Buddy & Cisco are STARS......!!!

Awhile back John was up at our neighbor's western town called, Gammon's Gulch , & met a woman making arrangements to shoot a film there. When she found out we had donkeys she asked John if he could bring up a couple for background color at the mine area. He told her it shouldn't be a problem. This morning there was a message on our answering machine saying they were ready for the donkeys..............HUH? What happened to things like, "we'll be there Monday..........or we'll let you know when we'll need you." So John called & they needed them in about 15 minutes. We hadn't even really decided who to take & actually had forgotten about it. Buddy & Cisco except for being a little chunky look like the burros the miners had, so we put some halters on them & started walking them over to Jay's. We had no idea if they would even lead, let alone walk thru a gate, & off the property. Neither of them has been off the property in years. NO PROBLEM..........they were ready for adventure I guess, we almost had to trot to keep up with Buddy. They had a bunch of horses, saddled & ready to go we walked past. A lot of horses are afraid of donkeys if they've never seen one before, but these horses didn't even turn an ear.

When we got up to where they were shooting, the first thing they noticed was the nylon halters rather than rope halters. Rather than go back home, I asked one of the horse wranglers if they had any small rope halters. He disappeared into one of the big trailers & came back with 2 that looked like they had seen a LOT of use. I took them back & started brushing on Cisco. Last night we got a few drops of rain, & all the donkeys made sure they got at least one good roll in the mud. One of the people said to leave him dirty, it was suppose to be a dirty mining town & all the people were dirty too.

They actually did a couple of shots with the guys in the background pretty quick. But after that we stood around all day long. We couldn't leave in case they shot a scene that took in the area where the donkeys were suppose to be tied. Cisco just stood where we put him, like a good little donkey should. Buddy, got bored real quick. He started pawing the ground, & trying to get loose. I had forgotten that he can untie a rope, so it wasn't long before someone yelled, "donkey loose", & Buddy is headed up a little canyon. I caught him, tied him up again, & it wasn't long before the cry "donkey loose" went out again. Thanks goodness he didn't head for where they were filming. John & I even have a job name, donkey wranglers. They were getting ready to "kill" a guy with dynamite, which was going to cause a lot of noise. So this guy is running around yelling, "donkey wranglers, where's the donkey wranglers" Took us a second or two to figure out, that was us.........!!! They wanted to make sure the donkeys were out of range & wanted us to know there was going to be noise that might spook them.

The weather today was very cold & windy, & it was really miserable. We hadn't planned on staying all day, & really weren't dressed as warm as we should have been. After standing around all day they decided they will need us again in the morning about 8:30. At least we were used today, all those horses spent the day, saddled & standing by their trailers, for nothing. I don't think I'm cut out for the movie business. All that waiting around, for a few seconds of work would drive me crazy in a hurry. But it is interesting to see how they do things.

They are going to be filming about 20 days & want a donkey wearing a pack saddle for a street scene in the town later. We have a pack saddle John bought from a guy years ago. We never did figure out how to use it, one of the horse guys said he will help us. He's the same one that loaned us the halters, guess he's taking us to raise.........!!! We think we'll probably take BlackJack. He's the only one we know for sure that has been packed, except for Rusty the mule, but they don't want a mule.

When they finally released us for the day, we headed home. During the day we had taken turns coming over to the house, & in the melee the golf cart ended up over there with us. We had no idea if the donkeys would lead if we were in the golf cart or not. John decided he would lead Buddy & not try it. I got in the golf cart, told Cisco to come with me, & he came up along the side & away we went.

I'd like to hope it is going to be warmer tomorrow, but according to the weatherman, probably not. We really should be getting ready for the Open House this week-end, rather than playing in the movies, but we didn't want the boys to miss their chance to be stars............!!!!