Ellerbroek Entourage: Lazy 5 Ranch

Sometimes you just have to let go and enjoy life like a child. That's exactly what we did when we joined some friends of ours for their daughter's third birthday party at Lazy 5 Ranch. What is Lazy 5 Ranch you might ask? It's basically a glorified petting zoo. You not only pet the animals, you either drive your car or ride in a horse drawn wagon through this huge open area and you actually feed all the animals. Well, with a few exceptions... we weren't allowed to feed the zebra. Some animals (the emus and giraffes) you let eat straight from the bucket while others (the llamas and deer) you feed from your hand. Our guide told us how to feed each animal so there were no lost fingers.

Anyways, here is the birthday girl. You might remember Gwen from this trip we took back in April.

As part of the birthday crew we took the horse drawn wagon through the enclosure. It looked a lot like this one, but it wasn't as crowded. We had the perfect amount of people on board, meaning we had room to move around.

All of the animals knew the drill, when the cart came through there was food to be given out. They weren't shy (for the most part) and came right up to us demanding food. Here is one of the llamas who actually appears to be waiting patiently.

It took a little getting used to feeding the animals. Some were more aggressive than other. And like I said some ate from your hand as oppose from the bucket. Here is Joe warming up to a llama. After the first round of feeding or so we got comfortable and it was easy-peasy.

The giraffes were my favorite. Although most animals were free roaming, the giraffes and a few others had their own enclosures. The wagon rode right up next to the fence and stopped for a while. We were instructed to just hold the buckets up and let the giraffes have at it. We even gave their heads a little pet while they ate. It was so cool to be so close to these huge, yet gentle creatures.

You can probably tell we had perfect weather for an outing like this. We were a bit nervous because on our drive to the ranch it was sprinkling. Luckily the clouds parted and the sun came out. It was perfect!

The zebras came right up to the wagon too, but like I said, there was no feeding these guys. I guess they can be very aggressive when it comes to food. Plus they have teeth on top and bottom. The llamas and other animals that we were instructed to feed from our hands don't. I think they only have teeth on the bottom which means they can't really bite you or anything while feeding. The zebras were still beautiful to see up close.

Oh and the bison. They were fun to feed. As you can see they were trained well... all they had to do is open their mouth and stick out their tongue. Then we poured food right in. It was easy!

Here's a better shot. I think this guy is actually a water buffalo. There were so many different types of animals at the ranch and lots that I didn't get a picture of. It was hard feeding them while snapping pictures and trying not to get my phone too dirty. Other animals included many types of deer (which most of the females were pregnant and we saw a few babies), emus, pot belly pigs, ducks, rhinoceros (which was not outside of his covered area that day, bummer) and probably more that I'm forgetting.