The Youth Ranch

Granny asked about the youth ranch. I am trying to figure out how much I can say about it without allowing detectives to find it and figure out where I live.

It is a real working ranch with horses, which they breed, raise and sell. (People donate horses. They sometimes get some really high quality animals for the breeding program). All the kids spend some time every day doing real ranch chores, like mucking out stalls. As they prove themselves reliable they get to ride and help train horses.

It is a treatment, not a detention, facility. The kids who are there are there because they have been running away, or have just got out of rehab, or keep blowing out of foster homes. The kids usually spend about six months there and then "graduate."

School and counseling services are on-site. They are out far from any town so the kids don't run away...there is just no where to run to. It is a highly structured and secure facility with no needs for guards and fences.

It's a good place. I wish it were a place where kids could stay longer if they wanted/needed. For kids with attachment issues it can be a better than a foster home, at least for a while.

Ann really liked it. She loved the horses. Ann has been bouncing around so much. I hope she is the one who is there. It could mean that she will be somewhere for more than two months, which hasn't happened for a couple of years.