Morning Bray Farm

The downtown Albuquerque grower’s market each Saturday morning between June and October is one of the many reasons I LOVE summer.

Funny sign.

Everything is so beautiful…

So colorful…

And so fresh and alive.

Hello, green chile… It’s so good to see you again. ♥

If you think about it, what could be better than getting to meet new donkeys every week?

First, thanks to Denise for sharing her mini donkeys – Gunny and Harry – with us.

Gunny (Gunsmoke) is about 3 years old and Harry is 1-1/2.   I “adopted”  both of them from Linda Marchi at Seein’ Spots Farm near Los Olivos, California.   She has many many more and I am so tempted every time I visit.   We bought Harry as a 4-month-old so his mama, Flower, came along for a few months while we weaned him and he grew up a little.   They are FUN FUN FUN!

 

Don’t they just make you want to melt? Incidentally, Denise’s sister is Di, The Blue Ridge Gal. Hi, Di!  There’s an adorable baby picture of Harry on Di’s blog. Check it out here.

Second, from Mel in N.Y., we get to meet Toby’s and Tyler’s mammas!

Here are the proud mothers of Toby and Tyler. Sparkle, (gray spot) and Shyann (more often called Attitude Ann around here). Shying for two reasons, first, she is shy all the spots she is supposed to have, and two, shy is definitely NOT what she is, or ever has been!! Right from day one, she has believed that she was Queen, and every thing should be done just to please her. The day she was born, she rubbed against my legs and demanded that I pet her. If I was paying attention to some other donkey, she would push in between us and say pet ME!  When she was 11 months old, she decided it was time for her to take over being boss of the herd and by the end of summer she had become Number 2 boss!  Sparkle, her mother, and number one boss, just will not give in to her!  That was a fun summer!

 

My first rule in having a foal each year was to sell the foals when they were weaned. I broke that rule with Ann. She was so much fun, I decided to keep her until she was old enough to have a foal of her own and then sell her. Now that time has come, and I find that I can’t let her go ! She is still fun, and I’m too attached to her!

 

I want to jump on a plane to New York right now…

Keep your positive stories, experiences and photos of donkeys and burros coming! Send them to us at morningbray@hotmail.com and we’ll post them here. ♥

We know that all of our critters thrive on routine. Each morning, the boys get two baby carrots each after they’ve touched their nose to my hand. While distributing their yummy treats, I’ve been sneaking soft touches on Nigel’s forehead. I think at first he may not have realized I was touching him… perhaps because he was so focused on the delicious, crunchy par-tay in his mouth.

Over the past week, I’ve become more assertive about touching Nigel… the touches have turned from gentle, barely touches to full on scritches that I give to the other boys. I think he’s been okay with that for two reasons: 1) there’s a fence between me and him; and 2) he’s in the midst of a crowd.

I’ve also noticed that as we stand around their feed tub, it used to be that Nigel was okay standing there with Don or me as long as there was another donkey between Nigel and me or Don. Lately, Nigel’s been okay without the donkey barrier… just as long as we don’t try to reach out for him. That’s progress too.

Each day at lunchtime, I cut up one granny smith apple to share between the goats, sheep and donkeys. I’ve been sneaking Nigel scritches then too. Yesterday, when I moved my hand from Nigel’s forehead to his cheek, he was okay with it!

And that’s progress too! Just look at how calm he is. Woot-woot! ♥

…but we are talking about them.

After all the talk of fly control lately and some of you suggesting we should have chickens, we’re considering it. Mind you, just considering it.

Some of the things we’ve talked about:

With some changes and updates, our old shed might make a fine chicken coop.

 If we do get chickens, they’ll be named after our favorite female characters in Deadwood. And, if we do get chickens, it won’t be until next year.

 Of course, we asked the boys what they thought about having chickens. While Bernard was noncommittal, Ellsworth thought it was a good idea.  

And while Fergus thought it might be cool,

Nigel thought the idea rocked. He even asked to borrow the book so he could do some more research on the topic.

What do you think?

This time of year, watching monsoon clouds gather over Albuquerque is an almost daily occurrence.

The monsoon is our summer rainy season.  It runs from about late June or early July until mid-September, and generally brings us about 40 percent of our annual rainfall. 

I began a new love affair at the beginning of this year’s monsoon. How did I ever live without gumboots?

Several of the boys’ favorite spots have turned into cesspools these last couple of weeks. This corner of the corral is was the donkey place to be, thanks to the fine sand that Lenny dug out when he built his nest. Until the monsoon started, this was prime real estate for donkey rolling at Morning Bray Farm.

Not so much now. This is so cool though. I’ve never been okay with walking in green funk before.

Lenny is constantly making changes to his abode based on current conditions. We’re wondering if the Army Corps of Engineers is hiring, because Lenny is an engineering genius. He built himself a levee. ♥

We were so fortunate to have Stanley and Cindy from Lei Photography visit us on Saturday.

The boys took an instant liking to them.

Stanley and Cindy are amazing photographers… and incredibly nice people who absolutely love animals.

Through their photos, they captured the feel and emotion of every moment they were here.

And, they completely captured the magic of Morning Bray Farm.

I think that’s a very special gift.

Thank you, Stanley and Cindy. ♥

You can also visit Lei Photography on Facebook here.