Fooled ya!

Well you all probably thought you are getting away with not hearing about my Mother's Day with the donkeys....tough luck lol...here it is..it was too much of an eventful day not to write about and not being able to recall it all at a later point.
I got up at seven and was on the road by s quarter after eight, like always I took the back roads, and boy were they a mess after the terrible windstorm we had on Saturday. There were fallen down branches and trees everywhere, most of the big trees that must have blocked roads where already cleaned up with big tree stumps on one side of the road and cut up big brances on the other side of the road. When I arrived at the parking lot and got out of the car, my first thought was ..."well you should have brought your winter coat", it was absolutely freezing. I had my big heavy sweater on and thank god my winter work gloves in the trunk. I went down to the barn and was greeted by Cate, who asked me if I would mind cleaning out the darkside, since nobody had a chance yet to get over there...the dark side...hmmm no problem....oh but there are tons of donkeys in there, at least 25 of them...so I pulled up my big girl panties and grabbed my snow showel, which is used to push big quantities of poop together, and went into the dark side. Great...Juliette, the spinning donkey was just there to keep an eye on me, I went all the way to the back and started to clean, some donkeys moved, some I had to work around and then all hell broke loose as Indiana, a very huge standard donkey came running into the barn, braying like it was going out of stil, looking for a girlfriend, of course he got all the other boys wound up and soon everybody was braying, everybody was trying to mount anybody and poor me, right in the middle of all the action, now that was a little nerve wrecking, but I survived the two minute of mayhem on the dark side, finished what I was doing and tried to get my wheel barrel out of the enclosure without letting anybody loose. Not always an easy task by yourself. Phew! 
The morning was quiet and there was a lack of visitors, which was understandable, it was Mother's Day and it was so cold. I cleaned the barn yard, when all of a sudden all the racket started anew....Speckle, a female donkey on the special needs side is in heat, and she sure knows how to tease the boys on the other side of the fence, and boy they were interested in her...and she was showing of her best feature to the donkey boys all lined up at the fence. But like any male, if you can't get a piece you really loose interest fast and the whole show lasted less two minutes, until the last one noticed, that there is no way to get over there to do anything with that pretty donkey lady.
In the afternoon the sun finally made an appearance, but the wind was still blowing cool air, but visitors started slowly but steady to flock into the yard, and it turned out to be a very busy day afterall. I had a some very interesting conversations with some visitors and some other volunteers. I met a young lady, in grade school, telling me that she is here to visit Speckle who she and a classmate adopted as their class raised $800 Dolloars for the DSC, and where allowed to adopt one donkey per two student. She told me all about the visit of POPPY and PANSY to her school a while ago and how much fun it was, and that she picked Speckle because she loved her ears. Of course she was in her glory to find out that Speckle was actually on the visitor's side and she got to meet her for the first time. It was too cute. We had visitors from as far away as Calgary on Sunday, some came with their mothers's, some came because they had someone make a donation in memory of their mother, and since it was Mother's Day thought it was a good day to come out and brave the cold. Some came because they were on a mission to donate to a worthy cause and wanted to check the DSC out.  Some just came for a day in the country, but whatever the reason for their visits, I think every body takes away  a great deal of new found knowledge and a sense of peace and tranquility and love for donkeys and the place itself. I know I  totally feel in love with everything there, and that's what brought me back to it over and over again. It's hard to express what this place has given me over the years and it is such a great feeling  to give back to it and be a part of the life of these amazing creatures and an honour to be part of a group of amazing people, who care for them.
At the end of the day we had a little bit of a scare with LADY, as she  stayed back from the carrot walk, even though she never leaves the side of DONKESCHOEN, she was just laying there and didn't get up, she didn't get up when we got to her and even us trying to get her up, she made no attempt, so we weren't quite sure what was wrong with her, but it was definitelty unsual behaviour. We gathered around her and she finally got up and with the help of a carrot in my hand we got her to walk and she seemed totally fine.
I made my contribution to the MEMORIAL HILL in honour of my dad and can't wait to see the final result of that, which I am sure I will blog about once it's completed.
I arrived back home shortly after five and boy a whole day in the fresh air surely made me  dead tired, and I was incapable of doing much more for the rest of the day. Oh and as for the donkey smell....it's back.... the first words out of the AH's mouth when I came into the house were....." you stink"....woo hoo.....mission accomplished. lol.
Another great day in the country!