Tuesday, January 11
Tuesday Dose of Cute: Snow Day! And We're Off to Donkeyland
16 comments:
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Bert is adorable ! So glad he is with you. Wish I could visit Donkeyland, better than Disneyland.
ReplyDeleteLove to see your pics--anytime of day or night. The animals live aloud and you and hubby facilitate such a peaceful and calm environment for them to be themselves. Thanks for bringing with you, we have few donkeys within shouting distance of my home.
ReplyDeleteSo adorable!
ReplyDeleteThe donkeys are trying to figure out what type of creature the beagle represents.
ReplyDeleteYou could lose the big white ones in the snow!
ReplyDeleteCute pictures.
great pictures!! Bert looks like he is having the time of his life!!!
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing
The new pup looks like he fits right in there with all the other critters. Love the snow pics.
ReplyDeleteWhat work do the dogs do at night?
ReplyDeleteOh, so cute. How far is Donkeyland from the house? Are they there on their own usually because I would be worried about the coyotes all the time. Bert looks like the lovely baby of the family!
ReplyDeleteI so enjoy the pictures of Daisy the Great Pyrenees. (again I guess I forget how to spell it}. They are such a wonderful Dog, and are such a smart and loving animal. And of course I'm a fan of Donkeys. Thank You for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSo cute! Although Marta Beast looks like she is barely tolerating the indignity of having the puppy following her. Now you can change your profile to living with three dogs and one really adorable beagle puppy......
ReplyDeleteWow, I knew Daisy & Marta were big but I had no idea HOW big until I saw that picture of Joe petting them & the one with Bert. They are HUGE. Such good dogs, so nice to see them all living happily together.
ReplyDeleteDid you photoshop Marta? She looks clean. ;-)
ReplyDeleteJust precious! What a big personality already!
ReplyDeleteHi Everybody,
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the nice comments.
Hi Sharon,
Daisy (a Great Pyrenees) and Marta (a mix of Great Pyrenees, Kommondor, and Anatolian Shepherd) are special livestock guardians. They work around the clock keeping coyotes and other predators away from the sheep. They don't even like it when large birds fly overhead and will follow under them, barking angrily, until the birds fly off.
If the sheep are out grazing in the fields during the day, Daisy and Marta will follow along with them, catching naps when they can. They stay awake most or all of the night, though, as that's when the danger of attack is especially high. They'll often bark for hours during the night, which actually puts us to sleep, knowing that our girls are on the job. :)
We had a horrible problem with predators killing our sheep before acquiring Daisy and Marta. I first wrote about it back in 2006. To this day, I still don't know if it was coyotes or something else killing those lambs.
Things weren't too bad for a while, and then in 2008 all hell broke loose. I wrote about the first of what went on to be a killing spree by coyotes here and then continued the sad story here.
Thankfully - knock on barn wood - we haven't had any killings by coyotes since. It costs us about $700 a year just in kibble alone to feed Daisy and Marta (which is roughly our gross profit on three butcher lambs), but it is well worth it. And of course we love them to pieces! : )
Hi Cate,
Donkeyland - which is simply what we're calling the far field where six of our seven donkeys have been living since last summer - is about 1/4 mile or so from the house, a meandering walk up the wet weather creek bed. The donkeys are actually pretty good about defending themselves from coyotes, but - as I wrote about above - Daisy and Marta basically keep them away. The dogs roam all over the farm, around the clock, doing an amazing job of keeping everybody safe.
Hi Shadow,
What's funny is that when we brought Daisy home (as an adult dog) 2½ years ago, I thought she was a really big dog, but now that Marta (who will be 3 years old tomorrow!) is full grown, she actually dwarfs Daisy. Marta Beast is HUGE.
I love them both so much. There's nothing like kneeling down and giving an enormous dog a hug. :)
Betty Western,
ReplyDeleteHa! Thanks for the laugh. No, I did not Photoshop Marta. I don't even own Photoshop. She's actually sort of clean these days, thanks to the shearing she got last May - not long after you were here and saw her at her worst. ;) I've even been brushing her once in a while when I remember to, which she sort of understands, and sort of likes, but definitely lets you know when she's had enough.
FBW,
Little Bert definitely has a big personality. The guy is just a hoot - and keeps us laughing and struggling to keep up with his energy throughout the day.