To be honest I am not that keen on the heat, Well for one thing I don't lose my coat as quickly as my Dad (Mimo) so I get so very hot under a thick shaggy coat that is fine for winter but phew is it hot in summer.
Dad on the other hand loses his coat pretty quickly. Mum (human) says he is very lucky and I have to agree,
However, of late I have to say poor old Dad hasn't been that lucky. He hurt his leg some months back, it started out just a small scrape of the skin on his back leg. on the front of his hock. (that is what they call our back leg knee). Anyhow, Mum (human) kept on putting some white cream on it and Dad said it made it feel pretty nice, but because he rolls in the dust it soon got worn off or just covered in dirt.
Now during the winter we really aren't bothered that much by flies, but come summer. Oh my, they are terrible and of course they soon found Dad's "ouch" and bit at it to make it bleed. Mum kept putting cream on it and for a few days it was okay, But pretty soon they got to biting it again and from a small scrape it soon became a big one.
So,,, Mum got out the bandage box and put one on Dad's leg.
Of course the flies weren't too happy with Dad having a bandage on, But Dad said it was great, His leg soon healed up. However, (hmmm is it me or are there quite a few "however's" in this diary) as soon as Mum took off the bandage and the flies could get at the lovely new skin, Well you guessed it, They bit at it and made it sore again. Mum has sent off for more bandages and she has said she will keep one on Dad's leg until the hair grows back if she has too. Of course being where it is it is pretty difficult to keep it in place and Dad doesn't help it by rolling at every opportunity he gets. Silly Dad!
The summer heat is of course a bit of a bother, not just because I still have a big shaggy coat but because the soil becomes so dry nothing grows including the weeds which means Mum (human) has to buy in feed for us. Being good donkeys we always eat what we are given, (well most of the time) but right now the Carobs are about to drop from the trees and as both Dad and I like to eat them we are spending as many of the cooler hours of the day and night scrunching away at them.
Mum (human) has been heard to mutter we are getting rather fat and lazy because of it but I will have you and her know it takes a lot of hard work to get at the Carobs. We have to either wait patiently for them to drop to the ground, (oh the suspense is a killer I can tell you) or Dad (Mimo) has to get hold of a branch and pull it down then let it go with a snap and it bounces back up to hit the tree canopy knocking as it does so the Carobs within it to the ground. That not only takes skill but determination and a whole load of ingenuity.
Whoever said Donkeys are stupid really is talking a load of "heeehaaaw" make no mistake on that.
Mum decided last year that July and August we just too hot to take volunteers in as it is very hard on them working in 30-45 degree C heat (89-110 degree Fahrenheit). I wasn't so sure, I mean I manage to do stuff, Things like walk to my buckets and get a drink. Eat Carobs or Alfalfa oh and find a suitable shade tree to stand under. I mean how hard is to to work? Dad explained to me humans aren't as rough and tough as us Donkeys so we have to be patient with mere humans and allow them some time off of work. Thing is mum still gets up at first light to feed us and clean our paddock out. She has been attending to Dad's leg and grooming us too. She also waters the garden before it gets too hot which I can't see the point of. I mean, if you can't eat a plant, what it the use of it? Dad says humans like pretty things, like flowers just to look at.
Hmmm, okay, guess you have to be a human to appreciate something you cannot eat. heehaaw!
From May to June Mum and her volunteers, (we do like them coming here as we get lots of extra cuddles) busied themselves working on the farm. Mum said something about building a wall or two so that we couldn't escape. Heehaaaw a mere wall won't keep a determined escaping donkey in I can tell you, But Dad says it should as we could hurt ourselves trying to jump it and besides, Mum (human) has said if we can jump the walls to get out she might just sell us as 'Showjumpers' whatever one of them is. Dad says it doesn't sound at all fun not as much as eating Carobs so he says I am not to jump the walls just in case.
One of the walls Mum and her volunteer friends Michael, Joe and Chloe repaired was in fact great fun for Dad and I to shin down, For some reason Mum (human) used to have what Dad called "kittens" when she saw us doing it. She kept on saying something about "we would break our legs" on the rubble but of course we didn't. Anyhow it didn't stop her from spoiling our fun and repairing it. I have to admit, It looked like a lot of work and Dad had to agree with me when I said I wouldn't have like to have to move all that earth and stone not for all the Carobs in Spain. Hmmmm, well maybe I would move it for that, but only just heeehaaaaw!
Hey check out the Terrier and the Pointador (Pointer cross Labrador) lazing in the sun whilst the humans worked. And people call us Donkeys lazy, the cheek of it!
Anyhow, after a lot of work which involved a lot of huffing and puffing and stone and earth moving,
This is how it looks now.
Shortly after Mum and co. repaired it one of our neighbouring humans came down and said that she had repaired his broken down wall. This she said was news to her seeing as the previous owner of the farm had specifically told her where her land boundaries were. Anyhow it seems he is not happy that she has tidied the land, repaired most though not all the walls and trimmed back trees he has not touched for over 20 years, (he admitted as much) and asked her to stop unless she wanted to buy the land off of him.
Hmmm, let's just think about that..... nope!
To be honest neither Dad or I are interested in going down there as the grazing is pretty lame. Add to this Mum (human) says the trees in the 13 almost 14 years she has been tending the land and trees neither has produced a single olive worth picking (she said she lived in hope). Add to this access is limited, well it was a "thank you but no thank you" so Mum called a halt to all work down there, moved the fencing and now the man is left with land that is going to get overgrown pretty quickly with walls (those that still need repair) that are falling down and trees that need further 'TLC' in order to have a hope of producing anything worth picking. Of course Mum has said when the 'Land Registry' guy comes she will ask him about it and if it turns out it is hers, Well fencing will go up and work will resume. And if it isn't. Well at least we got to shin up and down the slope for a while and Michael, Joe and Chloe got to build a big dry stone wall lol!
After the guys left Mum welcomed back Marina and Sascha, (we just love these guys) and two new friends Suzy and Aline (from France) and work began on another wall.
Basically they rebuilt what you see in the above picture and the one below.
Turning it into this.
The shrubbery on top of the wall is what they chopped back so they could actually get at the stones to make the mound into a wall. Mum said there are two reasons why they put it up on top of the wall and I will let you in on them.
First, during the summer months Mum isn't allowed to burn anything, due to the fire hazard. (Dad and I do not want to have to evacuate from the mountain thank you very much so no fires please).
Second, It dissuades Hunters and Donkeys apparently from trying to walk on top of the wall. Pah as if it would.
Hmmmm, Actually it would so we will skip mentioning it any further, Heeeehaaaaw!
Anyhow, before the girls (heeehaaw I called Mum a girl) called it quits on the wall they went one better and built a brand new wall at the far end, to the right of the picture.
Check out the size of some of those stones. Dad said even we would be hard pushed to move them, but somehow, Mum, Marina, Suzy and Aline did them all by themselves. Talk about 'girl power'.
By the time it was finished it was as tall as the tops of our chest so I think I will give it a miss regards jumping it. Well after all, who wants to be sold as a 'showjumper' whatever one of them is...
Oh and in case you were wondering where Toby the supervising Doberman was during all of this.
He was holding down some of the stones for Mum, heeeehaaaaaw! Catch you later guys!
wow those walls are amazing what has been the outcome over the land.
ReplyDelete