It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

We finally got a weekend to work on the chicken yard so we worked on it until dark Saturday.  I was anxious to get up this morning and jump right back on it, but Fred was a little distracted.  Since the weather was so nice, he decided to start burning some trees and underbrush he had pushed up in a pile and headed out to start the fire.  He also decided it would be a good day to take Daisy and Blue, two of our horses, out to graze in the field on the side of the house.  They were tied off but had plenty of room to roam and graze.  So, keep in mind we now have a fire going, two horses out along with the chickens and we are supposed to be working on the chicken yard.  Then he said "Let's go ahead and let the donkeys out to run around and graze too.  They won't go far."  Not a good idea.

The wind picked up and he went back to check on the fire, which had now gotten a little farther away from the original site and I was keeping my eye on the donkeys.  They stayed close for a little while but started wandering farther and farther away, towards the other horses and the road so I took the 4-wheeler to "round them up" but instead of heading back towards the house, they decided to go into the woods, towards our neighbors' houses.  After I stopped panicking, I was able to get them out of the woods and heading towards the house. 

Those little dots in the distance are the donkeys and a horse.

I noticed Fred was beating the fire with a limb so I went over to see if he needed help.  About that time, one of the horses started making lots of noise, so I jumped back on the 4-wheeler and went to see what was going on.  He had the rope around one of his hooves and the donkeys have run off again.  We have a neighbor that has a big, beautiful garden that he spends all his time on and garden clubs visit so you can guess where I found the donkeys . . . in his garden.  I snuck over there (hoping no one was around to see me, Lilly or Sunny) and shooed them away from the flowers and walkways, out into another open field.  I realized I could not get them back to the house by myself so I once again jumped on the 4-wheeler and hurried to get Fred.  He jumped on another 4-wheeler and we were able to maneuver them back to the pen.  I decided I had had enough chasing animals around and put Blue and Daisy back in too.   Fred went back to his fire.

By then it was lunch time and we had not even touched the chicken yard!  I went in and fixed lunch and as soon as we finished, we headed to the chicken yard and worked on the fence until dark.  It is pretty much finished, except for the gate.  I did not realize it would take so much work but I'm happy it's done. 

Side Note:  This man can move ANYTHING with a couple of ratchet straps!

I love working on projects with Fred but from now on, the donkeys and horses will have to stay in the pen.  Really, I insist!