Long Overdue Update on The Fixer Upper Farm, The Little Red Barn, and its Residents.
Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 3:26 pm
Hey All. Thanks again for wondering about us, and for the kind words about our stories. 2018 has been a bit rough, at least from the mid point on, which made extra time a complete non-entity. But all were First World Problems, and most are under control now...very thankful for all the people, supports and opportunities with which God has blessed me.
So, where to start...especially since I can't recall where I left off.
Did you know the plan was to add a rescue donkey as a third herd member? I was communicating with a wonderful rescue in preparation, turned out being for about a year while we worked on the barn, did research, visited the out of state group, etc. DH continues to be amazingly handy, hard working, tolerant and supportive.
I just couldn't get on board with the plan we came up with the expand The Little Red Barn...fear of upsetting the Apple cart with drainage issues we had solved...so I went into denial mode for several months. Then between the two of us, we came up with a totally different direction, literally, to expand and it made life easier, was more donkey friendly, etc etc etc. DH began to add a new "wing" off the back of the barn, right around the New Year of 2018. We had a goal of a Summer 2018 adoption. As is life with animals, the "perfect" donkey for us came into rescue right when we started construction, but I didn't want to stress out DH so I decided to wait for the next "perfect" guy. Construction continues. Several weeks in, the Rescue contacts me...donkey #1's adoption has fallen through as the adopter's new barn was crushed by a tree! If the Rescue gives us another month to work on Barn, would we want this guy? I had asked for a Donkeys 101 fellow due to my lack of donkey training knowledge. One that likes horses but doesn't need to run and wrestle nonstop due to the personalities of my horses. One without a history of mauling small animals due to all the wildlife that hangs out with my horses. One that is well handled. One that would be a good match for a newbie. This doesn't come along all that often in Rescue. This donkey checked all the boxes. Surprisingly, DH said a month was plenty of time to extend the barn, and I signed the adoption contract. Thankfully for us, delivery was delayed a couple of weeks due to weather and other rescue missions at the Rescue, and my buddy rolled in on my birthday in May!
Will add pix of Junior and a few pix of the barn expansion when I can make them smaller....site is yelling at me, lol. He is the perfect donkey, loved by all. I will not lie...there was an adjustment period. I thought The Little Red Pony might kill him the first day they were turned out together. They quickly became best friends and the donkey now bosses the pony around. They play, they talk to each other, they share hay. I was overwhelmed at first making it all work, learning that flies literally eat into the donkeys' legs and leave gaping wounds in the matter of a day, finding out that this perfect donkey has never seen a stall and is terrified of the Taj Ma Stall we built for him...talking DH off his ledge about that.
Will add more pix of barn progress later, apparently they are on DH's phone, not my iPad. Other news, I had a rough few months with The Red Pony while we dealt with odd digital pulses that scared me to death. Vet ruled out laminitis, but we still changed routines a great deal, plowed through a ton of hay due to stall time during a bad hay year, etc etc etc. We don't know what happened, all the info and symptoms/lack of symptoms sort of contradict all the possibilities. Right now all is well, and life is back to the old routine. We will see what the Spring brings, but the vet really does not think it was grass related. The up side is that pony and I got even closer during those months, and the trust has really grown on both our parts.
Also, the tropical storms were awful but compared to other areas of NC, it was a breeze. I had the stress of writing my phone number and braiding ID tags into my equines for the first time in my life, and I cried like a baby. The pastures are still mud pits from the wet Fall. The run in floods now. But my guys were troopers, made smart choices, and The Little Red Barn weathered all the storms. We have a ton of additional work to do that we can't do until things dry out... if it ever stops raining.
I've tamed two feral cats, spayed/neutered them, and found an awesome home for their one kitten after fostering the maniac for three weeks in the house. The parents are so much fun to have as barn cats, and my big horse Fergus is so happy...he adores cats, and spends time each day watching them play, sniffing them through/over the fence, and talking to them out his stall window.
Oh yeah, and that pesky job of mine is literally double as busy as it's supposed to be, so when you pile that on to the added farm challenges of 2018, it's been pretty busy around here!
So, where to start...especially since I can't recall where I left off.
Did you know the plan was to add a rescue donkey as a third herd member? I was communicating with a wonderful rescue in preparation, turned out being for about a year while we worked on the barn, did research, visited the out of state group, etc. DH continues to be amazingly handy, hard working, tolerant and supportive.
I just couldn't get on board with the plan we came up with the expand The Little Red Barn...fear of upsetting the Apple cart with drainage issues we had solved...so I went into denial mode for several months. Then between the two of us, we came up with a totally different direction, literally, to expand and it made life easier, was more donkey friendly, etc etc etc. DH began to add a new "wing" off the back of the barn, right around the New Year of 2018. We had a goal of a Summer 2018 adoption. As is life with animals, the "perfect" donkey for us came into rescue right when we started construction, but I didn't want to stress out DH so I decided to wait for the next "perfect" guy. Construction continues. Several weeks in, the Rescue contacts me...donkey #1's adoption has fallen through as the adopter's new barn was crushed by a tree! If the Rescue gives us another month to work on Barn, would we want this guy? I had asked for a Donkeys 101 fellow due to my lack of donkey training knowledge. One that likes horses but doesn't need to run and wrestle nonstop due to the personalities of my horses. One without a history of mauling small animals due to all the wildlife that hangs out with my horses. One that is well handled. One that would be a good match for a newbie. This doesn't come along all that often in Rescue. This donkey checked all the boxes. Surprisingly, DH said a month was plenty of time to extend the barn, and I signed the adoption contract. Thankfully for us, delivery was delayed a couple of weeks due to weather and other rescue missions at the Rescue, and my buddy rolled in on my birthday in May!
Will add pix of Junior and a few pix of the barn expansion when I can make them smaller....site is yelling at me, lol. He is the perfect donkey, loved by all. I will not lie...there was an adjustment period. I thought The Little Red Pony might kill him the first day they were turned out together. They quickly became best friends and the donkey now bosses the pony around. They play, they talk to each other, they share hay. I was overwhelmed at first making it all work, learning that flies literally eat into the donkeys' legs and leave gaping wounds in the matter of a day, finding out that this perfect donkey has never seen a stall and is terrified of the Taj Ma Stall we built for him...talking DH off his ledge about that.
Will add more pix of barn progress later, apparently they are on DH's phone, not my iPad. Other news, I had a rough few months with The Red Pony while we dealt with odd digital pulses that scared me to death. Vet ruled out laminitis, but we still changed routines a great deal, plowed through a ton of hay due to stall time during a bad hay year, etc etc etc. We don't know what happened, all the info and symptoms/lack of symptoms sort of contradict all the possibilities. Right now all is well, and life is back to the old routine. We will see what the Spring brings, but the vet really does not think it was grass related. The up side is that pony and I got even closer during those months, and the trust has really grown on both our parts.
Also, the tropical storms were awful but compared to other areas of NC, it was a breeze. I had the stress of writing my phone number and braiding ID tags into my equines for the first time in my life, and I cried like a baby. The pastures are still mud pits from the wet Fall. The run in floods now. But my guys were troopers, made smart choices, and The Little Red Barn weathered all the storms. We have a ton of additional work to do that we can't do until things dry out... if it ever stops raining.
I've tamed two feral cats, spayed/neutered them, and found an awesome home for their one kitten after fostering the maniac for three weeks in the house. The parents are so much fun to have as barn cats, and my big horse Fergus is so happy...he adores cats, and spends time each day watching them play, sniffing them through/over the fence, and talking to them out his stall window.
Oh yeah, and that pesky job of mine is literally double as busy as it's supposed to be, so when you pile that on to the added farm challenges of 2018, it's been pretty busy around here!