Brrrrrrrrrr......

.....omg what was I thinking was my first thought as I met up with Sandra at the gate and she was all bundled up that you could hardly tell it was her, if it wasn't for her two companions. I drove down the long driveway and parked the Jeep. It was eerie quite on the farm, not a donkey in sight, nowhere in the barnyard. As I walked inside the barn they seem to all congregate inside today, and boy it was crowded. First i had to complete a chore before I could get into the more fun part of grooming and socializing with the donkeys. But I don't mind, actually I don't mind at all, at least you kept warm doing shoveling and carting wheelbarrows around, but at one point I couldn't even feel my fingers anymore. Then it was time to groom some donkeys, this time I was in the big pen, woo hoo, what turned out to be a little bit intimidating, especially when you are surrounded by 50 plus donkeys in a small enclosure and they all fight for attention and food with lots of kicking and nipping going on. I started out with Cocoa, but he was just not having any part of standing in the cold to be groomed, so Loki presented himself nicely and let me groom him, I guess Cocoa didn't like that either and gave me a big push right in the back with his big head into the other donkey, after a quite but firm no he left me alone. I got two donkeys assigned to me to be the ones that I am suppose to do every time for sure, they are Donkeschoen and Lady. Two very lovely donkeys, quite large, but very gentle. Donkeschoen's name is a play on words in the German language: where ‘danke schoen’ means, ‘thank you very much’, and ‘donke schoen’ means, ‘ pretty donkey’. How appropriate for this to me "my" donkey to look after. I was up close and personal with Hershey,who has calmed down a lot over the last few months and can behave around people. Then it was time for me to stand back and just watch, as hay was dropped into the barn to feed the donkeys, mainly out of safety, because they just go bananas and it's hard to make your way thru. I am sure with time and practise and the donkeys knowing me, it will be a lot more comfortable to be around them in such large numbers, today it was a little bit scary lol.....but I loved every second of it. After two and half hour in the freezing cold, it was time to head home and get warmed up. I think my face took the whole way home to defrost. I bet I sleep good tonight.