The kids have to help daily with animal chores, but as they have been getting a little older, the scope of chores has expanded. Since it was a snow day and we were all home, Alex and Vicki cooked lunch. Vicki made Swedish pancakes and Alex cooked waffles – Vicki already has her recipe memorized. Alex quizzed Anna and wrote it down to reference (no mixes).
Afterwards, Alex read to Amanda for rest time and Vicki listened in too.

Supposedly they are cooking dinner tonight.

Grandma and Grandpa made the drive from AL to CT to join us for Thanksgiving. The kids have been counting down the days until they arrived (Tuesday).  Last night the enjoyed a game of go fish.

This evening, we decided to have a little family time. The kids have reached the age when they needed to watch The Goonies. So, after dinner, we had movie time. The brownies just came out of the oven and will be served with some ice cream during the intermission.

Precious is our red little pony, well technically chestnut, and we’ve had her for 4 years now. She is in her mid teens somewhere and probably some kind of Quarter pony mix. She has lots of go and has never really been a beginner pony. She loves to trail ride and used to do some barrels. Alex loves this pony. Last fall she started rearing in the ring when asked to trot. Faced with safety issues for the kids we gave her some time off, which didn’t solve the issue. She has had massage and chiropractic adjustment which revealed lower back and pelvic pain, as well as tightness around the withers and chest. She is also fat and out of shape with a significant swayback. So, Precious is going to do some driving and I’m going to do some ground work with her to get her back in shape and lift her back. Alex is going to ride her on walking trail rides.We aquired a harness and cart this past week and have started ground driving. The kids are excited to be working on something new. Vicki wants to get the other ponies driving too.  And yes, Precious may just be acting up and be ring sour, but we are going to get her in shape and let me (Anna) ride her some and see if she behaves better. Stay tuned for updates.

  Thanks to Judy at Ricketts-White Design for designing our new farm logo!  Leave a comment with what you think.

While Anna and the kids were in Sweden, I bought a new toy. I believe the comment when we pulled in the driveway was “Why is there a travel trailer parked in the yard?” 
That’s right, I bought a 29′ toy hauler without telling my wife. We got it because we are now spending more weekends at fairgrounds showing the goats and rabbits. And who doesnt need a travel trailer.
Since we have a fair next weekend, this weekend is alpha trials at Hopeville Pond State Park, all of 2 miles from home. It makes it easy to go home and do chores and pick up things we want to add to trailer. In fact, since we didn’t make reservations we actually have to break camp in the morning and go home then come back later to a different site. That’s fine, we didn’t plan to site here all day.

Surprise! We had a broody hen with a huge clutch under the Porta Potti by the barn. I have seen 10 chicks so far. And she is still on more eggs. I guess that explains why we haven’t been getting so many eggs.

I know many people want to build fences, but just don’t know how.  Or maybe you want to muck out horse stalls but don’t have any horses or stalls.  Want to build goat shelters, but don’t have the lumber?  Want to clean rabbit cages, but don’t have rabbits. do you have the urge to pull weeds out of the garden but your garden just doesn’t grow any weeds? You are in luck, because we can offer all those opportunities and more!

Now, you are probably thinking an opportunity like this would cost hundreds of dollars a weekend.  Right now, the Sawyer Family Farm is offering FREE farm experience opportunities.  There is currently NO waiting list to get the full farm experience.  Give me a call and we can get you started right away!

We have 1 room in the house that has an AC unit. The kids discovered Anna had been sleeping in the guest bed in there and last night they took it over. This morning, we found them all hanging out in the AC roomc reading.
Alex and Vicki had found my Natural Horse magazine and were reading the articles to analyze issues they have with their ponies.

Vicki quote from the fair horse show “Dad, that horse had really bad hooves. Maybe you could help them. ”
Alec quote after reading this morning, “Mom, Precious has never went some info a natural relaxed position. Maybe she needs a massage to help her. “