Sam Potter

Yes! So Iv been working with him little by little to build up trust and hes wicked smart. Wev been practicing touch commands thru the fence and stay. So he will stay off to the side when I come in. Iv also been working with him in the fence to pick up his feet and if hes chill I will sit and brush him for 10-15 minutes. If he gets a little grumpy I immediately ignore and walk away. It seems to be working, Hes only reared once at me since and thats a huge improvement. I think I was overwhelmed with his size and body language before. But he just kind of seems to be a really big dog that needs some manners. They seem to train the same way to!
 There's possibly good news for his future. We the discovered that the donkey isn't being watered properly. I was chatting with one of the neighbors who has cattle about fencing by the entrance to the pasture when the lady who owns the donkey came up and started talking at me. And she ended up letting us know that one of the neighbors must not have any hobbies cause the water trough filled with water is not from them and she thinks its silly. The donkey has a stream that goes thru thats filled with water according to her. And the neighbor who feeds him put the water trough there and fills it with water every other day with buckets despite his health issues. At this point me nor the farmer neighbor were very amused. The "stream" is a run off ditch with about 2 inches of water in it from the field over and is dry 80% of the year and super high in nitrates and stuff. We wont run our pigs thru it due to that and the cattle farmer wont water his cows with it either. Well fast forward a few days and the DNR were called for the third time on them. twice has been over the donkey. Im pretty sure it was the wife of the farmer I was chatting with. Im not sure if they can do anything but theres more eyes on his well being now at least.
Bad news they shaved the poor guy to try to hide the balding spots that seem to be from a fungal infection, he's losing weight rapidly, His feet are starting to need looked after and I dont know for sure but something about his potbelly makes me think he has worms. I do spray his brush down with fly spray to keep him from being overwhelmed by the summer swarms. But sadly there's not much I can do at this point for him without causing a unhelpful scene. I feel like my hands are tied watching a animal in obviously bad condition due to laws that are outdated. Technically as long as he has food and water hes legally taken care of. So the DNR and police are also stuck. Its frustrating!!!

One tip Iv learned is to lower my standards and expectations. My budget doesn't allow me to be super picky on if Im going to buy Organic or name brand products. Iv accepted that if the budget is responsible for the lack of morally feel good products I am less guilty about it and less likely to over spend trying to do good for my family. Its out of my hands, its in the budgets hands. If I raise my budget for shopping I have to take away form my garden or livestock budget and those are more important for my family. Plus I feel like alot of Organic or All Natural labels are more of a technicality then a promise. If Im going to pay more for it I want more transparency on how they are keeping to that label!!!    

I second pretty much all of this. We have our test group of pigs on pasture with double electric polywire. Make sure to train them or they will just go right thru. We haven't had a escape yet in the 4 months we have had them even thou the fence energizer did get knocked down once for 24 hours before we noticed. We move them about once a week or so depending on how hard they are on the pasture. Unless we move the shelter they wont pass over the old fence line spot even with the wire down. Our main problem lately is finding a way to produce bulk fermented feed!
Iv tried keeping them in netting before but had issues as they got larger with keeping the grass from shorting it out to much so the shock seemed unreliable. I also tried hog panels that had a network of t-post you would slip the panels on and off of as you needed to move them. It worked for about a month before they got to big and just lifted up the fence and went under. Im sure there's a way of doing it differently but the wire strands seem to be working best for us.

I really love using a fly rod to catch panfish and bull frogs. The bullfrogs are super aggressive and I believe invasive around here. Eating them seems the best way to take care of them. I don't like eating our native fish here in Iowa so lately I fish for invasives. Trying to make them tasty to feed to other anglers is the goal. That way we can leave the natives alone a bit more to grow.

About once a year. We add to our flock as our egg production drops or if I know there will be an increase in demand. So if in the peak of season I find we need more eggs il add to the flock. I also keep track of how many are hitting the 2 year mark and add 1 new hen per 3 older hens. I don't cull my old hens. They are good mama's who like to go broody and keep any young hooligans in check. We also use our flock to clean up behind our pigs so eggs arnt there only job. When we only kept them for our own family I added new hens only every other year or as needed.

Yay! Wild bird questions! I love Blue Jays but they are kind of jerks and eat eggs, baby birds and baby squirrels. Basically anything they can. They also store nuts and eat them later and steal hidden squirrel stashes as well. We have a gang of them that fly around like everyone owes them money. The squirrels hate them for this. But don't feel to bad for the squirrels cause they also eat eggs, baby birds and small animals. They also find and eat the secret nuts the Blue Jays hide. Basically they are both kinda jerks and don't like that the other is a jerk so they tend to fight alot. But the energy they spend fighting each other keeps them away from the small song birds. If you want to see an interesting relation you should see is how crows piss off grackles just for the fun of it! I suspect the squirrels and Blue Jays also enjoy there squabbles.

Yeah sadly going around the pasture just isnt an option and Id rather not hurt the poor guy. The people who own him have a combination of poor financial support and bad financial decisions with less then legal hobbies. So unless I offer to pay for the neutering  I dont think they are willing to put money into him for a vet to visit or really much of anything. My husbands boss actually paid for the fencing after they tried to just keep him in with orange plastic snow fence in there 100ft by 100ft yard and he kept escaping into the highway. And another neighbor gets him hay and feeds him. They got the donkey for free after there friend the original owner went to prison for throwing gas on his wife and starting her on fire then running thru the ton naked.  I'm not sure the people who own him now are much more stable. So Im not willing to go have a serious talk about consequences for there donkeys actions. My compost pile isnt big enough to handle that much shit and I dont think it would be good for the soil. Keeping the peace is key. The town talk is they are behind on house payments and are known for just leaving the county for a few years then coming back once everything's cooled down.  Its unlikely they will bring the donkey with. As the local town homesteaders its likely he will go to us for safe keeping. Our town only has 9 houses so there isnt many other options besides call the sheriff to put him down if he abandoned. The older couples here love him but cant care for him. Hes the towns local mascot at this point despite his owners reputation.

Sorry this donkey has more drama then I do. I feel like he needs therapy!

But being big, try offering him something cool to check out and break up the monotony like a ball,  try offering the treat so its away from me and keep working with him outside the fence are all options I will happily try out. He lets me brush him and love on him when I'm outside the fence no issues. Just once I'm in he gets uppity.  

I have a feeling your spot on. I also worry I'm going to end up owning said donkey with the way the situation is.
I haven't had time to look at his ears to much when he rears as Im normally worried about his feet and bulk coming at me. Il check the ears. Il feel better if hes just trying to play and not angry with me.

I'm discovering most livestock are just weird shaped puppies lately! I bribe him with some handfuls of grass but maybe a apple chunk or two would be better. I am worried about him getting pushy trying to get more while I'm halfway thru the pen....

I'm currently renting land from my husbands boss to pasture my pigs.  To get access to the pasture I use thou I need to pass thru a dry lot pasture that houses a neighbors miniature donkey. They are not very attentive owners so this donkey is completely intact and not at all handled with his halter always on cause they cant catch him to put it on otherwise. He is fed and watered so its not abuse. Just I dont think they know anything about donkeys and thought he would be sweet and cuddly. He is NOT sweet and cuddly. He is a bored and angry ball of lonely and untrained donkey fluff stuffed with pent up hormones! I honestly wouldn't have the time to care if I didn't have to pass thru his space. Of course he runs up and waits for me at the gate when ever I come up. Then will act friendly until he isn't then he rears up and trys to bite me and wont leave my space. I have limited experience with well trained happy horses and none with untrained angry donkeys. Any ideas on how to maybe just train him enough to stop trying to fight me without causing any more behavioral problems for the donkey or me.  Is it something Im doing? Or is he just territorial with nothing to do so Im the coolest punching bag.

And yes I'm looking into another gate to avoid this altogether but its going to require a bridge or access road and culvert to do so and I'm not sure its worth it on property I don't own.