OK...  It's 2 days post County Commissioners' ruling.  I'm sitting here at 9:00 a.m., drinking a cup of tea and contemplating life...  the curve balls that are thrown...  etc.

It was suggested that I write about what my family and my neighbors have been through for about the past three years.  So....

We have lived in our home since December 1993. We relocated to New Mexico from Maryland. A company out here, Southwest Radiographics, recruited my husband for an engineering position here in New Mexico and they made him an offer that would have been foolish to refuse. So, we packed up the house & moved.

In our time in this home, neighbors came & went.  Roy & Yvonne owned the property below us; followed by a couple with kids who were there about a month; followed by Steve & Shirley; and then, the current neighbors - Dorothea & Andrew. The property across from us, which is currently owned by Mike & Cindy, was formerly owned by an Englishman & his wife, whose name escapes me now.

Anyway, back in 2008, Steve & Shirley divorced and put the house up for sale.  They let the home go for a song just to be rid of it. Dorothea & Andrew purchased it and moved in. Shortly after they moved in, a party was held down there and someone in the neighborhood called the Sheriff because it was after midnight and it truly sounded like there was a live band with amplifiers playing. No idea who called but I was so glad they did as the next day was a work day. That should have been a warning as to what was coming down the pike, but who would have thought it?  I certainly didn't.

Fast forward to 2010...  the neighbors got a couple of donkeys to keep as pets. The pair of donkeys were pretty quiet and they were kept in the former corral & run in barn in which Roy & Yvonne kept her horse, Capitan. Life was good.  I'd share veggies out of the garden with them: zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes....  They told us of the plans they had for the donkeys, using them for packing, etc.  The animals are interesting critters and we were pleased to make their acquaintance. Life was good...  All were happy: us, them, other neighbors, dogs, and donkeys.

Go to 2011.  In 2011, Dorothea & Andrew took in a small herd of 11 or 12 donkeys. They took them in as a donkey rescue was shutting down and they had no place to go. Now then, donkeys kept in small groups of 1 or 2 are pretty quiet but when you start bringing in herds, the noise level rises and it's quite a dramatic rise.  Rob & I approached and spoke to Andrew at our fence line about the noise. To soften the blow of our complaint, garden gifts were presented. We expressed our concerns and we were assured that it was "only temporary and that when they were gone, there would be no others."  OK...  Rob & I discussed it later and decided that as long as it was "temporary" we would just live with the noise and lack of sleep. After all, they were helping out and no one wants to see animals suffer. So, we sucked it up.

For all of 2011, we wondered when the donkeys would be gone so we could get some sleep. We didn't realize that as donkeys left, others were replacing them. Then, they got in a male named Rocky.  At least, I think that was his name.  That animal was so loud!  He sounded like the submarine dive klaxxon you hear in the old war movies.  Rob & I spoke to Andrew over the fence about him and we were assured that he would be gone soon.

Come 2012, Rocky was gone but the donkeys were still there. One weekend, we noticed that the neighbors were having a yard sale. Rob & I stopped to see what they had. Most of the stuff I wasn't interested in but I got some painted wine glasses and empty picture frames.  One always needs picture frames.  While looking around, we couldn't help but notice the two large piles of manure on the south side of the house, near the shed that the former residents had built there. The piles were huge, I'm talking something like 10 feet tall, each.  Even more distressing, Andrew & Dorothea announced to us that they were going to be placing donkeys as a donkey rescue. The "temporary" situation had turned permanent.

At this time, I still did not know that other neighbors had issues with the donkeys, until I ran into Angela at the mailboxes at the foot of the hill. We started chatting and, come to find out, Angela & Gary, who are up the hill from me were not happy about the donkey rescue either. Angela made some calls, I made some calls, and then we put our heads together to see what we could do. A call was made to Bernalillo County Environmental Health about the manure piles and an inspector came out.  Reports were filed and the neighbors were given a couple of months to clean up the place. The neighbors filed an extension as they were unable to clean up the property by the end of October. The extension gave them an additional 30 days, and then, another extension was filed giving them until the spring because of weather.



, and others on the other side of the valley on Log Cabin Lane were having their own issues with the noise, the manure, flies and odors.