Donkeys Are Expensive!

"Just how expensive are they?" you might ask....well, I'll give you an example.

A few weeks ago Leslie and I decided we needed to rid ourselves of some of the donkeys we have scattered around the various pastures. We had three jacks in with some cows in one particular place and they were more trouble than they were worth. We decide we'll take them to the sale barn in Texarkana...so....

In order to sell any horse or donkey through a sale barn, one must have a Coggins test done on them. This is a simple blood test and costs 20 bucks. We have to get that done first so decide we'll load them up one Saturday, take them to the vet's for the tests, and then haul them to the sale the following Saturday..."The best laid plans of mice and men..."

The weather hadn't been cooperating and the rain had seemingly become a permanent situation--making the pastures so muddy that I refused to take my truck down in there to the corral. We take Toby's old 1995 Ford F 150. Our cows are simply TOO tame and will walk around sticking their nasty little tongues all over a vehicle, leaving smears ...I didn't want to have to clean my good truck up so we hauled the trailer over using the old Ford.

We go over fairly early to gather the donkeys up and luck would have it that NONE of them wanted to load into the trailer. Have you ever tried to make a donkey go somewhere it didn't want to go? I'll bet you didn't succeed easily, if at all.

We get them into the corral and then run them through the shute. The one in the front balks at loading even though he's loaded several times before. His legs are cement and his head is stone...no turning that head towards the trailer and the legs refused to move. He must have transferred his mood to the other two because they were just as much trouble...what I wouldn't have given for a nice electric cattle prod...

Using sheer muscle and grit we managed to push, prod and shove the contrary things in and take off for the vet's in the next town.

Since we're using one of the old farm trucks we go 67 highway instead of the interstate...the truck won't go terribly fast so we'd have been a danger to everyone on the freeway. On the way Leslie mentions the cruise control. I ask if it still works. Apparently it does as he sets it to cruise 55 miles an hour. Deciding that's too fast for that particular truck, he stomps on the gas to disable the cruise control and it tries to die on us. Out of idle curiosity I ask him if he knows that you tap the brakes not stomp on the gas. Too late...we pull over onto the shoulder of the road where it promptly dies. Magical Fingers Leslie gets it started again and off we go. We make it to the vets where we have a very long wait. It's nearly lunchtime by the time we get the donkeys tested and we're on our way back home. The vet bill is $60....half a day's gone.

Heading out towards home we take the interstate...bad idea.....

About two or three miles from our exit the truck coughs, sputters and gives up the ghost. We taxi over to the shoulder as far as we can. It's lost oil pressure and the engine is blown. I wasn't driving and someone-not to mention Leslie's name--should have known not to continue driving once the vehicle loses oil pressure. There's no getting it going again. I call my brother-in-law and he comes to get us. By the time he gets there we've unhooked the trailer and pushed the truck up a bit. When Jim pulls up we just hook onto the trailer and take the donkeys back to the pasture where we got them. Good riddance for the time being.

We then go to Jim's to get a really heavy duty come-along. We go to my house and get my truck and our flatbed trailer. Heading back to the interstate I pull onto the ramp headed back towards Hope...a couple miles down the road there's one of those "Official Use Only" drives across the median. I figure I'm officially aggravated enough to qualify.

I pull across it and sit waiting for traffic to pass coming from the other direction. For some reason the drivers are all giving me wary looks as they pass.

I'm having to wait for the traffic to clear enough to go down about 30 or so feet and make a huge U-turn in order to pull in front of our poor old broken down truck sitting off to the side. I have to say this is the first and hopefully the last U-turn I ever make on a freeway-especially with a 16-foot trailer in tow.

Leslie is sitting by the door giving me step-by-step directions since he apparently thinks I only just learned to drive and actually need his input.

"You want me to drive?" he asks as I'm sitting there waiting for traffic to clear.

"No."

"Go down this way (he points in the opposite direction of the truck) and make a turn. Wait until this next car gets past." I'm wondering what his IQ level is to think that I'd go in any other direction or to think I'd NOT wait on the car...geez!

"You sure you don't want me to do it?"

"What I want you to do is sit there quietly and let me concentrate on my driving."

Finally, Jim tells him to leave me alone so I can concentrate. Good old family--always there when you need 'em to back you up.

I finally make the turn, pull up in front and back up a ways so that the truck is directly behind the trailer. Jim and Leslie spend about 35 or so minutes (believe me, seemed like 35 HOURS with the traffic whizzing by!) chaining then pulling that truck up onto the trailer a foot or so at a time. I have to get in to keep the tires straight as it's a VERY tight fit. Finally we've got it on and secured. Now, off to home...

We call a guy who does engines at his home and he says to bring it over the next day. Next day we haul it over and he helps us get it off the trailer. It's going to cost around $1500 to rebuild that engine! That's not including the labor.

So far the donkeys have cost us plenty. Though you have to admit, they didn't ASK us to haul them over for tests--they'd have been perfectly happy staying in the pasture.

Next Saturday Josh is home and he, Leslie and I go by the vet's for the papers and off we go to Texarkana to finally get rid of those troublesome donkeys (who, btw, loaded quite nicely this time). It's a 35 minute drive and this was right before the gas started going down...more expense...

We get over to the sale barn and unload the donkeys and give the guy the papers. Leslie decides he wants to go inside to watch the horses sell. We walk in and watch the sale for a bit. Some really nice horses came through but now that they can't be sold for glue, the prices have really dropped. Leslie asked me if we had enough for him to buy a couple..I should have asked God's forgiveness for the fib I told him. We simply didn't need any more animals...

We are standing along the wall watching the horses sell for around $175 each--I mean really pretty, registered quarterhorses! It's shameful that they bring so little and the market is so poor.

Then the donkeys start coming through...some are selling low at around $30...wow! The prices have really dropped on them. Some got po'd because no one would bid high enough to suit the seller. Then ours come through...can you believe it? Two dollars...no, that's not a misprint...A bid of two dollars for each one. I almost po'd them but then decided we'd be well rid of them if we had to give them away...it cost a $10 fee to sell an animal through the barn...and we received $6...

Add all that up...I can't bring myself to do it..

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