Meet Miss May

More pictures tomorrow - we got home as the sun went down.

This is Ellie May, my new donkey. :) I think I will be calling her Miss May - we have a cat named Ellie and it just seems confusing.

Miss May was NOT happy about loading into the trailer, though she is quite people-friendly and unloading and getting her into the barnyard wasn't too difficult. She is rather jumpy with all the stress and changes, but tomorrow we begin ground work.

My dream is to have her trained to pull a cart, and go to the corner store (a 15 minute drive by car, so that's a whole day adventure) for ice cream. :)

I am very happy.

She lived with a friend of mine who raises goats, and tended to play too hard with the baby goats. As all our animals are bigger (the last four sheep will be departing - that was the bargain I had to make with DH to acquire the donkey) she will have buddies that are a better size for her - cows and calves. I gave her a couple of sets of interchangeable needles, she gave me a donkey. My cow now has a buddy for when she has no calf around (which will be for a few months most years) and I have an equine friend.

Miss May is a full sized donkey - about the same height as Sasha, though lighter and not as long in the body.

Cherub, The Boy’s much loved 4H lamb, will be retiring to a friend’s farm, and the other three will be turned into sausage … and I plan to make a couple of sheepskin rugs from the fleeces, I think I’ll really enjoy having those here, and the process doesn’t look too daunting.

Sheep are just too hard to keep inside the fences – donkeys and cows stay behind barbed wire, and can feed themselves at a self-serve buffet … more on that in the near future, construction is underway.

Time to go grab a bite to eat – more tomorrow!

ETA Here are more pictures!

She stood nicely for brushing, let me pick up her feet, and came to me wherever I stood in the barnyard. She is very curious about everything – perfect attribute for a donkey! She wonders about things, stops, thinks, and then decides what she feels about it all. Training her is going to be really fun!