Saturday, August 9, 2008

Late Night Barn Party


As I was coming down the stairs from watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games late last night, Jim met me halfway with a startling message.

"The donkeys are in the barn, did you put them in there?" "No...." I say, "They should be out in the pasture." "Well," Jim says, "somebody has played a prank then, because the donkeys are all wandering around inside the barn."

Normally, it wouldn't be unusual for donkeys to be in the barn, however, since the weather has been nice, the donkeys have been spending their nights outside under the trees. It has been weeks since they stayed overnight in the barn. Their evening routine currently is: eat dinner hay outside the barn, have a quick drink from the stock tank, enjoy a couple licks on the mineral blocks, and head down the hill into the woods for their nighttime snooze.

Last night, though, was different. Jim went outside to look at the stars and heard a clanking up at the barn. Thinking raccoons were causing mischief, he shined his flashlight up the hill and 5 pairs of reflective donkey eyes shone back at him.

We (my son, Aidan, Jim and I) raced up to the barn, flashlights in hand, anxious to assess the situation, confirm the donkeys were safe, and make sure they hadn't gotten into anything dangerous.

Fortunately, it appears that no prank was played. There were a number of (approved) visitors to the barn during the day yesterday and it seems that someone forgot to latch the gate between paddock and barn entry:

The donkeys just pushed the gate open and walked in.

Unfortunately, the barn was a mess. Donkey dung was dropped and stomped throughout.

Fortunately, it appears they had a really good time. The tarp was pulled off the hay bale:

and they had had quite a feast:

The old milk crates I use to prop open the stall doors for ventilation were thrown about the place (notice the fly spray bottle in the background):

The hose holder was carried from outside the paddock and dropped, about 20 feet away, in the middle stall:

One of their halters was pulled off its hook and dropped on the middle of the barn floor:

Curry brush and fly spray sponge were nosed carelessly to the ground:

Buckets were gleefully overturned:

Despite their great fun, the donkeys fortunately did themselves no harm, even though there were set mousetraps scattered around the floor and loose screws and plastic bags on the shelves within easy reach of their mouths:

The next morning, everyone behaved like nothing unusual had gone on the night before:

Who would ever guess that these are the faces of late night party animals?:

14 comments:

  1. Oh they look like party animals to me alright! The slight smirk on their lips, the glint in their eyes...trying to look so innocent. Definitely the party animals!

    Your life is so exciting there on Critter Farm. Always something new going on.

    I watched teh Olympics opening ceremonies too. Weren't they spectacular?!!

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  2. That is too funny! You never know when you have animals.

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  3. Just wandered into your blog. I'm totally jealous of your critter farm! I'll be stopping by again!

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  4. Those silly donks. I bet they had a great time in that barn totally unsupervised! I am sure they took advantage of every single moment. Maybe they even switched off on guard duty the whole time just in case you came down.

    Looking at them now, who would have known? Such sweet, innocent faces. (altho, maybe in their heads they are saying,"Hey, did we remember to put the party hats away?)

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  5. You've got yourself a bunch of frat boys there! Thank god they didn't get into any feed bags. I keep having this visual of one of them greeting you with a mousetrap hanging off his nose.

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  6. Sounds like teenagers partying it up and then claiming they never did anything, but lots of evidence that they did! Your stories are always great.

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  7. Wow,they had quite a party!! Shame on them for not inviting us! They don't even look like they have a hangover :)

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  8. Donks had a party, and you weren't invited? Those rascals!

    Being in the middle of the forest we have no TV reception here. I truly miss not seeing the opening ceremonies especially, let alone any of the events. I'll have to see if I can find something on the internet.

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  9. Love that last picture! Boy oh boy, those donks sure did have a party. All they need are the funny party hats or a few lampshades!

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  10. Have you been reading Minnie and Moo to the donkeys? When I saw the results of their night of partying, I couldn't help but think of Minnie and Moo go to the Moon: http://www.amazon.com/Minnie-Moo-Go-Moon/dp/0789425378/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product

    LOL!

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  11. Hi Danni,
    I do recognize that face. I am only use to seeing one at a time though and I must admit Jack doesn't party too often.lol..
    I just love all the pictures of them.
    Maybe you should try a jersey cow with them and that may settle their party ways down!

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  12. Naughty donkeys. Hilarious, especially the last photo. They look as if they are trying to say "Who, us?"

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  13. These guys definitely look like troublemakers, although the second one from the left has the decency to look sheepish.....is that an insult in donkey-talk?

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