All Good Here

The ‘newbies’ are doing great this week. Roxi (left) and Lindy (right) have had a few hours of mixing in with the larger group. They are still not confident enough to treat a stare down or a lunge (especially from Lily) as less than a threat to life and limb … so I only have them all together when I’m around.

Lindy is especially good when it comes to hanging out with the older girls and Paddy. I think it is easier for her though … as she can ‘blend in’ being more similar in colouring. There really isn’t a way for Roxi to just fade into the background! 😉

The two new girls bring us to six hens. Which is GREAT when they lay such tasty eggs! For years I had not been able to eat eggs without ending up with a very uneasy stomach … Not the case now! Delicious fried eggs on toast, egg salad sandwiches, and even … creamed eggs on toast last week!

When we were kids my grandmother would make these for us. I make a basic cream sauce (margerine, flour, milk) and then cut in the white of the egg in chunks. Garnish with ground up egg yolk and pepper and place on a warm piece of toast! Comfort food with a hefty dose of good memories!

I hadn’t realized until yesterday that Roxi and Lindy were actually laying eggs. I discovered them in their portable sleeping box (aka cat carrier). Roxi’s are sooooooooo small. I guess that is Bantam sized. 😉 It was fun to see Ede’s toast at lunchtime covered with TWO egg yolks. Lindy had found her way into the regular coop and had laid her egg in the wood chip bag. Lily must have thought that was a great idea as I found hers there too!

I got out the measuring tape today … I haven’t checked up on Rosie or Bella’s weight since they developed their thick winter coats. In order to estimate their weight I have a chart that connects their height and girth with a weight scale. I was thinking they were looking really good … and then discovered that if the measuring isn’t affected so much by a thicker coat … they have each put on 10 kg over the past four months. Yikes!

Weight can be a real issue for miniature donkeys. It has been a little easier since Darby moved to Pembroke (easier on the feeding plan … not my heart…). I can see what I put out for Rosie and Bella is what they eat. It is no longer an issue of making sure Darby gets what a standard needs while Rosie and Bella eat a little less. We’re in that transition again from hay to straw. It was a LOT easier to look back at those big brown eyes at noon today and confidently say – straw for lunch girls!

They are much happier when they can get a good flake of Jason’s sweet meadow grass. The nutritionist at the Canadian Donkey Sanctuary is encouraging me to get them onto a total diet of straw this summer. That is going to be an interesting ‘project’. I bet it sounds easy. Just put out straw and nothing else … Ignore the bellows of protest that Bella can bray out. I’m being cautious as I have seen donkeys who lapse into hyperlipaemia – too much fat in the blood. It happens when a donkey isn’t eating properly and their body attempts to make use of their fat reserves. Once this process starts it is difficult for a donkey’s system to turn it off – and too much fat gets into the bloodstream. It can be fatal. They end up wasting away. Last year as we switched to some oat straw I felt the donkeys were just ‘toughing it out’ waiting for me to bring them their regular hay. I asked the Sanctuary staff whether a donkey could starve to death with straw sitting in their feed bins. They did say they too have trouble switching the eating habits of the donkeys that first come to them – especially if they’ve been eating with other livestock like horses or cattle.

And yet … right down the road there are three different pairs of donkeys at three different farms … all living on a share of round hay bales. I’m thinking I am over-thinking the situation! If we are able to get our new barn in place this summer – and the hay that we’ve ordered for the fall – we will be in a good place for winter feeding a mix of all three – meadow grass – timothy hay – and straw.

This is the face of a happy camper! 😉

It was nice to have such a sunny day today. Helped keep us outside and away from the incessant news feeds. We know we are very blessed to be living in the country – with fresh air and lots of room to roam. Our junior farmers are back in the city making sure their parents don’t forget them. 😉 I’ve made a run into the grocery store. There are arrows on the floors directing the flow through the aisles. There are lines marking how far apart people need to be while they wait to be directed to a cashier. There were security people at the doors. There are some empty shelves in most aisles and a limit of two of any product per customer. But generally we were able to get what we needed. I am also shopping for a friend who is a senior not able to get out. I so dearly want to just give her a hug when I see her. But we do the strange porch shuffle instead. I place her items on the stoop – and back away. She comes out and we call to each other for a little while before I head away again.

Ede is enjoying being able to read to her heart’s content. We ordered a Kobo which came directly through the mail right to our doorstep. Our public libraries are closed – no access to their shelves for the foreseeable future. Using her Kobo she can access the entire digital collection at our local public library. That will likely be a change that we carry forward even when the coronavirus pandemic has subsided.

We hope you are safe and well. Sending sunshine for our little corner of the earth.

Hugs from the Meadow Mice