New Residents Have Moved Into The Ghost Town...

so i first moved up here i was all alone i needed some companionship so i got these guys goats goats make an amazing pet they're low maintenance they're friendly that's elon hello that's tofu the star of the show down there that's beretta there beretta now i think it's time to expand the family what do you guys think you ready for some new roommates huh oh you're interested huh we have to expand this pen because tomorrow there is some new animals coming to town what do you think tofu [Music] so when i moved up to cerro gordo just over 13 months ago it was just me no other living souls in this whole place well save some ghosts depending on who you ask and i loved it that was exactly what i was looking for i was looking for that peace that solitude a time to self-reflect but after a couple months i was like you know what it needs a little bit of life up here and so i was thinking about that the first thing that came to my mind was goats i've had goats in the past and i know two things number one they're very easy to take care of if they have hay and water they're pretty much good hey tofu you wanna come up and number two they're generally happy to see you don't you think so tofu oh you have such bad breath and number two if you put a goat in a pen with any type of plants they're gonna take care of all those plants they're basically like living lawn mowers is that right tofu so a few days later i had goats up here and it was amazing and they're still amazing there's just something calming about having pets taking care of another life form you know it provides some type of structure and responsibility and just companionship you know no matter what come out here tofu will always try to eat my jacket or generally have something to say and i love that you know and after a couple months of having the goats i was like you know what maybe some more animals and that first came from utility there's one too many mice up here at cerro gordo and so a rancher called me one day he said brett i heard you have mice problem i got the solution for you if you can come today i have a number of kittens whose mother died and at first i was like yeah i don't know if i want kittens growing up i was a dog person so i seemed like i wanted that but then he said you know they're basically gonna die if you don't so i was like jeez you know pull on the heart strings a little bit more so a few hours later i was back here at cerro gordo with the intention of having these mice hunting machines that would eradicate all the mice from all the cerebral buildings unfortunately i adopted them are you eating my hey hey no unfortunately i adopted them hey i topped at them nursed them back to health fell in love with them and pampered them to the point where i could never see the cats going outside these days you know gordo is far too handsome to be out there in the wilderness and after that it was winter time so i thought you know what let's pump the brakes a little bit on this pet expedition at cerro gordo stop eating my sweatshirt but during that time i started researching and i found alpacas and alpacas one generally looked hilarious two once per year you shear alpocas so i thought you know what i'm gonna have alpacas up here they're gonna look great they're low maintenance they don't make much noise and once a year i can make custom cerro gordo beanies out of our own apocrypha sign me up so i started looking for different places to alpacas and i found this sanctuary just outside of la and what they do is they take in alpacas from people that couldn't take care of them you know whether the person had too small of space or just not enough time on their hands that's what they do and after a bunch of conversations with the owner i decided alpacas for me and she's like i'll let you know when i got a few and just over a week ago i got that magical email and she says brent i think i got the apocalypse for you there are three adolescent males that all know each other that need a home and i said sign me up final day without roommates final day just alone in here you ready for some new a company yeah what do you think tofu [Music] are new animals coming later you're gonna have to get along elon so what i'm gonna do today is take this down to keillor in keeler transfer into my two wheel drive truck but that's not even gonna be big enough for the alpacas so i was told i need to get a minivan apparently they fold up or something and go in the trunk and so what i did is i researched the closest rental company and the closest rental company to cerrogordo is in ridgecrest just about two hours away so i called made a reservation for a minivan got my confirmation email and the day of adoption i was stoked you know today was the day i woke up at 7 00 am gung ho to get there to be the first in line of enterprise to make sure there's no delays in me getting these alpacas back to cerro gordo [Music] all right first transfer is complete back into the two-wheel drive truck just going by cerro gordo road next stop bridgecrest to pick up a minivan getting out pockets is something i've been thinking about for at least six months you know animals have been a part of saragora's history since it's been a mining town you know all the original supplies used to be brought up by 20 mule teams and horses were commonplace for people to get around and there's even a history of a lot of the different cerro owners owning cats up at the property i think both for companionship and rodent reduction so to me it only seemed right to get animals back to cerro gordo and i think caring for the goats and the cats has given me some structure to my days i know that each morning i wake up and i need to take a trip to feed the goats and then a trip to feed the cats and that structure is something that i need up here you know the days can be pretty fluid but knowing at least that's how i'm going to start my day gives me a little bit of order that i need that sign says ridgecrest has what you need ridgecrass does in fact have what i need which is a minivan so i can get some alpacas which i really need almost ridgecrest now i'm gonna pick up this car hopefully and continue on my way to get some new animals it's gonna be a good day unfortunately when the shop opened at 9am they informed me that although i had a reservation they could not and would not honor it because there was no cars to rent a beat of frustration happened and they said you know what here's 300 places in town go check those out worst case scenario we will make you a reservation in lancaster which is about an hour more towards la for me but in my giddy excitement about getting alpacas i didn't worry about that too much like sure whatever so i went to these three said rental places in ridgecrest and struck out three strikes and i was out of there this may come as a surprise to you but uh the place that sells insurance realty used cars and u-hauls uh has nothing is not in fact open so i am continuing on headed towards lancaster a bit annoyed by the same time still excited about figuring out a way to get these alpacas back up here arrived in lancaster and for the second time in about as many hours i was told by enterprise that although i had a reservation they would not honor it this time frustration level grew just slightly all right let's try my sixth rental car place of the day just exactly i wanted to spend my day you know running around like a crazy person after going to about eight uh different car rental places in the same day there was a car rental place just before i was gonna get there so you know what why not let's try it so i go in and i think someone wanted me to have alpacas that day because not only do they have a minivan i got in and rented this thing within 10 minutes i was back on the road in a minivan that had been eluding me the entire day prior i gotta say brand new cars sure are nice look how clean this windshield is not all those bugs it's quiet in here 30 minutes out from alpaca time seems like this might come together today i was almost certain that it wasn't going to but now things are looking better it's beautiful out here and uh yeah hopefully in just a little bit i'll be headed the other way but uh three little friends in the back of this car i pull up to this sanctuary in a minivan right when a school was there getting a tour and learning about alpaca feeding or something and so they're like oh you're brent with a minivan for that pockets like sure you know so you back up the minivan right to the fence raise it up put down the back seats throw a bale of hay in there and i went to meet my three new friends and i remember as soon as i saw him it was love at first sight you know alpacas are some of the most interesting looking animals you'll ever see you know they have this funny little haircut at the top and they've just been sheared so they're looking pretty thin otherwise and immediately one of them just turned to me and smiled these goofy teeth that they seem to have and that was it you know i was in it at that point i led them out with a leash and you know what she was right they just folded right up in the back seat and just sat there pretty much the three hour ride back all right so it worked out got the friends in the back what's up guys and we are on a route back to cerro gordo i love it back at cerrogoro street in mojave i'll tell you what i put on some jimmy buffett these guys back here [Music] immediately just laid down and perfectly quiet for the last hour or so i think me and these guys are gonna get along just fine how you doing you like this music well good because i like this music too the rental process has taken so long that i knew i was up against the sunset to get back to your serogordo the last thing in the world that i wanted to do was take a two-wheel drive minivan with three alpacas up an eight mile dirt road after dark so i was pushing it getting back i was humming coming i even probably should have stopped to fill up but i was like you know what no i need to get there before the sun fully sets and off to cerro gordo road we go now i gotta be careful because i don't think this van is four-wheel drive it definitely has a doesn't have the tires i need so usually let me follow my dirt bike i'm riding up this you know 40 miles an hour but today i'll probably keep it to 10 or 15. and that's the suggestion to anybody that wants to come visit keep it around 15. you know the faster you go the more likely you are your tires will pop or your car will overheat and those are the two main things that happen here is either people's tires pop or their car overheats and it's not infrequent you know it's probably one in ten cars that happens too so be advised if you're going to head this way of that and let's try to get up there by time the sun sets i don't know if we're gonna make it just over halfway and it it's just creeping behind those mountains over there so let us see it'll be close coming up on the final turn and the light just seems to barely be holding out for us we'll definitely at least have the afterglow by the time we go to town but right now [Music] would you look at that a little bit of sunlight left welcome back to cerro gordo and so we got there just as the sun had set and then it seemed the alpacas had gotten really comfortable in the van because getting these alpacas out of the van became a whole process all right it looks beautiful you guys ready it's almost the moment of truth hope you're ready [Music] oh hello there come with me please go please please come sir please come come on come on go you're free welcome to your home yay yay look at this the initial interaction what do you guys think of each other oh chachi's meeting tofu [Music] go come on guys you're home the car is at your home please food does convince you food [Music] come on [Music] come on now i can't get him out of my car the moment i had been waiting for was the big standoff you know when these alpacas are going to meet the goats so here we have it the first meeting look at them goats and alpacas are meeting i haven't separated her for right now just because i don't know how to get along what do you guys think wanna go in there the time has come for these two groups to merge friends [Music] you scared are you scared each side is scared of each other go in guys go ahead everybody in come on look at tofu back there just spray come on guys okay you're in you're home be free you're home yeah success it's a long day but i mean look at those llamas with that sunset background [Music] it's about as good as it gets welcome to your home guys you have all this acreage i will be expanding your guys's domain tomorrow but for tonight hope you guys have a nice night i'm gonna get this this thing off of you guys i hope you guys make friends with the goats they're going to be your friends i promise you you'll be all right trooper [Music] trotsky [Music] okay they follow me they follow me everywhere you guys do i do a better job of being friendly give me tofu [Music] all you guys more friendly to these guys [Music] uh-oh [Music] hopefully they tried now it's your time to try go try [Music] no finally tofu being the star she is went over and seemed to make peace with them and they settled into their first night here [Music] it's time for me to show you the town you ready to meet sarah gordo come along lead the way if you know where you're going you're going this way though other way come on come on this way [Music] we're gonna go see lola's is one of the original brothels here in town just got rebuilt not saying i got rebuilt for you [Music] but it's rebuilt i hope you like it this way look at lola's roof on everything here you lead the way [Music] show me how it's done all right come on let's go in the asset office [Music] this is where they used to test the quality of the silver [Music] got you this way come on come on welcome to the assay office so this is where they tested the quality of the mineral at cerro gordo so look back here let me show you these are original silver bars [Applause] from the town that you're now staying in that's called the widowmaker they use that to blast the dynamite here at cerro gordo let's leave [Music] let's go this way [Music] and i b lined it back to the pen you know he had just absorbed too much history for one day i get it it's an overwhelming place we're going to continue the tour tomorrow i'll show you all then you can tell trooper and trooper you can tell stony [Music] and after that i read that you should not in fact have goats and alpacas together because male goats eons specifically who's back they're eating can be very aggressive and alpacas have limited defenses so i decided to construct a fence stretch a defense right down the middle of this pen and then that night it snowed even though it's the last week of april we had a freak snow and alpacas are fine in snow you know they can handle down to 15 below fahrenheit but the next day i decided i needed to build them a pen so we had a volunteer up here and over the course of a day uh constructed them what i believe is a very nice little pen it's all done i built this whole home for you guys do you guys like it huh i think it looks amazing guys come in here come on come on come join me live a little bit you know you have this beautiful manger of sorts fresh hay fresh roof view you'd be safe from the elements so these days these guys are set up they got a pen they got a fence they got more land than they did before and i am just so excited to think over the coming years all the kids they're going to be able to come up here and enjoy seeing these all pockets because i remember that when i was a kid i loved animals you know i would go to these petting zoos and i would go to regular zoos and farms and ranches and everything in between i can very distinctly remember riding ponies when i was you know three feet tall it was like a very fond memory for me and had i seen alpacas when i was three feet tall i don't know what i would have done i would have just giggled probably and thought it was the coolest thing ever and so i hope that in the future uh many people can come not just learn about cerro gordo and enjoy this beautiful scenery but also check out alpacas maybe that'll lead them to one day be sitting here on a bucket behind some goats next to some alpacas talking about the next generation should learn about our pockets so that's it these guys are the most recent addition here at cerrogodo and i am super excited about it already they bring like a calming energy you know the goats can get really riled up these guys always seem pretty chill kind of like me so i hope that continues this week i hope you guys are chill i hope a lot of you guys get to make your way up here and meet these guys in person because let me tell you they might look fun and interesting on camera but they're a lot more fun interesting in person so until next time i am signing out here from cerro gordo which now has an official alpaca population of three and to my knowledge the only mining town with alpacas i'm just gonna throw that in there i hope you guys have a good week i'll see you next time you

Channel: Ghost Town Living

Views: 839,154

Keywords: abandoned ghost town, alone in my ghost town, brent underwood, cerro gordo, cerro gordo ghost town, ghost, ghost town, ghost town living, i bought a ghost town, living in a ghost town, living in ghost town

Id: svBARTnderA

Length: 23min 13sec (1393 seconds)

Published: Sat May 01 2021