Donkey update

The donkeys were fine during last week’s extreme cold, and with 6-12 inches of snow coming tonight, they will have no problem.

I typically keep their shelter floor cleared - there are rubber mats underneath that make keeping things clean with a big snow shovel a breeze. For last week’s cold snap I added a bale of straw for them to spread around, and they actually make some really cozy little nests for themselves.

LIllian has been walking around covered in straw for the past 2 days. She is side-eyeing me because I am dawdling with my phone and not feeding her promptly.

The way Trixie shakes her food bowl just to be sure I know it is lunchtime really cracks me up.

But I have decided to sell the mini donkeys to help us make the shift to other small animals, including goats and sheep. We can easily reconfigure this donkey shed into the goat house and give them a nice secure place to sleep at night. The sheep I actually want in the front field, but that requires a bit more investment ($) in terms of fencing the area (including pulling out all of the old yucky fencing, no small tasks), and building or installing a little shelter or barn that they can be secured in at night.

Steve and Elijah also have ideas about our back field to raise meat for harvesting - Steve wants cows; Elijah wants emus. Yes, emus. He is aware of our parental trauma at having emus and ostriches at our property in Arlington, NE when we first moved in. But we have assured him we are past that. For these animals we will need to add a little more fencing to divide the area up and also figure out the water/shelter situations. Maybe add a little solar back there for water heaters, etc.. But it is exciting to think about the rest of our shared property going to use and in a potentially practical way (filling the freezers).

At some point in the next few years I will also have to shift from giving our eggs away to selling them for at least enough to pay for grain/supplies. Just trying to shift ever-so-slightly into a more sustainable mode. Maybe my dream of having a roadside egg stand will come to fruition!

The one animal I can’t quite work into the designs yet is a pig, but I’m still working on that one.

So, the animal shuffle starts with finding a good home for our sweet minis. We have feelers out to a few friends, so we will see!