Woodstone Prairie

That’s how long M’s good spell lasted. If I’m remembering right this is one of the longest, calmest, spells he’s had since the onset of his schizophrenia about 7 years ago. It was a very nice 12 days… he was more stable and connected than he’s been in years. It’s been hard to go back to the edginess, restlessness, volatility and unpredictability. Things are manageable, but it’s still hard to make the shift backwards…

 Anyway, it’s a busy week this week for us! R is in Girl Scout day camp all week, so M and I are on our own for most of the day. We got some running around done yesterday morning and spent the afternoon doing school. The deal is that he does school this week, and takes next week off to balance out R not doing any school this week… M’s pretty excited about getting to just hang out next week while R has to do school! We’ve got things planned every day this week just to give us some structure… (M tends to not know what to do with himself when R’s gone.)

The donkeys are settling in pretty well. Jenny has about the sweetest, most even disposition of any animal I’ve ever seen (except maybe our Golden, Emma… she’s also pretty laid back). She is friendly, calm, and very easy going…

Jack, on the other hand, is very easily frightened, and it’s taken 5 days of work just to get him to eat out of my hand, and let me lightly touch his face.

He’s also afraid of our goat Rose, which is kind of funny… He’s so much bigger than she is, but all she needs to do is give him “the look” and take a step or two towards him and he takes off. It was hard getting him fed last night because he was afraid to walk past Rose to get to the hay!

After thinking about it, we’ve decided to sell the goats… We don’t need this many animals (lol, we don’t need ANY animals!), and hay is expensive, so I’m going to start looking for a new home for my “girls”. It will be hard, because they are both wonderful, gentle, goats…. but we just can’t keep adding animals without getting rid of some.

Most of our animals are either rescue animals or animals with special needs… Part of the reason for that is finances, we just can’t afford to spend hundred (or thousands) of dollars on pets and livestock. But the other reason is because I tend to have a soft spot for the underdog, for the “fixer-uppers”… It breaks my heart to see animals that haven’t been well cared for, and need someone to love them and given them consistent care. I love watching them becoming glossy with health and strong again.

I thought it might be fun to post some before and after pictures of a few of our animals…

Blaze before-

…and now.

Rose before (with Betty as a baby)-

I didn’t realize it until I compared these pictures, but Rose is showing her age… Look at all the white in her coat compared to two years ago!

Grant… He doesn’t look that thin in this picture, but he was pretty skinny when we got him. The dark spots on his chest are places where his hair was gone. He was also lame when this picture was taken, it took six months (three vet visits, four farrier visits, and corrective shoeing) to “fix” the problem, but he was eventually pain free and sound…

Here’s his “after” shot… He was such a great horse, we still miss him.

Jenny is also a “fixer-upper”. She is very thin and has some lameness. Her hooves look  very different that Jack’s, and are overgrown. At times she walks as though she’s in pain. The vet has me giving her an anti-inflammatory and standing her in deep mud for several hours each day.

Needless to say my pasture is a mess… I’ve been living in mud boots for days!

 So here’s Jenny’s “before” picture… a sad, skinny, little donkey standing in the mud.

Give me a few months and I’ll post an “after”…