A Visit from HGTV, WOW!!!

Good Morning! Did you get my hint? Did you guess HGTV? Not many of you know this, but I am a huge HGTV junkie. So when I got an e-mail just over a week ago from one of their production coordinators who said they wanted to do some filming here at The Royal Ranch (on my birthday, no less), I thought it was a hoax. I did a quick check on the HGTV website, saw there was no show with the name she had given me, and wrote it off.







In the night I just kept hearing a little voice that told me to check into it a little farther. As you know, I am a strong believer in everything happening for a reason, but I am also very suspicious at heart, I am finding out. But, I figured that between it being my favorite channel, and my birthday, this was some sort of sign. Well, lo and behold I went onto the website for High Noon TV and surprise, surprise! The show was real, just not set to air until Spring!






The show is My First Sale, a spinoff of My First Place if you are familiar with their programming. A local family was chosen because they are selling their first home and they want to buy a ranch. Our little piece of paradise was chosen to do lifestyle shots and to teach the family a little bit about life on a ranch. It is a family of six, with four little kids all under the age of about seven, none of whom have been around animals much. The crew from HGTV was three, a producer, a camera man and a sound guy.






After a very busy week of getting our releases in, and getting the house and ranch ready, we were as proud as punch when they pulled in! Although it was a little chaotic (I don't know if my poor chickens will ever recover from being chased so much-ha!), I think the filming went really well. I don't think that we will be on the show very much, but our great critters behaved very well and will definitely not be on the editing room floor. We were filmed quite a bit as we did our regular llama education talk and introduction, all the while trying to teach the kids a little bit of safety when it comes to large, and even small animals.

It was a whirlwind couple of hours. Trying to herd the animals into a certain light, running to get another haltered llama (because one of the little girls bit her sister over holding the lead rope; I don't think that one will make the cut-ha!), and trying to catch the chickens after they were already freaked out for their big debut on TV, is not everyday occurrences here at the ranch. I am now very empathetic towards anyone working with animals on TV, animals are not always ready for film, like our sheep for instance (they spent their time madly trying to get away from everything, scared to death!). But, we did it and they got some great footage; they even paid us $100 for our trouble!






Whether Tom and I make it to the big screen (Yes, I know it's not big screen, but throw me a bone here...) or not, it was fantastic exposure for our businesses. We, of course, were wearing Royal Ranch hats and denim shirts and the producer even reminded Tom to "plug us" once with one of his answers for the home owners questions, so we'll see. They had heard of us through word of mouth and Google, so it was a huge "Atta girl!" that all this hard work we're doing is really paying off. I will post again when I hear it is going to air!

I have to tell you something funny. I didn't blog about HGTV coming until after they were here because I was being superstitious. I had already told you all about The Price is Right and my calendar contest, both of which were a bust and both of which I had shared on this blog. Although it is hard to deal with disappointments anytime; it's a little embarrassing to do it publicly. But, I kept my head held high, and came out on top; this was better than anything I could have tried out for. For HGTV to contact me to want to do a shoot was a dream come true.

Make a miracle today!