to update it anytime soon. It is hard to go to the barn now, it's different. I make hubby go first so I don't have to find one....but I'm getting better at it. Never knew I could love these little guys so much, but it does break my heart to not be able to help them. Thanks for your thoughts.

The Donkey Depot Blog is now open

I am trying to find better, more efficient ways to communicate with donkey lovers. When I stumbled on this Blog Spot I thought it just might be the perfect way to get started. So we will see how it goes and I hope everyone participates if you are interested. We usually have lots of questions, some I can't even answer or haven't dealt with the certain situation yet so this way maybe others can answer and we can all learn something. So come on let's BLOG!!!