PEOPLE WHO ARE VIOLENT TO ANIMALS RARELY STOP THERE!

Friday, July 09, 2010

On a sweltering hot day on the Farm

Wednesday's Open Day this week was just absolutely horrible weather wise, when I left my house at 8:30 am it was already 27 Celsius and very humid. By ten o' clock I was soaking wet in my jeans and T-shirt and I hadn't even done anything yet. Sweat was pouring of us just standing and talking, it was awful. Despite the heat and humidity it was a fairly busy Open Day. The donkeys are still bared from going in the Office Paddock, due to staff still working on hay unloading there, which had been suspended for that day due to the extreme heat. All donkeys were pretty much in the barn trying to stay cool, so much for being a desert animal lol. Poor Danny is still on stall rest and really is hating it. H., the sweetheart, came by to spend a few hours pampering Danny and keeping him company in his stall, I am sure he loved that. Most donkeys are equipped with fly masks, because the flies are just horrendous right now. Funny how some get bothered and some don't. Poor Juno was out in the Garden Paddock being bugged by flies and really was unhappy about it. Cate tried to halter  and lead her into a stall to get a fly mask on her and she succeeded and Juno seemed so much happier afterwards. Hmmm leading Juno, obviously Juno hasn't been  lead too many times before, because she really didn't know what to do with walking on a lead.
Solo greeted me with a big nudge on the side, standing there then in front of me, waiting for his belly rub. He has improved a lot in his behaviour over the last little while, he isn't quite as weary of people anymore, even in the paddock he stands by the fence instead of in a far corner, to get petted. He sure doesn't like to be touched too much so, and other then his belly, he always twitches as soon as you touch him.
Volunteers were sweating their butts off as they cleaned paddocks and stalls, I was melting in the boutique and was happy for any reason to go to the office or get supplies out of the farmhouse basement, oh how nice and cool they were. Met up with a few repeat visitors, watched the carrot walk from my front door and listened to Kim giving the "donkey talk". She is so great at it, amazing, such a joy to listen to, and to learn from. Amazingly she could keep the attention span even of the kids for 45 minutes that day. Looks like such an easy task for her. Admirable! Kim recently went to visit the DS in the UK.

Adam, the donkey boy, is back from his prior job commitment in the USA and is glad to get back into a routine at the DSC.
Cate and I decided to share the boutique/welcome centre days for now, until it gets busier on Wednesdays. So I will go in for ten til 1 pm and she take from 1 til 4 pm, this way I can spend the rest of the day in the barn with the animals. Works for me. I really love working with Cate, she is like a mentor to me, and that means a lot to me.
As soon as the day at the DSC was over and we all left, it rained maybe ten drops onto my windshield and that was it....thankfully later that evening it just down poured for a few minutes at home, didn't help much with the temperatures though.

3 comments:

AJ-OAKS said...

Oh my yes, the heat is terrible. It's awful. It's miserable. It's just, well, yukky! :)
I know just what you mean about trying to keep the animals as cool and comfortable as possible. That in itself is quite the chore!

Sharon said...

It has been so hot and so muggy here also. We just got a cooling rain, but it isn't all that cool and made the humidity worse.

Nice little film, cute to see the donkeys walking about and wanting some love!

Louise said...

It's 66 F this morning. A real cool down after the pouring rain we had last night. I'm glad you go some too, and I bet that the donkeys will really appreciate it.