EMPIRE RANCH

First of all, John was released from the hospital Thursday late afternoon and seems to be doing good.  He will be on antibiotics for about a week and they are suppose to call with an appointment for an MRI at the main hospital.  What they are looking for is bone infection, they don't think he has infection in the shin bone, but there is a track from the open wound in that direction.  So they want to make sure of what they are dealing with.  The doctors didn't seem to think there is a problem, but the infection team want to make sure.  Guess the infection team won..........LOL  I noticed when I had the wreck in September, there is a pecking order with medical personnel.  I had 3 or 4 different groups of emergency people with me off and on and one guy in particular seemed to think he was the big boss of the whole operation.  I didn't get the idea he was interested in my well being, as much as he was interested in being in charge........LOL

This morning Lynn and Linda put 6 donkeys in the trailer at "O dark 30" and headed out for Empire Ranch about half way between Benson and Tucson.   The original herd got changed around, Levi and Bella were suppose to go, but Levi has been sneezing and running a temperature, probably Rhino, which is pretty much an equine common cold.  So Buddy Brat, Cheyenne, Lynn, Leo, Link and BlackJack got to be ambassadors for the day.  They all did good and showed people how well behaved they can be.  Well, except for trying to escape from the pen, once they found out there was grass growing outside the pen.  The volunteers/docents said they had come in and grass whipped the area.  If they had only known, the donkeys would have been more than happy to tidy up the area..........LOL

This is the ranch we went out to a couple of weeks ago for a fun run with 14 donkeys.  Everyone had a great time and the ranch asked us to bring donkeys out for their annual spring ride to see if horsey people would be interested in the donkeys and having another race.  

Link checking to make sure we are at the right place

This is just a small portion of the house, not only does it go to the left and right, there is about as much house behind this part as is showing.  I have no idea what the square footage might be, rambling comes to mind.........!!! 

 Leo checking out the headquarters for the ranch.  The original house was built in 1876 and was pretty small and basic.  Over the years, 3 major families ran the ranch which at one time was over 100,000 acres.  It is now 160 acres owned by a foundation and they have rides or some type of event most week-ends, sometimes more than one.  By the 1940's the house was 29 rooms and is now open to the public.  Really interesting, I guess if they needed more room, they just started building. 

Turbo was suppose to go this morning, but he managed to get OUT of the trailer and refused to go back IN the trailer.  So he missed a trip and Link got to go without his big brother to hang out with.  Link usually can't stand to be out of sight of Turbo but I don't think he missed him all day.......until we got back home.  Then he started squalling and bawling until he found Turbo.  I doubt that Turbo wasted one minute all day, looking for Link..........LOL

Lots of people came by and really seemed interested in the donkeys

How about this pretty boy?  He went on the annual ride and was the only donkey.

 

If you watch the video the woman has on an aqua jacket and they are close to the end of the line.  Sometimes horses are spooked by donkeys if they've never been around them, but I guess they didn't have any problems. 

Link checking us out