Longmeadow Spring Fling

[draclvr]

Rozanne said I should post this. Had to go down to the Ranch at the crack of dawn this morning to load up Teddy the miniature horse, Betty and Wilma the Nubian goats and Teagen the alpaca. We headed down to a TV station in St. Louis for an appearance on their morning show to advertise for our 4th Annual Spring fund raiser. Of course, it was horrible rush hour traffic, but Rachelle navigated it all very well with the big diesel pickup and the horse trailer. I am holding Wilma at the end. Jennifer is holding Teagen and Mary Lou is holding Betty. The three of us are volunteers.

Longmeadow Rescue Ranch TV appearance

[Rosaboobie]

Oh what a fantastic video. Fame at last for our Drac! Who is the young girl who is doing all the talking?

I guess this must be a welcome advert for all you do at Longmeadow.

How on earth is this Ranch funded? Because it must take so much money to run it.

[draclvr]

Rachelle is our Assistant Ranch Manager. I simply cannot imagine the millions it must take to run Longmeadow every year. We are funded 100% by donations; no taxes or public money comes our way.

[LadyKestrel]

Nice video, Drac! I hope they have a good turnout for the fundraiser.

[Val]

As usual I cannot access the video but wish you lots of luck with the Spring Fling, Drac! Hope the weather is fabulous and the turnout great.

[draclvr]

And unfortunately that's the only link for it, Val. It's for the TV station where we were. The weather is supposed to be simply fabulous with the temperature around 72° F - absolutely beautiful. Taking my sunscreen for sure!

[Rosaboobie]

Oh wow 72 degreees - that should bring the crowds out, hopefully.

Sanday has had snow today, but it really never sticks here.

[Kickaha]

Good for you Draclvr - hope the spring fling brings in the money!

[Winfrey]

Nice video Drac... thanks for posting... YEA Longmeadow!!!!

[draclvr]

It was an exhausting, but fun day. Well, I use the term "fun" loosely! I was the gate captain and we spent 5 hours taking people's money and directing them into the Ranch. The road to Longmeadow is about 1 mile long through the woods and is gravel. It was about 77° F yesterday which was beautiful, but after hundreds and hundreds of cars on that road, to say it was dusty was putting it mildly! I must have washed out what felt like 5 lbs of gravel dust out of my hair last night! We had a huge crowd and won't know how well we did until later. Last year we made about $12,000. This all goes to our fence fund and is nothing but a drop in the bucket!

[Diat60]

Just watched the video. Quite envied you holding the goat. I used to have a dream about living somewhere small with a few animals, especially goats. Closest I've got is an agricultural fair where I had a lovely tete a tete with a few of them. BTW, what was the man in the background sweeping?

[draclvr]

I meant to mention that! Every animal peed about 3 times and pooped a pile! Of course, the sheep and alpaca poop is tiny little "pebbles" and Teddy is so tiny that his isn't much different!. Animal poop, so we are always prepared with shovels and buckets and brooms. But the TV station employee cleaned it all up for us!

It's particularly interesting when we take them to an event at a very upscale place! We've had animals on the Today Show in New York!

If you are on Facebook, they have started uploading a bunch of photos to the Longmeadow Rescue Ranch FB page.

[Rosaboobie]

So glad it was such a success. You volunteers deserve every single cent you make.

Are there always donations readily available to keep Longmeadow running continuously, or do you sometimes go into the red, Drac? The annual cost must be phenomenal!

[draclvr]

I think there are enough funds coming in to keep the place operating without going in the red. But, as a lowly volunteer, I have no access to any of that information!

[Diat60]

I remember a British TV program, Blue Peter, many many years ago where they brought an elephant on to the set. Heh, heh, heh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wzJbR-PuCM