The Farmette Report

September baby

This little sweetheart was born only a few weeks ago. He (I think we're talking "he" here, but the verdict may change) has the first really chocolaty muzzle I've seen in the home herd since our Ambrose, who is a cousin to this fella. I managed this shot when the new arrival was about a week old, and when I saw him again this past weekend was sorry to see that his Velcro-like fuzz was almost completely covered in large burrs (he already had two on the side of his muzzle in the photo above). Burrs pull on the hair, so matted hair and burrs couldn't have been comfortable for him, but I strongly doubt that his mother would let me get close enough to try to groom him.

The best way to avoid a mess of entangled burrs, we've discovered, is to keep the weeds reasonably mowed if possible and groom the donkeys daily - before burrs have a chance to really get matted in. We've been grooming Ambrose and Molly to the point where they are starting to look like little donkey fashion plates - except when they begin to look too cute, they decide to "keep it real" by going for a roll in the dust.

The rest of the herd up the road is doing well, and the babies born earlier this year are starting to look almost grown up. I'll update photos soon.

Not to worry

Greetings, all!

So much time has passed since I last updated the Farmette Report, that I fear some folks may worry that I fell off a kayak in Maine last month. No such luck! As it happens, work and other issues have kept me plenty busy - in fact, I am submitting this entry via my Blackberry while sitting in the lovely poolside garden of the Wardman Park Hotel at a conference in Washington, DC. The purpose of the conference is to match health professionals who will be finishing their residencies next year with community health centers and other clinical sites who provide care to the underserved. Although the community health center where I work is not eligible to recruit the category of physicians, dentists, and other health professionals present at this conference (we qualify for a different classification), meeting these individuals, as well as my counterparts at other health centers has been an amazing experience. Meeting with, and establishing connections with, those who manage th!
e federal program is also invaluable.

I'll be back home later today and hopefully back into the swing of things again very soon. Cheers!