Shooting in Northfield, several wounded...

Over the weekend we took a trip to Northfield and while we were there witnessed a bank robbery.  After the robbery the thieves rode up and down the street shooting at innocent bystanders.  Several people were wounded and one man lay dying in the street....

Ok, we were at the Defeat Of Jesse James reenactment.  It was a lot of fun.  The cowboys were firing real guns loaded with blanks so the sounds were very authentic.  The costumes were pretty fantastic too.  Well done, Northfield!

Notice the body under the riderless horse!  Very authentic!

When we got home we cleared one the pastures of some giant mushrooms that have been growing.  This is one of the craziest things I have ever seen.  You would think they weigh a ton but in reality are ridiculously light for their size.  

Believe it or not, Joshua is holding only part of the
mushroom.  His was so huge that every time
we tried to lift it up another chunk would
fall of it!

Madeline strikes a pose!

And today was the day for Dexter Donkey.  The vet came early this morning and I am delighted to announce that Dex is now a gelded donkey.  It was a brutal procedure.  This is your warning that if you have a weak stomach you shouldn't read the rest.  And you may want to skip the pictures too!  The first thing he did was give him an injection of a sedative that helped to make him sleepy.  It was kind of funny.  Poor Dex was trying so hard to stay on his feet.  It was like all four of his knees stopped working and when he tried to take a step it was like watching him try and walk with crutches.  Then the vet administered the general anesthesia.  Down he went with a thud.  I was instructed to kneel on his neck and hold a towel over his eyes.  Dr. King was swift with the knife and after about two minutes he nonchalantly tossed a bloody testicle over his shoulder and a few minutes later the second one followed.  Then he stood up and said, "There are few things in life that you can be sure of but the one thing I am sure of is that this is a gelded donkey!"  Then we just stood around and waited for Dex's hallucinogens to wear off.   Poor thing.  He was so wobbly and pathetic.  He just wanted me to hug him and reassure him that he was ok.  The next picture is of him being all dopey and cute.

The wound is not sutured.  It's left open so that it can drain and heal from the inside out.  Seems a little barbaric I know.  For the next few days it will continue to bleed.  You can see the blood on the inside of his leg.  The next picture are his testicles.  I know it may seem a little strange that I took pictures of them but how else could I share it with you if I didn't?  You know you were curious...

When I showed them to the kids after school Joshua just couldn't believe I had actually touched them!

The black thing hanging down is his penis shaft and you can see where his testicle used to be.  Tomorrow we'll hose off some of the blood and keep an eye out for excessive swelling.  As traumatic as it was for me he really doesn't seem very phased by it.  He seemed more upset by the fact that he had to spend the majority of the afternoon in the barn by himself.  Later, he had his bucket of grain and without skipping a beat started chasing and nipping the goats the minute he was turned out to the pasture. All is well with the world once agian. We'll see how tomorrow goes!