Sisterlines Space in Time: Leaving Diana's and visiting The Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch

So today was a bittersweet day. We were excited to get back on the road and continue with the rest of our journey, but it was sad to say goodbye to Diana, Jeff and Eric. We said our goodbyes to Jeff last night since he gets up so early for work in the morning. We lucked out and Eric came in to give us goodbye hugs before he left for work. Our goodbyes with Diana were tear filled and sad. I hate that we are so far away from each other, but thankful for things like facebook and social media where we can chat and share things every day.

We headed out a little before 11 AM. We stopped in Coolidge to fill up with gas and then headed towards the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch. A friend of mine at work stopped here and when I saw her pictures I showed them to Jade and we both were excited to stop here!

We rolled in around noon. I'll admit ...it looks a bit sketchy when you first drive in...all these huge signs saying feed the deer..feed the ostriches etc etc, but when you walk through the door, the place is awesome. It is set up so efficiently too. You go up to the counter and purchase the "type" of experience you want - we chose the whole package - feed all the animals - take the monster truck ride - and feed the stingrays! Then you get your two cups which hold the food they give you to feed the animals. You get a large cup of green pellets - these feed the donkeys, the deer, the goats, and the sheep. They give you a seed stick to feed the parakeets, banana chips to feed the bunnies, a token to get some duck feed, a little container of nectar to feed the lorikeets and a token to give to the stingray lady to get some squid to feed the rays

We started off feeding the donkeys. They were cute!! Opening their mouths so wide you could drop the food right in their mouths or hold it in your hand and they would eat it off your hand. There was a baby donkey drinking from her mom as well.

And then....THERE WAS THIS SMILING DONKEY. Oh my God it was the funniest thing. Jade said "hey donkey" and the thing started smiling at her. It was hilarious.

We moved on to feeding the parakeets. You held your little seed stick through the cage and they would come and eat the seeds off the stick. They also stood right on the stick to get the seeds off. They had some very nice coloured parakeets. I had a beautiful white one with blue on his chest land on mine and eat some seeds.

Then we moved on to the deer. They ate right from your hand. This one walked all the way over to Jade with it's eyes closed.

From there we moved on to the goat penthouse. There were goats way up on this perch - and you put a handful of food into this little cup and then you cranked the handle and it went up the pulley and dumped the food into the spout for them to eat!

We were just about ready to move over to the goat wall, but Redneck Rob called us to go for our monster truck tour!

It was actually super cool. They had a sign about people with back or neck issues to sit near the front so Jade and I did. Good thing cause some of the people got some air over some of the bumps! Rob told us all about ostriches and their eggs, and hatching and incubating,

about the saguro cactus

and the rattlesnake. It was a very educational monster truck ride.

We stopped at a spot to go "ostrich fishing" where we put pieces of orange in a clip and fed them to the ostrich.

He told us about their double eye lids which close horizontally to keep dust and dirt out of their eyes - it looks kind of gross though. He was a pretty funny guy and made it entertaining for everyone on the tour.

When we got back from our monster truck tour, we went back to the goat wall where the goats stuck their heads out the holes for you to feed them.

Jade even put a piece of food in her mouth and let the goat take it from her mouth! I'm sure Aunt Diana is gagging as she read that! Pass me the Purel!

From there we fed the ostriches - they are probably one of the ugliest things I have seen, but they are pretty cool too. We certainly did not let them feed out of our hands as they do bite - so you just put the feed pellets into a spout where it sends it down to the feeder for them to eat.

From there you feed the bunnies. It was pretty hot today so they were mostly resting in the shade under their cool little rabbit homes.

Then we moved on to the sheep. They were nice and not rammy like some of the sheep at home on the farm.

We fed some ducks too!

We moved from there into the Lorikeet enclosure. This was sooo cool. They came right over to you....popped the lid off your little nectar container and started lapping it up with their tongues. Sometimes you would have more than one land on you to eat!

This little fella was so cute walking around with one on his head.

They had some fairly large tortoises as well. There was a "couple" who were on a date.....if ya know what I mean...so we didn't take any pictures of them until they were finished.

Then we got to feed the stingrays - its hard to take pictures of that - but you put a piece of squid between your fingers then stick your hands in the water and they suck it off your hand. It feels like a vacuum cleaner!