We bought our first donkeys as an experiment in 2007.  We had the land and wanted to put it to some use.  We saw an ad in the local paper for two unregistered mini Jacks.  One a Gray Dunn, the other Dark Brown.  They were cute little fellas and we immediately fell in love.  They are so friendly and we also felt sorry for them.  Their hoofs were so long they looked like they were wearing clown shoes. 

They looked and walked much better after getting their hoofs trimmed, however, we soon discovered why you don't put two Jack's together. 
It didn't take long for us to decide that gelding them would be the best option.   One call to the local equine vet and 24 hours later the task was done.  It was the right decision.  We're all much happier now.

Well, needless to say, this gave us the fever.  A month later and we had purchased our first 2 brood Jennets.  Not long after that, we purchased two weanling Jennets and a weanling Jack.  Then another weanling Jennet and another weanling Jack.   Then a whole herd from another ranch that was shutting down. 

Our farm expanded too.   We originally had a single large pen and a barn.   We added 3 more pens and two smaller donkey barns.  Who knows where it will all end?

Update:

In January 2010, we had a devastating fire that destroyed our combination barn/shop building.  Aside from the building, we lost all of our equipment, our entire hay crop and several of our goats.  As of June 2010 we have built a new separate shop, barn and hay storage facility.  The disaster has made us rethink how we were doing many things.  Hopefully we are wiser from this hard lesson.  We also plan to try our hand at Hair Sheep.  Wish us luck!